What Happens
Reviewed bya person.
Every application is read in full. There is no automated qualification, no sequence of emails, and no obligation created by applying.
You apply
A considered account of the business, what has changed, and what you are trying to do next.
We review
Read personally and assessed against what an engagement would require of both sides.
We speak
Where there is a basis to continue, a private call. Where there is not, we say so and why.
Before You Begin
The shape of companythis is built for.
We are industry-agnostic. Nearly every constraint we correct sits in unit-level economics: what a customer costs to win, what one costs to serve, and what is left. That arithmetic behaves the same in a services firm, a distributor, and a manufacturer.
What matters is not the sector. It is the position.
- Between $500K and $10M in revenue. Below that, the arithmetic is usually about survival rather than structure, and this work does not yet pay for itself.
- Established, not proving the idea. Real revenue, a market that is not closing, and enough history for a pattern to be visible.
- Still dependent on you. Most of what matters routes through one person, and both of you know which one.
- Growth that has flattened. The number has not meaningfully moved for some time, while the hours required to hold it have.
- Prepared to be told plainly what is not working, including that something you built is now the constraint.
- Able to commit for the full sixty-month window. The first correction lands in months. The structural work does not.
- Able to carry a fixed annual advisory fee. Priced for the term rather than by the hour or the transaction. Terms are given on the first call.
Who It Is Not
We would rather sayso now.
We are not the right firm for a business still proving the idea, for anyone looking to be handed a plan they will not execute, or for a principal who wants agreement rather than counsel.
Nor for someone who intends to sell within the year. What we do improves a company’s value, but it does it over a horizon longer than a sale process allows.
Saying so early costs both of us far less than discovering it in month four.
The Application
Be specific.Be blunt.
The more candid the account, the more useful the conversation that may follow. Everything you write is held in confidence and read only by the firm.
The applications we can act on are usually the blunt ones. A principal who writes “revenue is flat, I am the bottleneck, and I have known it for a year” tells us more than four paragraphs of positioning.
Applying places you under no obligation. We do not sell, share, or trade the information you provide, and we do not add applicants to a mailing list. If the fit is not right, we will tell you plainly and with respect for your time.
In Confidence
Held privately,from the first line.
Principals disclose things to us they have not said to their own teams. That begins at the application, not at the engagement.
Read by the firm
Applications are reviewed internally and are not circulated, resold, or shared with any third party.
No obligation
Applying commits you to nothing. Declining after a conversation commits you to nothing.
Answered either way
Every application receives a response within a week, whether or not there is a fit. Silence is not how a serious firm treats a serious inquiry.
References on request
We publish no client outcomes or names. Principals considering an engagement are given references who will speak candidly.
Other Inquiries
Not applying?
Press, partnerships, speaking, and general business matters may be directed to the firm at inquiries@fouramadvisors.com.
Existing clients should use the private office rather than this form.