GABB 2017 Fall Conference: Science of Negotiation & Number Crunching
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Atlanta REALTORS® Center
Enjoy a day of professional training, earn up to six hours of professional education credits, and network with other business broker professionals. All for the low price of $99 for GABB members, or $149 for non-members. But, if you join GABB, you can attend the conference at the member price and enjoy membership through the end of 2018!
The courses will include:
Financial Analysis of Commercial Properties: All about number crunching
This course introduces commercial property financial analysis. It identifies the tangible benefits of investing in real estate and explains what investors want. Students will be introduced to investment analysis and terminology regarding income and expenses; comparison of investments on both a before-tax and after-tax basis. A summary of the key calculations such as capitalization, cash-on-cash, gross rent multiplies, equity rate of return, internal rate of return and financial management rate of return will be reviewed with hands-on applications by students. The impact of leveraging on the return will be reviewed.
Upon completion of the course, through though the uses of lecture and case studies, the student will be able to:
- Identify four advantages to investors of commercial property.
- Distinguish the difference between net operating income and cash flow.
- Recognize the components of investment analysis.
- Complete a case study to calculate before tax cash flow, after tax cash flow, deprecation and tax consequences.
- Grasp the importance of leverage.
- Compare seven property evaluation methods.
The Science of Negotiation
This course explains what negotiation is and identifies the basic principles of negotiation. The instructor will help students identify the tangible benefits of negotiation and understand distinct types of negotiating tactics. Students will be introduced to two types of negotiations and identify the key substance in a commercial negotiation. Skills and strategies for successful negotiation will be identified and explained focusing on critical concepts of a win-win negotiation. Using a case study, students will ascertain five steps of negotiation which include BATNA, Reservation Price and ZOPA. The importance of body language and personality types will be reviewed.
Upon completion of the course, through the use of lecture, case studies and group discussion the student will be able to
- Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of negotiation.
- Identify the benefits of negotiation.
- Distinguish negotiation tactics and how to handle them.
- Contrast two types of negotiations and identify the key substance of a commercial negotiation.
- Ascertain key negotiating skills and tips.
- Recognize key concepts of a win-win negotiation.
- Summarize key steps in negotiation and gain knowledge of BATNA, Reservation Price and ZOPA through the use of an actual case study.
Instructor:
Ann Cyphers, president of Cyphers Brokerage Associates, Inc., is a recognized leader in the Atlanta commercial real estate market. During her 30-year career, Ann has successfully negotiated and closed hundreds of leases for local and national clients in the Atlanta market. Ann has represented institutional owners and developers in the leasing and marketing of trophy office buildings in the Buckhead, Central Perimeter and Northwest submarkets.
Ann is a CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member), a designation held by only 6 percent of the estimated 125,000 commercial real estate practitioners nationwide. The CCIM is one of the most coveted and respected designations in the industry. CCIM members are recognized experts in the disciplines of commercial and investment real estate.
The Georgia Association of Business Brokers conference will be offered at the Atlanta REALTORS® Center, 5784 Lake Forrest Drive, Atlanta, GA 30328.
Breakfast will be provided by Kim Eells, Vice President and Business Development Officer for Government Guaranteed Lending at the BrandBank.
Corporate attorney Germaine Curtin, LLC, of Curtin Law will be the lunch sponsor.
Register online:
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Federal Reserve Director Spoke March 28 to GABB
Galina Alexeenko, Director of the Regional Economic Information Network of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta spoke to the Georgia Association of Business Brokers on March 28.
Here is a copy of her PowerPoint presentation on economic conditions. Georgia Business Brokers 3-28-17
The GABB is the state’s only association of professionals who help in the purchase and sale of businesses and franchises. The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Dunwoody Public Library at 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338, preceded by a 10 a.m. networking session with coffee and pastries. Mark Jones of Franchise Systems Advisors is the meeting sponsor.
In Ms. Alexeenko’s role as a Regional Economic Information Network (REIN) Director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, she generates economic intelligence from a variety of sources to support the Federal Reserve’s formulation and implementation of sound monetary policy. Ms. Alexeenko is also instrumental in fulfilling the Atlanta Fed’s public service mission through region-wide outreach and communication.
