A Clear Path to Building Value
Plan
Transform
Transform
Before you can maximize the value of your business, you need a clear plan. In the Plan phase, we use the Exit Planning Institute’s Value Acceleration Methodology to help you step back, see the full picture, and get intentional about your future.
We start by clarifying your personal, financial, and business goals—what you want your life to look like during and after an eventual transition. Then we determine what your business is worth today, identify value gaps and risks, and highlight the key drivers that will move the needle.
The result is a practical, owner-friendly roadmap that aligns your goals with your company’s value—and prepares you to build a stronger, more transferable business.
Transform
Transform
Transform
In the Transform phase, we help you run your business with more clarity, discipline, and confidence using the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®). EOS is a simple, proven way to get everyone in your organization aligned around a clear vision, gaining traction through real accountability, and building a healthier, more cohesive leadership team.
Together, we implement practical tools that strengthen the six key components of your business: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. As these components strengthen, your business runs more smoothly, becomes less dependent on you as the owner, and is better positioned for sustainable growth and a future transition—on your terms.
Transact
Transform
Transact
In the Transact phase, we help you become truly transaction ready—whether you need capital to grow or you’re ready to take chips off the table. That could mean raising debt or equity, structuring a dividend recapitalization, completing a partial sale to an investor, or pursuing a full sale of the business.
We work with you to clarify your goals, prepare the company and financials for outside scrutiny, and position the business to attract the right capital or buyer at the right time. Our focus is on helping you understand your options, negotiate from a position of strength, and align the transaction with your personal, financial, and business objectives—so when it’s time to move, you’re ready.
WHO WE SERVE
Lower Middle Market Advisors works with privately held lower middle market businesses (10–250 employees) that want to grow, professionalize, and prepare for a future transition. We provide exit planning, EOS® implementation, and business valuation services to increase transferable value and give owners more options.
We can support clients virtually anywhere in the United States, but we strongly prefer in-person work with owners and leadership teams. Our core in-person service area is within roughly a five-hour drive of Pittsburgh, including major metro areas such as Detroit (MI), Washington, DC, Baltimore (MD), Rochester (NY), Harrisburg and Erie (PA), Morgantown and Charleston (WV), plus many communities across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Michigan.
We’re a strong fit if you’re looking to:
- Implement EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to run a stronger business
- Use business valuation and exit planning to grow and protect value
- Reduce chaos, strengthen leadership, and improve accountability
- Prepare your company for succession, capital raising, or sale
If you need a Pittsburgh-based lower middle market business advisor who will meet you both on-site and online, we’re built to help.
Why We Do What We Do (and Why It’s Worth It for You)
If you own a company worth roughly $5–50 million, you sit in a tough spot. Business brokers often aren’t built for deals your size, and traditional investment banks focus on larger transactions with big minimum fees. Yet you still deserve an advisor who helps you increase the value of your business, gain more control, and create real options for your future. That’s why Lower Middle Market Advisors exists.
Our Plan, Transform, Transact approach is designed to be a high-return, low-risk investment in you and your business:
- Plan (Value Acceleration Methodology / CEPA): Clarify your personal, financial, and business goals, understand what your company is worth today, and identify the specific levers that will grow that value.
- Transform (EOS® Implementation): Put a simple, proven operating system in place so your business runs more smoothly, with better accountability, less chaos, and less dependence on you.
- Transact (Transaction Readiness & Execution): When you need capital or are ready for liquidity, your business is positioned as an investable, attractive asset—not a project that buyers and lenders have to fix.
For you, that means: higher potential valuation, stronger cash flow, more control over your time, and more options.
We’ve also structured our fees to make working with us as low-risk as possible. EOS sessions are $3,500, backed by a value guarantee: if you don’t believe the session created more value than the fee, you don’t pay. There is no contract for EOS or exit planning. For clients running on EOS, our investment banking fees are 100% contingent on a successful transaction, with fees based on the midpoint of the Firmex M&A fee study.
In other words, your downside is limited, but the upside—a more valuable, more transferable, more controlled business—can be substantial. Our incentives are aligned with yours: we only win when you and your business do.