Navigating the Process of Buying and Selling Businesses

Bob House (00:00):

Interesting. A lot of these boomers are also buyers of businesses as well. They may have exited one business, or they may have just retired from corporate life, but feel like they want to keep active, or busy, or there's an opportunity to do something from the next decade. And so 12% of our buyers actually identify as recently retired boomers themselves, which makes sense. They have capital, they have experience, life experiences.

 

Speaker 2 (00:32):

Welcome to "Paychex THRIVE" a Business Podcast, where you'll hear timely insights, to help you navigate marketplace dynamics, and propel your business forward. Here's your host, Gene Marks.

 

Gene Marks (00:42):

Hey everybody, it's Gene Marks, and thanks again for joining us here on the "Paychex THRIVE Podcast." Happy to have you here, whether you're listening or you're watching us online. I am here today with Bob House. Bob is the president of BizBuySell. That is biz, B-I-Z, B-U-Y, S-E-L-L.com. It is a website that I have been a fan of, and a reader of for many, many years. I have stolen so much content from BizBuySell over the years, to use in presentations I've given, or things that I've written, where I do give credit where credit is due, Bob. But it is, it's really, it's just a great site for anybody looking to buy or sell a business. So, first of all, thank you for doing that, and thank you for joining us again. You were here for the first season, and we're glad to have you back.

 

Bob House (01:34):

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

 

Gene Marks (01:36):

Bob, how long have you been doing this? Like give me a little history of BizBuySell.

 

Bob House (01:40):

Sure. Well, BizBuySell was started back in the mid 90's, but I've not been involved that long. I joined about 11 years ago, and I've essentially been kind of the, leading the business unit. BizBuySell, as well as our other marketplaces. We have BizQuest, which is another business for sale marketplace, and we distribute our listings on other locations online across a network of sites, including LoopNet, which is part of our sister site. We're part of the CoStar Group. So I've been doing this for 11 years, and, but yeah, all around this business for sale marketplace ecosystem.

 

Gene Marks (02:13):

That's great. I'm just kinda curious. Tell me a little bit about BizQuest, and LoopNet. Like what is... I wasn't even aware of these, 'cause I get too wrapped up in in BizBuySell.

 

Bob House (02:23):

Sure.

 

Gene Marks (02:23):

How are you guys related to each other?

 

Bob House (02:25):

Sure. Well, we're part of CoStar Group, which is the leader in digital real estate, on both data as well as marketplaces. And so, Co-star has a number of marketplaces, including the business for sale marketplaces. LoopNet has commercial real estate marketplace, the leading commercial real estate marketplace. And there's a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs on LoopNet looking for their next space. So, there's all kinds of commercial spaces available for, for sale or for lease. And, because of that, we also include our business for sale listings on that marketplace as well. BizQuest is the number two marketplace of business for sale here in the United States. And it's just another brand, and, you know, user experience, a little bit different look and feel, but really a lot of the same listing content, some different content and information available to those users, and just cast a wider net, because again, we are really about aggregating the largest audience of entrepreneurs, and business buyers ,and owners, and brokers, and creating an ecosystem that serves that audience across the web.

 

Gene Marks (03:33):

Makes sense. So, if I visit, we'll stick with BizBuySell, although I obviously, you know, BizQuest sounds like it's very, very similar, but on BizBuySell, what am I... I actually know the answer to this question, but I'm gonna have you share this with our audience. Like, what are we getting when we visit your sites? What's there?

 

Bob House (03:49):

Well, you're getting the most inventory of business opportunities for sale, established business opportunities, closed or, you know, asset sales, franchise resales, or new franchise opportunities. All kinds of small business opportunities. We got the most supply, 65,000 active listings across our site over the course of the year. And certainly the most active marketplace in terms of traffic. We have 4 million monthly visits to our network of sites, and just a lot of activity. So that results in transactions. We have also a lot of sold comps of sold businesses that you can, which you know, is part of the insight report that we do quarterly and tell us, you know, trends in the marketplace of what's happening, and where sale prices are going, and where multiples are going, et cetera. But you're gonna find a lot of listings, the ability to search and find those opportunities, set alerts to get notified with new opportunities that meet your criteria, come available in the marketplace. As well as a lot of content around how to navigate the buy, sell process, and tools, to help you value and determine appropriate values for businesses so that you have a good basis for what might be overpriced or underpriced.

