Family companies grow when someone keeps them on task.
Middle Market Strategies works side by side with family owners, week in and week out. It was founded by Steve Lowsky, who spent about 23 years in the leadership of his family's company, Pride Family Brands, and was its CEO until 2017.
What Makes a Company Great
Built from Steve's full Furniture Today interview. Rate your company 1 to 10 on his five principles and three extras, then get a score out of 100, a chart, your gaps and an action plan.
- The interview video is built in
- About 5 minutes, and nothing is uploaded
- Save your results as a PDF or share them with a link
Play the interview · 4½ minYour company, one tap from Steve.
Every client gets Front Porch, a private app for their company. It takes about two minutes a week and keeps Steve close between visits. It doesn't replace Steve. It tells him when to pick up the phone.
A 2-minute weekly check-in
Rate the five principles and three extras, set your top 3 goals and say where you need help.
Private file sharing
Share financials and plans with Steve. Your files are visible only to your company and Steve.
Ask Steve anything
Send a message any time. His replies show up in the app as they arrive.
Book meetings
Request a call or a visit, add an agenda, and read Steve's notes afterward.
- 1Weekly check-in status, overall score and trend line
- 2"Update this week" opens the 2-minute check-in
- 3Next with Steve: the upcoming visit, confirmed
- 4Tabs for Check-in, Messages, Files and Meetings
- 5Weekly summary: who to visit, who's doing fine
- 6A company flagged "Go see them"
- 7Asks for help, straight from the check-in
- 8Goals stuck or slipping
- 9Score drops: shipping on time fell from 6 to 4
Real screens from the app, showing example demo companies.
- 1
You check in
Two minutes, once a week.
- 2
Steve sees who needs him
Scores dropping, goals slipping or a question waiting puts your company on top of his board.
- 3
He calls or comes by
The personal part stays personal.
Install in under a minute
- iPhone Safari › Share › Add to Home Screen
- Android Chrome › Install app
- Computer Install icon in the address bar
No app store and no download.
Practical help, from someone who's been in your seat.
Middle Market Strategies is a small, hands-on practice. Steve works directly with owners and their families.
Growth, and staying on task
A few clear goals, checked every week, and quick fixes when something slips.
Succession and transition
Planned, paced handovers to the next generation or new leadership, so customers, dealers and people stay with you.
Buying or selling a business
Getting a family company ready to sell, or finding and weighing the right one to buy.
Near-shore manufacturing
Weighing production closer to home, in the Americas, against overseas supply: cost, lead times and shipping on time.
Founded by a former family-company CEO.
Steve Lowsky helped build, lead and hand over his own family's company before he started Middle Market Strategies in 2017.
Portrait to comeSteve to supply a current headshot
Steve's father, Bernie Lowsky, started Pride Family Brands in Fort Lauderdale in 1977 with his sons Jamie and Steve. Together they grew it from a local retailer into an international designer, manufacturer and distributor of aluminum outdoor furniture, sold through more than 1,000 retail locations across the U.S.
Steve served in Pride's leadership for about 23 years, as CFO, COO, president and, from 2015 until 2017, CEO, including a planned 20-month leadership handover. Today, as founder and owner of Middle Market Strategies, he brings that experience to other family-owned companies.
"I like to keep things simple… If you stick to those five principles and support your dealers, which are your soldiers on the front line, I think that you have a great company."Steve Lowsky, Furniture Today interview, 2017
A great quality product
Everything we're doing is about the product… How good is the product?
A great warranty
Continue to have a great warranty and support your retailers.
Ship on time
Probably the hardest of the process, because… everything comes from various parts of the world now.
Great customer service
Answer the phone on the first ring. Call your customers back, talk to them.
Promote your brand
Market your brand so that they enjoy the fruits of your marketing effort.
Train the front line Extra
Anybody can sell a retailer, but the retailer has to sell your brand… it's harder than making it.
Innovate from your strengths Extra
We should look inward, we should look at what we do best, and we should develop those attributes.
Sales in product development Extra
If salespeople develop something, they're going to sell it harder than you could imagine, because it's their baby.
Steve shows up where the industry talks: on LinkedIn.
Follow along for his take on family business, market weeks and the people moving the furniture business forward.
Start a conversation.
Tell Steve a little about your company and what's on your mind. A few lines is plenty.
- Based in
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Phone
- (954) 650-5540