Become a Board-Certified Business Broker with the GABB
The Georgia Association of Business Brokers is launching a new educational program which will help our members achieve proficiency in the profession of business brokerage. The Board-Certified Business Broker designation, or BCBB, is intended to make clear to prospective clients that the broker has the knowledge and skills to professionally represent them in future transactions.
The GABB operates Georgia’s only Real Estate School dedicated specifically to business brokerage. The BCBB curriculum includes 42 hours of coursework covering a wide range of topics important to business brokers in the areas of valuation, finance and legal issues. The program is designed to be completed within a two-year period.
SUMMARY:
To earn the designation, business brokers must successfully complete a minimum number of hours in Business Brokerage Fundamentals, Financial Knowledge, and Legal Issues. The remainder of the hours can be chosen from the Miscellaneous category.
Proposed: To earn the BCBB Certification, business brokers must:
- Be an active member of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers.
- Earn 42 hours of educational credits, which must include 12 hours of Business Brokering Fundamentals classes, 12 hours of classes covering Financial Knowledge, 12 hours covering Legal and Business Issues, and 6 hours of Miscellaneous classes.
- Each class will have a written test, and brokers must pass the course test to earn credit.
- Have at least two years of business brokering experience.
- GABB members may opt to take a limited numbers of missed courses online for a fee and will receive BCBB credit for the course upon successful completion of the course’s final exam. This option will not confer any CE credits. Additional fees for taking BCBB classes will apply.
- Attend at least three GABB events each year, which may include meetings or classes.
- Negotiate and complete the sale of at least three businesses as lead agent or demonstrate relevant, comparable business brokerage experience approved by the GABB Board.
- The GABB Board reserves the right to revise the requirements as deemed necessary and in the best interest of the GABB Real Estate School.
Business Brokering Fundamentals, 12 hours of coursework required
- All classes are three hours each
- Introduction to Business Brokerage: Offered on 2-9-21, taught by Dave Chambless
- Elements of Value: TBD
- Business Broker Process: TBD
- Securing Businesses for Sale Listings: Offered on 8-17-21, taught by Matt Wochele
- Marketing Your Listings: Offered as Business Broker Marketing on 6-15-21, taught by Jeff Merry
- Setting Up Your Business Broker Practice: TBD
- Pricing a Business: Offered on 4-26-22, taught by Erin Crawford
- Business Broker Models: Offered on 7-13-21, taught by Mike Ramatowski
- Introduction to Buy-Side Business Brokering: Offered on 4-27-21, taught by Marty Rueter
- Introduction to Sell-Side Business Brokering: Offered on 4-29-21, taught by Dave Chambless
- Business Broker Practice Approaches: Offered on 10-28-20, taught by J. Snypp and Robin Gagnon
Financial Knowledge, 12 hours of coursework required
- All classes are three hours each
- Introduction to Accounting Terms & Federal Tax Returns: TBD
- Understanding Financial Statements: TBD
- Recasting Financials: TBD
- Recasting and Accounting Fundamentals: Offered on 3-1-22, taught by Jon Roman
- Business Valuation Basics Business Valuation Basics,
- Offered 10-27-20, taught by Dan Browning
- Business Valuation, Offered on 10-19-21, taught by Jeff Forrestall and Ricky Moore
- Financing a Business Sale: TBD
Legal Issues, 6 hours of coursework required
- All classes are three hours each.
- Understanding Business & Corporate Structures: TBD
- Legal Issues in Business Brokering: Offered on 5-24-22, taught by Shannan Collier Stalvey
- Business Brokering Ethics: Offered on Oct 25, 2022, taught by Matt Wochele
Miscellaneous, 12 hours of coursework required
- All classes are three hours each.