She previously worked as an executive communications liaison and an international economic analyst at the Atlanta Fed. Before joining the Atlanta Fed, she worked as an investment associate at Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Division. Ms. Alexeenko is originally from Ukraine, and holds a B.A. in economics and business from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta and an M.A. in financial management from Donetsk National University in Ukraine. She is pursuing an Executive MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
The meeting was at the Dunwoody Public Library at 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338. For more information about the GABB,contact GABB President Mike Ramatowski at 770-634-0428 or GABB Executive Director Diane Loupe at 404-374-3990 or georgiabusinessbrokers@gabb.org
Read MoreFifteen Georgia Business Brokers Achieve GABB 2016 Million Dollar Club
Fifteen members of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB) were named to the 2016 Million Dollar Clubs for helping to broker the sale of small-, medium-sized and large businesses in 2016.
GABB members represent owners of Georgia businesses in extremely important transactions: the sale of their business. GABB members help owners determine the asking price of their business, create marketing plans and strategies for selling their business, identify and qualify buyers, and have the knowledge and skills needed to help maintain the confidential nature of the process.
The top producer for 2016 was Matt Wochele, founder of Preferred Business Brokers, Inc.
“The current market condition for private business sales is active and strong,” said Mr. Wochele, a Certified Business Intermediary. “We are seeing more qualified buyers whether they are individuals, partnerships, strategic industry buyers or private equity they all want the opportunity to look at the deal. Money is more readily available and the banks want to participate.”
“While this may seem like a seller’s market, I would caution sellers not to take lightly one of the most important financial and life decisions they will make. We share a lot of time with sellers discussing and planning their exit strategies,” said Mr. Wochele. “If you are a business owner thinking about selling your company, I hope you will reach out to a professional with the Georgia Association of Business Brokers to help guide you through the process.”
Business brokers in the top five with multi-million dollars in sales for the year were J. Snypp, Vice President of Preferred Business Brokers, Inc.; C. David Chambless, president of Abraxas Business Services, Inc.; Bharat Raga of CBC Metro Brokers and Jeffery Merry, owner and founder of the BUSINESS HOUSE, inc.
Business brokers with multi-million dollars in sales included Jon Merry, a senior business broker with the BUSINESS HOUSE, inc.; Matt Slappey, the owner of the Decatur branch of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation; Steve Josovitz, vice president of The Shumacher Group; Patrick Harkins, President of Anchor Business Advsiors, Inc., Dean Burnette, Managing Broker for Best Business Brokers based in Savannah; Eric Gagnon, the president of We Sell Restaurants and wesellrestaurants.com; and Mannie Maddox, a Commercial Realtor with Coldwell Banker Commercial Metro Brokers. Rounding out the Million Dollar Club are David Still, founder, designated business broker, and lead business appraiser of Capital Endeavors, Inc.; Jon Roman, business intermediary, franchise consultant and developer at Transworld Business Advisors; and Paul Cushman, founder and managing partner of Cushman & Associates, LLC.
Harkins earned the prestigious GABB Phoenix Award for having earned the Million Dollar Club designation for ten years. Snypp became a life member of the Million Dollar Club for having earned the designation for five years.
The Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB) is the state’s only professional organization dedicated to buying and selling businesses and franchises. The GABB maintains a website that lists hundreds of businesses and franchises for sale throughout Georgia in a variety of fields, including automotive, business services, child care, cleaning, construction, electronics equipment, fitness, flooring, floral, food, gas stations, landscaping, manufacturing, medical, shipping, restaurants, retail, security, signs, and businesses related to the internet.
According to Greg DeFoor, GABB’s President in 2015 and 2016, selling a business is a complex process with multiple steps and a lot of moving pieces.
“We are the go-to organization for business sales and acquisitions as a result of our dedication to the profession and our members being among the best in the state at what we do,” said DeFoor, who owns DeFoor CPA and Business Services. “Our members have represented thousands of business owners and buyers, and we have a dedicated membership of business brokers, lenders, attorneys and other professionals to assist business buyers and sellers at every step of the process. We work behind the scenes and go mostly unnoticed, but we’re an integral part of Georgia’s business community.”
The Awardees:
Matt Wochele CBI (Certified Business Intermediary) founded Preferred Business Brokers, Inc., in 1996 after a successful 17-year career as an investment banker. He is a life member of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers Million Dollar Club, Phoenix Award recipient and a member of the International Business Brokers Association. Under Mr. Wochele’s leadership, Preferred has represented hundreds of private business owners in the sale of their businesses. As the managing broker he has had the opportunity to guide and train a number of successful agents in the brokerage field. Having the experience in both public business sales and the private sector has been rewarding for our firm and to our clients. This dual experience has positioned Preferred to handle both the smaller main street business purchases as well as middle market acquisitions. On a personal note Matt and his wife Kathy, a professional artist, have been married for thirty four years and have five daughters, two sons in law and just recently welcomed their new granddaughter. After a brief but fun experience playing football at Bucknell University Matt continued his interest in sports as a volunteer softball coach at Northside Youth Organization. Matt is a member of the Atlanta Rowing Club and enjoys various outdoor activities.
