In short
Corefield works on the one part of a file nobody else in the process owns: whether the business runs without its owner. It stays inside six operating areas, refers everything else back to you, never solicits your client, and never takes a share of a sale.
What does Corefield do that you don’t?
You handle succession on paper: the structure, the number, the agreements, the sale. Corefield handles succession in the operations. The paper side isn’t enough on its own if the business stops when the owner leaves.
The gap it fills is easy to describe to a client, because it is outside your scope rather than a criticism of your work:
“The structure and the valuation are done. What hasn’t been looked at is whether the business runs without you. That’s separate work and it takes a while, so it’s worth starting now.”
Why is Corefield safe to refer?
Because it is built not to compete with you. In writing, from the first meeting:
- It won’t take your client. Non-solicitation is written into the referral. The client stays yours.
- It won’t embarrass you. It works in six operating areas and refers everything else straight back to you: valuation, tax, legal, accounting, financing, brokerage.
- It reports back. You hear what was found.
- It invoices the owner directly. No referral fees or commission splits in either direction.
- No other broker. If a broker referred the client, Corefield never introduces another one. That is written down too.
- It never buys what it assesses. Corefield’s owner also owns a company that acquires businesses. No business that has been a paid Corefield client is ever acquired by it. See Our commitments.
Which files are a good fit?
The ones you have quietly given up on:
- a listing that sat and didn’t sell;
- a seller you turned away at intake;
- a client whose valuation disappointed them;
- a deal that died in diligence;
- an acquisition loan declined or stalled on key-person risk.
What these usually have in common is a business that is unbuyable rather than unpriced: it lives in one person’s head, there is no second in command, the customer relationships are personal, or the licence is in one name. Those aren’t valuation or legal problems, so nobody in the process owns them.
What is the Second Look?
An introductory offer for a small number of referral partners. You send files you’ve written off. Each one is screened at no charge, and the most fixable gets a full Review, also at no charge, with a report in both your names to take back to the owner. Ask about it through the contact form.
How does it help each profession?
Business brokers. A way to turn stale files into sellable ones, and something genuinely useful to say to the owners you turn away at intake.
Accountants and valuators. A way to deliver a disappointing number with a remedy attached, without stepping outside your scope, and with every tax, accounting and valuation question coming back to you.
Lenders. Evidence a credit committee can act on. The work aims to produce documented procedures, named accountability for critical functions, second qualified holders on licences and a logged three-week owner absence, and it reports plainly what is not yet in place.
Trade associations. Talks for members on why good businesses don’t sell, from someone who spent twenty years making fleets run without the people who built them.
Doesn’t this delay a listing?
Yes, often by nine to eighteen months. On the files that need it, the alternative is that they never sell, or sell for far less after a buyer’s diligence finds what nobody fixed. It is better to know that before the listing than after the letter of intent.
Can my clients take the Check with my name on it?
Yes. Partners can have their own link to the free Check, so you can hand it out at intake and see how many people it reaches. Ask for one through the contact form.