CASE STUDY
Three Years of Financial Infrastructure. A One-Year Sale Process. A Completed Exit.
$12M, 25-Person Surgical Device Company · Sales, Service, Rentals & Refurbished · Sold to Private Equity
SALE PROCESS
1-Year Exit
ADDED VALUE
PE Acquisition
Successful Completed Sale
From Market to Close
AT A GLANCE
COMPANY
Surgical Device Company
SIZE
$12M Annual Revenue
25 Employees
INDUSTRY
Medical Devices
Sales • Service • Rentals • Refurbished Equipment
ENGAGEMENT
3-Year FICS Engagement
FOCUS AREAS
Rolling Forecasting
Purchase Order Revenue Projections
Inventory Management
Service-Line Profitability
Exit Readiness & PE Diligence
The Problem
A $12M surgical microscope company — 25 people, four revenue streams: equipment sales, service, rentals, and refurbished units. Each stream had different economics, and none of them were visible.
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Inventory issues eating cash without a clear picture of where
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Revenue and COGS mismatched — margins by service line were unknowable
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Service profitability invisible; service contract revenue had no forward projection
The business was solid. The financial picture couldn't prove it — to management, let alone to a buyer.
The Install —
A Phased Build, By Service Line
FICS went in layer by layer over the engagement's first phase:
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Rolling forecast (day 60) — forward revenue and cash visibility, live inside two months
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Revenue projections built on purchase orders (day 90) — the forecast grounded in actual committed demand, not extrapolation
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Inventory tracking (day 120) — the cash quietly tied up in stock, made visible and managed
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Service-line profitability system (day 180) — true margin by stream: sales vs. service vs. rentals vs. refurbished, with revenue finally matched to its COGS
The Payoff — The Exit
Over a three-year engagement, that infrastructure matured into something more valuable than clean monthly reporting: a company that could withstand a buyer's scrutiny. When ownership decided to sell:
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Think CFO built the complete financial package used by the investment bankers to take the company to market
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Sat in every investment banker meeting and every prospective buyer presentation
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Worked alongside the CPA firm through the full due diligence process
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The sale process ran start to finish in one year — and closed. The company sold successfully to a private equity firm.
OWNER QUOTE
“When the buyers started asking hard questions, we had real answers — by service line, backed by the numbers. That's what got the deal done.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Buyers move fast when diligence finds clean rails. Three years of financial infrastructure is why the sale process only took one. The same system that runs your business is the system that sells it — and the time to install it is years before you need it, not the quarter you decide to exit.