MAY 17-18
IBBA 2025
Annual Conference
A Q u a r t e r l y D i g i t a l P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l B u s i n e s s B r o k e r s A s s o c i a t i o n
T H E B E S T I N S I G H T S O N B U Y I N G A N D S E L L I N G S M A L L B U S I N E S S E S
The insights and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent professional counsel nor an endorsement by the IBBA.
Plus Insights on:
+ Knowing Your Buyer
+ Business Brokerage in the Digital Age
+ Navigating Partial Buy-Ins
+ Legislative Updates and More!
By Erin Crawford,
2025 IBBA Chair
Leading with Gratitude:
A Vision for 2025
Spring 2025
SPRING 2025
The best insights
on buying and selling
small businesses
8
12
16
20
24
30
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
BUSINESS BROKERS: KNOW YOUR BUYER
BUSINESS BROKERS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A TOOLKIT FOR SEAMLESS
AND CONVENIENT COMMUNICATION
NAVIGATING PARTIAL BUY-INS: A GUIDE FOR M&A
PROFESSIONALS, BUYERS AND SELLERS
THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO SELLING A LOGISTICS BUSINESS
AI AND THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS ENHANCING EFFICIENCY,
INSIGHTS, AND CLIENT SUCCESS
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
In this Issue
SPRING 2025
Gratitude and Reflection
As I step into this new role as the Chair of the IBBA
Board of Governors, I do so in a truly humble place
of gratitude, especially considering I have some
pre�y tough shoes to fill, following the great Pino
Bacinello. For those that don’t know me very well, I
hope to get to know you someday soon. But, for now
here’s a quick overview of my business brokerage
journey. I started out on the corporate side for
Transworld Business Advisors’ parent company,
United Franchise Group, overseeing marketing and
franchise development in 2011. As Transworld was
beginning to grow, I really was intrigued with the
idea of brokering businesses, so much that I joined
Andy Cagne�a’s team here in South Florida. I recall
taping drop le�ers (recruited my teenage children
to help out) to doors on the final day of training
week. It was during this time that I realized the
importance of mentorship. It is so hard to get
started in this business without proper mentorship.
IBBA has been and will continue to be a great
resource for new brokers to seek out mentors.
Fast forward through a plethora of listings that
were likely never going to sell, but gave me a
tremendous amount of experience to leapfrog the
learning curve. I joined the IBBA shortly therea�er
and started to capture all the great tools, education,
and relationships that molded my career. In 2017,
I volunteered for the education commi�ee of the
BBF (Business Brokers of Florida) and on the first
commi�ee call, I learned I was the most senior
broker and stepped up to teach the first of many
educational seminars in the South Florida district.
This is where I really began to love and understand
the most important element of our practice
– education and peer to peer networking. In
a�endance at almost all the BBF Seminars was the
great Barry Berkowitz. His heart and passion for
what we do as brokers is unquestionable and he is
one of the major reasons I became actively involved
in the IBBA.
One of the best ways I encourage brokers today
is to get involved…whether that’s on a commi�ee,
taking courses, a�ending events, creating content,
or simply mentoring/being mentored. There is
no be�er way to grow your own practice than to
learn from and teach others. And, of course, our
CBI program is way more than just the 3-le�er
acronym. The amount of work and energy behind
ERIN CRAWFORD
CBI | 2025 IBBA Chair
Leading with Gratitude:
A Vision for 2025
the courses and CBI program includes decades of
combined experience from the best of the best in
our industry. I can say, like many others, my only
mistake was not ge�ing my CBI sooner.
LEARNING CURVE IN GOVERNANCE
Now in my 5th year on the IBBA Board of Governors,
I can look back and say I had no idea what I
was ge�ing into initially. The Carver method of
board governance is something I was completely
unfamiliar with prior to being elected to the Board.
I do believe many of our members are not quite
understanding of how structured and effective
this form of governance really is in connecting the
management of the organization with the direction
from the Board, ultimately to the be�erment of the
members, or owners as they are called, of the IBBA.
Essentially, if you want to speed up your learning
curve of understanding how the IBBA is governed,
I suggest you review the policy manual (note the
link works once you are logged into your account).
You will gain insight into the means and ends,
paying particular a�ention to the 5 overarching
ends in the very beginning of the policy that is at
the core of the governance and management of our
organization.
NEW TO 2025: A SHARK AND
POSSIBLY SOME GATORS
Alongside the management team and our new
Executive Director, Emily Bowler, the IBBA has
been working on so many new initiatives that have
already or are launching in 2025. I am super excited
to get ready for our best conference yet and in my
home state of Florida!! Our conference commi�ee
has lined up a great agenda which includes our
keynote guest speaker, Daymond John!! Yes, you
do recognize that name because for the first time
ever, IBBA is welcoming a shark from the series
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
One of the best ways I encourage brokers today is to get
involved…whether that’s on a commitee, taking courses,
atending events, creating content, or simply mentoring/being
mentored. Tere is no beter way to grow your own practice
than to learn from and teach others.
SPRING 2025
“Shark Tank.” Daymond, one of the original deal
makers and the founder of FUBU, is embracing all
our best questions for this unique fireside chat style
opener to our conference. You absolutely do not
want to miss this conference!
Another testament to the IBBA’s commitment to
elevating the industry is in our largest marketing
campaign initiative ever In 2024, we launched our
award-winning website, SellYourWay.org. This
website is dedicated to educating sellers on using
business brokers and intermediaries throughout the
entire process of selling their business. Continuously
updated with new content, this site has been
generating some amazing traffic and results. In
January Google reported over 21 million impressions.
