Spring 2023
The insights and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors
and do not represent professional counsel nor an endorsement by the IBBA.
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
Plus
Insights on:
+ The Inaugural Master’s Program
+ Preparing for Buyer-Seller Meetings
+ SBA Financing
+ and More!
Defining
Moments
by Kyle Grifth, 2023 IBBA chair
SPRING 2023
The best insights on buying
and selling small businesses
In this Issue
12
20
26
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
INAUGURAL MASTER’S EDUCATION PROGRAM
PREPARING FOR THE FIRST BUYER-SELLER MEETING
FINANCING THROUGH THE SBA
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
SPRING 2023
Defining Moments
Kyle Griffith, CBI, CM&AP
Joining the IBBA in 2016 was a defining moment in my business brokerage career.
I wanted to broaden my knowledge of business sales, network and learn from
industry leaders. My participation in the IBBA has been invaluable, and I was
honored to be elected to the Board in 2019. With now over 13 years’ experience, I
credit my success to the IBBA and aspire to continue seeing this organization keep creating defining
moments in the lives of others.
I think, by definition, a defining moment o�en entails doing or achieving something that hasn’t
been done before. With over 2,800 members the IBBA is the largest and strongest we’ve ever been
and we’re a�racting a more diverse pool of people to our profession and organization; it’s a defining
moment. Passage of the Brokerage Simplification Act is a significant, defining moment for us all. If
we look back just a few short years at the progress of our education programs, awards, benefits and
Conferences, each has experienced a defining moment of new heights that has increased value for
membership. The question then is, where do we go from here?
Just as with our own professional development, the IBBA must strive to achieve new defining
moments. Here are a few on the radar that I’m most excited about…
DEFINING MOMENT: RAISING AWARENESS OF THE BUSINESS BROKERAGE PROFESSION.
As insights from our business owner research studies come in, we will be be�er equipped to play an
even stronger role in making sure business owners understand that working with a Business Broker
is essential. Increasing the knowledge and utilization of professional Business Brokers will be a
defining moment that is central to our primary purpose.
DEFINING MOMENT: ATTRACTING THE NEXT GENERATION. Starting years ago we’ve been
intentional about be�er educating people about the industry and in being an organization that
supports the advancement of women in the profession. Just look around our Conferences or Zoom
meetings and you can see change happening; we have more diversity than ever before, and this
benefits us ALL. We’re continuing to press into these areas and explore new ways to help more
people flourish. Breaking the mold of a ‘good ole boys’ profession and se�ing up the next generation
for success is a defining moment to certainly be proud of.
DEFINING MOMENT: THE LARGEST BUSINESS BROKERAGE CONFERENCE IN HISTORY. It’s
not an exaggeration to predict that this year’s Conference in Orlando will be the largest we’ve ever
seen. As an a�endee, that means you have even more insights and best practices to tap into – any
one of which can result in a defining moment for your personal success. Many of my own significant
moments can be correlated back to a course, conversation or connection that happened at an IBBA
Conference.
The other thing you begin to realize about defining moments is that they do not come from working
in isolation and their impact is not isolated either. By surrounding ourselves with like-minded
individuals, investing in our skills and supporting each other collectively, we can positively impact
the industry and achieve personal and professional growth. And as you then take your skills to the
marketplace and help business owners transition, YOU are creating defining moments in the lives of
so many others who are impacted by that business. I can tell you that seeing that happen is the most
fulfilling aspect of what we do.
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
SPRING 2023
If you can’t tell, I love what we do as Business Brokers and I am so honored to serve as Chair of
the IBBA this year. I want to express my gratitude to the previous Chair, Randy Bring, for his
exceptional leadership and unwavering dedication to the organization. The IBBA made remarkable
progress and achieved great success under his leadership, working in tandem with Board members,
volunteers and staff. It’s the dedication of these people that has cemented IBBA as the world’s
premier, professional association for Business Brokers, and it’s that continued dedication by the
people of our organization that will drive us all to our next defining moments. I look forward to
working with every one of you to continue the IBBA’s tradition of excellence and growth.
