John F. Kennedy, a United States President who inspired & unified our nation, was quoted as saying, “We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” Following his leadership, on behalf of the IBA intermediary and administrative support team serving the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial community out of our Washington offices in Bellevue & Spokane and Oregon offices in Portland & Bend, we would like to say THANK YOU and convey our gratitude for everything large & small done by our collaborative partners for our benefit and that of our clients.
We want to thank the accountants, CPA’s, and CFO’s who with attention to detail prepared & reviewed company financials while also structuring deals to mitigate taxes for sellers and enhance tax benefits for buyers.
We want to thank the attorneys who drafted, negotiated, and reviewed transactional documents, along with their professional colleagues who protected intellectual property rights, estate planned, and created entities as vessels for entrepreneurship.
We want to thank the lenders, SBA, Conventional, and Real Estate, who supported buyer acquisitions. We are blessed to live in a nation where the government and its banks support entrepreneurship. What is available here is not available anywhere else in the world.
We want to thank the real estate community. We are blessed to have a strong national network of real estate professionals willing to help assess property values, sell properties when the present use is no longer the highest & best use of the land, lease and sublease spaces, and help retirement age clients sell their homes to move to the sun and parties relocating to Washington & Oregon motivated by entrepreneurship find homes to become part of communities and raise their families.
We want to thank the professionals who support our transactions with escrow, title, inspection, and appraisal services.
We want to thank the wealth advising community for helping our clients strategize for retirement, legacy, and philanthropy with the assets generated from successful sales of their businesses and associated real estate, if applicable.
We want to thank the advisors and consultants from SCORE to outsourced CFO’s who invite us into meetings to help strategize and serve their clients.
We want to thank the spectrum of trade and professional organizations that allow us to serve their communities and contribute to their strength and vitality.
We want to thank the franchisors who supported us in the sale of new franchised business opportunities and the resale of established successful franchises.
We want to thank our clients for the opportunity to facilitate the sale of their businesses and associated real estate, if applicable. It is our goal in every transaction to complete our assigned project with positive energy, knowledge, experience, skill, superior customer service, and best practices. We, also, with our 100% paid on performance business model, seek to only be paid by happy customers upon successful completion of a project.
We want to thank the buyers who select to purchase companies through IBA. It is our objective to create an environment of full disclosure and employ best practices in every sale process. As the oldest business brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest, proudly celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2025, it is our goal in every transaction to gain recognition from the buyer of the quality of our representation with the hope that when they decide to sell they will return to IBA as clients, desiring to have their buyer treated with the same professionalism as they received.
We want to thank our government officials who serve at a municipal, county, state, and federal level advocating to maintain the “special” economic environment that exists in the United States that allows all demographic groups of entrepreneurs to climb a limitless ladder of opportunity as business owners offering leadership, freedom, and financial prosperity to anyone with a vision and ability to execute.
Finally, as the owner of IBA, I want to thank every member of the IBA team for their contribution to the firm’s quality of service and success. I know how hard you work, amount of time you spend in pursuit of enhanced knowledge and skills, and appreciate the integrity you demonstrate personally, on behalf of IBA, and as members of the mergers & acquisitions industry. You are leaders and high performers in the business brokerage industry for a reason.
I am also grateful for the support your spouses and families provide you to pursue a profession where you are asked to take on the stressful responsibility of securing a retirement nest egg that will allow for aging with dignity and comfort for many clients, problem solve through sophisticated transactional issues inclined to create confrontation between parties with a cool head, and work evenings and weekends, as that is often the only time entrepreneurs are available to collaborate on a business sale.
I close with the wise words of Pope John Paul II
“Let us remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence.”
I wish everyone in IBA’s world past and present a Happy Thanksgiving.
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, and accounting communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family-owned 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”.