For the searcher who just closed
You bought the business. Now let's find the EBITDA hiding in its overhead.
We analyze the indirect spend your target already pays every month — payroll, insurance, utilities, telecom, waste, freight and 40+ more — renegotiate it, and split the verified savings. No risk, no cost to your business. No savings, no fee.
| Category | Delta |
|---|---|
| Telecom — identified | minus $18,800 |
| Waste — verified | minus $25,300 |
| Merchant — verified | minus $25,100 |
| Insurance — verified | minus $23,400 |
| Annual EBITDA lift | $92,600 |
- 30+ years
- 40+ spend categories
- 10–300 employee companies
- Northeast / nationwide delivery
Why now
A change of ownership is the best time to fix the cost base.
The catalyst is now.
Vendor contracts, renewals and “we've always used them” relationships are never more reviewable than in the first 12 months after close. Waiting a year costs you a year.
It's margin you don't have to sell for.
Every dollar removed from indirect spend drops to EBITDA. At a 4–6x multiple, a $120K annual savings is roughly $500K to $700K of enterprise value at exit.
It doesn't use your bandwidth.
You're running the business, not chasing utility invoices. We do the analysis, the benchmarking, the negotiation and the implementation tracking.
Process
How it works
Four steps. You approve everything before it happens.
- 01
Discovery (15 minutes)
We look at employee count, footprint and spend profile to confirm there's enough there to be worth anyone's time. If there isn't, we'll tell you.
- 02
Analysis (no cost, no commitment)
You share 12 months of invoices and contracts across the categories in scope. We benchmark them against what comparable companies actually pay.
- 03
The savings report
You get a category-by-category view of what you're overpaying, what's achievable, and what's contractually locked. You decide what we pursue. Nothing changes without your approval.
- 04
Negotiate, implement, verify
We renegotiate, usually with your existing vendors, so there's no switching disruption. We track realized savings monthly. We invoice only against savings actually captured, splitting them 50/50 for 24 months. After that, 100% of the savings are yours, permanently.
Scope
What we look at
People & Benefits
- Payroll processing
- PEO fees
- Health & benefits brokerage
- Workers' comp
- HR tech
Facilities & Operations
- Utilities & energy
- Waste & recycling
- Janitorial
- Uniforms & linens
- MRO supplies
- Pest control
Business Services
- Property & casualty insurance
- Telecom & connectivity
- Merchant processing
- Freight & parcel
- Print & packaging
- Software & SaaS
40+ categories total. We scope to whatever is material in your business.
Fit
Who we work with
Traditional Search Funds
For the operator-CEO in year one.
You inherited a cost base built by an owner who never renegotiated it. You have a board that wants a value-creation plan and an EBITDA number to defend. We give you a line-item, no-capital-required margin story you can put in your first investor update.
Best fit: 10–300 employees, post-LOI or post-close.
Self-Funded / SBA Searchers
For the owner who signed a personal guarantee.
Debt service makes every point of margin matter more. There's no consulting budget and no back office, which is exactly why a no-upfront-cost, contingency-only model works here. We only get paid out of money you weren't going to keep anyway.
Best fit: SBA-financed acquisitions, 10–150 employees.
Independent Sponsors
For the professional dealmaker with a value-creation plan.
You already put operational improvement in the deck. Add a named cost-reduction partner who can be diligenced pre-close and deployed in week one, across every platform and add-on rather than just one. Repeatable across your portfolio, one relationship for you.
Best fit: platform + add-on acquisitions, serial acquirers.
Also working with: the funds and capital providers behind these deals. If you back searchers or sponsors, we can sit on your preferred-partner list and work across your portfolio companies. One introduction, many engagements.
Results
Selected engagements
A sample of recent work.
- 01
Charter school group
Detroit, five campuses
Acquired through a search fund. Within the first weeks of engagement we identified addressable savings in janitorial services and put insurance out for review. The prior owner-operator had renewed both without competition for years.
- 02
Plastics manufacturer
New York
Multi-shift manufacturing operation. Reviewed utilities, waste and packaging spend against benchmark pricing for comparable throughput.
- 03
Signage & print services company
High transaction volume
Reviewed shipping, merchant processing and supply spend for a service business with high transaction volume and thin per-job margins.
About
Joe Lapscher
- Role
- Partner
- Location
- Hoboken, NJ
Joe works with Expense Reduction Coaching out of Hoboken, NJ, covering the New York metro area. Before ERC he spent a decade-plus in engineering and product at GE, Citrix, and three fintech companies. That's where he learned to take apart a messy operational data set and find the pattern in it. ERC has been doing this for over 30 years, and Joe's father has been at it for 13.
Joe works almost exclusively with lower middle market companies in transition, and increasingly with the ETA community: search funds, SBA searchers and independent sponsors who bought a good business with a cost base nobody ever questioned.
FAQ
Frequently asked
01Do you need to replace our vendors?
Usually not. Most savings come from renegotiating with the incumbent, who would rather cut price than lose the account. When a switch is clearly better, we'll show you the math and you decide.
02How long until we see savings?
The analysis typically takes 2–4 weeks depending on how fast we get documents. Savings begin landing as contracts are renegotiated or renewed, often within the first quarter.
03What do you need from us?
Invoices and contracts for the categories in scope, and one point of contact for questions. Typically a few hours total from your team across the whole engagement.
04Can you do this pre-close, during diligence?
Yes. A pre-close read on addressable indirect spend can support your value-creation plan, and in some cases your model. Signed NDA required.
05Does this work for a company with 25 employees?
Often, yes. Our range is roughly 10–300 employees, and 150–200 is the sweet spot. Below 10 there usually isn't enough spend to justify the effort, and we'll say so on the first call.
06We're a fund with a portfolio. How does that work?
One conversation with you, then individual engagements with whichever portfolio companies want it. Each company contracts separately, and nothing is charged to the fund.
Economics
What this actually costs you.
- 01No risk, no cost to your business — no upfront fee, no retainer, no minimum term.
- 02The analysis is free. If we find nothing worth pursuing, you owe nothing.
- 03When savings are realized and verified, we split them 50/50 for 24 months.
- 04After month 24, 100% of ongoing savings stay with the business, including at exit, where the improved cost base is already baked into your EBITDA.
- 05We never switch a vendor, sign a contract, or change a service level without your written approval.
Next step
Fifteen minutes. Then a free analysis. Then a number.
If there's nothing meaningful in your indirect spend, you'll know quickly and it will have cost you a call.
Pick a time
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