Robert Emmanuel — principal, Smallstreet. Rutgers engineer, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, former Fortune 500 strategic buyer. Born and working in Essex County.
For about a decade I sat on the other side of the table from your suppliers. As a senior buyer at a Fortune 500 beauty company I managed north of $20 million in brand spend, ran competitive RFQs that awarded more than $3 million in business, and built multi-year category strategies. I know how supplier pricing actually gets set, because setting it was my job.
Then I'd drive home through Belleville and Irvington past businesses paying list price for everything.
Big companies have entire departments whose only job is making sure they never overpay. Smallstreet has nobody.
That's not a small gap. It's why a six-chair salon pays 2.95% on card processing while a chain pays 2.35%. Why a solo dentist pays 15–30% more for the identical supplies than the DSO across town. It isn't carelessness — leverage and expertise are things you have to be able to afford, and most owners can't. So it compounds quietly, every year, forever.
Work like this used to require a firm and a retainer to match. I'm a millennial who grew up with this technology, and I use modern tools to do the grunt work — parsing statements, categorizing spend, benchmarking prices, normalizing quotes. That's what makes Fortune 500 methodology fit a corner-shop budget. The judgment is still mine. The tools just made it affordable to give you.
From your fee. That's the entire list. I accept no commissions, referral fees, or rebates from any vendor, ever, and I'll disclose any potential conflict in writing before proceeding. A lot of people in cost reduction quietly take vendor money, which is exactly why owners are cynical about people like me. If a vendor is paying me, I'm not working for you.
I'm not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor, and I don't pretend otherwise. Insurance is advisory only — I'll help you compare quotes and know what to ask, but a licensed producer places the coverage. And I never sign, cancel, or switch anything on your behalf. Every decision and signature stays with you.
Owner-operated local businesses with real recurring spend and nobody watching it. Salons, dental and optometry practices, restaurants, auto shops, gyms, trades. If you're spending somewhere between $300K and $2M a year, there's almost certainly money sitting in your vendor contracts.
This is for Smallstreet, not Wall Street.
Book a free spend audit or ask a question. I'll get back to you within one business day.