Network to Networth with Curt Maier

LinkedIn: Curt Maier – https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtmmaier/
Company Website: www.curtmmaier.com
Email: curt@ibainc.com

Jason Cutter [00:00:00]:
On today’s episode, I have Kurt Mayer. He is the Vice president of Business development at iba. It’s truly the Pacific Northwest leading business brokerage and M and A firm. Kurt, welcome to the Business Broker Growth Show.

Curt Maier [00:00:15]:
Glad to be here Jason. Thanks for having me.

Jason Cutter [00:00:19]:
So I want to get into your intro and kind of your background and your evolution into this business. So for people tuning in who might not know who you are, you started early life, let’s say adult life in the U.S. navy. You spent a lot of time on nuclear submarines, you have worked in Fortune 300 companies, you have worked in franchises, you have owned businesses. And then now you’re in the business broker world. Quite an evolution. And I love the, the Navy part and the submarine part. I know that’s a big thing for you.

Jason Cutter [00:00:59]:
So let’s talk like just for, for people hearing this and thinking about your journey. Let’s give us the, the evolution of all of that to get to this point.

Curt Maier [00:01:09]:
Sure. Jason. No, as you pointed out, I’ve been blessed by having three distinct careers. The, the Navy career, military officer career, the typical corporate career, 20 years with Air products and chemicals. And then of course the most fulfilling part of my professional career as an entrepreneur, the last 20 plus years where I’ve owned and sold various businesses in different industries, both franchise businesses as well as independent. And so that breadth of experience has really helped me be successful in what I do here in the M and A world. You know, the Navy provided that ground work in terms of attention to detail and process orientation, etc. And then the Fortune 300 company led me from field sales positions to marketing to product management, all the way to general management.

Curt Maier [00:02:10]:
And that’s where I got my MA chops. I actually was a strategic buyer. So we were actually rolling up an industry at the time, the respiratory therapy, durable medical equipment industry. And so I was a buyer on the other side of the table. And then after 20 years in pursuit of some flexibility in my life and realizing that being in business for yourself is really the ultimate goal.

Curt Maier [00:02:38]:
I then searched for a business to purchase. And although, although I spent a great deal of time, my over analytical nature and conservative approach.

Curt Maier [00:02:51]:
Caused me to.

Curt Maier [00:02:54]:
Question a little bit whether I was going to pull the trigger or not. And ultimately a friend turned me on to the franchise concepts. And so I opened my lens and I looked at both existing businesses and franchises. I ended up buying a new franchise and, and built that and over time built it to a point where I was an absentee owner and ultimately was able to sell it for probably twice what it was worth and made a nice return on it. And so franchising was very good to me because, you know, that was my first rodeo and I was in business for myself, but not by myself. And I was following a process. And subsequent to that, after selling that, I realized that there were a lot of people like me out there, small business owners that although you know the business you’re in, whether it’s making widgets or selling a service, selling a business is a whole different, whole different world. And so I felt that there was a market.

Curt Maier [00:04:01]:
For me to be able to serve those people in selling their business. And I also realized going through the process as a buyer, that there’s a need for consultative services to buyers as well, to help them decide what is the right fit for them, how to analyze it, how to negotiate the best deal, that kind of thing. So I realized that what my next chapter would be would revolve around business brokerage. And having been a franchisee, I found Murphy Business Sales, which is a national business brokerage firm based out of Florida. And the territory on the east side of Seattle was open. So I became a franchisee and built that business up over a number of years. Ultimately, I sold a business about eight years or so ago when both of my girls were out of the house in college, established, and I thought I was done by. But I had done a couple of deals with the firm I’m with now, iba, where I represented buyers and the owner of IBA represented sellers.

Curt Maier [00:05:13]:
So I got an appreciation for how they did business and developed a nice relationship with the owner. So when I sold my own business brokerage firm, I remained friends with the owner and ultimately he asked me to come on board into the capacity that I’m at now, which is as a more or less a business development manager. So I’m not actively doing the deals as I was as a broker, but I’m intimately involved in all aspects of our business. Most of my time is spent talking with the owners of businesses, taking them through our process of how we value their business, how we, how we earn their engagement and sell the business.

Curt Maier [00:06:00]:
Additionally, I work with buyers who are looking for the American dream, you know, whether it’s through an existing business or a franchise. And one of the unique things that I bring to the party nationwide, quite frankly, is that I’m both a licensed business broker and a licensed franchise broker. And why that’s so, so unique is that there are only two states in the, in the country that require a licenser for franchise brokerage. Washington state, where I am, and New York.

