Building the value of a privately owned company and the wealth of its owners requires a thorough understanding of both owners' objectives and the competitive and financial circumstances of their business. School Street's work with clients includes:

  • Preliminary Meetings

    We meet with owners and/or management to learn their goals and challenges, and to understand the market opportunity and competitive position of their company. At the same time, owners and management probe our experience and ability to work with them, and learn how an engagement would proceed. A written engagement proposal is then presented that defines a detailed work plan designed to achieve the owners' goals, and compensation arrangements tailored to the client's objectives and circumstances.

  • Planning Phase

    Planning is the first step toward a transaction that builds or captures value for owners. At least two School Street principals work face-to-face with management to develop a detailed but flexible growth plan for the business or, if appropriate, refine one that is already in place. In the course of the Planning Phase, capital needed for growth is quantified and desirable investors, acquisitions, or acquirers identified. This phase builds teamwork among owners and management, establishes goals for measuring future performance, and installs a simple but dynamic planning process which management can repeat regularly. Some clients choose to make this phase the basis of a continuing relationship with School Street.
  • Transaction Phase

    School Street assists owners and management in soliciting carefully targeted investor or acquisition prospects. An important goal is attracting more than one prospect, so that competition among investors or acquirers makes the market work to the advantage of the owners. A particularly important part of the Transaction Phase is preparing management to make effective presentations to prospective investors or acquirers, and arranging such presentations to conflict as little as possible with management's primary need to run the business.
  • Negotiating and Structuring

    Negotiating with competing investors or potential acquirers is usually intense and time-consuming. We seek to structure the most favorable terms possible for the client while coordinating all parties involved in the preparation and execution of closing: client owners and management, client due diligence team, investor, investor's due diligence team, attorneys and accountants. In doing so, we also seek to limit the time which management itself must divert to this process from running the business. Successfully completing all of the phases of this process demands intensity and perseverance by both School Street and the client, and may require six to twelve months.

 

Our transaction experience enables
owners to determine when and how
to harvest the value they have built
in their businesses, under the most
favorable terms possible.