J. SNYPP III, a former GABB Board member and a life member of the Million Dollar Club, lives in Dunwoody, grew up in Atlanta and graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in marketing. Mr. Snypp spent more than two decades in the office furniture business before becoming a Business Broker and has been with Preferred Business Brokers, Inc. for more than 10 years. He has found success selling businesses in a variety of industries most recently selling a day care center, landscape company and distribution business. He is married and has two boys aged 13 and 18. Therefore, when he is not selling businesses he is usually coaching a football or baseball team, camping, canoeing, water skiing, scuba diving, shooting sports or involved in some other family activity.
A lifetime member of the GABB Multi-Million Dollar Club and 2014 GABB President, C. DAVID CHAMBLESS is the president of Abraxas Business Services, Inc. Last year, he earned the prestigious GABB Phoenix award for a decade of reaching the Million Dollar Club. Prior to Abraxas, he held various positions in sales, marketing, and executive roles in technology firms; as CFO for Aaron Rents as well as for private companies; and as a management consultant. Mr. Chambless has a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech. He is a certified public accountant (inactive). He is a longtime member of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA). Active in community work, he has served as a board member of the Technology Association of Georgia, on the membership committee for the Atlanta chapter of Business Executives for National Security, and the Sporting Clays Tournament committee for the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Chambless is very involved in the All Saints’ Episcopal Church community. He was a fifteen-year board member of The Samaritan House of Atlanta and is on the Advisory Council of 24/7 Gateway, a homeless-services center under the auspices of the United Way of Atlanta. Mr. Chambless maintains his family’s home in historic Grant Park while his wife and 15-year-old son spend several years in Guangzhou, China, where she leads an educational joint venture for Georgia State University.
BHARAT RAGHA is with Coldwell Banker Commercial Metro Brokers in Atlanta. He works with commercial/business investors, sellers and buyers in selling retail, day care, hospitality industry, investment properties, commercial and residential real estate. He is certified by Metro Brokers in Commercial Brokerage and Business Brokerage, and is a member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. He formerly was the owner and president of Excel Properties in Orlando, was an investor and Partner in the Country Inn and Suite in Jackson, Tenn.; the owner of MiniStop in greater Memphis, an auditor at Best Western in Montgomery, Ala.; and has managed hotels and motels in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. A native of South Africa, Mr. Ragha has been married to “my amazing wife, Hansa, for 38 years,” and has two beautiful daughters Tejal and Shaleen. He resides in Alpharetta. He plays tennis and Racquet ball competitively and enjoys reading.
JEFFERY E. MERRY, SR., past president of the GABB, has been the GABB’s top producer numerous times, and has been a part of the Million Dollar Club since its inception in 1999. He is currently a GABB board member, and will remain on the board in 2017. Mr. Merry, owner and founder of the BUSINESS HOUSE, inc. of Gainesville, is a member of the International Association of Business Brokers. For more than two decades, his firm has specialized in serving the manufacturing, distribution, veterinary and medical industries. As a business intermediary, Certified Exit Planner, and consultant, Mr. Merry has been involved in mergers and acquisitions that have ranged in acquisition price from $60,000 to more than $15 million. He is an adjunct instructor for the MBA program at North Georgia College. Mr. Merry holds a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois Edwardsville, and a Juris Doctorate from Atlanta Law School. Mr. Merry, a resident of Dahlonega, is a licensed real estate agent in Georgia and Florida, a senior business analyst, and a member of the Exit Planning Institute. He has three children and five grandchildren, and enjoys travelling, reading and riding his motorcycle.
