The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Are all business brokers terrible?

A post of a ranting nature...

Putt

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
159%
Jan 1, 2020
86
137
Back in February, I bought a going business with brokers representing both buyer and seller. Transaction went well, no problem.

I'd recently decided to continue looking for other businesses on the market. I was just trying to get a feel for the market but I had cash ready to jump on a deal if I chose. This time I decided to go it alone with a buyer's agent. All I learned was that I wouldn't trust a single one of these people with selling one of my own businesses.

These people can't have ever heard of a follow up. Not one out of a good 40 agents ever followed up. Not by phone, email, automated emails. These were businesses in the $600k to $1mm purchase price range that I had signed NDAs to access documentation.

The one agent that really made me laugh had published three books on dominating sales and considered himself an 'assassin'. He had this video on his website of a weird 'ninja' stage fight with him emerging from the smoke at the end. This guy, unironically, paid for a set, smoke machine, actors, and production crew to film this. He had great promises of how he could sell businesses better than anyone else.

I submitted a request for information. 2 weeks later, I get an email from docusign with an NDA. No email from the broker or his team. I sign it. Nothing... Nada...

2 weeks after signing the NDA, I give them a call. They say it must have been a mistake and would send it over. They sent over the same public information I had access to. From day 1, I had been receiving emails from his newsletter selling other businesses. It's not as if they believed I was unqualified as a buyer. I had cash and was prepared to move quickly. Needless to say, I didn't even bother asking for more questions.

I asked myself: "How would I feel if I was the seller of this business and discovered this?"

I've almost lost hope in this industry. In Florida where it seems everybody is a realtor or a business broker, it seems impossible to actually find somebody competent. None of the big franchises were much better either.

Aside from the fact there's probably good money in offer 'real estate coaching & training services' targeted to business brokers, I'm interested to hear what other people's experiences have been like. I wouldn't be impressed if I had spent money on pre-sale consulting and then my business broker couldn't be bothered to respond to emails.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

farmer79

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
322%
Nov 24, 2013
124
399
Saskatchewan, Canada
I once found a business that was interesting and emailed the broker who had the listing twice. I never heard back anything. To be fair It was a business that may have required qualifications beyond the purchase price (a farm machinery dealership) that I didn’t have. Or maybe they were already in serious negotiation. But it would have been nice to at least get a one line email back.
 

Rabby

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
319%
Aug 26, 2018
1,924
6,128
Florida
I'm sure they're not all terrible, but a lot are. It's the same with RE agents. They want to list things and then camp on the MLS. If someone randomly buys one of the listings, despite the broker's slothful daily lounging on a moldy sofa covered in old magazines, used tissues, and the crumbs of a depressing high-sugar diet, then they make a big commission for nothing.

I've run into a few who seemed to take professional pride. At higher levels they may not even call themselves business brokers, but M&A specialists or something like that.

I would recommend trying to cultivate relationships with a few. Don't even mention a specific listing, just tell them what you're looking for (be specific) and that you need help finding and making the acquisition. The laziest ones will forget to answer their email. The next level will just send a bunch of crap off the MLS that you could have googled in 5 seconds. The real professionals will give you a thoughtful answer and maybe set up a phone call or meeting. Expect the latter to be 1% of the population.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top