Curt Maier [00:06:34]:
So I’m a licensed franchise broker and a business broker, so I can do both. And which means that I can present both options to prospective buyers. And so at any rate, that kind of gives you a summation of where I came from. You know, the Navy, up through the corporate world, owning and selling several of my own businesses, two of which were franchises, and ultimately ending up here with iba, which is a regional merger and acquisition firm. We sell businesses that range from as low as below a million dollars up to $25 million in all industries, manufacturing services, retail, franchise resales and the like. And we have offices throughout Washington and Oregon and have about 20 brokers on the team.

Jason Cutter [00:07:28]:
Got it. I love it. There’s so much in what you covered. One of the first things that caught my attention when you’re going through all that is you were talking about your over analytical nature, which I’m sure served you well in the Navy. And maybe on the corporate side, how has that evolved and changed? So you said that you kind of.

Jason Cutter [00:07:50]:
Helped sidestep that nature by getting into the franchise, you know, looking at buying a franchise so you didn’t have to start one. But have you found that your analytical side has evolved and changed or is it just as strong as it’s always been?

Curt Maier [00:08:04]:
Well, certainly the analytical ability and attention to detail is still there, but I think what has happened is I look back and I think I have blossomed once I became an entrepreneur and you own your own business, those entrepreneurial juices just don’t stop. And so, you know, you, you tend to think more out of the box about things and, and such. And so, you know, I think that, that, that, that’s, that’s the natural evolution as you get more comfortable, the more businesses that you own and operate, and in my case, the more businesses that you help sell, you know, the different circumstances that are involved, you know, the different nature of the, the businesses, whether they’re asset intensive or not.

Curt Maier [00:09:03]:
You know, that all, you know, causes you to have just a, a broader knowledge of what the possibilities could be. So I would just say that, yeah, I was bottled up in a corporate bottle for 20 years and now that I’m unleashed, it’s, it’s a lot more fun.

Jason Cutter [00:09:22]:
Yeah. And, and because what you said resonates with me because I, I was raised by two analytical parents and I’m an analytical person that, you know, a lot of times people don’t believe it. Now anyone who meets me now doesn’t understand that for the longest time I think my, you know, love language might have been spreadsheets and flowcharts and indecisiveness and then something switched years ago where it’s like a high level of acceptance of some risk and trying things out and taking action and biasing action over waiting for sure. So it’s interesting because I know that you’re all about taking action. So I know that you’ve, like you said, you’ve blossomed and evolved away from getting stuck in it, but obviously leveraging it to make the smart decisions, which I think is amazing. You know, something else you said I think is really cool to think about the franchise model that you were getting into. And now obviously you guys help with is, you know, you said you wanted to be in business for yourself, but not by yourself, where, you know, standard business ownership or entrepreneurship can feel very, very lonely. And then the franchise model is totally different because if you have a region in a territory, you’re kind of by yourself, but you have other people and other resources.

Jason Cutter [00:10:42]:
Right. Like, where is that a good fit for people? You know, just as I’m thinking about it, for someone who’s maybe looking into buying a business or getting into business.

Curt Maier [00:10:55]:
Yeah, it really is a great option. I think when I made the decision to become an entrepreneur, to become an owner, the advice I got was, you know, buy. First of all, don’t start something from scratch. There’s really three broad options. You start something from scratch, like a Jeff Bezos and Amazon or something like that, or you buy an existing business, preferably one that is running well, that is successful, that you can buy and acquire and, and be accretive in terms of earnings, or you buy a franchise where you’re basically, you know, making an investment and starting with, with a proven business model. So.

Curt Maier [00:11:44]:
The advice I had at the time was find something.

Curt Maier [00:11:48]:
That will leverage your skills, something that’s up and operating. Now, this was in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but it could be in any city across the country. And again, because of that over analytical nature, I was taking a long time to find something. And when, when a friend suggested franchising, my initial reaction was kind of negative, honestly, because of the perception that franchising is, you know, Subway or McDonald’s, you know, related to food. Hospitality couldn’t be further from the truth. I mean, franchising is, is across all industries, business to business, business to consumer and such. And so, you know, when I, when I opened the lens and started looking at different franchise concepts, I looked across all industries, you know, in staffing and automotive and senior health Care and you know, financial services, et cetera. And so, you know, I.

