From crisis intervention to sustained recovery.
Financial distress follows a continuum. Some companies have weeks to act. Others have days. Lighthouse meets the situation wherever it is; deploying within 24 to 48 hours for acute crises and staying through stabilization, restructuring, and operational recovery. Our professionals work on-site alongside management, often filling interim executive roles, bringing the financial discipline, stakeholder credibility, and operational expertise that distressed situations demand.
Eight signs it's time to bring in outside help.
1. Cash runway is measured in weeks, not months: Your current cash position cannot cover 30 days of obligations without new inflows, asset sales, or lender concessions. Decisions made under this kind of pressure require someone who has navigated it before.
2. A lender has issued a default notice, demand letter, or acceleration: Formal lender action compresses every timeline. The quality and speed of your response determines whether you retain control of the process or lose it.
3. A key executive has departed without a succession plan: A sudden CEO, CFO, or COO departure destabilizes lender relationships, employee confidence, and operational continuity simultaneously. The gap needs to be filled by someone who can lead under pressure, not just occupy the seat.
4. Revenue has declined sharply and the trajectory is not reversing: A single bad quarter is a concern. Two consecutive quarters of material decline with no credible recovery plan is a pattern that stakeholders will act on if management does not.
5. Vendor relationships are deteriorating: Suppliers are shortening terms, demanding cash on delivery, or refusing to ship. When the supply chain starts protecting itself, operational disruption follows quickly.
6. The board or ownership group has lost confidence in the financial picture: If the people responsible for governance cannot get straight answers about cash position, covenant compliance, or projected shortfalls, the problem is not just financial — it is informational, and that gap will widen. Suppliers are shortening terms, demanding cash on delivery, or refusing to ship. When the supply chain starts protecting itself, operational disruption follows quickly.
7. You are managing multiple creditor demands simultaneously: Competing demands from landlords, taxing authorities, trade creditors, and secured lenders require triage, not just payment sequencing, but a strategy that accounts for each creditor's leverage and likely next move.
8. The company is viable but the current path is not: This is the most important signal. If the business has a core that generates value; customers, contracts, intellectual property, market position, but the financial structure or operational model is failing, a turnaround is not just possible, it is the responsible path.
The best outcomes start with early action.
The sooner we're at the table, the more options remain available. Reach out for a confidential conversation with our team
From stabilization through recovery.
From first call to final outcome
In urgent situations, we have started engagements within 24 hours of initial contact. Crisis work is built into how we operate — our team is structured to deploy immediately when the situation demands it. For non-emergency turnaround engagements, we typically begin within one to two weeks of the initial conversation.
A turnaround consultant assesses a company in financial or operational distress, identifies the root causes of underperformance, and develops and implements a plan to stabilize operations, restructure obligations, and restore viability. At Lighthouse, our consultants work on-site alongside management, often filling interim executive roles when needed. The work spans financial restructuring, operational improvement, stakeholder management, and strategic planning.
Fees are typically structured as hourly or daily rates, similar to legal billing. Rates vary based on the complexity and scope of the engagement, the seniority of professionals involved, and the duration. We discuss fee structure and estimated scope in our first conversation so there are no surprises. For most middle-market engagements, costs are a fraction of the value at risk.
It depends on the severity of distress and the complexity of the business. A crisis stabilization engagement may last 30 to 90 days. A full turnaround — from stabilization through plan execution and recovery — typically runs 3 to 12 months. The initial assessment usually takes one to two weeks, and the stabilization phase often produces meaningful results within the first 30 to 60 days.
In early-stage assessments, our work can be conducted quietly. But in many cases, bringing in a turnaround consultant is something lenders and boards actively welcome — it signals that leadership is taking the situation seriously. Once the engagement moves into creditor negotiations or board-level reporting, transparency typically becomes both necessary and strategically advantageous. We advise on the timing and framing based on what we've seen work.
Lighthouse has turnaround and crisis management experience across manufacturing, construction, technology, real estate, retail, hospitality, distribution, energy, entertainment, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors. The fundamentals of turnaround work transfer across industries, while sector-specific knowledge — regulatory requirements, asset dynamics, stakeholder structures — informs the nuance. We have dedicated industry pages that describe our experience in each sector.
