Turnaround & Restructuring

Restore control when liquidity compresses and timelines shorten, in or out of court.

Overview

Small businesses rarely fail due to a lack of effort. They fail when liquidity tightens, leverage strains, and reactive decisions compound risk. When margins compress and lenders apply pressure, timing determines outcomes.

Fortis Business Advisors restores control at moments of financial inflection. We establish decision-grade clarity around liquidity, capital structure, and stakeholder leverage, then coordinate the structural adjustments required to stabilize the enterprise. Our experience includes supporting SBA 7(a) and 504 lenders in distressed portfolio situations where guarantor exposure, collateral coverage, and timing discipline are critical.

This is structured leadership grounded in real operating environments. Whether navigating lender workouts, covenant exposure, Subchapter V proceedings, or accelerated asset monetization, our role is to preserve optionality while reducing pressure.

We focus on the financial drivers that determine stability:

13-Week Cash Flow Discipline
Capital Stack Mapping and Lender Positioning
Borrowing Base and Collateral Alignment
Working Capital Containment and Asset Optimization
Structured Creditor Communication and Negotiation

Key Areas of Expertise

Structured stabilization, lender-aligned repositioning, and disciplined execution for small businesses under financial pressure.

Liquidity & Cash Flow Control

13-Week Cash Flow Discipline

Runway Analysis & Extension Planning

Borrowing Base & Collateral Review

Cash Controls & Variance Management

Capital & Creditor Alignment

Lender Workout Coordination

Capital Stack Repositioning

Covenant Exposure & Compliance Strategy

Stakeholder Negotiation Support

Operational Stabilization

Cost Structure Realignment

Asset & Inventory Monetization Strategy

Margin Containment & Working Capital Reset

Controlled Wind-Down or Recovery Sequencing

Risk & Court Advisory

Risk Assessment & Mitigation

Subchapter V & Chapter 11 Support

Business Valuation Support & Analysis

Expert Witness Services

Results

Approach

The Fortis Stabilization Framework

Fortis operates through a structured three-phase process designed to restore control and protect enterprise value as financial pressure intensifies. When liquidity tightens, timing determines outcomes. Our role is to create clarity early, reposition deliberately, and execute with discipline.

Phase I — Diagnostic Control

Stabilization begins with clarity.

We establish a decision-grade understanding of liquidity, capital structure, collateral coverage, and stakeholder leverage. This includes 13-week cash flow modeling, capital stack mapping, covenant exposure review, and lender posture assessment.

Control begins with three questions:

How much time is available?
Who has leverage?
What decisions cannot wait?

Without diagnostic control, execution becomes reactive.

Phase II — Structural Repositioning

With clarity established, we reposition the structure.

We coordinate negotiated workouts, refinancing readiness, capital stack adjustments, operational corrections, and stakeholder alignment to stabilize the enterprise. The objective is to reduce pressure while preserving optionality.

This phase often includes:

Liquidity runway extension
Capital restructuring scenarios
Cost structure realignment
Borrowing base and collateral alignment
Lender and investor coordination

Repositioning is not cosmetic. It is structural and capital-driven.

Phase III — Execution Discipline

When action is required, we implement sequenced turnaround initiatives, asset monetization strategies, controlled wind-down planning, or recovery optimization with measurable objectives and oversight.

Execution discipline ensures:

Decisions are made deliberately, not defensively
Stakeholders remain aligned
Capital leakage is minimized
Enterprise value is preserved where possible.

Clarity without execution fails.

Execution without structure accelerates loss.

This phase integrates both.

The Turnaround Viability Test

A turnaround only creates value if the underlying business can support it.

Before committing additional capital, negotiating extended runway, or asking stakeholders to absorb more risk, Fortis tests whether the operating business, capital structure, available time, and asset base can support a credible recovery.

Fortis works exclusively with small privately held businesses, when management bandwidth, financing alternatives, and liquidity runway are often more constrained. The assessment must therefore consider not only whether the business can recover, but whether continued operations represent the best use of the capital and assets available.

Operating Viability

The core business must be capable of supporting its operating structure and working capital requirements.

We evaluate:

Revenue and contribution margin performance
Break-even requirements
Cost structure and operating leverage
Customer, location, and product-line economics
Working capital demands and cash conversion

The question is whether the underlying operation can generate enough economic value to justify the investment.

Capital Viability

A viable operating business can still be burdened by an unsustainable capital structure.

We assess:

Debt service and fixed financial obligations
Secured lender and collateral position
Borrowing base and covenant pressure
Refinancing or restructuring capacity
Creditor leverage and required concessions

The business and the capital structure must be evaluated separately. Preserving one may require restructuring the other.

Execution Runway

Even a supportable turnaround can fail if there is not enough time or liquidity to execute it.

We determine:

Available liquidity and cash burn
Critical payment and covenant deadlines
Stakeholder tolerance and lender posture
Management capacity to implement change
Time required for corrective actions to produce results

A credible strategy must fit within the runway actually available.

Asset & Recovery Optionality

When meaningful assets are involved, monetization becomes part of the turnaround analysis.

Inventory, equipment, receivables, or other assets may provide liquidity, reduce secured exposure, support a smaller operating footprint, or create a stronger alternative to continued operations.

We evaluate:

Inventory and collateral recovery value
Non-core asset monetization opportunities
Location or operating-footprint rationalization
Business or asset sale alternatives
Recovery under continued operations versus wind-down or liquidation
Timing, cost, and execution requirements of monetization

Asset value is not considered only after a turnaround falters. It can be part of the turnaround strategy itself.

The objective is not to justify a turnaround. It is to determine which path preserves the greatest value.

When the operating business and capital structure can support recovery, Fortis develops and executes the restructuring plan. When asset monetization, a sale, contraction, or controlled wind-down produces the stronger outcome, those alternatives are evaluated before additional liquidity and optionality are consumed.

Turnaround and liquidation are not competing philosophies. They are different execution paths arising from the same objective: protect value and restore control.