Curt Maier [00:12:52]:
Finding something that I could just execute was important to me. And it’s important though a lot of people that are taking that plunge into entrepreneurship, you want to be success, right? I mean, you want, you, you, you don’t want to come out as a loser, you know, and so the chance for success using a franchise model, you know, is, is enhanced significantly because again, it’s a proven business model. So, and then once you get that experience, you know, once you get beyond, you know, a year or two as being an owner, then you’re much better equipped to be able to understand that there isn’t any business out there that’s perfect. I mean, I love to use this analogy. When the friend was asking me how my search was going, I told him about these opportunities and how this one, I was concerned that the employees were going to leave, another one, I was concerned the market was going to change. And he stopped me, he said, what the hell are you looking for? And I said, well, I’m looking for the perfect business. You know, I have the means, I have the time and I want to make sure I do it right. And he said, perfect, huh? He goes, like your wife.

Curt Maier [00:14:09]:
I said, excuse me, she’s a perfect, you know, money maker and mother and you know, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, of course not. He said, but you put a ring on it, right? You know, what you did was you looked for killer concerns. There weren’t any. You married and you moved on and you hopefully improve over time. And he said that’s what you have to do with the business. There is no perfect business, okay? There’s always going to be hair. So you look for the killer concerns and if there isn’t any, then you make the decision to take it on and then improve it through your knowledge, experience and skill.

Curt Maier [00:14:46]:
And that was, you know, that was very good advice. He said, but you know, you’re again, you’re so over analytical and conservative that you know, maybe you’re better off with a franchise so that you can assure yourself that you can be successful in running something on your own, you know, not like in a corporate role where you have a matrix to support you, you know, you’ve got all kinds of staff, etc. So at any rate, that was very good advice. And I, I still think that franchising is, is a wonderful way for first time buyers to get experience. And.

Curt Maier [00:15:28]:
Let’S, let’s give an example right now of, of the current state of affairs. And I’m sure that the Seattle market is reflective of other markets throughout the country. It is a, in the business brokerage world, it is a seller’s market. If you own a successful business, it’s in huge demand. And why is that? Because if you’re the owner of a business and you’re taking, you know, a couple hundred grand out of it or 500,000 or millions, whatever the number is, if you’re happy with that, why the heck would you want to sell it? And so really, you know, we’re basically waiting on this, you know, baby boomer generation of which I’m right in the middle of, or waiting for them to retire because you know, unless they have a secession plan to a family member or key employee or something like that, their only exit is going to be through a sale. And so, you know, we’re, we’re at a point right now where we don’t have enough inventory, we don’t have enough existing businesses to sell to satisfy buyer demand. And you know, here in Seattle we’ve got a lot of smart, sharp, well financed individuals from Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and you know, they’re just tired of the corporate grind. They want to control their own destiny.

Curt Maier [00:16:57]:
And so, you know, they’re looking for businesses and you know, even if there’s a business there that meets their criteria, they may not be the successful bidder because it’s so competitive. So that’s where we make the suggestion that hey, you know, why don’t you take control of your search? You know, instead of relying on the owner to decide to sell to you or accept your bid, why don’t you consider franchising? And so we go through all the reasons why, which we’ve, you know, touched on here already and it’s surprising how many of them jump all over it. I mean, we’ve placed people that are software engineering managers into area development agreements for pet store, you know, and grooming service type of businesses or garage refinishing businesses, or painting businesses or plumbing businesses. I mean, you know, it, it’s the plain Jane kind of businesses that are recession proof that everybody needs, that are really.

Curt Maier [00:18:03]:
Attractive to people and, and you know, these folks can use their skills to, to run a business and, and have a very successful.

Curt Maier [00:18:15]:
Career as an entrepreneur and enjoy all the advantages of small business ownership from the tax advantages to the flexibility and to deciding what the exit strategy will be, whether it’s to.

Curt Maier [00:18:31]:
Let it remain a generational business and pass it down to kids or exit and maybe invest in some other business. You know, since they have the confidence they can do it or what have you.