- Negotiations: TBD
- Inventory Valuation Basics: TBD
- Valuing Real Property: TBD
- Understanding Leases in a Business Transaction: Offered as Evaluating Lease Issues When Buying and Selling a Business on 5-20-20, taught by Wendy Kraby and Jon Roman
- Due Diligence: TBD
- License Law: Offered on 5-19-20, taught by Ann Cyphers
- Any classes from other categories
For more information about the GABB Real Estate School or the application process for the BCBB credential, please contact Diane Loupe at diane.loupe@gabb.org. For more information about the GABB or GABB membership, contact GABB Administrator Courtney Foley at courtney.foley@gabb.org or 770-744-3639, or GABB President Judy Mims at judy@childcare.properties.
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Application for Board-Certified Business Broker Credential
Please complete this application to become a Board-Certified Business Broker with the Georgia Association of Business Brokers. Please contact our administrator, Laura Goe, at admin@gabb.org with any questions about completing this application. Please email the Administrator to obtain a record of classes you have taken with the GABB. The GABB Board or Laura Goe may contact you for additional information before granting your certification.
Board-Certified Business Broker Application
Application for the GABB's Board-Certified Business Broker
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Telling the Story of Your Business
Often selling a business comes down to storytelling. The buyer and seller are the main characters of the story that is being told. The seller is the one relaying the story, and the ideal buyer is the one who truly sees the future opportunity.
A Brokerage Professional Can Help Tell Your Story
The simple fact of the matter is that often even sellers don’t know what the true story of their business actually is. They tend to lack the proper perspective as they are too deeply involved. Sellers may be burnt out or have never really thought through the story of their business in the first place.
Business brokers and M&A advisors serve a great function as a third party who can look at the story from a different perspective. These professionals are numbers people, but it goes beyond that, as they can clearly see your business as a story to be told. And they can help you control that storyline for optimal results.
Embracing the Human Element
In order to tell the story of the business and why a buyer should want to buy it, it is necessary for your business broker or M&A advisor to truly understand your business. This is why good communication is so important. After the interview process, these professionals must precisely arrange all the relevant information in such a way that the buyer can digest it and see the potential within the business. Through that means, a prospective buyer can understand that value and envision him or herself as the hero.
It Goes Beyond the Financials
Business brokers and M&A advisors also help sellers determine the price and work as advisors on pricing. The story of the business does start with the financials and the facts. But this is only the beginning of the process. Brokerage professionals will want to interview you to learn how to weave together your story.
In the end, every story has a moral. It is important to pull all of these elements together to make an engaging story that will ultimately inspire and motivate a buyer to buy the business.
Storytelling Leads to Successful Deals
When buyers open their minds to the story being told, they are able to envision the future potential of the business and why it is going to be a valuable opportunity. At the end of the day, selling a business isn’t strictly about numbers, figures, facts, profit and loss margins, and other financial variables. Instead, it is also about the people.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
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Welcome to our new Broker Members for 1Q2022!
We welcomed seven new Broker Members to the GABB in the first quarter of 2022! We are grateful for our continued growth as an organization post-pandemic. Read more about our new members below.
Broker Members not pictured are Solomon Padilla, Hector Rojas, and Jennifer West.
Deanna Dickinson, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, has 21 years in the dental consulting business industry helping dentists throughout the state, both as a dental consultant for 15 years with the largest dental distributor in the world and for 6 years with her own consulting business, Team DMD Consulting. She helps senior dentists broker their practices and also has her real estate license with specialization in commercial transactions to help all types of doctors with their properties.
Andy Harrison is a graduate with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. Since 2003, Andy has been personally buying, selling, investing, and managing companies, signal family/multi-family and retail investment properties. He left corporate America in 2012 and purchased a brokerage so that he could assist investors by purchasing and selling companies and real estate. His company also provides property management to investors that hold their investment properties for cash flow. Andy is a licensed real estate broker with has knowledge and experience to help investors with the purchase or sell of their business and the entire business cycle for investment properties. Andy also advises investors on the following strategies: fix and flips, rehabbing, land contracts, 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, IRA investing, lease options, option contracts, and creative seller financing solutions.