 

Gene Marks (05:05):

I consider your site like, you know, the Zillow for businesses. And I don't know if that's, you know, if you take that positively or negatively. I have a very positive outlook on Zillow. I just, you know, I just feel like it's similar to that, you know, for that market. Is that, does that make sense to you at all?

 

Bob House (05:24):

Well, I would say the homes.com of, which is another CoStar property.

 

Gene Marks (05:31):

Okay.

 

Gene Marks (05:31):

So, we've now entered the residential real estate space as well. So, that's a competitor to Zillow.

 

Gene Marks (05:36):

Got it.

 

Bob House (05:36):

But I know what you mean.

 

Gene Marks (05:38):

Yeah, it's a similar type of thing. And by the way, just as a little, a business idea for you. So I follow an account on Instagram, called "Zillow Gone Wild," I don't know if you've ever seen it. But somebody takes like a crazy listing on Zillow, and posts it on Instagram. One where like, you know, you're, it's all like, seems normal, normal, normal, normal, and then they have like a basement that's like, you know, a pool or something. You're like, something like, "What was that?" And you know, and I heard actually that it's really, it's driven a lot of traffic there. And I was just thinking like, you know, a biz buy sell gone wild, would be an interesting Instagram account where you could take just some really unique business, you know, that's out there that would surprise people when they're looking at it, and say that it's featured on the site. So.

 

Bob House (06:21):

Yeah, we've done that to some extent, but featuring interesting businesses is definitely fun. And there's some really unique businesses out there that are on the platform. If you search, you'll find them, or come across 'em occasionally. And yeah, they're definitely great for driving engagement and clicks when we put those in our newsletters.

 

Gene Marks (06:40):

It's a lot of fun.

 

Bob House (06:41):

"Wow, that looks interesting."

 

Gene Marks (06:42):

And I don't wanna put you on the spot, but I mean, did anything come to mind like over the past 10 years? Has there been anything like super unique, that you're like, "Wow, that was a real," you know, "That was an unusual one?"

 

Bob House (06:53):

Well, one does come to mind, 'cause we've, we featured it in, in a kind of company all-hands meeting. It was a really interesting invention of a kind of a wheelchair for the people that needed kind of wheelchair access, but it was all terrain, and so it kind of looked like a tank, but, you know, so it was like a wheelchair that could basically tackle anything. Like a Jeep, and a wheelchair put together. So, there's just stuff like that, you know. There's just, you know, that's probably serving a real useful need. And there's a niche there that, there's an interesting business.

 

Gene Marks (07:27):

I agree. You know, it's providing equal opportunity access for soldiers all around the world, despite their handicaps, you know, and-

 

Bob House (07:33):

Soldiers, or even those that just wanna go on an outdoor adventure.

 

Gene Marks (07:36):

That's right.

 

Bob House (07:37):

You know. A little more traction I guess.

 

Gene Marks (07:41):

Fair enough. That does sound good. Okay. Let's talk some business on BizBuySell. So, you know, we're here, we're having this conversation, it's near the end of the summer, early fall of 2023. Give us a state of the market of the, the M&A marketplace.