Jason Cutter [00:18:43]:
So I love it. I think, I think all that, it’s so interesting to think about that inventory issue. And again, if a business is working really well and generating revenue, why would somebody sell unless there’s a life event or they’re just done and they want to retire, they want to enter a new stage in their life. And so yeah, like the, the other option is businesses that aren’t doing very well and then you know, who wants to take that on and does that person who’s selling that business, do they have the right valuation in mind for selling something that’s not working and then who’s going to buy it? You know, as a fixer upper, probably not a lot of those buyers you’re talking about who are coming from corporate world who do not want to get themselves into a mess they can’t handle. So I want to segue into the next segments, but I’m going to set it up in a different way than I do other guests. So the next segment on the show here is the broker growth playbook. It’s the rapid fire, it’s the tips, the quick hacks. It’s the things that you would suggest to, for a broker to do to help fill their pipeline, to grow their network, to grow the leads, the pipeline, everything going into listings so that they can be successful on their side.

Jason Cutter [00:20:00]:
Now the reason why I’m going to set this up different and we’re segueing now is because one of the things that you talk about a lot you’ve written about, anyone knows you, knows that this is something you lead with is that your network is, is your net worth and that’s really important to you. That’s big for you. I’ll say it because normally we talk about this. You have maxed out the number of people you can connect with on LinkedIn and you’re constantly having to like high grade and remove people so you can add other people and anyone who’s curious that limit is 30,000 people. You can connect, you’re gonna have unlimited followers but you can only connect like one to one with 30,000 people. So knowing that you are the master at your network is your net worth talking about rapid growth like strategies in this mode. I know what you’re gonna say because I know you well enough. But let’s, let’s talk about, let’s go through your, your top tips.

Jason Cutter [00:20:54]:
Number one, what does that look like for you that you would tell a broker who wants to help fill their pipeline?

Curt Maier [00:21:00]:
Sure. Well, you know, I do take Great pride in maxing out the number of connections. I think that happened over a decade ago or so ago. And as I understand from LinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn is based here in Seattle. I’ve actually deleted well over a hundred thousand people in my career. So think about it. I mean, if I’m at a, at an event last night and I meet some people and I want to add them as connections, then I have a tough decision to make. I have to delete someone.

Curt Maier [00:21:32]:
And I, and I view LinkedIn strictly for business. Okay. My wife isn’t a connection of mine as an example. You know, it’s, it’s somebody that I can bring value to or they can bring value to me. And so what has happened over time is that I had connections from all over the world because when I was working for the Fortune 300 company, I was an expat in Asia. So I had a lot of connections in China and Malaysia, etc. But now that I’m focused in the northwest, the real value for my connections is going to be more geographically located here. So when, whenever I added you, Jason, years ago when I met you and I added you, I had to delete someone and it was probably somebody from China that I hadn’t talked to in about 15 years or whatever.

Curt Maier [00:22:27]:
But the point is, the network has to continue to get stronger as a broker over time. You know, you make connections and then you make them stronger over time. And I’m kind of an old school guy, so my tips are going to be more along the lines of face to face, belly to belly kind of relationship building tips. And those would include, you know, fishing where the fish are. I mean, you want to get close to business owners across all industries. So how do you do that?

Curt Maier [00:23:05]:
There’s two major tips here. One is to again, fish where the fish are, join industry associations where, you know, owners are. So for example, were members of the Master Builders Association, a couple different chapters here in Washington. That’s where the owners of remodeling businesses, construction businesses, H vac plumbing, you know, all kinds of businesses related to construction. That’s where they go. They go there for social events, they go there for educational events, you know, and you want to be known as the expert in your industry. So that when somebody says, well, geez, you know, I’m, I’m thinking about selling a business, they remember you. They remember that you’ve made presentations, that you’ve supplied content for their magazine, that you’re there on a consistent basis.

Curt Maier [00:24:02]:
Again, just joining a group is an assurance that you’re going to earn an engagement, but a consistent approach. Some they’re going to remember you, you going to be top of mind. And so it’s very important to join as many organizations, industry associations that you can so Master Builders association for Construction center for Advanced Manufacturing for Manufacturers, the commercial certified investment managers in the real estate industry.

Curt Maier [00:24:39]:
The Pacific Northwest Aerospace.

Curt Maier [00:24:42]:
Industry association, the Washington Hospitality Quality Associations. So you get the, the drift. Associations where owners are. The other tip is to spend quality time with referral sources that will benefit you. So in, in the case of business brokers, you know, your, your lifeline, your source of the best, most trusted referrals are going to be the people that small business owners trust. They trust either their attorney, business attorney, more likely they’re going to trust their CPA or they’re going to trust their financial advisor. I mean these are professionals that they have frequent meetings with. And if those professionals are doing their job, they’re asking the owner, you know, hey, what’s your plan here? You’re getting older or your health’s hurting or you know, that’s the point where you want your referral source to make a suggestion to the owner to develop a relationship with a business broker.

