The problem you can see but can't fix from where you sit.
Brokers, M&A advisors, CPAs, bankers, and exit planners all hit the same wall: a good business discounted because it can't run without its owner. That's the part I do. You stay the person who solved it.
How the discount happens.
Owner dependency kills more deals than the numbers do.
The deal that slips a year. The succession that stalls. The valuation haircut nobody can talk the buyer out of. Buyers discount owner-dependent businesses 20 to 50 percent, and it's the one problem that sits outside every advisor's remit.
It's uncomfortable to watch a good business get discounted for a reason you can see clearly and can't fix. Most advisors have nobody good to hand it to.
You keep the relationship
Your client stays your client. I do the operational work and report in, and you stay the person who brought the solution.
No vouching required
The first step is a 20-minute conversation where I do the diagnosis. You're not putting your name on an outcome. If it's useless, that's on me.
A specialist, not a generalist
One problem: founder dependency in $2M to $20M operational businesses. Systems, plus the change management that gets people to actually use them.
An operator your clients will take seriously.
Twenty years running the kinds of businesses your clients own, including acquisitions from both sides of the table. Your client won't have to explain their world to me.
Three patterns worth a conversation.
Everything routes through the owner
Quotes, pricing, scheduling, the key account. The two-week vacation test fails. Growth has stalled at the same number for two years.
The exit that needs runway
The owner wants out in 2 to 5 years and assumes the revenue story carries the multiple. It won't. Transferable value takes 2 to 4 years to build, and the clock hasn't started.
How it works
You make one intro. I take a 20-minute conversation, do the diagnosis, and give an honest read on fit. You keep the relationship and the credit either way.
What Freedom Systems actually does
Freedom Systems installs Business Operating Systems for founders of $2M to $20M businesses. Done-with-you, not done-for-you, because a system the team helped build is a system the team actually runs.
Most consultants install systems. I install systems and get people to use them.
Have a client who fits the pattern?
You probably already have someone for this. If not: twenty minutes, I do the diagnosis, you keep the relationship.