American Dream Achieved
IBA, as a fifty-year old business brokerage firm serving the entrepreneurial community of the Pacific Northwest, has been uniquely positioned since before the American Bicentennial celebration of 1976 to witness and hear the stories of thousands of people who have lived the American dream through entrepreneurship creating beloved businesses by employees, customers, and communities while finding personal fulfillment and financial prosperity through execution of their ideas, hard work, perseverance, and ability. In an effort to share these stories heard throughout the years by our team of business brokers, who are commonly regarded as the “best listeners” in the M&A industry, IBA has retained highly regarded writer, Nesha Ruther, to tell their stories. It is our goal to share one story a month. It is our hope that you will find the stories as inspirational and motivational as they are to us and the buyers who bought the businesses in IBA facilitated transactions in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The following story comes from internal at IBA and features the President & CEO of IBA at the conclusion of our 50th year as a company, Gregory Kovsky. IBA is blessed to have many successful entrepreneurs among its team of business sale intermediaries and corporate management. Guidance that comes from a place of knowledge is valued. However, professional counsel from a party with relevant academic knowledge and field experience is superior.
The Story of Gregory Kovsky – President & CEO of IBA
By Nesha Ruther
Gregory Kovsky’s career with IBA began not with Gregory himself, but with his father. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Michael Kovsky was a veterinarian who served in the Army during the Vietnam War. Stationed at Fort Lewis, he was part of the Veterinary Corps. “When he got out of the service, my father didn’t want to go back to a city where the rivers caught fire from the steel mills,” Gregory says. “He fell in love with the mountains and ocean of the Pacific Northwest and started a veterinary hospital in Portland.”
Michael’s business did quite well, but in his 40s he realized that the business had grown to be too restrictive, and he no longer wanted to be a veterinarian. “There was a situation where he and my mother were supposed to go away for the weekend for their anniversary. But one of the breeders he worked with needed an emergency cesarean section for their prized wirehaired Dachshund. So, they had to cancel the vacation so he could deliver the puppies,” Gregory recounts.
That fateful weekend had two major results, the first was that Michael realized he had no control over his schedule and needed to make a change. The second was that multiple weeks later, the family got a new Dachshund puppy that they named M&M.
When Michael decided to sell his business, he went with one of the best-regarded business brokerage firms in the Pacific Northwest, IBA. Afterwards, he worked for a time as Vice President of Hill’s Pet Projects in Topeka, Kansas but the family missed the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, Michael and his wife had to think of their other son who was special-needs and could receive better care in the Northwest than in Kansas. In the early 1990s, the family moved to Seattle. “My father didn’t know what to do as his next step, but he came upon the idea of selling veterinary hospitals, so he approached the founder of IBA, Bill Ososke about joining as a broker.”
Meanwhile, Gregory had left the Pacific Northwest and gone to school at the University of Texas, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on investment finance. During his time at UT, he worked as a student manager for the men’s basketball team. Upon graduating, Gregory was faced with the choice between going to Wall Street or continuing with college basketball. “My father gave me good advice; he’s provided sage counsel multiple times in my life. He said, ‘You should pursue a coaching career because I don’t want you to be in your 40s always wondering what if.’”
Gregory followed his dad’s advice and began his first career as a college basketball coach. “From a very young age I fell in love with the game of basketball,” Gregory says. “I didn’t have a lick of athletic talent, but I had the heart of a champion and a great mind for the game.” Gregory worked for four years at the junior college level, mentoring young players, working summer basketball camps for iconic coaches from Roy Williams to Denny Crum and Jud Heathcote to Rick Pitino, and recruiting talent nationally. He even received several Division One offers to advance to the next level of coaching.
However, he had grown tired of the profession. Gregory is a born leader, but ultimately you cannot force a person to make good choices, and seeing young players refuse to live up to their full potential had become crushing. “I had lost the utopian glow from seeing players with professional level talent who wouldn’t go to school or work hard, had run ins with the law living the “gangster” life, or would flunk out and not take advantage of the potential they had,” he says.
