Krekel Advisory Services Brand Profile

Brand Name

Krekel Advisory Services

Principal: Tom Krekel (Thomas H. Krekel). A practice of one, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, serving owners across the United States.

Positioning Line

Succession Advisor to Family or Closely-held Businesses.

Tom Krekel built a business, sold it, and ran companies from ten people to a hundred and seventy-five. He works with owners three to five years before they leave, while there is still time to change what the business is worth.

Mission Statement

Krekel Advisory Services helps an owner find out what the business is worth, what is holding that number down, and what can still be fixed in the time left. The owner's family, employees and partners are in the picture from the first meeting. It ends in the owner's own goals, written down, and a path to them.

Tom Krekel is not a broker. He does not sell the business and he does not take it to market. He takes no piece of any sale, and his fee is the same whichever way the owner decides.

Vision Statement

That an owner leaves knowing two things. First, what the business is worth and what is holding that number down, with years left to work on it. Second, what they are going to do with themselves afterwards, and that the people who built the company heard it from the owner first, on a date the owner picked.

Unique Value Proposition

Most people who advise owners on leaving started out as accountants, bankers or in private equity. Tom Krekel started out as an owner. He founded a company from scratch, scaled and sold the properties he ran, twice, and ran companies from ten people to a hundred and seventy-five. In his own words: "there's probably nothing they're seeing that I haven't seen."

A broker works the sale and gets paid when it closes. Tom gets paid the same whether the owner sells, hands the business to a daughter, hands it to management, or decides to stay another ten years. He takes no piece of any sale. So the owner never has to work out what he is steering them toward, because there is nothing in it for him either way.

The work covers how the business runs day to day, and what a buyer would find in it. It also covers the owner: what leaving does to family, employees and partners, and what the owner does with themselves afterwards. Both are in it.

It starts with one conversation that costs nothing. Nobody at the company has to know it happened, and the work ends in the owner's own goals, written down, and a path to them.

Brand Story

Tom Krekel founded a company in 1983 and sold it in 1990. He scaled and sold the properties he ran, twice, and his experience as a chief executive ran from companies of ten people to companies of a hundred and seventy-five. He has been the owner making this decision, which is what the practice is built on.

Years of coaching business owners followed, on the same problems he had already lived through: people, sales, financial controls, and one person holding it all together. He does not claim to know any given owner's industry. He has worked in enough of them to know the problems are mostly the same. He also found that the person who answers an owner's first question for free is usually a broker, and a broker gets paid when the business sells.

So Krekel Advisory Services was set up differently. Tom works with owners three to five years before they leave, sell, or retire, while there is still time to change the number. He takes no piece of a sale, so the advice reads the same whether the owner sells, hands it to a daughter, hands it to management, or decides nothing yet. The work ends in the owner's own goals, written down, and a path to them.

Target Audience

Owners of privately held family and closely held companies across the United States, typically $5 million to $50 million a year with fifty to seventy people, where the business is most of the owner's net worth. Some founded it. Some took it over from a parent. The plan for it usually lives in one head, and nobody in the company knows.

They are three to five years out. They have run a business for decades and have never left one. So most of them do not know yet that getting a business ready changes what it sells for, or that the reason for leaving changes it too. Most have never heard of an advisor who is not a broker, an accountant or a lawyer. They arrive looking for a number, not for an advisor.

They are afraid the business is worth less than they think and that they will find out too late to change it. They also carry something they rarely say out loud: that leaving means abandoning the people who built it with them, and losing the identity that came with being the owner. The work takes both seriously.

The owner is never assumed to be selling, never rushed, and never expected to already know how any of this works. They know how to run the company.

Services

Krekel Advisory Services does one kind of work: getting an owner ready to leave, sell or retire, starting three to five years before it happens. The first conversation costs nothing and nobody at the company has to know it happened. Tom Krekel does not sell the business, does not take it to market, and takes no piece of any sale, so his fee is the same whichever way the owner decides. The work ends in the owner's own goals, written down, and a path to them.

Business succession planning For owners of family and closely held companies planning what comes next, three to five years before they leave, sell, or retire.
What the business is worth, and what is holding it down What the business would sell for today, and the two or three things holding that number down while there is still time to work on them.
Owner dependence and management depth How far the company runs through one person, and what that costs when the owner is not there every day.
Stakeholder planning What leaving does to family, employees and partners, in the picture from the first meeting rather than added at the end.
The owner's own finances What the owner needs the business to be worth, set against what it would sell for now, so the owner knows the difference years before it matters.
Life after the business What the owner does with themselves once somebody else is running the company, worked out early rather than left to the end.
Written goals and the path to them The engagement ends in the owner's own goals, written down, with what to work on first.
Continued coaching Ongoing work on the priorities the planning identified, for owners who want it.

How the work runs

One private conversation The owner says what they are considering and what they want to understand. Nobody at the company has to know it happened.
Find out where they stand The finances, the business, the people, and the owner. What leaving does to family, employees and partners. How far the business depends on the owner. Who the owner is afterwards. What to fix first.
Their goals, written down The owner's own goals and action items, in writing, with the path to them.
Fix what is worth fixing Coaching on the priorities the planning turned up, with specific actions and dates, if the owner wants to continue.

Social Proof

What owners say about the coaching work

The two excerpts below are from coaching clients and describe coaching work.

"Tom helped us to gain clarity, focus, reduce drama, improve the team culture, and ultimately make the entrepreneurship journey more rewarding."
Shane Jette, Chief Executive Officer, Facility Improvement Corp.Coaching client

"Tom was very helpful with implementing ideas to help with our future business plans and introducing new tools to help with accountability."
Ryan Fenssler, Agency Owner, Touching Hearts, DenverCoaching client

More coaching testimonials on the website

Background behind the work

Founded a company from scratch - Started in 1983, sold in 1990.
Scaled and sold, twice - The properties he ran, on two separate occasions.
Chief executive from ten people to a hundred and seventy-five - The range of company sizes he has run.
Years of coaching owners - Through the same problems, before this practice took its current shape.