Curt Maier [00:25:53]:
You know, meet my friend at iba, Kurt Meyer, you know, have a business evaluation done. Let’s determine what the equity is in your business. Do you know what it is? And I can assure you, Jason, business owners have no clue what their business is worth. I mean.

Curt Maier [00:26:11]:
The stories are endless, you know, where you sit down with somebody and, and you ask them the question, just kind of an open ended question, hey, you know, what do you think your business is worth? And you know, if a number comes out.

Curt Maier [00:26:26]:
You know, I’ll generally ask, well, geez, you know, you think your business is worth $3 million? Where did that come from? Have you ever had an appraisal or anything? And at that point they’re kind of honest with you that, you know, you’ve had a conversation and they, they’ll say something to the.

Curt Maier [00:26:42]:
Geez, you know, I’ve invested $3 million, I better get at least 3 million for it or you know, I need 3 million to retire. Which is interesting but totally irrelevant. Or better yet, well, you know, my friend has a similar business and he sold it for a four times multiple, which means mine’s worth $3 million. Right. And so the response is, well, that’s all very interesting, but why don’t you allow us to tell you what the real market value is and we can do that, you know, in relatively short order. And then you know what you’re talking about, then you can do some planning and you can proactively.

Curt Maier [00:27:22]:
You know.

Curt Maier [00:27:24]:
Take steps to maximize whatever you’re going to take from the sale. Which there are a lot of, lot of factors that determine what that will be, but certainly the tax aspects of it or a significant one these days, especially in a state like Washington where our capital gains taxes are going up about every other month. So anyway, you know, the tip is you’ve got to have these relationships with these referral sources and you’ve got to spend time with them and you should have events where you invite them in a social environment because people, before they do business with you, they have to know like and trust you. Pretty easy to know you, you know, and most, most brokers, you know, are extroverts like myself and you know, they can like you. So those two are pretty easy. But to trust you, you know, that takes some time and effort and such, but man, once you have somebody who knows and likes and trusts you, that referral flow should be constant. And then the other tip would be give before you get right. We’ve all heard that, you know, as you develop a relationship, first thing out of your mouth should be, well, what can I do for you? You know, you shouldn’t be thinking about asking for a referral or anything like that.

Curt Maier [00:28:53]:
You should be really understanding the person and listening and trying to figure out, you know, geez, you know, who can I, who can I match up with this person to help them and such so that, you know, when the time comes for you to ask for a referral, you’ve, you’ve given something already. You know, you’ve established yourself as a giver. You know the book the Go Giver by Bob Berg, What a great, great book. I mean, you know, it just shows that if you have that kind of an attitude, you can’t go wrong. So you’ve got to invest the time with these referral sources. There’s no, there’s no easy way around it. You know, other, other tips would be, you know, have the best SEO, have the best website that, that offers educational material. You know, do not be afraid of sharing your secrets.

Curt Maier [00:29:55]:
You know, we’re a very collaborative firm here at iba. We put on many, many, many presentations with our partners and, and share best practices. And, you know, we’re just looking to improve the industry. You know, we look at things from the standpoint of abundance and not scarcity. There’s plenty of business out there for everyone. And what it really boils down to is, you know, who is the right fit for the position, particular owner.

Jason Cutter [00:30:31]:
Yeah, I love it. So from my notes, fish where the fish are, which is always interesting. I think another way, and I read this in a book years ago, it was talking about marketing and it was talking about sales. And it was the difference between maybe trying to go door to door if you’re selling something or setting up a table or a booth at a farmer’s market where people are coming and they’re already in the shopping mood and you’re literally there where the people are. Right. So go to the marketplace, go to what where your prospective people are, fish where the fish are and go to those industry associations where those people are at and then form the relationship, start the conversations. Right. Not the people in those associations at those meetings aren’t raising their hand to sell, but that’s where they’re at because it’s the business owner.