A little adrift, Gregory returned to the Northwest. He got a job running the pro shop at the Seattle Tennis Club as he pondered his next move. Naturally, he turned to his father for counsel. “My dad said, ‘I think you would be good at selling businesses, you’ve got an accounting and finance background academically and you’re a salesman by personality.’ That idea intrigued me.” Michael introduced his son to IBA founder Bill Ososke and in 1994 Gregory joined the firm as one of three brokers working out of IBA’s new Bellevue office, which had opened in 1991. “I had an office right next to my father. We had the ability to see each other on a daily basis, have lunch, and build a relationship that many don’t have. We worked together for 25 years. Few parents/kids have that opportunity in the 21st century.”
While other father-son duos might find this dynamic challenging, Michael and Gregory never did. They held each other in such high regard and had such mutual admiration that even as their positions changed and grew, they never felt hindered by or in competition with each other. “For the first six years we were essentially equals reporting to the same boss,” Gregory says. “There wasn’t a hierarchy, which can be difficult in parent-child relationships, especially with headstrong males like I was.” Even after Gregory began to advance and became one of the firm’s top brokers, Michael was never anything but immensely proud of his son.
While Michael had always thrived in the niche of selling veterinary hospitals, Gregory was more of a generalist. “I had several areas that I enjoyed,” he says. “Firstly, I love travel, so I sold travel agencies and I really enjoyed that world, getting to talk about travel with entrepreneurs in that space. I also sold internet providers back when it used to be a fragmented market. Now with the big companies like Comcast, there’s limited options, but back then there used to be many small providers.”
Another, perhaps more unexpected passion of Gregory’s was the sale of flower shops. “I had the mentorship of Susan Howard who was a senior broker at IBA and the floral queen of Portland. I saw her success and decided to explore that industry. I loved the environment of green, healthy, growing things, but it’s also one of the most sophisticated businesses because a florist shop is both an artistic manufacturer in which every product is unique and one-of-a-kind and a retail & logistics operation,” Gregory says. Over the years, he became a national expert in the sale of floral businesses, writing and publishing for numerous magazines on the intricacies of the business.
While Michael continued to work for IBA until he was 75 years old, he quickly exited management with the firm, passing that baton to his son. “[My father] was the office manager when I joined the firm in 1994, but had no management aspirations at that stage of his life, so he handed management of the Washington team over to me as soon as possible in 1997, giving Bill my endorsement,” Gregory says. In 2000, Bill approached Gregory about buying the business from him, and Gregory, after consideration, decided to continue to climb the executive ladder, becoming IBA’s second President.
One major factor in Gregory’s success is his ability to build strong interpersonal relationships. “I would credit my mother and brother for that,” he says. “From my brother Stephen, who is special needs, I learned how to work with a smile. It doesn’t matter what the task is, it could be emptying the trash, he would volunteer and do it willingly. He is also incredibly accepting, everyone is instantly his friend and he’s willing to help them, so that was formative for me.” Gregory’s mother was a special education teacher who dedicated her career to helping others. “I was raised to listen and help from a young age. It’s a fundamental part of who I am. My mother taught me that if you’re good at what you do and do it with integrity, you’ll achieve great results and money will follow. I’ve always had that philosophy in business.”
Gregory took that mindset into growing IBA, he knew it was important to retain the old guard of brokers who had helped mentor him, but he also wanted to refine the business and build a community that reflected his values. “We had a sizeable team by 2008, but there was some dysfunction in that there was a lot of internal competition, and some of the brokers didn’t have the level of integrity that I required,” he says. “In that way, I actually benefitted from the Great Recession. We went from 15 intermediaries throughout the Pacific Northwest region in 2009 to six in 2011 and that allowed me to do IBA 2.0 and build a team that reflected the characteristics I wanted.”