 

Bob House (07:57):

Sure. Well, you know, still rebounding and recovering from the pandemic. We are almost back to where we were kind of in 2019, in terms of transaction volume. But certainly when the pandemic hit, a lot of these small businesses ended up shutting down for a short period, or having to restrict their operations. And we saw obviously a pullback in the marketplace, both in terms of deal, deal volume, as well as kind of the, what people were willing to pay, but more or less a pause. And then, you know, coming out with the PPP, and all kinds of, you know, stimulus to restart things, things have been kind of consistently getting better quarter over quarter for the most part, on a long-term trajectory. There's some variance here and there quarter to quarter. But overall the trend has been up. And so now we're back. You know, we had 8% more transactions in the most recent quarter, compared to the previous quarter. The previous quarter was up again over the previous quarter. Q1 was up over Q4. And we're still a little bit behind 2019, but not by much. Less than 5%. So in terms of deal volume. Pricing has had been, you know, business performance has been strong, and in general, increasing. Revenues have been increasing of these businesses. Profits as well. There's not, there's been certainly some challenges, but, for the most part, improving business performance. The new rankle is, you know, the sale prices of these businesses are now starting to, like they're being affected by the rising cost of capital.

 

Gene Marks (09:32):

Right.

 

Bob House (09:33):

So-

 

Gene Marks (09:34):

I was gonna ask you about that.

 

Bob House (09:35):

So, you know, the fact that it's more expensive to make the purchase, the buyer has to have some headroom, has to come with some more money down, has to have a little more buffer, and that's being reflected in a slight reduction in some of the sale prices. The fact they were down 14% in over what they were in Q1.

 

Gene Marks (09:55):

Fascinating that the interest itself, interest rates, I mean, you know, listen, I mean, interest rates was like three and a half percent like a year and a half ago, and now it's eight and a half percent. It's a huge jump in a short amount of time. And I, what I see among my client base is like, it's starting to have its effect. It takes a while for this kind of thing to be absorbed by the market. And now I have, you know, I have clients of mine that are going out for property loans, or equipment loans, or even to buy another company, and they're trying to get financing from, you know, banks that, you know, only the best get prime, so they're looking at 99%, 10% even, of interest rates. And it is starting to become an issue with them, whether or not it the deals make sense. And I guess that's what you're seeing as well as the... I mean, you mentioned that selling price has been affected. Which is kind of a bummer that it would've an impact on a sales price. I mean, don't you think that, or have you seen other types of strategies to try and get a deal done, rather than just impacting the selling price? I mean, more seller finance notes or different-

 

Bob House (11:02):

Absolutely.

 

Gene Marks (11:02):

Right.

 

Bob House (11:03):

Yeah, so deal financing gets more creative as cost of capital goes up, as lending gets more restrictive. You know, definitely seller financing becomes a bigger part of the deal. And so, seller financing is pretty common now. It's interesting to see how it's changed over the years. I mean, it was, it was really critical after the great recession. And then, as we came out in this ultra low interest rate environment, it kind of was not really so prevalent.

 

Gene Marks (11:30):

Right.

 

Bob House (11:30):

Right, now it's back to being prevalent like, you know, maybe not quite at the level of the great recession, but it's certainly important. In fact, most buyers, 70%, according to our survey of buyers say that they're gonna ask for seller financing, and 55% of 'em say it's very important. There's a little mismatch on the sell side, where owners are a little less likely-

 

Gene Marks (11:54):

Thrilled about doing that. Right.

 

Bob House (11:55):

But it can help them actually, because you know, it can actually increase the overall sale prices where creative deal financing comes into place. And, you know, you can de defer some of your taxable you know, gain, by taking a seller note. And with the current interest rates, you know, you can get a good return on that. And it just, you know, it bring, you know, lenders are wanting it, the buyers want it, you know, business owners, and then, and selling owners set standing by the performance of that business, and the likelihood that obviously, that buyer's gonna be able to continue to make payments to not only the bank, but the sellers, the exiting owner.