Jason Cutter [00:31:22]:
So that was number one that I took from you. Number two is the quality time with referral sources. You know, where the value is with that. That I just know that I know is that, you know, like you said, is that small business owner trust their cpa, their attorney, their wealth manager, their financial planner that trust them with some aspect of their business when it comes time for a referral. Hey, I’m thinking about exiting. Who do you recommend they’re going to listen to that person way more than anyone else. Way more than just a Google search. Give before you get right, like, you know, give give without the expectation of getting anything back from those referral partners, which I think is important.

Jason Cutter [00:32:01]:
Just always add value, which is what you said. And then the last one, you know, the fourth one is the SEO, the website, the education, all of that, which is so important because you know, when that person does look online or if they are searching, it’s referral partner or a small business owner, they haven’t come through the other channels. They’ve got to find enough stuff to show that you’re the authority with all of that. Normally I would say, hey, which one of those four? If you could only do one of them, which one would you do? What would you say? I have a guess, but I don’t know.

Curt Maier [00:32:35]:
Yeah, it’s investing in referral partners, the relationship with the financial advisors, CPAs, attorneys and related professionals to small business owners that way that would be the first, the one, you know, there’s a limited amount of time that you have. So I mean I, you know, you’d love to go to all these associations and such and be present but you know, there’s the time management aspect of it and you know, through the years you, you evaluate, you know, the time that you spend in all these different activities and.

Curt Maier [00:33:14]:
You come to the conclusion that, you know, one is probably more beneficial than the others. So yeah, I mean you want to do them all, but you know, when you force me and say, you know, where would you spend most of your time? Number one tip, it’s with the referral.

Jason Cutter [00:33:27]:
Sources, referral relationships, which makes sense, right? Your network is your net worth and so if you’re focused on those, if you only had one, then that makes sense. So good stuff. Hopefully everyone listening, watching, wrote those down. Kind of assess that for your playbook, see what you’re doing and what’s working, what’s not working, where you can do more of. Obviously there’s always constraints of time and money and bandwidth and energy and so, you know, where can you put the effort that’s going to lead to the best results? Which I think is always important. All right, next segment here you have a lot of experience obviously from the corporate side especially where you were literally like you said, involved with rolling up things was your first experience with M and A. Bought, started businesses, bought businesses, sold businesses in the franchise world. Now with IBA and all this, this next segment is the one that got away.

Jason Cutter [00:34:15]:
Thinking about lessons from the lost deal. Like where you had this deal and it didn’t go through. You know, sometimes tough to talk about and painful to talk about. I know you’re a very open guy. You share again coming from an abundance place and you know, not, not holding back with anything when, whenever we’ve spoken and met with before but love to hear, you know, kind of the lesson, you know, a deal that got away that just still like you’re just like ah. So you know, you, it didn’t have to be that way. And then what were the lessons from it that you got from it that you would give to other people?

Curt Maier [00:34:49]:
Yeah, I.

Curt Maier [00:34:53]:
I can think of one that was pretty significant in terms of value. It was a, it was a multiple car wash business and the owner was the founder and was in a position where he didn’t have to sell. There was some, some pressure from, from the wife to maybe move out of state and so.

Curt Maier [00:35:16]:
He got to thinking about exiting early so got ahold of me again through a referral source. So, and that’s important again, just, I’m not gonna, I can’t overemphasize, you know, the trust factor there because when someone, when someone respects an attorney, a CPA or financial advisor, and they tell the owner, hey, go see Kurt. You know, at iba, they’re not going to spend a lot of time, you know, looking around for others. I mean, they’re gonna, they’re gonna go to you. And unless, you know, you’re not.

Curt Maier [00:35:56]:
On your game or whatever, you know, you pretty much have a captive business owner that you’re talking to. So I, I developed a really good relationship with this particular owner and.

Curt Maier [00:36:11]:
Did the business evaluation and had that, that tough conversation about what I felt the business could sell for within a reasonable period of time. And we had identified a potential strategic buyer that I approached.

Curt Maier [00:36:31]:
In an unsolicited way and made them aware of the opportunity. And there was great interest. And I got the parties together and hit it off very, very well and.

Curt Maier [00:36:48]:
Ultimately got the buyer to make an offer, which was great, to get them to make that offer. Again, they unsolicited approached them, but they knew it was a great opportunity. And.

Curt Maier [00:37:04]:
I just could not get.

Curt Maier [00:37:08]:
My owner to.

Curt Maier [00:37:11]:
Agree to sell. There was an expectation on his part that the value of his business magically grown since, like, we had done the business evaluation, you know, all of a sudden now it’s like, you know, the offer isn’t good enough, even though it was pretty much at list price. And it was very frustrating to not be able to convince my owner to accept that offer. And. But at the end of the day.