This resource is available for anyone to register to
receive news and updates and utilize as a promotion of
our professional practice as business brokers.
WRAP UP
In closing, I challenge each member to do 2 new
things to get more involved this year and truly
embrace all that your membership has to offer.
Perhaps you can join a new commi�ee, register for
the conference, sign up to be an ambassador for
first time conference a�endees, or maybe finally
you’ll take that step in ge�ing your CBI. Let’s make
it a great year!
Regards,
ERIN CRAWFORD | CBI | 2025 IBBA Chair
The IBBA: Over 3,000+
Members Strong, and Climbing!
MAY 17-18
Courses Offered May 16
Renaissance Orlando
at SeaWorld® | Orlando, FL
THE BUSINESS BROKER
EVENT OF THE YEAR™
IBBA 2025
Annual Conference
ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
2025
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
SPRING 2025
JOE CAFFREY
CBI
Business Brokers:
Know Your Buyer
One of the most important aspects of successfully
selling a business is defining the likely buyers –
describing who they are and how to find them.
Creating an “avatar” will help you narrow the “field
of fire” when you start your marketing. It allows you
to take a rifle, rather than shot gun approach to the
marketing of that business.
But for this discussion, when we say, “know your
buyer”, we’re using that term in the micro sense;
i.e., referring to the importance of knowing who –
specifically – you’re dealing with when working with a
potential buyer. Because if you’re not dealing with the
right person, you’re very likely to waste your time.
Not knowing who your buyer actually is can set you
up for some rude surprises. This is particularly true
when working with a strategic buyer.
When someone shows up and says they represent
such-and-such-a-business and they are interested in
exploring the possibility of acquiring the company
you’re representing, it tends to get the juices flowing.
Brokers envision a successful sale. Owners envision a
major payday. We tend to want to “get this ball rolling”
and see what kind of deal can be struck. But is the
person that approached you the right one to be talking
to? Is that person or the company they represent legit?
Maybe. But maybe not.
What if the person that calls, even though they may be
part of the business they claim to be representing, has
no authority to make a deal – in fact, has no authority
at all and is just snooping.
Negotiations, due diligence and more negotiations
take weeks in the best of cases – and very o�en
months. You could be spending an awful lot of time
with this individual – and disclosing an awful lot of
information – only to discover that the acquisition
price you’ve been discussing has not even been
communicated to the decision-makers!
You’ve got to ask: Who are the principals of the
business that is supposedly considering this
acquisition? Is there more than one decision maker?
Is the person you’re dealing with one of them? Have
you seen any documentation – such as a company
resolution - indicating the person you’re dealing with is
authorized to act on behalf of the acquiring company?
When you’re selling a business, it’s neither unmannerly
nor boorish to want to know what the structure of the
acquiring business is, who the decision-makers are and
what the decision-making process is before laying out
your client’s proverbial laundry.
You have to know how to balance your desire to get
the deal done with the caution necessary to protect
your client.
PROTECTING THE CLIENT
Protecting our client’s proprietary assets is a critical
aspect of what we do. That means knowing who you’re
disclosing it to.
For example, in almost any acquisition, one of the
most important issues for a buyer is the customer
list and the volume of business done with each. But
that data is also one of the most valuable and heavily
SPRING 2025
guarded assets of the seller. The buyer needs to see it,
but you don’t want to disclose this until you know that
you’re dealing with the decision-maker, and that the
main points of the deal are pre�y much hammered
out. In fact, were we to receive such a request prior to,
at minimum, an executed le�er of intent, we would
advise our client to refuse it.
Until you know you’re working with the actual buyer
- or, at the very least, someone with the authority to
bind the acquiring company contractually – you just
can’t risk pu�ing your client’s most important assets
on the table.
It is not unheard of that competitors will purport to be
buyers when what they’re really a�er is competitive
intelligence. They want to learn what your client is
doing right; who they’re selling to; what their cost
and price structures are; what they’re paying their
employees (perhaps in the hope of stealing the best
ones); what their marketing plans are.
THE BOTTOM LINE
We have to know who our buyer is and that they are
able to do what they say they can do. In the case of
a financial acquisition – individual buyers of most
Mom and Pop businesses – that means ge�ing proof
of financial capability before we start disclosing our
client’s details.
In the case of a strategic acquisition, we advise our
brokers to secure one or two documents from the
buyer: the acquiring entity’s organizing document
listing the owners (if necessary, the specific identities
can be redacted) and a resolution – corporate,
membership, partnership as appropriate – showing
that the person we’re dealing with has been
authorized by the acquiring owners to bind the
acquiring company contractually.
Selling a business is an undertaking that is full of
potential pitfalls and stumbling blocks. If you’re
working with anyone other than the ultimate decision
maker, you run the risk of the deal cratering without
knowing why and without the opportunity to resolve
the buyer’s concerns. If both parties want the deal,
a solution can be found. But that means we have to
know the actual buyer.
And if there’s pushback from any buyer about
providing the simple evidence you request, either the
people you’ve been talking with are blowing smoke or
there’s really no serious interest from the people that
actually count.
JOE CAFFREY | CBI
jcaffrey@WorldwideBusinessBrokers.com
You have to know how
to balance your desire to
get the deal done with the
caution necessary to protect
your client.