Advisory
Smith & Maye advises owner-led businesses across the United States and its territories. Most of our clients have between $1M and $5M of EBITDA, one to three locations, and thirty years of decisions that never made it into a spreadsheet.
A clear read before a recommendation.
Written assessment. Private process. No obligation to continue.
Product Suite
Operator-grade advisory for owner-led businesses — we find the problem before we ever sell the fix.
The front door. We find the problem before anyone talks about a fix.
Our signature no-cost entry point — the read that starts every engagement.
Engagement Begins With
Begins with a conversation — book the session
Average (Av.) timelines shown are typical estimates and may run longer depending on scope and complexity. Engagement structures, timelines, and investment models are indicative and are scoped to each client following the Complimentary Diagnostic. This document summarizes advisory capabilities and does not constitute an offer of engagement or a guarantee of outcomes. Speak with your Smith & Maye advisor to scope a specific mandate.
The Free Diagnostic
The diagnostic is a written assessment of your business as it stands. Where the cash actually comes from. What's carried on the books and what's carried in your head. Where value is leaking. What a buyer would find, and what a buyer would pay.
You keep it whether or not you engage us. It is yours.
We do this because we have been on the other side of a firm that took the thinking and left. And because a diagnostic is the only honest way to know whether we can help you — or whether we should tell you so and get out of your way.
What Happens Next
We get the house in order. Financials that a buyer or a lender will accept. Operations that don't depend on you being in the building. A clear read on what the business earns without you in it.
We build toward the door you've chosen. Growth: capital structure, expansion, acquisition of the operator next door. Exit: packaging, positioning, and a process that doesn't broadcast that you're for sale.
The transaction. Scale or sale. Structured so you keep what you earned.
Terms are discussed after the diagnostic, once we both know what the work requires.
Who We Work With
We look for fragmented, owner-led, cash-flowing industries. Home services — HVAC, plumbing, electrical. Auto repair. Businesses where the owner is 55 or older, where the phone still rings, and where nobody has ever run a real process.
Headquartered in Washington. Mandate is national, including the U.S. territories — markets where good businesses go uncovered because they're too small to bank and too far from the coast to be found.
Capabilities
Alongside advisory, we maintain relationships across the private lending market and can arrange access to working capital, asset-based facilities, and acquisition financing where the numbers support it.
Before we prescribe, we diagnose
Get a clear-eyed read on what is holding the business back before deciding what comes next.
Request Your Diagnostic