 

Gene Marks (12:31):

Right. I kind of see it as an opportunity for a seller, mainly because you can do seller financing, and still maintain your higher price. Your buyer is asking for this. Fair enough. But you can make that rate, of possible variable, and tie it to the prime rate, or another interest rate, you know, LIBOR or something like that. Mainly because, you know, it's, the general consensus that although interest rates might go up a tick more, you know, most of the markets feel that we're at a high when it comes to interest rates, that it's, can't go up that much more. And most likely will start coming down. So if you're a seller, you know, you can almost have your cake and eat it, you know, you can get that higher price. And then as interest rates come down, if your financing deal is, you know, is pinned to a rate, that'll go down as well. Do you know what I mean? So-

 

Bob House (13:23):

Yeah.

 

Gene Marks (13:24):

You know, it could benefit. And I don't know if you see that, or if sellers consider that kind of thing. Is that the kind of stuff that BizBuySell advises on even? You know, like do you get involved in it?

 

Bob House (13:32):

Well, we don't, we don't advise. We have a lot of content, you know. We're not really involved in these transactions, right. We're not involved in 'em. They're between the selling party and the buying party, and they're professionals that are involved in the transaction, often a business broker, intermediary. But what we have is content and information, and we have a lot of brokers who actually author content, and are experts in doing these deals, and we put it on our site. And you can go read about that. And so there's lots have been written about seller financing. And the benefits, you know, there are benefits to the seller, even though only maybe third of 'em or less, think they're gonna offer it. It's probably from a lack of understanding of it, the reasons behind doing it, and the benefits to them as well, getting a higher overall price, deferring gains, things like that.

 

Gene Marks (14:21):

Yeah, I think so too. You know, and on top of all that, I know a lot of, you know, a lot of sellers of businesses, you know, not only do they have a, an inflated version of what the value of their business is a lot to the time, but also, you know, they want to just get a check and walk away and start playing golf. And I, you know, I don't think that's reality nowadays. I mean, do you find most of these transactions involving the seller staying on for a period of time, to, you know, to enable that transaction being completed?

 

Bob House (14:52):

You know, again, I, we wouldn't have the best insight into this, not really doing the deals ourselves.

 

Gene Marks (14:58):

Right.

 

Bob House (14:58):

But, the brokers that we work with, tell us that it is common, that certainly the buyer wants that. Sometimes the seller has a hard time letting go of their business, right, and certainly wants... Most of 'em have a very high desire. It's not just like, give 'em the highest price, let me, you know, get a check and leave. They care about their employees, they care about their customers, they care about the legacy of their businesses, and it's about finding the right buyer, and then setting them up for success.

 

Gene Marks (15:31):

Right.

 

Bob House (15:31):

So, because part of that setting up for success is that transition period. I think a lot of owners are involved for a period post transaction.

 

Gene Marks (15:40):

Do you guys get involved at all in employee ownership plans? Is that, or is that just a transaction that is not part of your, of your universe?

 

Bob House (15:50):

Again, the buying entity can be anybody.

 

Gene Marks (15:54):

Yeah.

 

Bob House (15:54):

You know, it could be an individual business owner. I mean, we have, I think 26% of the buyers on our survey, indicated they're former C-suite executives. So that's a common buyer type. A lot of times these are buyers, you know, buying an income stream, or a business that they can then build equity in, as well as draw an income from. And with a, you know, idea that they can sell it someday. So a lot of individual operators, as you get to bigger businesses, or the better businesses, you'll see, you know, strategic buyers, and private equity groups come in, looking to buy these assets. But it could also be employee groups. Again, we don't, we don't get into a lot of the details of who actually bought the business, but yes, this is an emerging area. There's been a number of companies that have been trying to help employee ownership. And it's an interesting, it's an interesting subject. And you know, I think it would be great for our country if there's more employee ownership.

