Klarian Capital Group
Chicago's Premiere Advisor to Middle Market Owner Operators
WHO WE ARE
Klarian Capital Group, a boutique Entrepreneurial Advisory firm, focuses exclusively on the operating and financial needs of passionate CEOs and other Owner/Operators of Smaller Middle Market Companies. We deliver great value by leveraging a deep understanding of the operating and financial dynamics of growing businesses, as well as substantial transaction experience, and longstanding relationships in the borrowing and Acquisition & Divestiture markets.
We assist our Clients in both major and day-to-day undertakings such as:
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Growing revenues and profits and building efficient operating processes
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Borrowing money through great relationships with compatible lenders
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Buying and selling businesses
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Structuring and consummating material strategic relationships
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Turnaround management efforts
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Strategic and transition planning.
Our Founder and Managing Partner, Dave Lesser, after a highly successful 17-year career as a commercial lawyer, has dedicated the second chapter of his professional life to building a unique and in-depth understanding of growing businesses and the ways in which operational, financial, and transactional matters impact their prospects of success and failure.
Although our “partner with the entrepreneur” approach generally makes us “industry agnostic,” our most notable success stories have been told in the Manufacturing & Distribution, Information Technology, Professional Services, and Real Estate industries.
WHAT WE DO
Transactional and Hybrid Services
Commercial Loan Brokerage*
Your bank loan or other senior debt is perhaps the most critical item on a Smaller Middle Market Company’s balance sheet and Klarian treats the creation of true marriages between our Clients and their primary lenders as a true Investment Banking function.
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Operating Lines of Credit
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Term Debt
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Asset Based Lender Facilities
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Alternative Receivables and Purchase Order Financing
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Mezzanine, Subordinated Debt, Participating Debt, Other Junior Capital
Acquisitions and Divestitures*
- Deep Buy & Sell-Side Experience
Strategic Alliances
Many companies-large and small- don't realize how strategic alliances, rather than buying or selling to another company, can achieve strategic goals with far less cost and risk. Klarian has extensive experience helping Clients assess and consummate these types of partnerships.
Transaction Services
Klarian offers these services whether or not we act as the Financial Intermediary/Broker.
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“Sell-Side Readiness” Engagements (see Operating and Financial Consulting)
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Sell and Buy-Side Due Diligence Management
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Buy-Side Integration Planning
* Dave Lesser is an Illinois Registered Business Broker and Loan Broker, as well as an Illinois licensed attorney and past holder of Illinois and Indiana real estate brokerage licenses.
Operating and Financial Consulting
Diagnostics
Klarian has spent over a Quarter Century building diagnostic processes focused specifically on the unique characteristics of Smaller Middle Market Companies whose Owner/Operators are driven by entrepreneurial passions rather than have classic CEO skill sets.
Risk Management
Often, entrepreneurs don’t know what they don’t know until something “bad” happens. Klarian also has spent over a Quarter Century understanding and addressing “hidden” risks that threaten Smaller Middle Market Companies and helping Owner/Operators make informed risk management decisions based on magnitude of risk and return on risk mitigation investments.
"Arc of Life" Consulting Services
Our Diagnostic, Risk Management, and other tools support Entrepreneurs’ efforts throughout their companies’ life cycle:
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Overcoming Distress
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Breaking Through Stagnation
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Transitioning Infrastructure and Management
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Growing FAST, but SAFELY
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Exit and Liquidity Planning
Business Divorce
“Sell-Side Readiness” Engagements
3-stage system that prepares a Client for a successful sale. We have implemented this system over periods ranging from 6 months to 5 years depending on the Client’s specific strategic and financial goals:
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Build and Maintain a “Ready for Prime Time” virtual data room (VDR).
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Use the VDR to simulate a buyer’s investigation, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and unexploited opportunities.
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Leverage the results of the “self-investigation" process to design and execute Value Enhancement Initiatives that are feasible and have a high Return on Investment. (see B2B Software anecdote in Smaller Middle Market Client Engagements Summary)
Business Planning & Project Planning and Management