Hands-on succession and management consulting for founder-led manufacturing, industrial, and B2B companies in your area and nationwide — helping owners reduce owner dependency, build leadership, professionalize operations, and prepare for succession, sale, or transfer.
Your advocate — not a broker. We work only for you.
On-site where we can be, working remotely everywhere else — serving owners in your region and across the country.
If any of these give you pause, the business is more dependent on you than a sale, retirement, or the unexpected can afford.
Are key decisions still stuck with one person?
Is customer knowledge documented, or relationship-dependent?
Can your managers read the numbers and act on them?
Is the next leader truly ready to operate the business?
Hands-on support for the operating realities founder-led owners actually face.
A practical diagnostic to identify owner dependency, leadership gaps, and transferability issues — with a 90-day action roadmap.
Turn tribal knowledge and founder-driven decisions into systems, KPIs, and documented processes the next leader can run.
Hands-on operating help from an experienced manufacturing executive to stabilize, professionalize, or bridge leadership.
We're not business brokers. Good ones help get a business sold — but they're paid on commission, so preparing your company to command its strongest value isn't always where that model points. We work only for you — protecting the business and guiding you through whatever comes next: a future sale, private equity, an ESOP, or handing it to the next generation, with seasoned attorneys and accountants brought in when you need them. That can include strengthening the core first — weighing whether to divest a non-core division or deploy capital into a well-chosen acquisition.
Interview ownership and key managers, review operations, and evaluate owner dependency.
Separate urgent transition risks from nice-to-haves and build a practical roadmap.
Install operating rhythms, decision structures, KPIs, and management accountability.
Support the founder, successor, or operator through the change in authority.
Meet the founder
Shaun McCarren is the founder of McCarren Advisory Group, where he helps owners of manufacturing and family businesses in the Midwest and across the country get ready for succession and strengthen their companies along the way.
He's a family-business owner himself — he's run a company, met a payroll, and lived the same highs and lows owners face. He pairs that with a formal finance education and digs into operations, ERP systems, and AI, bringing an outside set of eyes that spots the small tweaks that add real value or cut substantial cost.
"Shaun's business experience plus his education background provides strong problem solving and analytical skills. He's hard working and not afraid of a challenge, with the skill set to tackle sophisticated business problems and make sound decisions."
A short, practical self-assessment you can complete in 10 minutes to see how transferable your business really is — and the areas most owners need to fix first.
Start with a confidential, complimentary conversation about where the business is most dependent on you and what would need to change before succession, sale, or transition.
Schedule a Confidential, Complimentary Call