Archive for category: Know Your Broker

In this occasional series, we will share profiles of our team here at Apex so you can get to know the men and women who make us best qualified to help you buy or sell a business.

Jeff Crooks has spent almost 20 years as a business broker.

Even more impressive, he’s spent almost double that amount of time in the US Army. That includes 8 years on active duty, with the remainder in the reserve. His current rank is Lieutenant Colonel.  

Persistence Pays Well

When asked about what makes him successful in both fields, he responds, “Persistence pays well.”

He attributes the early stages of this trait to the work ethic instilled in him by his military family, but he honed it through practice.  

“When someone says…call me in 90 days… and then I actually do, they’re shocked.” Because the sales cycle in business brokering can often be months and years in the making (though he recently had two businesses close within 30 days), persistence really matters.

It Takes One to Know One

Jeff started life as a broker after selling his own staffing firm via a business broker.

As a business owner himself, he had a passion for helping others realize their own dreams. He also felt that he had the ability to manage the egos of everyone involved in the transactions: buyers, sellers, accountants, attorneys, financial planners, and of course, family.  

While he’s sold all sorts of businesses, Jeff has a particular passion for those in manufacturing, distribution, and service. Despite having undergraduate degrees in biology and chemistry and a graduate degree in Business, it’s his graduate degree in Gerontology that he uses most often. He believes it helps him understand his older sellers particularly well.  

“For them, it’s not about money. It’s about legacy and reputation. This is their baby, and they need to be able to trust me with it.”

When you meet Jeff and witness his confidential nature in person, it’s not surprising that so many people trust him with their (business) babies, regardless of their age.  

In this occasional series, we will share profiles of our team here at Apex so you can get to know the men and women that make us best qualified to help you buy or sell a business.

While it’s true that Ron has only been in the industry for 3 years, he brings over 45 years of experience buying and selling businesses on his own behalf.  

Those experiences inform the way he works with buyers and sellers because he can say he’s been in both positions many times.

Ron lives on 16 acres of wooded property in Wellsville, Kansas, about 45 minutes southwest of Kansas City and 15 minutes from Gardner, where he first got his start in a family-owned and operated grocery store.

He was managing the produce department by the age of 11 and closing the store by 13. He knew the business inside out and so it was no surprise that, after helping his parents expand the business, he bought it from them when he was in his mid-30s.  

He took over when the business was doing $25M in annual revenue and, through selling the smaller stores and doing strategic acquisitions, he grew the business to $100M in revenue.  

The grocery business wasn’t enough to satisfy Ron’s entrepreneurial drive, so he and his wife Sandra went on to grow a sunscreen business 1500% in sales over a 10-year period before selling that company as well.

He eventually got into business brokering but found that as a sole owner-operator in the space, he simply didn’t have access to the same resources and expertise that a firm like Apex did. He joined us and hasn’t looked back since.

Ron knows, having participated in many business transactions (he has owned, operated, and sold more than 40 businesses), that buying or selling a business is a life-changing event.  He has a real passion to help goal-oriented individuals realize their dreams.  He enjoys connecting with them deeply on a personal level not just to build trust, but to know how to structure deals and the process for the best outcome.  

“I know how much anxiety can come from these events and, as a broker, I want my clients to see my number and hope that I’m calling with good news.”

In this occasional series we will share profiles of our team here at Apex so you can get to know the men and women that make us best qualified to help you buy or sell a business.

Anita has been with Apex for over 10 years now after having built and sold her own company. Because of that experience, she brings the knowledge of someone who has been in the shoes of a seller.

In each transaction, Anita strives to ensure that a potentially stressful process for both buyer and seller doesn’t turn adversarial.

“If I’m the buffer, then the buyer doesn’t blame the seller, and vice versa.The key is getting them to understand ‘the other party’s point of view,’” she notes.  “A seller recently reacted negatively to a buyer’s request for some financial documents, wondering if the buyer didn’t trust him, and I reminded him it’s not a matter of trust, but just normal due diligence verification – not just for himself, but for banks, a spouse, the SBA, and any number of other counterparties.  Don’t take it personally.”

Anita helps both parties realize that they ultimately have the same goal: a successful transaction. Maintaining focus on that goal allows the parties and their advisors to find mutually agreeable solutions to obstacles that come up during the closing process.

It’s this attitude that allows Anita to close unconventional deals. One example was a company she sold some years ago that had just acquired a competitor with very poor financial statements. Because of this, there was a lack of clarity as to its potential profitability post-acquisition. Because she had managed to build the proper trust and rapport between both parties, they were able to close a two-part transaction; one that was for the original business; the second was for the company that the business had acquired prior to the sale. The seller shouldered some of the risk through an earn-out and would work for the new buyer, hence, creating a sort of a “joint venture” on the success of the company with poor records.

When asked what her “secret sauce” is, Anita replied, “I’m thorough from an analysis standpoint, and I’m thorough throughout the process – in accounting, relationship management, information gathering, and deal tracking.  That skill matched to my experience has really helped me put together some great deals.”