Family Business Consulting and Advisory

Expert guidance to help your business grow or overcome challenges

Our consulting engagements are fully customized to meet your specific needs and aspirations.

Whether you're navigating conflict, preparing for growth, or building a lasting legacy, we bring the right mix of strategy and support.

We believe the best results come from strong, long-term relationships.

Whether you work with us for six months or several years, you can expect open communication, practical solutions, and a commitment to helping your family business grow in value, profitability, and legacy.

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Strengthen Your Family Business for Long-Term Success

Here’s what it takes to overcome challenges, resolve disagreements, and position your business for growth—today and for the next generation.

Clarity on Challenges and Opportunities

Identify what’s working, what’s holding you back, and where the greatest opportunities lie. Through assessments, strategic planning, and performance reviews, we help you see the big picture so you can make informed, confident decisions.

Alignment Across the Family and the Business

Tackle difficult issues and differing perspectives with a structured, respectful process. We create space for open dialogue, resolve conflicts constructively, and unite everyone around a shared vision and priorities.

Practical Solutions That Drive Results

From process improvement and financial consulting to leadership development and governance, we provide tailored solutions that deliver measurable impact—building a stronger, more resilient business for the future.

Randy Gilde, Delray Plants

Randy Gilde, Delray Plants

Rob helped our company make a tremendous turnaround

I especially valued having someone to talk to who understood my industry. Rob was helpful for bouncing ideas and asking me questions to make me think instead of just giving me the answers.

Rob is gifted in communication skills, relationships, and business – and he’s not just “book smart” – he has experience running a $200 million company with 1,000s of employees.

Without Rob to help us overcome our weaknesses, the value of our 50-year-old company would have suffered.

Rob helped our company make a tremendous turnaround. Including changing us to a board run company, with outside members.

What to Expect: A Partnership Built on Trust, Clarity, and Results

Before we ever talk about solutions, we take the time to understand your business, your challenges, and your goals—and make sure we’re the right fit for each other.

Our relationship-first process is designed to build trust, uncover the real issues, and create practical solutions that deliver measurable results for your family business.

1. Let's Get to Know Each Other

Our successful track record comes from building solid relationships and working long term with clients who are a great match for what we offer.

Our first meeting is purely a meet-and-greet and big-picture conversation—no sales pitch.

If we both feel a deeper dive is worthwhile, we’ll schedule a second meeting.

Every business, industry, and family is different, so we take the time to learn what makes yours unique before moving forward.

2. Check Our References

We believe in transparency and trust from the very beginning. At the end of our first meeting, you’ll receive:

An Information Kit outlining our services

Contact details for past clients in similar situations We encourage you to ask them anything about what it’s like to work with us, and to explore the testimonials and resources on our site before booking another meeting.

3. Problem Identification

The first step toward solving a problem is defining it clearly. In our second complimentary meeting, we:

Explore the challenges you’re facing and what you believe is causing them

Review what you’ve tried in the past to resolve them

Identify if there are multiple, related issues (including those connected to family dynamics) This conversation is always confidential and judgment-free.

4. Solution Proposal

Our mission is to help—whether that’s through our team or by connecting you to trusted experts in our network.

If your needs align with our expertise, we’ll recommend options such as executive coaching, training workshops, or a customized Family Business Prosperity Plan.

If your needs fall outside our scope, we’ll connect you with vetted professionals in areas like insurance, financing, IT, or cybersecurity.

5. Shoulder-to-Shoulder Implementation

Once we begin working together, we roll up our sleeves and get in the trenches with you. Engagements may include:

Coaching, training, advisory services, workshops, or done-for-you project

A typical initial engagement lasts 6–12 months, followed by a review to plan the next phase—whether that’s growth, transition, or succession Many of our clients stay with us for years, increasing profits, business value, and legacy. On average, $1 invested in Alliance fees results in $9 in business value growth.

Family Business Consulting Services

From big-picture strategy to day-to-day improvements, we help family businesses tackle the challenges that matter most.

Here are some of the ways we can help strengthen your business, improve performance, and support your family’s vision for the future.

