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.