Curt Maier [00:37:45]:
You know, we want our clients to be satisfied. I mean, if a client has an expectation of a certain price or whatever, you know, we want them to attain it. And if that means not selling now where, you know, where we don’t benefit, that’s fine. They should take the steps to increase the profitability and thus increase the value and be able to get a higher price down the road and such. So the lesson learned in that case is.

Curt Maier [00:38:14]:
You have to check the motivation of, of the seller. You gotta, you gotta make sure the seller is, is ready to go. Again, I mentioned early on that this was not. This was an owner that was in his late 40s, you know, not in his mid-70s or whatever. So have to make sure that they’re motivated to, to sell. And.

Curt Maier [00:38:36]:
You know, the lesson learned would, would be to, you know, emphasize throughout the process that, you know, you should be happy if we, if we’re able to get an offer that meets all of your criteria in terms of, you know, not only the price, but the terms and conditions thereof.

Jason Cutter [00:38:56]:
So, yeah, yeah, it’s. It. How often do you see, probably not within the IBA side But also, you know, it could be with IBA as new brokers come on board, because I know it’s, it’s always growing and, and, or other brokers out there. Your experience with other brokers, where they take those listings because they’re eager for a listing and, or they, they, they are, are in need of listing for their own revenue purposes, but they take on a seller that’s, that’s, you know, okay, if it doesn’t sell. And so maybe the broker wants it more than the, than the owner, than the seller.

Curt Maier [00:39:35]:
Yeah, you know, it’s an interesting.

Curt Maier [00:39:40]:
It’S an interesting situation where, you know, especially with new brokers, you know, there’s, there’s a tremendous pipeline development time involved in our business. You first have to, you first have to find somebody that’s interested in selling their business and then you have to earn the engagement by doing the business evaluation and selling them. And then it takes, you know, three to 12 months to sell it. So there is, you know, there’s, there’s no revenue to you in that period of time. So what many brokers will do will be to take on engagements that may not, they may even know that it’s not going to sell, which is really bad. But you know, they may take on an engagement, but they, they end up charging a retainer to the, the owner for a period of time. And they do that to cover their, their cost during this period of time.

Curt Maier [00:40:44]:
But you know, ultimately it, it frustrates the owner because you’re not getting, you’re not getting attention, you’re not getting activity and you’re, you’re effectively, you’re wasting everyone’s time. You’re wasting, you know, certainly your client’s time, the owner, because he’s not getting any activity, you’re even wasting the buyer’s time because once they look at it and realize that it’s overpriced, they’re just wasting their time as well. And you’re kind of wasting your time because, you know, you should be earning money upon the successful sale of the business. You know, most of your compensation should come at closing. And that, that’s where we’re quite different in our industry in that we’re 100% performance compensated, meaning we don’t have any fees up front for business evaluation or for marketing. We do not require retainers. We look in the eyes of the owner and say, you know, if you trust us to sell and, you know, we take this to market for fair market value, we will sell it and we’ll stand behind it. By waiting until it’s sold to collect our fee.

Curt Maier [00:41:56]:
And if at any time, oh, here’s the other, here’s the other selling point. Typically the listing agreement terms for selling a business is 12 months. Because, you know, there’s a lot of effort to learn about the business, do the evaluation, et cetera. So you want an opportunity, you want some Runway to be able to sell some reasonable Runway. And in our industry it’s 12 months. So what we tell the owner is, look, we’ll agree to a six month term because if after six months it hasn’t been sold, or you don’t have an loi, or you don’t have sufficient traction and confidence in us, you should kick us to the curb and expect an apology from us for wasting your freaking time. And that resonates with people. They realize that we’re serious about selling their business, but we have to take it on at a fair and reasonable price.

Curt Maier [00:42:50]:
Fair and reasonable meaning that if a buyer, you know, is interested, they’re going to be able to get funding for it. You know, it has to be, you know, we have to be transparent with the buyers that we as a firm look for win win deals. Sure, we represent the seller, okay, we want to get them the best price in terms, but we care about the buyer. Why do we care about the buyer? Well, because the owner cares about the buyer to preserve their legacy, to look out for their employees, their clients, their suppliers. But we’re also a little greedy too, in the sense that we want that buyer to remember us. Because on average, in our end of the market, businesses change hands every eight years. So think about it. Somebody buys a business in eight years on average.

