Each client is unique, and each School Street engagement is defined by the particular needs of a client. All engagements, however, deal with the following questions:

• What are the owners' objectives: personal, financial, and commercial?
• What is the market opportunity and competitive position of the business? What are its management and financial resources?
• How can the business be operated and financed so as to capture the market opportunity and achieve the owners' objectives?
• What is the business worth today? If it grows, what could it be worth in the future?
• What actions, operational and financial, must be executed to build the business profitably?
• Can acquisitions or mergers be safe and effective ways to grow? If so, with whom? On what terms? How can the owners ensure that personal and business objectives will be achieved after the transaction?
• How much capital do these actions require? Is the potential return sufficient to justify the investment and the risk?
• Where, how, and when can needed capital be obtained on the most favorable terms? How are capital or acquirers attracted? How long does it take? Who manages it?
• Should the business be sold so that owners can exit and achieve liquidity? Why? When? How? To whom? For how much? Can liquidity be created without selling the business?