One of my favorite stories of achievement relating to a Pacific Northwest athlete over the last decade is the one about Payton Pritchard. Payton’s tale has evolved as he progressively took his game to higher plateaus in three stages. In high school, Payton Pritchard was consistently the best player on the basketball court leading his West Linn High School team to four consecutive Oregon basketball championships in the largest school class and winning player of the year recognition in the state in both his junior & senior years. In college, playing for the University of Oregon he was a freshmen starter on a team that made the Final Four and had his team in position to contend for a national championship in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the NCAA Tournament. During college he developed a reputation as one of the nation’s best clutch shooters, delivering time and time again for the Ducks with shots like this one against regional rival Washington on the road in Seattle, https://youtu.be/4vkrZD8sBWU?si=SqO-1ZnYKeuDwhXz. The 6’1” guard was drafted late in the first round by the Boston Celtics in the spring of 2020. No longer special in terms of size or athleticism on the basketball court, hard work and ability in comparison to his peers were required to maintain a position long term in a league where roster spots are finite and each year new players from around the world sought to displace him. Payton possessing an expert sharpshooter’s weapon in terms of jump shot earned his spot and justified time on the basketball court through performance. Earlier this year, he played a significant role in helping the Boston Celtics win the 2024 NBA Championship including this memorable shot in the finals, https://youtu.be/IOxfD1y6cDM?si=kza8gu9h8sYWAtPG. Today, Payton Pritchard is considered one of the premier time running out shooters in the NBA (https://www.wsj.com/sports/basketball/payton-pritchard-boston-celtics-55f3171d).
The Payton Pritchard story has direct application to selecting entrepreneurship as a career path option. As an entrepreneur, there are a variety of ways you can have success. There are situations where you can be the best or only option in an industry or area. There are marketplaces where you can contribute an important service or product in support of other business models. There are also opportunities to provide specialized products and services not offered by others. The one place an entrepreneur should likely avoid competing is in a space where your competition has superior resources, infrastructure, or it is difficult to differentiate yourself. It is not prudent to compete with Microsoft as a provider of subscription based word processing and spreadsheeting platforms or Amazon in the delivery of commodity E Commerce products where price and timely delivery are the key competitive differentiating factors. However, many businesses have successfully competed with Starbucks for the delivery of coffee by providing better quality coffee, superior customer service, better facilities to meet, lower prices, or location convenience. Monopolies and pseudo monopolies have existed since the first businesses opened their doors, disrupters, agile, innovative entrepreneurs have almost as long found ways to compete with and in many cases outperform those businesses. Last century, Sears, Kmart, Blockbuster Video, and Toys “R” Us dominated marketplaces. Today they are non-existent as business models.
IBA has successfully represented entrepreneurs in the sale of their privately held companies and family businesses in Washington & Oregon for fifty years. We have sold businesses that dominated niches, supported spaces, and offered unique products and services at specific times & places. The following are a few examples of those business models executed successfully.
Virtually every person between the age of 3 and 90, knows Arby’s signature catch phrase, “We have the meats” (https://youtu.be/qABUGYFXE7I?si=oz4hA9iQpGkAdeIe). Today, Arby’s holds a unique place in the fast food marketplace as the dominant provider of their product line. That was not always true, past IBA clients Bob & Bill Beye were the entrepreneurs who had the vision and execution ability to bring Arby’s as a brand to Seattle (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-bill-bob-beye-arbys/). Green field opportunities can be used to both execute visions to start new businesses or to bring new franchised business opportunities into an area, as done by Bob & Bill Beye. IBA is unique in the Pacific Northwest as a business brokerage firm, as the firm also has a franchise brokerage division where entrepreneurs can purchase franchised business models and place them in available territories. If you are interested in reviewing a list of successful franchised business models for potential entrepreneurship activity, the members of IBA’s new franchise sale division (https://ibainc.com/what-we-do/franchise-sales/) would welcome the opportunity to talk with you. All conversations with the team are confidential and there is no cost for the professional support.
The Puget Sound area recently experienced a severe windstorm that had many homes without power for numerous days. Many homes have furnaces and air conditioners to address different seasonal climate conditions in comfort. The homeowners that were prepared for potential power outages also had backup generators. One IBA past client, Eric & Michelle Johson, recognized that given the weather conditions that exist in the Pacific Northwest that selling and installing auxiliary power generators could be a good space for entrepreneurship for an electrician not wishing to complete as an electrical contractor in a highly competitive space. That idea germinated and with skilled execution grew into a large regional player in the space which they sold to facilitate retirement (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-eric-michelle-johnson-washington-generators/). The provision of services and products that are not available or that can be provided of superior quality or with superior skill and customer service is a time-tested road to high achievement as an entrepreneur. The products and services can be created by the entrepreneur as a unique offering or brought into the area from externally. Today, the world has a global economy. Products manufactured overseas can be brought into the United States by boat and air to be distributed or sold directly to consumers. The items do not need to be sexy or sold at high prices. David Shinder, another IBA past client, a Russian trained shoemaker identified that insole quality for shoes available in the United States was poor. He searched and identified a German insole manufacturer who made high quality products that had the capacity to serve a large marketplace and negotiated an exclusive relationship to bring the products into the United States. Through venues like Amazon, selling direct to consumers, and Nordstrom, private labeling product, he grew his company, Pedag USA, into a large, successful entity (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-david-shinder-pedag-usa/). Many times entrepreneurial success is found not by creating the wheel, but by providing a wheel to people who have only traveled by horse and foot previously.
Entrepreneurial opportunities can be short or long term in duration. Periodically, a time & place opportunity exists where a company can be grown, profits harvested, and a community served. Smart entrepreneurs identify a timeline for the rise and fall of their business model and exit on top through sale. IBA has facilitated numerous transactions of this nature over the years. Any smart investor knows, not to fall in love with their investment and to bank a strong return on investment when it is available. A transaction facilitated by IBA where this occurred involved the sale of Seattle’s Hydro Spot (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-david-iacovelli-seattles-hydro-spot/). The legalization of marijuana in Washington created an entrepreneurial opportunity to sell hydroponic systems, lighting, and nutrients to the group of entrepreneurs wanting to grow cannabis and supply the retail dispensaries and manufacturers needing product. David Iacovelli identified this opportunity and built a company to support it. He intelligently exited the space for a strong payday when the “BIG BOYS” like private equity backed, Grow Generation (https://www.growgeneration.com/) started to rollup the space.
Entrepreneurship as a career option offers executive control, freedom, and opportunities for personal fulfillment and financial prosperity not found in many positions. Risk exists, but the best experiences in life all come with associated risks. As a 30+ year professional salesman of businesses who has sold over 300 privately held companies and family businesses, I know of 100’s of people who are highly appreciative of my encouragement that resulted in them leaving corporate employment to buy a business. As an entrepreneur, who has started numerous businesses myself, including my first while in college at the University of Texas, I can convey that the joy and fulfillment being an entrepreneur has brought me has made my life worth living. The ball is in your hands and a new year is on the horizon. Will you take a shot at being an entrepreneur in 2025 or dream and think about it for another year? Payton Pritchard has never had the ball leave his hands headed for the basket that he did not think was going to have a successful result. Belief in yourself is the start. Successful execution depends on your knowledge, experience, and skill.
IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, legal, accounting, banking, and wealth management communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family businesses. IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.