4 focused capabilities
Optimization
Find the operational friction hidden inside assets, processes, pricing, and accountability.
- Operating turnarounds
- Cost and productivity improvement
- Asset utilization
- Value-creation planning
Tune the business.Strengthen the economics.
Operator-led counsel for CEOs, CFOs, investors, and lenders navigating growth, performance pressure, corporate development, or a consequential transaction.
Operating turnaroundsValue creationLiquidity enhancementGrowth strategyCommercial disciplineCapital allocationCorporate development & M&ABuy-side advisorySell-side advisoryOrganizational focusOperating turnaroundsValue creationLiquidity enhancementGrowth strategyCommercial disciplineCapital allocationCorporate development & M&ABuy-side advisorySell-side advisoryOrganizational focus
Sharper decisions at the points that move enterprise value.
Business Tuners connects operating reality, commercial opportunity, transaction strategy, and financial discipline—then works alongside leadership to turn the decisions into measurable action.
4 focused capabilities
Growth
Focus the market, sales system, and investment thesis around the opportunities worth winning.
- Growth strategy
- Market and territory planning
- Sales-force effectiveness
- Acquisition evaluation
4 focused capabilities
Financial Re-Engineering
Make cash, capital, and structural choices serve the operating plan instead of constraining it.
- Liquidity enhancement
- Refinancing readiness
- Working-capital control
- Site and portfolio rationalization
4 focused capabilities
Corporate Development & M&A
Bring an operator's perspective to transactions—from strategic fit and diligence through readiness, execution, and integration.
- Buy-side advisory
- Sell-side advisory
- Opportunity assessment and diligence
- Integration and separation planning
Start with the real constraint. Build from evidence.
The work begins before recommendations. We establish the operating facts, isolate the decisions that matter, and stay close enough to execution to make the plan useful.
Listen across the organization, examine performance at the operating-unit level, and define the true constraint—not merely its symptoms.
A shared fact base and a sharply framed mandate.The shape of a stronger operating outcome.
These fictional scenarios show how the Business Tuners approach can translate into an operating mandate. The businesses and figures are illustrative, not client claims.
Representative scenario with illustrative figures—not a reported client engagement.Margin recovery for an equipment-leasing operator
- Challenge
- underutilized assets, rising maintenance expense, and inconsistent pricing.
- Intervention
- asset-level profitability analysis, contract repricing, fleet allocation, and sales-incentive redesign.
- Illustrative outcome
- eight-point utilization improvement, 12% operating-cost reduction, and 20% EBITDA improvement over 12 months.
Representative scenario with illustrative figures—not a reported client engagement.
Liquidity stabilization for a multi-site operator
- Challenge
- tightening cash availability and inconsistent site economics.
- Intervention
- 13-week cash forecasting, working-capital controls, procurement changes, and site rationalization.
- Illustrative outcome
- $3.8 million of liquidity released, a 15-day reduction in receivables, and return to break-even within two quarters.
Representative scenario with illustrative figures—not a reported client engagement.
Growth reset for an industrial-services business
- Challenge
- flat revenue, fragmented sales coverage, and an undifferentiated pipeline.
- Intervention
- market segmentation, territory redesign, compensation changes, and a focused acquisition framework.
- Illustrative outcome
- 25% qualified-pipeline growth, 10% revenue growth, and a 90-day execution roadmap.
Representative scenario with illustrative figures—not a reported client engagement.
What disciplined execution changes.
A strong engagement leaves leadership with clearer economics, a faster management rhythm, and a team that can sustain the work.
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Operating judgment, earned inside the work.
Business Tuners is led by Scott J. Nelson, whose current work spans performance and transaction advisory, building on a legacy shaped with Curt Sawyer.
Scott J. Nelson
Principal
Scott pairs decades of operating leadership with a current focus on corporate development and M&A—helping owners and leadership teams evaluate and execute transactions without losing sight of the underlying business.
Scott's current work centers on corporate development and M&A support, including buy-side opportunity assessment and diligence, sell-side readiness and positioning, and transaction support from strategy through close and integration.
Scott held officer roles with Element Financial, Premier Trailer Leasing, GE, Star Leasing Company, and Transportation Equipment Network, spanning industrial and financial-services businesses.
Across those roles, Scott led growth strategy, asset optimization, sales and marketing, business development, acquisition integration, and operating improvement.
Scott earned a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
- Corporate development & M&A
- Buy-side advisory
- Sell-side advisory
- Performance improvement
Curtis E. Sawyer
Principal Emeritus
Curt's career reflects the financial leadership and operating perspective he brought to Business Tuners and to capital-intensive businesses navigating growth, change, and consequential transactions.
Curt is a seasoned CFO with extensive financial and operational experience. Across periods of growth and change, he built and improved business processes with a consistent focus on profitability, sound management practices, and disciplined execution.
At Premier Trailer Leasing, Curt served as CFO and also oversaw human resources and information technology. Working with the leadership team under capital constraints, he helped strengthen cost control, improve unit revenue, and reduce headcount, contributing to a 40% EBITDA improvement over 24 months.
In the airline sector, Curt negotiated and closed lease financing for $300 million of new aircraft as Director of Aircraft Transactions at Northwest Airlines. He later served as CFO of Pinnacle Airlines as it grew more than 300% and completed a public offering, then helped Midwest Airlines reduce unit costs by more than 9%, withstand a hostile takeover attempt, and complete a sale to a private equity firm.
Curt began his career at Xerox and spent 13 years at Ryder, including leadership roles in audit and corporate planning during an acquisition-intensive period. He later held senior financial roles at Renaissance Cruises and Lend Lease Trucks. Curt earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
- CFO leadership
- Acquisitions and dispositions
- Capital formation
- Profitability and cost control
Bring the real operating question.
If performance is off-plan, growth has stalled, or a buy-side or sell-side decision needs a clearer fact base, start with a confidential conversation.
Expect a personal response within two business days.