 

Gene Marks (17:00):

Yeah, I agree. You know, I did a piece on ESOP's for "The Philly Inquirer," and I did another one for "The Chicago Daily Herald." So, I interviewed a couple dozen businesses, both in the Chicago and the Philly areas, who sold to their employees. And there's a lot of misconceptions about ESOP's, that people don't realize. You don't have to sell your whole business. It can be a portion of your business. There's some incredible tax incentives for doing it. But what you just said was exactly right. I mean, it's a great benefit to employees. It gives them a little skin in the game. And I've just seen not only has it increased in popularity among, you know, among companies, but I gotta tell you, Bob, like of all the people I interviewed, like not a single one said it wasn't the best decision they made for their business. I mean they loved it. You know. So, I'm betting we'll see more of those, you know, in the years to come. I have so many questions for you. Let's talk demographics a little bit. Everyone talks about the silver tsunami. You know, the average age of the U.S. small business owner according to the small business administration is 55. So, we ain't getting any younger. Obviously, succession planning is big on a lot of people's minds. Give me your thoughts on that. I mean, it seems inevitable that we're gonna be seeing more transactions of businesses being bought and sold over the next 10 to 15 years, and I imagine you're thinking the same thing.

 

Bob House (18:22):

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody's been waiting for the tsunami to kind of arrive and hit. It's, I think a more of a gradual swelling.

 

Gene Marks (18:31):

Yeah.

 

Bob House (18:31):

It's certainly provides constant supply for our marketplace. And there's plenty of, you know, businesses to choose from out there. But I do think in the next decade, we'll see even more come to market by necessity. You know, they need to be transitioned one way or another. Interesting. A lot of these, a lot of these boomers are also buyers of businesses as well. they may have exited one business, or they may have, may have just retired from corporate life, but feel like, you know, they want keep active or busy or, you know, there's an opportunity to do something for the next decade. And so 12% of our buyers actually identify as recently retired boomers themselves, which makes sense. They have capital, they have experience, life experiences. But, yeah, the, you know, it's just been a lot written about it, and I'm sure we'll see a lot more supply coming on the marketplace outta necessity. And I've just, out of, I think there's also on the buy side, I think there's a lot more interest in, you know, entrepreneurship through acquisition. And, you know, a lot of, even the younger entrepreneurs are seeing it as a safer route to business ownership than trying to start the next Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever you're gonna start from scratch, take something and build on it, and grow it. And you know, that's what we've always preached here, that your chances of success taking over something that's already got customers, and revenue, and profit, trained employees and all that. And building on it is much greater than starting from scratch where nobody knows about you.

 

Gene Marks (20:05):

Yeah, it makes complete sense to do that. And it's kind of advice I've always given, whenever I speak to younger people, they wanna start up their business, and I'm like, "You know..." I mean, most business ideas are pretty much thought of by now. I realize the Ubers and the Airbnb's are gonna come their way. That's fine. But boy, there's so many existing businesses that are out there, that if you, you know, if you know the industry, you've had some experience in the industry, and you buy this business, you make it your own. You know, it's like, it's like you, you learn that, that, you know, you can take an existing idea, and improve on it, and you know, and you've got the infrastructure to do that. Which is interesting. Do you think it's become, I mean, you mentioned earlier about 12% of boomers, or people that have recently retired, have bought into businesses. Do you think it's easier buying a business now, than it was when you started? How long have you been doing this again? You've been involved with-

 

 

Bob House (20:53):

I've been doing it for 11 years.

 

Gene Marks (20:55):

11 years.

 

Bob House (20:56):

I think it is getting easier. There's getting more, you know, information, and transparency and valuation, resources, and familiarity with this opportunity. So I do think it's getting easier. I think it will continue to get easier. We're certainly on a mission to make it easier. I mean, we're trying to really serve the marketplace, make it easier for owners to list, or find a professional to help them go through that process, and make it easier for buyers to, you know, reach out and connect, and kind of go forward in the deal.

 

Gene Marks (21:34):

Yeah, I think so. I do think so as well. Of the transactions that you have seen, you know, is it true that the grand majority, still wind up being asset transactions versus stock transactions? Like, I don't, I don't come across a lot of, again, of my client base of people that I talk to, that buy stock of another company, only because of the liabilities that they have to inherit and issues like that. And I'm curious if that makes sense to you as well, or if you're seeing that in your numbers.

