GR investment banking firm rebuilds its downtown business

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

In 2006, BlueWater Partners, then a five-person investment banking firm in downtown Grand Rapids, suffered a major blow when three employees left to form their own company. But that didn’t deter Matthew Miller and his father Ronald Miller, the company founder. They're in the business of helping businesses survive.

"We're stubborn," Matthew says. "It was emotional and difficult, but we really never wavered in our belief in our business and our model."

The Millers brought consultants on board to service customers, and they re-evaluated the business.

"We spent three or four months thinking about what our needs are and recruiting," Matthew says. "Now, in the last four months, we've hired four professionals for our turnaround consulting practice—helping distressed companies restructure debt, cash flow, and operations."

BlueWater Partners provides a variety of services to businesses worth $100 million and less. Besides the turnaround services, they help business owners who want to retire find potential buyers, they run due diligence, and close the transaction.

Struggling manufacturers tap into the firm's hands-on operational experience: BlueWater puts its operational experts on the shop floor where they can manage operations and discover where the problems lie.

In spite of their recent challenges, the firm has grown nearly 100% a year through 2006, and they say a lot of that is because they're office is downtown.

"It's where the banks and law firms are," Matthew says. "We go to lunch, walk, and have random interactions with our friends and business associates. It really helps us build relationships."

Source: Matthew J. Miller, BlueWater Partners; Clare Wade, Clare Wade Communications

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].