You’ve built a successful business. The biggest decisions deserve an experienced advisor at your side.
Experienced judgment for decisions involving growth, capital, ownership and succession. We help you examine alternatives, strengthen your negotiating position and choose the right next step—including when the best decision is to keep owning the business.
We help business owners navigate growth, ownership transitions and the unexpected—with experienced judgment and investment banking expertise, guided by what matters to you.
Start a confidential conversationHow we work beside ownersWhen owners call us
What are you facing?
You don’t need to have chosen a path before we talk. Most conversations begin with a situation, not a decision.
Someone wants to buy my business.
How do I evaluate the offer, understand the buyer, and avoid leaving value on the table?
I'm considering my next stage of growth.
Should I expand organically, make an acquisition, bring in capital, or preserve flexibility?
My family or shareholders have different priorities.
How do we reconcile ownership, leadership, succession, and liquidity objectives? Boards may also need independent financial judgment to examine the alternatives.
Something unexpected has happened.
Lender pressure, ownership disagreement, management disruption, or another unexpected event requires experienced perspective.
I'm thinking about liquidity and what comes next.
How will the alternatives affect my financial future, family, employees, and personal goals?
My client needs experienced transaction judgment.
For attorneys, CPAs, wealth managers, and other professionals.
How we help
Experienced judgment. Leadership in the role you need.
We help connect ownership priorities, business alternatives, and the economics of a decision. When execution is needed, the role follows your objectives.
Strategic & Ownership Advisory
An ongoing relationship for decisions involving growth, capital, ownership and succession—whether or not a transaction is contemplated.
Explore this roleSpecial Situations & Negotiations
Experienced commercial judgment when an opportunity, disagreement or unexpected event changes the choices ahead.
Explore this roleBoard & Governance Advisory
Financial and commercial advice for boards facing strategic, ownership and capital decisions, with independent director service considered as a separately defined role.
Explore this roleTransaction Leadership
When a transaction is the chosen path, we can lead it, support an owner-led negotiation or help select and oversee another investment banking firm.
Explore this roleAn advisor at your side—not only when a deal is on the table.
Some decisions need a focused review. Others benefit from a relationship that develops over time. We begin with the question in front of you. That relationship can continue as opportunities, ownership priorities, and circumstances change.
Explore ongoing ownership advice
Meet Joe Durnford
An owner’s perspective. Experienced judgment when it matters.
Joe founded JD Ford & Company in 1996. As a business owner and investment banker, he understands both the economics of a transaction and the personal stakes of an ownership decision.
He begins by listening. Working alongside owners and their existing advisors, he helps weigh financial outcomes and responsibilities to family, employees, customers, and the business they have built.
Meet Joe ↗Start a conversation ↗The experience behind the advice
In the owner’s words
The situation is personal. The advice should reflect it.
An owner evaluating interest from several buyers
“He helped me choose the buyer that was the best fit for the merger, and the sales price was also a great outcome.”
Patrick Golden · Heritage Environmental Consultants
Read Patrick’s storyA manufacturing-business sale with family and employees in view
“He didn't just facilitate a transaction; he substantially increased the ultimate outcome of the deal.”
John Wislawski · Star Precision Manufacturing
Read John’s storyPerspectives
Build a business you are proud to own, and could sell when the time is right.
The Ten Pillars of Enduring Business Value examine what makes a company worth owning, whether the plan is to scale it for the next generation or to prepare it for a transition.
Explore the Ten PillarsRequest a Ten Pillars AssessmentFor attorneys, CPAs and wealth managers
When a client faces an acquisition, a sale, a financing or a succession question beyond the usual scope of your practice, we add experienced transaction judgment to the team. Your relationship and your expertise remain central.
Introduce a clientYou don’t need to know the answer before starting the conversation.
Tell us what has changed or what you are considering. We can help you examine the decision ahead.
Start a confidential conversation