Family Business Prosperity Plan

Your customized family business prosperity plan includes:

A financial assessment that includes historical trends, accounting practices, control systems, and forecast.

A review of your management structure, systems, leadership competencies and gaps, team, policies, and procedures.

The top 3-5 challenges that are blocking you from prosperity and should be addressed first.

A recommended path forward with specific projects and priorities to help you overcome the challenges and propel your business to prosperity.

This plan takes 60 - 90 days to complete (depending on the size of the company.)

The fee is between $35,000 - $50,000.

There is no obligation to continue to work together after we present the plan, but if you'd like to do so, we will provide a detailed proposal for implementation.

Strategic Planning

The 8-session series is designed for family business leaders who want to think and act more strategically. Through expert facilitation, peer learning, and practical tools, participants walk away with a complete strategic plan and the leadership capabilities to bring it to life.

Vision-Aligned Strategy: Develop a robust strategic plan that reflects your purpose, mission, values, strategic intents and long-term goals.

Change Leadership: Build the skills to lead through change and cultivate a culture of resilience and adaptability.

Opportunity Prioritization: Identify and focus on high-impact business opportunities that drive sustained growth.

Operational Excellence: Design systems to manage performance, optimize processes, and improve accountability.

Action-Oriented Results: Leave with a concrete, personalized roadmap for implementation and next steps.

Process Improvement

Our structured, three-phase approach empowers leadership teams to identify bottlenecks, eliminate waste, and embed a culture of continuous improvement—so your business performs better at every level.

End-to-End Process Clarity: Uncover where breakdowns occur and map out smarter, more efficient workflows.

Standardized Best Practices: Create repeatable, scalable processes that improve consistency and quality.

Improved Profitability: Reduce waste, speed up delivery, and increase margins through operational excellence.

Culture of Improvement: Engage your team in owning and sustaining change, not just reacting to it.

Scalable Systems: Build the infrastructure your business needs to grow without breaking under pressure.

Financial Strategy Consulting

Through Financial Strategy Consulting, Ferguson Alliance equips family business leaders with the clarity, systems, and insight to make confident, data-driven decisions that drive long-term value—not just short-term profit.

Smarter Decision-Making: Use financial data to guide investments, evaluate risk, and prioritize opportunities.

Aligned Accountability: Foster collaboration across departments with clear metrics and shared financial goals.

Value Creation Mindset: Move beyond profitability to focus on building a business that’s truly valuable.

Strategic Investment Focus: Shift from reactive cost-cutting to proactive growth planning.

Financial Empowerment: Gain the confidence to lead with numbers that support your strategy—not constrain it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of challenges can you help with?

We work with family businesses on a wide range of needs, including strategic planning, governance, leadership development, process improvement, financial consulting, succession planning, and conflict resolution. Whether you need to solve an urgent problem or plan for the future, we can help.

What size businesses do you work with?

We work with larger small businesses and middle market family-owned companies—whether they’re sole proprietorships, partnerships, or have multiple shareholders. Most of our clients fall in the upper small market or lower middle market segments, with 50 to 1,000 employees and $25 million to $300 million in annual revenue (though we do work with some slightly smaller or larger businesses).

Do we need to have a specific project in mind before contacting you?

What if our challenges involve personal or family conflicts?

Do we have to be “in trouble” to work with you?

Will you tell us what we need to hear or just what we want to hear?

Are you going to take over and run our business?

Do we need to sort out personal or family issues before we start working on the business?

Can you work alongside our existing advisors?

How long does a typical engagement last?

What makes Ferguson Alliance different from other business consultants?

Brad Abrameit, Magnolia Gardens

Brad Abrameit, Magnolia Gardens

Running things past someone who has “seen it all before” gives me confidence so I can execute aggressively

I meet with Rob a few times a week as my advisor and sounding board.

Running things past someone who has “seen it all before” gives me confidence that an initiative has “passed the smell test” so I can execute aggressively.

I really appreciate Rob’s deep background and experience in our industry. He has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening currently in business and brings new ideas from outside our industry.

He’s a genuine person who cares for the individuals he coaches and mentors.