JON MERRY is a senior business broker with the BUSINESS HOUSE, inc. of Gainesville. Mr. Merry has a keen understanding for the buying and selling process, and is well versed in the industry handling a wide range of deal making activities for the firm and has assisted with numerous M&A transactions. In 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, Mr. Merry received recognition as one of five brokers to join the Multi-Million Dollar Club for closed M&A transactions, and became a life member of the Million Dollar Club. In addition, Mr. Merry has been a Certified Machinery/Equipment Appraiser (CMEA) with the National Equipment Business Builders Institute (NEBB Institute) for more than 10 years, and became a Master CMEA this year, the only one in Georgia. A CMEA is intensively trained in the legal requirements involving the USPAP standards, as well as the methodological approach employed in establishing fair market value, orderly liquation value, and force liquation value in any market condition. Mr. Merry is owner of M&E Appraisals, Inc. of Dawsonville, Ga., and is a member of the International Business Broker Association (IBBA), the International Society of Business Analysts (ISBA), and the Georgia Lenders Quality Circle (GLQC). A native of Georgia, Mr. Merry was a professional umpire for Minor League Baseball for 11 years. He and his wife, RaeLynda and their two sons, Jacob and Joseph, live in historic Dahlonega.
GABB Lifetime Multi-Million Dollar Club Member and 2013 GABB President MATT SLAPPEY is the owner of the Decatur branch of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation. Mr. Slappey was awarded the #1 M&A Advisor for 2014, out of more than 200. Matt has a wide array of experience on transactions typically in the $1 million-$50 million range. Mr. Slappey, a native of Decatur/DeKalb County has earned the Mergers and Acquisitions Master Intermediary (M&AMI) and Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designations, and he also completed the Kennesaw State University Coles College of Business “Certified M&A Professional” program in 2015. He holds degrees in accounting, economics and business from Presbyterian College and has twelve years of experience in management for a Fortune-100 healthcare company. A 7-year active duty veteran, Mr. Slappey was a pilot and military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. He is an active member of Oak Grove United Methodist Church, the IBBA and M&A Source, and the Hall County Chamber of Commerce and enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters, playing music, and enjoying the great outdoors.
STEVEN JOSOVITZ is vice president of The Shumacher Group, where he heads the restaurant business brokerage division and provides commercial retail and restaurant real estate site selection, sales and lease negotiation expertise. A former restaurant owner and trained professional chef, Steven has an extensive background in restaurant and hotel management. He also offers consulting and appraisal services. He has been retained by law firms for his expert opinion to help settle disputes. Mr. Josovitz, a resident of Peachtree Corners, earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel/Restaurant Management from Florida International University in 1981. Mr. Josovitz is a member of the Georgia Restaurant Association, International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Retail Brokers Network.
PATRICK HARKINS, a CPA, is the President and CEO of Anchor Business Advisors of Atlanta, Georgia and presently resides in Marietta, Georgia. He graduated with a major in Accounting Magna Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame, was awarded his CPA Certificate from the University of Illinois and received his Master’s Degree in Business Administration with Distinction from DePaul University in Chicago. A former GABB president and board member, Mr. Harkins has been active in the Merger & Acquisition Field all of his working life. After working for 6 years in a large international CPA firm involved in large M&A transactions, he served as a Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for 3 different companies. Twenty years ago he started Anchor Business Advisors serving the interests of entrepreneurs in the Southeast. Patrick has served on a number of Board of Directors in both the private and charitable sectors. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Enervex, Inc., an international manufacturer and supplier of completely integrated venting solutions.
DEAN BURNETTE is the Managing Broker for Best Business Brokers based in Savannah Georgia serving the Coastal and South Georgia area. Mr. Burnette is a member of the Real Estate Commercial Alliance (RCA), a subsidiary of the Savannah Area Board of Realtors (SABOR). He served as the 2013-2014 President of the Savannah Small Business Chamber, and he is also a member of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Association of Realtors (GAR), International Business Brokers Association (IBBA), and sponsors the Georgia Logistics Summit. Dean has bought, sold, owned and operated businesses since 1986. Best Business Brokers specializes in Manufacturing, Technology and Logistics related business and real estate valued between $1- and $30 million.
ERIC GAGNON is the President and founder of We Sell Restaurants and wesellrestaurants.com. He is a past President of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers and has been named to the GABB Million Dollar Club, has received the GABB Lifetime Million Dollar Club Award and this year, earned the prestigious GABB Phoenix award for a decade of reaching these milestones. Eric has been designated an industry expert by Business Brokerage Press and is a radio personality, frequent speaker and writer. Eric co-hosts a syndicated radio show for the restaurant industry and in 2012, launched his restaurant brokerage brand, We Sell Restaurants, into a national franchise. He co-authored Appetite for Acquisition, his book on buying restaurants that was named “Best of 2012” by Small Business Book Awards. In addition to GABB, Eric is a member of the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and has served as a speaker at its national meeting. He is also a member of the Business Brokers of Florida (BBF), the Southeast Franchise Forum (SEFF) and the International Franchise Association (IFA). Eric is licensed as a broker in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. He holds degrees from major universities in the United States and Canada.
