IBA’s VP of Business Development, Curt Maier, had a brainchild about a decade ago.  He identified that in the world of business brokerage the dynamics of supply and demand were consistently unequal.  A large pool of qualified, motivated buyers ranging from people wanting to leave the corporate world and embark on an entrepreneurial career path to private equity firms seeking acquisitions to companies looking to grow through vertical & horizontal integration existed seeking to acquire privately held companies and family businesses.  However, only a small percentage of these parties were successful in their pursuit, primarily because at a given time in specific industries and geographic locations there are a very limited number of businesses available for acquisition.  This scarcity of supply exists because those who facilitate transactions in the marketplace of businesses cannot order inventory.   Business brokerage firms are dependent on parties wanting to sell their businesses.  If an entrepreneur is executing on their vision, professionally fulfilled, and making money the decision to sell can take decades to become an action objective.  Traditional motivations for sale for successful entrepreneurs are retirement, a desire to start a new venture, partnership breakup, divorce, or health related issues.

Pondering this inequality in the market, Curt Maier came up with a solution.  He would make a business brokerage a SUPER BROKERAGE by adding a franchise brokerage as a product offering to parties seeking to buy businesses.  The advantage of being a franchise brokerage being that now, in addition to the established successful businesses being offered for sale by the firm, a menu of vetted franchise opportunities could be offered as green field startups that could be selected from a list encompassing most industries that could be placed in any location of the buyer’s section.  No longer was it necessary to turn away “want to be” entrepreneurs or force them to wait months or even years for an appropriate business to come to market. Today, the franchise brokerage division of IBA has a robust level of activity with the ability to share franchises available to buyers from the FranNet (https://frannet.com/) and the Franchise Brokers Association (https://www.franchiseba.com/) inventories of high quality, established franchised business opportunities.

IBA also has the ability to serve our franchise clients from grand opening to successful retirement.  The spectrum of established, profitable franchised business opportunities that IBA has sold for strong market values ranges from food service providers Dairy Queen, Arby’s (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-bill-bob-beye-arbys/), Tony Roma’s, and Taco Del Mar to education platforms ranging from the Goddard School to Little Gym to service providers ShelfGenie, Travel Professionals International, ATC Healthcare Services, and Pirtek (https://ibainc.com/blog/nesha-ruther/the-story-of-erin-gabriel-gilliam-pirtek-miracle-method/).

My wife often observes that for everyone we know who ends their time on earth we generally learn of a new life beginning that replaces them.   Most franchises successfully transfer ownership and continue to thrive under new ownership, so a death connection is not appropriate, but it is true that for every franchise business owner who sells, we at IBA often see a new franchisee buying a franchise and opening a new business.  That has occurred recently at IBA with Charlie Magee in our Franchise Brokerage division facilitating the sale of Dogtopia and Zoom Drain franchise territories.   It is always interesting at IBA to learn about the new franchise concepts being offered for sale. The opportunity to get in on the ground level of a new franchise frequently leads to owning a valued asset in the future.  The value is significant in purchasing a franchise versus starting a new business.  Franchised business opportunities offer time tested business models with brand market recognition, support infrastructure, and often competitive purchasing advantages for supplies, vendors, and marketing.

If you are interested in selling an established franchise or buying a new one, the IBA team would welcome the opportunity to provide an overview of our client services.  All conversations with IBA are held in strict confidence.  Sellers pay no fees to IBA unless we successfully complete a sale on terms deemed satisfactory. Buyers never pay a fee to IBA regardless of if they buy an existing company, family business, or new franchise.

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”.