When it comes to selecting brokers for IBA, Gregory looks at far more than just sales records. “I like someone that has an athletic background because you learn teamwork from sports, you learn to be judged based on your success, and pick yourself back up from adversity. I also look for people who are able to build quality relationships and one way I gauge that is through marriage, through relationships with family and long-term friends. Relationships take work and effort, so I like someone who recognizes that, and of course, I like people who have demonstrated proficiency in sales and come from a variety of industries. Today, I have 18 brokers and I’m very proud of the team. It’s truly a family and is a meaningful execution of my vision.”
Gregory is also keenly aware that new brokers need to not only meet his expectations but those of the rest of the team. “I make all potential brokers interview with a handful of existing team members,” he says. “I want them to be able to ask questions about the industry, about IBA, about my management style, without me in the room. And if I get one ‘no’ from all of those meetings, I will not hire them, I will not override my team. I need unanimous consent to hire a broker.”
After the competition and internal squabbling of IBA 1.0, Gregory learned he needed an objective way to divide up the leads that come into the company. One way he did this was by hiring brokers who specialize in a wide range of industries. “If an auto repair lead comes into the company, I have one of the best brokers in the region in that space. There are no issues over who will get the job, it’s going to Jeff and no one doubts that. If there’s a healthcare lead it will go to Andrea because she worked in the healthcare industry,” he says.
In addition to industry, Gregory distributes leads considering things like geographic familiarity and demographic groups. “Bill has roots in Spokane, so he is my primary person for businesses out of that area. Grace is Chinese and Oliver and Sergei are Russian, all of which are very robust entrepreneurial communities. If a Russian entrepreneur is selling their business, I am inclined to give the lead to someone who can speak to them in their native language because understanding things like tax strategy is really difficult in your second language,” Gregory explains.
Gregory himself focuses mostly on executive management, although he maintains the company record for most businesses sold in a year by a single broker (a whopping 19 businesses.) “I still occasionally sell businesses because I think it’s important for me to keep a finger on the pulse of what is going on in the market, most of what I take on is referrals from past clients and collaborative partners,” he says. “But my brokers are always amazed by the leads I give them. They’ll say, ‘Gregory you’re giving away a six-figure commission.’ But it’s never been about the money for me. I care about achievement and doing right by people.”
While, like anyone, Gregory is motivated by providing for his family and allowing them to have a myriad of opportunities, his own goals are far from materialistic. “My dad teases me about this regularly, I honestly would be happy with a scrap of carpet and a book, living an austere life. I don’t need much. My primary motivations have always been taking care of my wife and children, mentoring others so they can do the same, and serving the entrepreneurial community of people who have lived the American Dream and now are ready to sell what they built and retire.”
Another major change he has made to IBA since becoming owner is growing its online platform. However, what is now an industry-leading source of information for brokers and potential clients alike, was born out of failure.
“During the recession, I started a company called FairTaxAssessment.com that, using a network of residential real estate brokers, provided research to help people appeal the property tax assessments for their homes. We were having a lot of success, but unfortunately, the government dramatically reduced property tax values in King County and it killed the monetization of the model before it gained traction,” he recounts. “The business failed, but through that experience, I learned so much about online engagement as an e-commerce company. That allowed me to work with Karen Mollison, who is my collaborator in the online space, to build out our website to become this wonderful brand where we share knowledge and experience. For example, our blog has a significant organic following, and it’s completely free. It’s a library resource for the entrepreneurial community with a loyal weekly readership.”
“It’s a place where people can come to learn about buying and selling privately held companies and family businesses. We have had almost 200 guest authors contributing to the site, and it’s an ecosystem of people advocating for and supporting the small business community,” Gregory says. This passion has extended recently to podcasts, where Gregory is a frequent guest willing to open his playbook for selling or buying businesses and share his 31 years of transactional knowledge with anyone who cares to listen.