MANNIE MADDOX is a Commercial Realtor with Coldwell Banker Commercial Metro Brokers (CBCMB), Atlanta. Mr. Maddox is a CBCMB Certified Business Broker and a member of the National Association of Realtors and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. He is an eight-year U.S. Air Force veteran and has more than 30 years of experience in Corporate Business Development and Sales in the Federal Government Marketplace while based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Mr. Maddox and his lovely wife Patricia relocated to metro Atlanta in 2004 to be near their son, Michael, and granddaughter , Hunter. He is active in his local church and connectional faith community.
GABB Lifetime Multi-Million Dollar Club Member and former GABB President DAVID R. STILL is the founder, designated business broker, and lead business appraiser of Capital Endeavors, Inc., established in 1995 and located in Lawrenceville, Ga. He is a member of the Lawrenceville City Council. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia. As a Certified Business Intermediary, he specializes in the mergers and acquisitions of privately held companies with gross sales between $1 million and $50 million. Mr. Still was a co-owner and publisher of the Gwinnett Post-Tribune newspaper. Mr. Still received the GABB Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. Mr. Still is the Chairman of the Downtown Development Authority of the City of Lawrenceville and active in multiple non-profit organizations. He is married and has two grown children, one daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
JON ROMAN is a business intermediary, franchise consultant and developer at Transworld Business Advisors. After 18 years of various business ownerships, including startups, established or franchised ventures and a full-time career as a commercial banker, he founded the local Transworld Business Advisors office in Dunwoody, GA. His experience includes mergers and acquisition of privately owned companies with revenues between $0 and $30 million. His team includes buyer and seller agents, franchise consultants and business evaluation specialists. Married with two children, Mr. Roman has been a Certified Commercial Investment Member for more than ten years. Transworld, nationwide, and Mr. Roman, locally, are members of the Junior Achievement organization. Transworld Business Advisors has currently 400 brokers and 100 offices worldwide.
PAUL CUSHMAN is the founder and managing partner of Cushman & Associates, LLC. He is also the CEO of CM Payroll & Business Services, founded in 2001; the founder and managing partner of Lawnscapes of Georgia, LLC, a landscaping firm; the qualifying broker for John Hunsinger Inc., a Commercial Real Estate firm, and is the General Manager of CM Properties, a property management firm. He is a disabled veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He holds a BSEE and Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he also played collegiate basketball and soccer. A former member of the GABB Board of Directors, Mr. Cushman, is also a member of the Commercial Board of Realtors, and he is a Certified Business Intermediary and a member of the IBBA. He is also a choir member at First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Ga.
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GABB Million Dollar Club Application for 2016 Opens
The GABB is now accepting applications for the 2016 Million Dollar Club, recognizing members who have sold businesses worth at least $1 million in the previous year. The deadline for submitting applications is Nov. 7, 2016.
Awardees will be honored at the annual GABB Holiday Gala on Dec. 6 at Maggiano’s Perimeter Center.
GABB members are eligible for the:
- Million Dollar Club if they have eligible sales from Nov. 1, 2015 to Oct. 31, 2016 of $1,000,000 to $1,999,999.
- Multi-Million Dollar Club members will have eligible sales generated totaling $2,000,000 or more during the same period.
- Life Members of the Million Dollar Club have been elected to the Million Dollar Club for three consecutive years or any 5 years.
- Phoenix Award Member is anyone who has been elected to the Million Dollar Club for any 10 years.
- Silver Phoenix honors a person who has been elected to the Million Dollar Club for any 25 years.
To be eligible for the award, an applicant must be a current member in good standing of the Georgia Association of Business Brokers and only
transactions closed after the effective date of membership in GABB will count as Million Dollar Club volume. All transactions must be submitted to Pratt’s Stats to be eligible.
The online application, along with detailed rules about the club, can be found at the GABB website.
Please contact Diane Loupe at georgiabusinessbrokers@gmail.
GABB Broker Lara Van Pletzen Is New U.S. Citizen
One of the the United States’ newest citizens is GABB broker Lara Van Pletzen. Van Pletzen, who was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, became a U.S. citizen in a ceremony on Friday, Aug. 26. She is the ROI Business Development Manager for the Southeast of ROI Business Brokers.
GABB asked Lara about her road to becoming a U.S. citizen. She says she left her home country “in the 70’s just before Mugabe came into power.” She grew up with terrorism in the Rhodesian Bush war, and when her family traveled to South Africa for vacation, they were escorted by military convoys. Raised in South Africa, she left for Canada in 2002 and lived there until November 2003.