Megan Lyons has been a resident of Georgia for over 20 years and has lived in several areas in and around Atlanta. She is very familiar with the areas of Decatur, Kirkwood, East Atlanta, Chamblee, Midtown, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Alpharetta, Roswell, Marietta, and Woodstock but is certainly not limited to them. Constantly visiting new places around the city is what keeps her up-to-date with the latest information on the market.
After graduating from Georgia College & State University with a B.A. in Management, Megan worked in sales for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. In an effort to further her career Megan changed companies in 2008 to do marketing work for a boutique home-building company. It was here that she realized her passion in life–real estate!
Megan’s experiences in sales, marketing, customer service, and home-building enhance her ability to provide her clients with the most accurate and up-to-date information, useful resources and tools to help them along the way, as well as top-notch customer service.
Tatiana Yagecic was introduced to business at an early age when her father opened his first restaurant in Slovakia. She quickly learned the ins-and-outs of various hospitality operations because of her willingness to learn every job. She worked closely by her dad’s side as the business venture expanded.
Welcoming the opportunity, she moved to the United States and pursued a hospitality degree. Having the experience of starting and operating various businesses, she was recommended to join the Best Business Brokers team as a Marketing Director. Her drive and focus quickly led her to become licensed in Real Estate and transition into the role of a Business Broker. Naturally, her initial focus is on hospitality operations, and she strives to help her clients raise the value of their businesses. This industry has been at the forefront of her career her entire life, and her expertise will contribute to many successful business and real estate acquisitions. Tatiana serves the Charleston, South Carolina area, which is her favorite city to explore with her husband and two beautiful children.
Read MoreIs it Possible to Buy a Business Without Collateral?
When it comes to getting a loan, you can be certain that a bank will want collateral. This is true for both personal and business loans. Simply stated, if you have collateral, your bank won’t be concerned about being left empty handed if you can’t repay the loan. Many budding business owners are, in fact, held back by the fact that they lack the collateral needed to buy a business. However, the good news is that there are ways that one can buy a business with no collateral or very little collateral.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is the first stop for those wanting to start a business with a low level of collateral. The SBA’s 7 (a) program provides banks with incentives to make loans to buyers. It is through this program that the SBA will provide guarantees for a whopping 75% of the loan amount. The borrower still has to have the remaining 25% of the loan amount. This means that on a $1 million dollar business, the borrower just has to come up with $250,000 and not the full $1 million dollars.
Through the SBA’s 7 (a) program it is possible for prospective business owners to consider businesses that would otherwise be completely out of their reach. Yet, there is a second excellent aspect to the program, namely that the cash that buyers use to meet the 25% requirement can come from an investor or a gift. Anyone looking to become a first time business owner will want to fully explore all that the SBA’s 7 (a) program has to offer.
A second route for those looking to buy their first business is seller financing. Seller financing is not rare, as many may suspect. This method of financing is actually quite common. If sellers are motivated, they are much more willing to consider seller financing. Keep in mind that there are many reasons why a seller may be motivated, such as retirement, unexpected personal problems, or just burnout. Seller financing and the SBA’s 7 (a) program could, in some situations, be used together. This combination could serve to greatly increase your chances of buying a business.
This is not to state that there are zero obstacles or limitations with the SBA’s 7 (a) program. For example, the program requires that sellers cannot receive any form of payment for a full two-year time period. There are ways to address this problem, but it is something that buyers and sellers alike should be ready to address.
A lack of collateral doesn’t have to mean the end of the dream of owning a business. If you are interested in owning your own business and lack collateral, meet with a consultant at S.C.O.R.E. and other experienced professionals, such as a business broker or M&A advisor. An experienced brokerage professional will have a wide-array of ideas for how to buy a business with little or limited collateral.
Copyright: Business Brokerage Press, Inc.
The post Is it Possible to Buy a Business Without Collateral? appeared first on Deal Studio – Automate, accelerate and elevate your deal making.