The Ownership Premium
Your business is your largest asset. Let's measure what it actually earns you.
Your Takeaway
Every engagement ends with a number, a decision, and the reasoning behind both.
We measure:
-
The return on every dollar tied up in your business
-
Whether your next hire will pay for itself
-
Where your next dollar should go: the business, the markets, or your pocket
-
How much cash your business should keep on hand
-
What a fair market salary for your role looks like
-
What your business is worth today
The Gap No One Is Filling
Your business is almost certainly the largest and most concentrated asset you own. At public companies and private equity firms, how capital gets put to work is studied constantly, because it makes a measurable difference: McKinsey research on more than 1,600 U.S. companies found that firms with disciplined capital allocation delivered roughly 30% higher annual returns than those without it.
In owner-run businesses, that discipline is almost entirely missing. Not because it doesn't apply, but because no one is set up to provide it. Your CPA reports what happened last year. Your attorney structures the entity. Your financial advisor manages what you've already taken out. No one does the ongoing, numbers-driven work your business needs while you're still running it. That's the gap The Ownership Premium fills.
What We Measure
Return on Capital
How much does every dollar tied up in your business actually earn you after taxes, and how does that compare with what it could earn elsewhere?
Cash Reserves
How much does every dollar tied up in your business actually earn you after taxes, and how does that compare with what it could earn elsewhere?
Hiring Decisions
Will your next hire pay for itself? We compare your numbers against Census revenue-per-employee data for your industry, so the answer rests on evidence, not a gut feeling.
Owner Pay
What would the market pay someone to do your job? We build a salary benchmark from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, because if this one number is wrong, every other number is wrong too.
Reinvest or Distribute
Where will your next dollar do the most good: back in the business, in the markets, in real estate, or held as cash?
Business Value
A planning-grade estimate of what your business is worth, designed to guide decisions about growth and an eventual exit. (It isn't a formal appraisal, and we'll tell you when you need one.)
Advisory,
Not Coaching
A coach asks good questions. An advisor does the analysis, makes a recommendation, and stands behind it.
Every Ownership Premium engagement follows a defined method and is measured against respected outside sources, including the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the JPMorgan Chase Institute, McKinsey, and industry transaction data. You won't get motivational talk. You'll get a clear answer and the evidence behind it.
How It Works
Step 1: The Ownership Premium Analysis. We start with a full analysis of your return on capital, tax drag, exit scenario, and Ownership Premium, delivered as a clear, structured report.
Step 2: Ongoing Advisory. Most clients continue with us year-round: quarterly updates to the numbers, guidance on hiring and reinvestment, and ongoing cash reserve monitoring, all coordinated with your CPA.
No pricing conversation until we've both confirmed it's the right fit. Start with a 20-minute call.
IN PRACTICE
273,000 a year.
That's the Ownership Premium we measured for a California creative services agency: the yearly advantage its owner earned by running the business rather than selling it, investing the proceeds, and taking a market-rate job. The number was always there. No one had ever measured it.
Is This a Good Fit?
We do our best work with clients like these.
Your business brings in $1M–$25M a year.
You own and run it yourself, as an S-corp, LLC, or partnership.
You're in a service or professional-services field: agencies, consulting firms, practices, studios, and the like.
You already have a CPA. We work with them, not in place of them.
It isn't the right fit for passive investors, businesses under $1M in revenue, or owners looking for a one-time report with no ongoing relationship.