When Business Services Firms Bring Us In
Service businesses break in ways that product companies do not. Revenue walks out the door at 6 p.m., margin erodes one unbilled hour at a time, and the founder is usually the largest account manager. Our executives step into these moments.
We Are Most Often Called For:
Are you experiencing operational, market, strategic or leadership disruptions?
The Business Services Firms We Serve
Business services covers a wide range of models, and the economics change with each one. A retained consultancy, a project-based agency, a managed IT provider, and an events company each carry different working capital demands, different revenue predictability, and different valuation multiples. Our executives have led firms in each category and know which levers move which number.
We work with management consultancies, marketing and digital agencies, event planning and experiential firms, IT and managed services providers, legal tech and legal services companies, staffing and talent businesses, and outsourced back-office providers. Whether you bill by the hour, by the project, by the seat, or by the event, we understand what your buyers examine, what your clients renew for, and what your delivery leaders need to hit their numbers.
Deep Experience Across the Sector
Our executives have sat in the chair at firms like yours. They have carried a utilization target, defended a rate increase to a client that represented 20% of revenue, and closed a quarter where three projects slipped. That operating history shapes how they advise you.
Find the Right Operating Executive for Your Firm
A CXO Partners executive can assess your delivery model, stabilize the numbers, and build the operating discipline that makes your firm worth more than the sum of its billable hours.
Steady
Our executives read a services P&L quickly because they have built them. Within weeks they can tell you which accounts earn their keep, which practices carry the firm, and which delivery leaders need support rather than pressure. They make the calls that partners avoid, and they make them with the numbers in hand.
Reliable
Boards, private equity sponsors, and lenders recognize the profile. Our executives have presented services businesses to investment committees, defended quality-of-earnings adjustments, and answered the diligence questions your firm will face. Clients and delivery teams keep working through the transition because someone credible is running the place.
Effective
Our executives change what the P&L looks like. They rebuild pricing and rate cards, tighten scope discipline, install the PSA and time-capture systems that make utilization visible, restructure practice leadership, and move revenue toward the recurring base that raises your multiple. The work outlasts the engagement.
Why Revenue Quality Decides What Your Firm Is Worth
Two services firms report $40M in revenue. One sells for 6x EBITDA, the other for 11x. The gap is rarely about growth rate. Buyers pay for revenue they can predict and margin that does not depend on any one person.
Client concentration sits at the top of the diligence list. When a single account carries a quarter of your revenue and the founder owns that relationship, an acquirer prices in the risk that both leave together. Contract structure comes next. Master service agreements with auto-renewal and defined scope read differently than a stack of purchase orders reissued each quarter, even when the cash collected looks identical.
Then comes the delivery model. If margin depends on a handful of senior people billing at capacity, capacity becomes your ceiling and burnout becomes your risk. Firms that push work down the pyramid, document their methodology, and staff against a real utilization target can grow without hiring another version of the founder. Working capital gets examined last and hurts the most. Unbilled WIP sitting for 90 days, DSO stretching past 75, and pass-through costs funded from your balance sheet all reduce the cash a buyer believes the business generates.
Fixing these takes 12 to 24 months of operating work, not a memo. Our executives do that work from inside the business, in the seat, accountable for the result.
Results from the clients we’ve served
The team transformed our professional services offerings and accelerated our ability to scale. They also provided expert M&A due diligence and guidance leading to our successful exit. - Bonz Hart, CEO, Meridium
Within a highly challenging environment, Bill was integral to the development of the strategy and execution of the tactics to protect, enhance, and then secure the value of RiceBran Technologies (NASDAQ - RIBT). - Multiple Board Members
Mark's biggest contribution has been to inject confidence into our finances and financial reporting for our entire leadership team. We can base our management decisions on his very reliable information and insights. He's an excellent communicator, and under his financial leadership, we've seen our EBITDA increase substantially. - Jay McCumber, CEO, Pine Hill Manufacturing
We leveraged CXO Partners' CFO services to grow. They helped us package two businesses that led to successful M&A exits. I can’t recommend them and Mike Casey highly enough. - Alexei Rojanets, President & CCO, Aptitude Health
Let’s Begin
We enable businesses to focus on core competencies by providing flexible, customized professional services supporting our clients’ strategic objectives.
Schedule a 15-minute call with our team.
We’ll listen to your needs and quickly provide options.
Your interim executive is ready to make an impact right away.
Our Team
Rick Gruenhagen
Richard Rothschild
E. Jeffrey Hutchinson
Alejandro Mainetto
Tracy Deuell
Alan Eddie
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