Who we work with

Businesses built to stay.

We work with owner-operated and privately held businesses of 5 to 500 people that count success in more than just money. If you’re building something your town will still depend on in twenty years, we’d like to help.

Red sandstone canyon walls opening to a blue sky

Seven things we look for

The Common Good standard.

Before we talk about an engagement, we talk about fit. These are the seven things we look for.

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These seven points align us on values we hold in common. They’re rarely put into words, and few of us were ever asked to think them through. Business got reduced to one question: did you make money? We talk them through over a first coffee. Missing one is a conversation, not a no. Built for sale, an absent owner, doing harm or growing for its own sake is not our fit.

Long game thinking: You’re playing the long game, not building to exit. If you ever hand it on, it goes to someone who keeps it healthy: a key employee, a structure built to last, a buyer who wants it to stay good. If the real reason for the work is a check at sale, we’re the wrong partner.
Owner operated: You still hold the decisions, and you want to see the outcome. You’re skilled in your craft, you care about it, and you sign your name to your work. Executive skill we can build together. Character we can’t.
You measure success differently: Your people, your customers, the resources you steward and a profit all carry weight. The customer sits at the center: you’re built to serve, not to dominate. We measure all of it with you.
Rooted in a place: You know the people you serve and you plan to stay among them. You know your employees, your customers and the ground you’re on, and you want the place better for your being there.
Solving a worthy problem: You make things and do real work that meets real needs. It doesn’t win at the cost of people, neighbors or land. It’s good for the people it touches.
Work is good: Work is a creative act, where you bring the best of yourself and the people you lead. AI makes your people more capable. It doesn’t replace them.
Scale is a tool: Growth is something you use. You don’t serve it. You know what enough looks like, and you can say it.

Measuring success

Four measurements of success.

Most businesses only measure profit. We take a broader perspective, and we measure all four next to the hours saved.

Human
How your people are doing. Tenure, turnover, and whether they’d tell a friend to work for your company.
Social
How your customers and your community are doing, and what your business puts back into the town.
Natural
How the land is doing. Is the ground better or worse than when you got it?
Financial
Whether you’re making a profit. It matters, and it’s one of four measurements.