 

Bob House (22:07):

Yeah, they're, definitely ongoing concerns in established businesses, but they are often, they're usually structured as an asset sale.

 

Gene Marks (22:14):

Yeah.

 

Bob House (22:14):

For those. For a couple reasons. One is that liability, grew that liability. Second is just the licensing required by the intermediaries. You know, when you're doing stock sales, now you're talking about SEC licensing, and, you know, business brokers typically aren't under that kind of licensing. So, they'll be structured as an asset sale for that reason as well. But, you know, and again, we're, BizBuySell has businesses that are valued from tens of thousands to tens of millions. And, you know, in the main street deals, which are typically enterprise value under 2 million, those are, those are smaller deals that where, you know, they'll be structured as an asset sale. When you get into bigger deals, and you're getting into lower middle market, and you're getting into like, boutique investment banking and that kind of thing, then you're gonna see more stock sales, and partial ownership transfers, and investment rounds and things like that. But, in the main street sector, it's, you don't see a lot of it.

 

Gene Marks (23:17):

What are your thoughts on multipliers? I mean, you know, you, you publish data on, you know, multiples of revenue or profits that companies have gotten historically when they sell themselves. And I'm curious what your thoughts. Is that, is that a metric that you like, or that you would feel confident in using if you were out there to buy a company?

 

Bob House (23:39):

We feel very confident in it, because we've been tracking this data since 2007.

 

Gene Marks (23:44):

Yeah.

 

Bob House (23:44):

And it's remarkable how consistent the multiples are over time, and over different economic cycles. You know, so the multiples are, typically either, of EBITDA, for the, you know, the bigger businesses that-

 

Gene Marks (24:00):

And by the way, don't tell Warren Buffet that, okay. He's not a big fan

 

Bob House (24:02):

Yeah.

 

Gene Marks (24:03):

But keep going.

 

Bob House (24:03):

Yeah. And, we call it a SDE, Seller's Discretionary Earnings for Main Street.

 

Gene Marks (24:12):

Better.

 

Bob House (24:12):

It's really about the, you know, you have to add back all the things that business owners do to reduce taxes. And come up with a true profit, kind of pre-tax profit earning capability of the business. And there's a multiple on that. Those have been fairly consistent, you know, 2.3 of multiple of EBITDA kind of across time. It'll go up to 2.6, it'll come back down to 2.2, but, you know, it's always in that kind of range. Obviously the bigger, the bigger the business, the bigger the enterprise, the bigger the multiple. So, as you get, you know, these more valuable businesses, you'll see multiples four or five, you know, even higher sometimes. But the businesses on our platform, because we capture the sold data, from the brokers who are using our service, are consistently in that range. And this is how kind of small businesses are typically traded.

 

Gene Marks (25:05):

And what industries are you seeing getting, you know, the hottest as it is, or that are receiving those higher multiples, or a bit receiving an increase in demand?

 

Bob House (25:17):

Well, restaurants have bounced back quite strongly.

 

Gene Marks (25:21):

They have.

 

Bob House (25:22):

After being hammered during the pandemic. You know, they've pivoted in incredible ways, that industry has now figured out. Mobile, on-demand ordering, and takeout, and delivery. And a lot of 'em have expanded their footprints through the expansion to outdoor spaces. And then here, in the West coast, they've kind of all kept that. And some of these restaurants that were direly operating indoors with a tall, tiny patio now have this massive footprint. So there's interest, and a lot of transactions are happening. In fact, I think they were up 10% in the most recent quarter over the previous quarter. So, that's one category. Service businesses are always popular. There's just that recurring revenue stream that, and there's such a broad category across so many different service categories, that as a group, they're always of interest. And we've seen great financial performance outta that category over the last five years. As you know, median revenue, and median cash flow of those kind of business is marched upwards on our platform. So those are the two that come to mind.

