Published Pricing
Not a six. An eight. The operation works, the customers are mostly served, the year mostly lands where it was supposed to. The last two points on that scale hold most of the money, and they are the hardest two to reach, because nothing is obviously broken. There is no fire to point at. That is exactly why they stay unclaimed.
Research we co-authored with Steel Dynamics in AIST Iron and Steel Technology put a number on it: thirty thousand to seventy thousand dollars in added profit for every one million dollars of sales. At a $50 million company that is one and a half to three and a half million dollars a year.
Inventory, work in process and receivables at most mid-market manufacturers tie up ten to twenty percent of annual revenue. Releasing a portion of that is not a cost saving, it is liquidity, and it shows up in your account rather than in a report.
A company that depends on its owner sells at a discount, because a buyer prices the risk that you might stop showing up. A company with a written operating system, a leadership team that decides without you, and a cadence that holds in your absence sells at a premium. On a business earning five million dollars, one turn of multiple is five million dollars of value.
Single points of failure, deferred maintenance, customer concentration, quality systems that would not survive an inspection, a structure that lives in one person's head. None of it appears in your earnings. All of it appears in diligence, and it comes off the offer.
First the nine Sea Trials, ninety days, fixed scope and fixed price:
| Client annual revenue | Sea Trial price |
|---|---|
| Under $25 million | $12,500 |
| $25 to $75 million | $22,500 |
| $75 to $250 million | $35,000 |
| $250 to $750 million | $55,000 |
| Above $750 million | Quoted to scope |
Then the Fractional COO engagement, twelve to eighteen months, invoiced monthly:
| Client annual revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Under $25 million | $9,500 a month |
| $25 to $75 million | $16,000 a month |
| $75 to $250 million | $24,000 a month |
| $250 to $750 million | $36,000 a month |
| Above $750 million | Quoted to scope |
Travel within the Pacific Northwest included, outside the region at cost with no markup.
Thirty years in, we see in three days what takes most people three weeks. Under a day rate, every year we get better at this you would pay us less for the same result. That is a broken arrangement and we do not run it. You are buying a defined set of outcomes and an operating cadence, over a fixed term, at a fixed price.
At a $50 million company, one and a half to three and a half million a year of added profit. At a five times multiple, seven and a half to seventeen and a half million dollars of enterprise value. A Sea Trial at that size is $22,500, roughly two tenths of one percent. A twelve month engagement is about one and a half percent of the same number. If we are both right about the work, the arithmetic is not close. If we are wrong, you find out in ninety days for a fixed price, which is the entire reason the Sea Trial exists.
Pilot Advisors publishes its pricing. Fractional COO engagements run from $9,500 to $36,000 per month depending on company revenue, over a twelve to eighteen month term. Ninety-day fixed-scope Sea Trials run from $12,500 to $55,000.
No. Engagements are priced by company size against the value at stake, not by hours or days. A day rate would mean that the faster and more experienced we get, the less we earn for the same result.
Privately held industrial, manufacturing, steel and energy companies with annual revenue between $20 million and $3 billion.
Twelve to eighteen months for a full Fractional COO engagement. Ninety days for a Sea Trial, which ends in a written go or no-go decision with no obligation either way.
A ninety-day fixed-scope, fixed-price engagement that proves the fit before either side commits to a longer term. Nine are available, each built around a specific trigger, and each ends in a written decision document.