See you in Orlando!
Best regards,
KYLE GRIFFITH
CBI, CM&AP
Managing Partner
The NYBB Group
The IBBA: 2,800+ Members
Strong, and Growing!
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Tax Issues Every Business
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Friday, May 19
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Overcoming Objections In Listing
And Sales Contracts
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SPRING 2023
Inaugural Master’s
Education Program
Barry J. Berkowitz
PhD, CBI, M&AMI
In recent past years, the IBBA heard from many of our tenured Certified Business
Intermediaries® (CBI) who practice in the main street and general marketplace. They voiced
their desire for advanced education to have even more expertise in what they do. It was
the vision of IBBA Executive Director, Kylene Golubski, to develop a Master’s Education
Program to satisfy those needs. Kylene said, ”One of IBBA’s principal focuses is to deliver
education on the knowledge, skills, and techniques permitting Business Brokers to operate
at the highest level of competency to best serve the needs of their clients.”
During 2022, the effort began to make the Master’s Education Program a reality. The
Program is focused on the CBI member who wants to expand and extend his/her knowledge
base within the main street and general marketplace. Some IBBA members want to move
onto bigger deal sizes in the the lower middle market and learn how to do that by becoming
members of the M&A Source®, IBBA’s sister organization. However, a significant number
of tenured CBI’s are more interested in continuing to work in the main street and general
marketplace to increase their depth and breadth of knowledge in that space. Unlike the
entry and intermediate level education where the “nuts and bolts” of business brokerage
are taught, this Master’s Program was designed to teach a higher level of knowledge and
skill sets. Steven Beal, IBBA’s Education Committee Chair, comments that, “… education at
the IBBA must be innovative and stay at the leading edge of content and technology. This
Program certainly does that.”
The Master’s Education Program content was developed and is being delivered by some of
IBBA’s best instructors. The Program focuses on the subtle, and often surprising, issues
that occur in actual deals but can usually be avoided only through expertise and years of
experience. Many times, these difficult issues can end a deal; an outcome we can perhaps
avoid. It is the intent of this Program to focus on preparedness and the actions that the
Business Broker can take to anticipate and prevent such issues from arising, and to know
how to effectively handle them when they do arise.
SPRING 2023
Rather than a lecturing environment, our students are learning through a colloquium type
setting that is more reminiscent of the learning process in graduate school studies. Thus,
our instructors have been renamed as Professors for this Program. Each of the 10 Professors
spends a month on a different aspect of the business brokerage process. They meet with the
students live, online two times per month with pre-work, exercises and discussions with the
students participating in the colloquium setting. Topics include issues and experiences, and
are discussed by all sharing their ideas. It provides an opportunity for the CBI to learn of the
mistakes and accomplishments of others, saving many years of building those experiences
themselves. The ten Professors for this inaugural Program include Cress V. Diglio, Rich
Mowrey, Louis Pereira. Glen Cooper, Jim Afinowich, Andy Cagnetta, Tawnya Gilreath, Lou
Vescio, Monty Walker, and Pino Bacinello. The colloquium style of learning is delivered live,
online using IBBA’s learning platform at www.ibbauniversity.com.
The result is that the entire group gains the knowledge and virtual experiences of others.
Cress Diglio, with many years of experience, tell us that he has learned many new ideas from
the students. Lou Pereira, who is teaching the valuation session, spent zero time teaching
the math; every student already knew the valuation process. Instead, Professor Pereira was
more focused on the thought process involved in valuing a business. He posed interesting
scenarios for the students to discuss and the results, coming from various experiences, were
very helpful to all.
We have to date completed two months of the 10-month Program. The sessions were designed
to follow the various stages of the business brokerage process. They include:
•
Prospecting for Sellers
•
Pre-Due Diligence with Sellers
•
Analyzing and Valuing Businesses
•
Packaging and Marketing Businesses
•
Identifying and working with Qualified Buyers