Curt Maier [00:43:44]:
Now there’ll be generational businesses that go on forever, but, but there’ll be some businesses that sell before eight years. But at that eight year point, we want that buyer to remember us when it’s time to sell. They say, well, I bought this business through iba and boy, they were transparent. It went smoothly and hell, they didn’t even represent me. They were representing the same thing they would do for me. So we get calls from the buyers, the current owners, to say, hey, remember me? I bought this business from you. Would you like to see sell it? And I think that’s the number one metric that we have pride in is how many times have we resold the business where somebody buys it, grows it, sells it. And so, you know, we really do see win win deals.

Jason Cutter [00:44:33]:
I, I love it. I think that’s great. As we wrap up.

Jason Cutter [00:44:39]:
For this episode in our conversation, if you could give brokers one piece of advice to win more listings and referrals, what would that be?

Curt Maier [00:44:52]:
Oh well, as, as I, as I mentioned before, the one.

Curt Maier [00:44:59]:
The one major tip would be to focus on, and I don’t want to be repetitive, but again, on that referral source development, you know, you’ve, you’ve got to, there are plenty of opportunities to get to know who these referral sources are in your community. For example, there are.

Curt Maier [00:45:25]:
Many, many.

Curt Maier [00:45:28]:
Associations.

Curt Maier [00:45:31]:
Throughout the country where bankers, attorneys, insurance people, M and A people, lawyers, get together.

Curt Maier [00:45:45]:
We’re part of a group called the Northwest Family Business Advisors. Again, all of these folks are in there.

Curt Maier [00:45:54]:
Trying to educate themselves on what’s important to privately held family owned businesses and such. And so you have a chance to meet these folks and develop relationships with them. And again, you know, you want folks that you know like and trust and then you can evaluate, you know, their knowledge, experience and skill as to whether or not, you know, they would make good collaborative partners or not. So you know, the number one tip is to invest in your network. It gets back to your, your net worth will, will, will be equal to what your network. And think about that. That, I mean net worth can be the, the normal way people think about net worth is, you know, what’s your balance sheet, how much money do you have? You know, whatever your net worth is, whatever you as an individual.

Curt Maier [00:46:47]:
Believe is, is important to you. And so just think about it. If you have a, you know, a robust network of people that you can count on or whatever that’s going to deliver value to you, you know, whether it’s dollars to the bottom line or you know, enjoyment in life. So yeah, build your network.

Jason Cutter [00:47:10]:
I love it. I think that’s great. Well, for people tuning in as we, we close out here, all these links will be in the show notes. But if you want to connect with Kurt LinkedIn, obviously we’ve talked about it, you can find him. Kurt M. Mayer M A I E R. You can also go to kurt mir mayor.com you can also email him kurt@I n c.com ibainc.com now obviously if you send him a connection request, be warned, you know that means he’s got to eliminate somebody else. But you can definitely follow him and engage with him.

Jason Cutter [00:47:44]:
He also wrote a book, co wrote a book called Mission Matters. World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal their Top Tips to Success.

Jason Cutter [00:47:55]:
The link for that will be in the Show Notes. It’s available on Amazon. I know it’s a great book and obviously goes a lot in line with what you’ve been saying here. Kurt, I’m glad that you’re here today. I appreciate you being here. Thanks for everything that you shared with the audience, Kurt.

Curt Maier [00:48:11]:
Well, I appreciate it, Jason. It’s been fun.

Jason Cutter [00:48:15]:
Yeah. And for everyone else tuning in, please make sure to follow us on LinkedIn. You get the YouTube channel, obviously. If you’re listening to this on the podcast, subscribe, leave a rating. Make sure to share this with other people. You know, one of the biggest things is there’s a lot of brokers in the U.S. not all of them have to be licensed at a high level. Not all of them are held to a high standard, really want to help elevate the game.

Jason Cutter [00:48:38]:
And obviously our mission and goal here at Business Broker Growth is to help provide brokers with trusted authority and the content needed out there in the space so they can show their network that they are a valuable resource. Like Kurt said, people will do business with people they know like and trust. Our job here is to help brokers create that trust level so that once they get into that room, it’s a foregone conclusion that they’re the best person to help that business owner with their exit plan. And we appreciate everyone tuning in. And until next time, stop hoping for deals and start growing your pipeline.