London-based business broker Ian MacDonald loves to tell the story of his first deal – and how it almost came apart due to a simple misunderstanding. “I was selling a frozen food warehouse business located in South London,” he explains. “It was mildly profitable but my buyer wanted it because he needed space and workers[…]
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a software application package or suite that is designed to improve a company’s communication with customers and prospects. The most basic CRM systems generally target sales information, such as monitoring details for expenses, price data, as well as statistics for product revenue by location and market. These details[…]
When Aaron Drucker, a business brokerage owner in eastern Pennsylvania, first got into the business in 2000, he met an eccentric older broker during a deal for a large diner in south Jersey. Aaron was representing the buyer in the deal. “So we go to a meeting at the restaurant, and as we sit down,[…]
According to Phil Pastorini, a veteran business broker in Maryland, working with other brokers is the best – and worst – part of his job. This is no exaggeration, he says. It is literally the difference between success and failure. “Business brokerage is one of the industries in which you want more,[…]
When Lou Brill began his career as a business broker in 2002, he took his brand new stack of business cards and walked right into the businesses in the printer’s strip mall, giving them to the owners. He wanted an inventory of businesses to sell and why not start there? In fact,[…]
Lou Brill has done over a hundred deals in his career as a business broker. Based primarily in New Jersey, he has sold businesses in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut as well. He even keeps a map of his deals (identified by colored stickers) on his home office wall. He keeps another map on[…]
Every winning business broker has different ways to success. Some go door-to-door to find businesses for sale or send out mail campaigns. Others go to conferences and community gatherings. Still others use contacts from their “previous lives” in other industries. Conversely, every unsuccessful business broker has their own pitfalls and traps. Just ask them. […]
Every business broker at some time faces the same dilemma: Do you encourage a client to walk away from a deal? Since almost every broker is in a “eat what you kill” commission-based job, telling your client that they should not go through with it takes enormous risk. And a strong stomach. Larry[…]
THE MANY BUSINESS DEAL KILLERS (AND HOW TO AVOID THEM) Tom Lloyd remembers the first time a deal died at the closing table. It would have been his second as a business broker and the commission was “substantial.” “We’re all sitting there in a conference room at the seller’s lawyer’s office,” he says,[…]
Phil Pisterielli remembers the first time he brokered a deal for a small laundromat in central New Jersey. The closing, he says, was very satisfying. “I thought to myself, wow, this is being a business broker,” says the veteran member of a mid-sized brokerage. “I got the listing because I used to pass it[…]