This form of passive marketing allows Gregory to devote his attention to making sure the business is running efficiently and serving their clients to the best of their abilities, without fighting to bring in leads. “I love marketing and business development, but I can’t let product quality and customer service falter,” he says. “I try to grow intelligently based on the bandwidth and needs of the company without cannibalizing the income of my team members.”
Gregory also invests time and energy into his relationships with attorneys, CPAs, bankers, real estate professionals, consultants, and wealth advisors who can then refer IBA to their clients, whether that be as a broker or simply as a free source of information. “We lead with knowledge, experience, a high skill set, and superior customer service practices. We do seminars where we help educate people, we appear on podcasts and webinars, and we really just want to provide knowledge. My philosophy is if we can’t convince you to go with IBA, you should go with someone else. But more often than not our expertise speaks for itself.”
IBA is also just as selective in the businesses they represent as they are in hiring brokers. Gregory would never take on a business he didn’t believe he could sell or promise to sell at a price higher than what he believes is possible just to secure a lead. “I coach all my brokers that they are better off passing on a project than taking on a business that is not going to sell. We pass on about 2/3rds of the businesses that approach us, and we don’t charge anything unless we complete the sale,” he says. “We always start with an evaluation of the business, and that serves two purposes. Firstly, for our clients, they can sample our knowledge and learn what their business is worth without any obligation to IBA. Secondly, for ourselves, we have a chance to assess if we believe in the business model, if the seller is realistic on value, and unless there is a meeting of the minds, we won’t proceed with them.”
As far as Gregory’s hopes and aspirations for IBA, it is to continue to share information and advocate for entrepreneurs. “I am a strong believer in the benefits of owning a small business in the United States,” he says. “It allows a person to execute their vision, do something they are passionate about, and climb the ladder of economic prosperity in a way that can’t be done working for someone else.”
At the heart of IBA is an immutable respect and admiration for entrepreneurs of all backgrounds, who have worked hard to make their dreams a reality. “I strongly believe in the melting pot of America. After over 30 years of selling businesses, I have seen entrepreneurs of every demographic succeed. I have seen men, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, first-generation immigrants, and entrepreneurs of every religion and ethnicity. It’s an amazing thing.”
For Gregory, this commitment to community success is not only the principle by which he runs IBA but the reason he has been able to achieve his own American Dream. “I have lived a wholesome and fulfilling life by being able to serve others and create opportunities for entrepreneurs and brokers alike,” he says. “That is my American Dream. I believe in community, I believe in the concept that “it takes a village.” All of us contribute what we can, whether it’s my special needs brother Steve working at a recycling center sorting products, my mother working in school districts with kids with dyslexia, my father being a veterinarian taking care of animals, or my wife who managed seven states for an Au Pair Organization.”
“I play a small role by helping business owners take their hard work, their blood, sweat, and tears and turn it into a liquidity event that allows them to retire in comfort and dignity and leave behind a legacy.”
But for the owners of the 4,400+ businesses that IBA has sold, it is no small role, no small role at all.
Nesha Ruther
Nesha Ruther is a writer and editor from Takoma Park, Maryland. She received her BA in English Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin Madison, where she received a full tuition scholarship through the First Wave program based on academic and creative merits. She was a 2016 Young Arts winner in spoken word, a 2016 winner of the DC Commission of the Arts Larry Neal Writing Award, a 2017 winner of the Mochila Review Writing Award, which was judged by Nikki Giovanni, a 2020 winner of the University of Wisconsin’s Eudora Welty Fiction Thesis Award, and a 2022 Tin House Winter Workshop Participant. She has been commissioned to write and perform for the National Education Association, and has had work published in NarrativeNortheast, Angles Literary Magazine, Beltway Quarterly and more. She currently lives in Cincinnati Ohio, is a Lead Writer at Bond & Grace, and a co-host for the podcast Lit Talk (https://www.bondandgrace.com/the-lit-talk-podcast).