“I left Africa because of the high frequency of violent crime,” she said. “Yes, there is crime everywhere, but we lived behind electric fencing and burglar bars, home invasions were all too common and extremely violent. Although a tough decision to make, we decided to leave after my husband was held up at gunpoint at work. I personally didn’t want to raise my kids there, and I got tired of looking over my shoulder everywhere I went.
“Obviously some people don’t like to hear this point of view, but it was my view and it does not mean that I am not proud of my roots. I guess I just see the world as a smaller place with things that are humanly common to all people in a variety of lands. Everyone does what they think is best for their children, and there is no one right answer. For us this was the right thing and it was an act of our Christian faith.”
While living in Canada, her husband Andries was offered a wonderful work opportunity in the USA. Lara moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, with her family on an H1B/H4 visa in 2003 and lived there from 2003 until 2008. “I was allowed to live here but I was not allowed to work; only my husband was allowed to work.”
“I arrived on Thanksgiving 2003 and it felt wonderful,” she remembers. “I had grown up watching American TV–especially Dallas–and believed the entire USA was like Texas: cowboy hats, Texan accents.
“I also watched Full House as a kid and always found it strange that there were multiple V’s and phones and was amazed that kids had their own TV’s. I didn’t really believe it was true until I came here; our homes had one TV and one phone.
“For the first few Christmases, my husband thought I was being an extravagant Santa (we called him Father Christmas) when I bought what were small Santa gifts. He thought they cost more as a Santa gift here would be a main gift in South Africa.”
“In 2008 the company who sponsored my husband for his H1B visa told us their attempts to keep us here and get us green cards failed, and since the H visa was only a 6-year temporary visa, we left in 2008. We didn’t want to go back to South Africa; fortunately my husband was offered a job in Australia.”
“I moved there in 2008 on 457 visas, temporary 2-year visas that could then be converted to permanent status. We never got that far as we had only been there a year when, in 2009, with the global recession, the international company my husband worked for in Australia decided to close that unit. Since we had not been there two years, it once again meant having to leave the country.
“Today we are really happy with the way things worked out as our hearts were always in the USA anyway. We never imagined at this time there would ever be a way to come back, but at that time it just felt like our world was falling apart. Before the opportunity to come back here came about, we had to leave Australia, so we moved to New Zealand and I obtained student visas for my kids. I lived there on a guardian visa while we tried to figure out what to do.
“It was two unexpected major moves in two years. Our furniture was still in USA storage, finances tight with us both of us having had temporary work loss. We had been sleeping on air mattresses. Shortly after I arrived in New Zealand, my husband’s Australian company offered my husband a transfer to the USA unit on a L visa.”
“We came back to the USA in 2009 and moved to Atlanta, this time to be near the airport as my husband was expected to travel extensively, and Hartsfield had many flight options. I found Georgia a little harder to move to Wisconsin, but am settled with no plans to move again. My husband, on the other hand, has traveled more than we expected, and he uses that airport more than we had hoped.”
“During the past seven years I have been here, he has worked in South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Chili and now Mongolia. With 21 happy years of marriage behind us, cynics say it is because he isn’t here most of the time that we are happy. Sometimes they ask, ‘How do you do it?’ The truth is, we are a team, and every day and night apart has been worth it to give us and our kids the opportunity to live here. I remind them more than they like that I expect great things from them.
“We are not here to take but to give and make a difference. I have no regrets, and it would feel wrong to complain, we have achieved something we never thought possible.”
“I wanted to become a citizen because this is my country and I want to participate and embrace everything about it. I want to vote but most of all I want to feel secure that I will never have to leave. I also wanted to get it done before my son turned 18 to save him the trouble of converting his green card to citizenship,” she said. “My kids were very young when we moved here, they don’t feel foreign, they were 3 and 3 months when we first moved here. In their minds this is home, and I wanted to make it official.”
“I like the checks and balances that were designed in the constitution that prevent this country from ever becoming a dictatorship. I’m glad people here are free to disagree and don’t all think alike. It keeps the balance and protection; we should see it as a positive and not a negative.”
“I love the patriotism American’ feel for their country, the freedoms this country represents. Technically, I came here for the same reasons the first immigrants did: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
GABB congratulates our new U.S. citizen. You can contact Lara at lvanpletzen@roibusinessbrokers.com, Office: 404-445-8322 ext 26, Cell:770-876-8162
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