 

Gene Marks (26:32):

Good. That's good. Alright. We're almost done here. But I gotta ask you, I mean, you know, particularly after the first time that we spoke, and now that we're speaking now, and knowing all of your knowledge, so, I'm sure you're gonna work for BizBuySell for the rest of your life. You're happy there, it's all good, it's fine. But let's just say hypothetically, that you decide to turn in the keys, and leave the company, and you're gonna start your own business. So based on what you've seen, and when I say start, you're gonna buy a business. What type of business or industry, you know, would you be interested in buying into? And more importantly, more importantly, based on everything that you have seen, and read, and done with BizBuySell, share with us what you've, what you've learned. What would you do if you're buying this business, based on what you have learned? How would you go about the training?

 

Bob House (27:25):

Well, that's really interesting. I mean, I love what I do here, so that's why I've been here for as long as I have been.

 

Gene Marks (27:28):

And you'll continue to be there, I'm sure.

 

Bob House (27:30):

Yeah.

 

Gene Marks (27:31):

But just hypothetical.

 

Bob House (27:32):

Because it's fun to serve this community of entrepreneurs, and help them. You know, we feel really proud to be a part of helping owners exit, and helping buyers chase their dream. Probably the next closest thing for that, and we all joke about, you know, we're gonna all be business brokers, and intermediaries when we retire, because then you can stay involved in it, and you can actually get closer to it, and really work with these... And you can buy these businesses too. I mean, you can buy into a franchise, you can start your own, you can buy an existing one.

 

Gene Marks (28:05):

And existing, you're saying like a business broker as you're saying, right?

 

Bob House (28:08):

Business broker. Yeah, business broker business. And brokerage agencies, and various agencies are for sale on the platform too. You can buy insurance agencies, and other types of, you know, service related businesses.

 

Gene Marks (28:22):

So let me, so, so I'll push you on that. Business brokers is a great industry to buy into. Obviously there's gonna be no shortage of transactions, and there are people that are superstars, and people that are not as great. It's like anything else. So, say you decide like, "You know, I'm gonna," you know, "I'm Bob house. I'm gonna open up the Bob House business brokerage agency, but I'm gonna buy an existing agency and make it better." What would you, you know, what would you do if you were to buy? Like based on everything you've learned from this site, what mistakes maybe would you avoid? Or saying, "When I buy this, I'm definitely gonna make sure I do this, this, and this, to make sure I get the best deal possible?"

 

Bob House (29:01):

Yeah, well, it's, again, it's not gonna happen. But if were to happen, you know, I think in general, like we're seeing the industry mature and improve through a lot of work through you know, International Business Broker Association. I think we're trying to play a role in helping standardize and professionalize the education and certification of business brokers. But, there are some great brokers out there, and then there are some brokers that, you know, haven't frankly have the training that they should have, to be really a good representative for, a good agent for their seller, or the buyer. You know, I guess I would, I would make sure, you know, to be very responsive to clients on both sides of the transaction, whether I'm representing my seller or any interested buyer. Sometimes the buyers can not get the service that they, I think merit. But yeah, I don't know. I think you maybe specialize in a particular industry, and I don't know what that industry is, but a lot of brokerages tend to be generalists. 'Cause then you can take on any deal, but I might find a more of a niche and pursue that.

 

Gene Marks (30:13):

That's great. That was a great answer. Bob House, the president of BizBuySell, bizbuysell.com, B-I-Z, B-U-Y, S-E-L-L.com. And also there are some related sites as well. Bob, thank you very much for your time and your insights. It's great. Of course, we're gonna have you back again in the future to give us an update on the market, but this is very, very interesting stuff, and I think we'll be of very relevance to our listeners and viewers. So thank you very much.

 

Bob House (30:39):

My pleasure. Thanks for having me again, Gene.

 

Gene Marks (30:42):

Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on "THRIVE?" Please let us know. Visit payx.me/thrivetopics, and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR, payroll, benefits or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub at paychex.com/worx. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host, Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Till next time, take care.

 

Speaker 2 (31:19):

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