2025 is a special year at IBA.  It marks the firm’s 50^th year serving the entrepreneurial community as business brokers possessing real estate licenses in Oregon & Washington.  As a company, we want to thank each and every business owner, party acquiring a privately held company or family business, attorney, accountant, wealth advisor, banker, business broker representing a buyer, franchisor, consultant, and allied professional who has worked collaboratively with us on a transaction.  It takes a village and we are blessed to be part of a robust one filled with knowledgeable, experienced, skilled people who listen, provide superior customer service, and care about achieving positive outcomes in what may be the most sophisticated, nuanced purchase & sale transaction a party can participate in as a seller or buyer.  IBA traditionally successfully facilitates 3 – 8 transactions a month. This year it is anticipated that the firm will push past 4400 completed transactions in total.  We have the goal of reaching 5000 before 2035.

2025 has all the indications that it will be one of IBA’s highest performance years in terms of transactions.   This follows a 2024 that was one of IBA’s Top 10 years in its history.  The following five factors contributed to the firm arriving at this assessment.

1. The need for business brokerage services to support retiring entrepreneurs is strong. The Baby Boomer Generation (Born between 1945 – 1965) presently is aged between 60 – 80 years. Father time visits all of us.  Most of IBA’s clients do not need to sell.  They are executing on their vision, doing what they enjoy, and financially prospering.  However, many are approaching us with mature, successful, profitable companies wanting to sell recognizing that either they do not have family members or employees internally who have the knowledge, experience, and skill to take the leadership helm, want to monetize their life work to facilitate comfortable retirement, legacy, or philanthropy, or seek to put the company in the hands of executive leadership that can guide it into the future, grow its market share, and integrate the technology of today.
2. IBA has the largest business sale intermediary team and physical geographic footprint in terms of offices in the Pacific Northwest. IBA had a team of 15 business brokers serving Washington & Oregon in 2010.  The Great Recession reduced that number through retirement and migration to other fields to six.  Today, IBA’s team working out of seven offices in Washington (Bellevue, Bellingham, Everett, Federal Way, Olympia, Spokane, & Wenatchee) and two in Oregon (Portland & Bend) is over 20% greater in number than that level.   It takes IBA 2 – 3 years to develop a business broker to our standard of quality in the field. No firm in the region has better infrastructure for broker development and education.
3. Economic enthusiasm in America is at its highest level since 2019. Many issues are at play creating the enthusiasm ranging from a push to rebuild the domestic manufacturing infrastructure, the AI influence on business models (An economic leap forward in terms of productivity is anticipated similar to when horse drawn plows were replaced by tractors in the agricultural sector and industrial automation occurred in the manufacturing sector), a downward slope for interest and inflation rates, and executive leadership in Washington DC that desires to allocate more responsibility to the private sector from the public sector and maintain or lower the corporate tax infrastructure to encourage investment and growth for privately and publicly held companies.
4. A renaissance in the desire to be entrepreneurs by younger generations. Recent decades saw college graduates wanting to work at technology companies and other venues where stock options could make them millionaires.  Today, being a founder or buying a heritage company is often an aspiration for people in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.  IBA frequently facilitates transactions led by parties in these age groups.  Two interesting demographic groups that make up this cohort are 1^st generation immigrants who obtained secure immigration status who now have the freedom to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams and Search Funders coming out of many of the premier business schools in the nation.  For the unfamiliar, a Seach Funder is commonly a recent MBA recipient who had prior quality work experience before seeking a higher degree who has secured investment capital to support their acquisition from alumni of the school.
5. Banks are open for business and actively seeking to finance acquisitions of privately held companies, family businesses, and their associated real estate. It is not uncommon for sellers represented by IBA to receive 90% or more in cash at closing for their companies in retirement sales and buyers to be able to purchase businesses supplying only 10 – 20% of the acquisition capital themselves.

Evidence of these robust market conditions can be found in the large number of businesses IBA has sold recently in Washington & Oregon.  Our completed transactions have covered a wide spectrum of industries ranging from manufacturing sector companies that fabricated precision machined parts, molecules for research & educational institutions, and the equipment infrastructure to distill spirits or brew beer to construction/home services companies that maintained sewer systems, trimmed trees, installed and maintained heating & cooling systems, installed & serviced communications, security, and video systems in public sector buildings, serviced and installed landscaping, and remodeled and provided handyman services for residential homes.  B2C companies sold by IBA have sold flowers, apparel, tires, BBQ, and a drinking establishment where you can bring your hound for a beverage.

Current projects in escrow pending sale by IBA or on the market available for acquisition include the following:

Manufacturing with an Aerospace Focus

Manufacturing with a Construction Focus (Metal)

Manufacturing (Wood Cabinets)

Manufacturing with an Energy Sector Focus

Manufacturing with a Corporate Apparel Focus

Manufacturing (Contract Food Production)

Manufacturing (Jewelry)

Coffee Roaster

Sign Manufacturer

Architecture Firm

Acupuncture Clinic

Med-Spa

Gym

HVAC

Plumbing

Tavern with Real Estate

Bakery

Bar & Grill with Real Estate

Auto Repair with Real Estate

Preowned Car Dealership

Trucking Company

Marine Service & Retail

Driving School

E-Commerce Subscription Fulfillment Service

Private Mailbox & Shipping Center

Asphalt Service

Pest Control Service

Landscaping Construction (Public Sector)

Landscape Construction & Maintenance (Private Sector)

In addition to the large volume of privately held companies and family businesses IBA has sold in Washington & Oregon since the start of 2025, our franchise brokerage division has successfully sold numerous franchises providing entrepreneurs with the ability to select a business model that fits their experience & skills and place it in their geographic area of preference.  IBA is unique in its ability to offer business buyers both established and franchised business models to evaluate for acquisition.  Purchasing either through IBA comes at no cost to the buyer.

Few firms in the United States possess IBA’s knowledge, experience, and skill as business sale intermediaries.   Few Pacific Northwest firms have locally based brokers available to hold meetings in person in confidential settings where a potential transaction can be kept out of the public domain and exposure to customers, employees, and vendors.  Few business brokers in Washington & Oregon can provide professional representation by someone who has previously sold businesses in a specific industry.   Few business brokers annually sell dozens of businesses for six, seven, and eight figures that work on a 100% paid on performance business model where payment is not expected until project completion.

If you are considering the sale of a privately held company or family business in Washington or Oregon in 2025, we would welcome the opportunity to learn about your business, exit strategy objectives, and provide an overview of our services.

If you are looking to acquire a business in the Pacific Northwest in 2025, we encourage you to become part of our Buyer Database Program (https://ibainc.com/buy-a-business/).  It is common for IBA to sell companies to participants in our Buyer Database Program that are advertised in the public domain for a limited time.  Frequently parties first learning about IBA representation projects online are a day late and a dollar short when they enter negotiations being administratively behind parties who have met with our clients and reviewed financials days or weeks prior to the public becoming aware of the acquisition opportunity.

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”.