Each week on “Around Town,” our host, Sarah Olson, talks to members of the First Coast community who are making an impact in their part of town. Today, Sarah speaks with Terri Stallworth of Florida Business Exchange, Inc
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Transcript:
Speaker 1
Welcome back to another episode of Around Town. I am your host, Sarah Olson. And today, Terri Stallworth with the Florida Business Exchange, Inc. is joining me. Good morning Terri. Thanks for being on the show. Thank you.
Speaker 2
For having.
Speaker 1
Me. Tell us about the Florida Exchange. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
So Florida Business Exchange, we are a full service business brokerage based here in Florida. So I’m here in the Jacksonville office. This is home. We are headquartered out of Daytona Beach okay. We have offices in Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers and I cover South Florida, primarily Broward and Miami-Dade as needed.
Speaker 1
And the business exchange is a business, a.
Speaker 2
Exactly. So we help people exchange their businesses. So we help with business acquisition, business valuations, buyer searches and then helping people exit their business through a sale.
Speaker 1
Oh, interesting. Do you get a lot of, like, mom and pop type of shops? Yeah.
Speaker 2
Main Street side. Okay. Absolutely. So that’s really where I kind of play. Okay, to say, but we also have a full service M&A division. So mergers and acquisitions okay. So that’s that lower middle market usually 5 million in annual revenue up to maybe 20 million annual revenue. Yeah I love the mom and pop.
Speaker 1
I was going to say are you are you seeing it more of an age thing? Like do you get people who are just retiring and the kiddos don’t want the business anymore, and you’ve got to put it on the open market?
Speaker 2
The latter part of that is usually true. Family doesn’t really want it. Not always true, but that, silver tsunami that we’ve been warned about with baby boomers is absolutely it’s we’re in it.
Speaker 1
So you’re busy.
Speaker 2
It’s been busy. Yes.
Speaker 1
What are some things that, if a mom and pop shop is thinking about selling, what what are some steps that they should take right away?
Speaker 2
I would say, first of all, planning. Planning is so important because for a lot of these mom and pop business owners, this is their retirement, this major cash event. So sometimes there’s more of a reactionary call to us to say, hey, I think I need to sell where they’ve missed that window of planning. And so sometimes there’s a discount maybe, you know, on what they’re able to get because of that lack of planning, tax implications and things that they’re just not prepared for.
Speaker 2
So I would say more than anything like exit planning, even if it’s three years out, five years out there earlier to start having the conversations, the better, for sure.
Speaker 1
That’s something that you can help that that’s.
Speaker 2
Something that we can help them with their.
Speaker 1
Tactics. So they should not even just call you just to sell, but you should.
Speaker 2
Yeah, just talk about it to get them positioned for the best return for sure.
Speaker 1
What are some of those positioning things that they should keep in mind?
Speaker 2
Oh, clean books and records. Oh, that’s a biggie. Ooh, yeah, that’s a big one. Key employees, you know, the business not being so married to use in other words, if you, Sarah, are gone on vacation, the business has to shut down. You know, what does that look like if you’re no longer in the picture? So definitely having key employees.
Speaker 2
And I would say document processes go a long way. And, you know, we’re in this AI age where you can sort of use these AI tools to help you doesn’t have to be complex, but just writing out, you know, what are my processes if someone calls our new customers onboarding. If you own a bakery, like did you write the recipes down right for for someone to say secret recipes?
Speaker 2
Yeah, you can keep them, you know. But when it’s time to exit like that.
Speaker 1
To let them go. Yeah. Now shoe on the other foot. Sure. Say I call you and I say I’m interested in investing in purchasing another business. What does that look like?
Speaker 2
So believe it or not, most of my buyers are first timers, probably 90%. Okay, so we absolutely, you know, are here. I’m here to handhold to walk you through the process, help you kind of identify what your search criteria or your buy box is. What’s your lifestyle like? Right. So I always say, if you’re married, new baby at home, we probably don’t want to sell you a bar.
Speaker 2
We want you to stay married. Right? Right. You home with the baby?
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
So conversations like that very.
Speaker 1
Much like real estate.
Speaker 2
It is just a very quiet, separate end of it.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Do you have investors that pool together or these. Really? Okay.
Speaker 2
These are sometimes all we have. You’ll hear that term like in the mainstream private equity venture capitalists, they usually have a very different appetite. But I would say for the mom and pop businesses it’s usually an independent, you know, person. Maybe a corporate refugee looking to buy a job, something.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Or somebody who just got laid off or.
Speaker 2
Someone who.
Speaker 1
Wants to do their dream. Let’s try a bakery.
Speaker 2
So I’ll start.
Speaker 1
Over. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, they they call you. What’s the first questions that you ask them? Any sort of.
Speaker 2
Yes. Do you know what industries you have an interest in? What’s your background? Do you know what industries you have an aversion to? What do you not like if you again, don’t like dogs, we’re not going to look at pet. You.
Speaker 1
What is. Right.
Speaker 2
Two again, what’s your lifestyle? Are you relocating? Because a lot of times we do have people relocating in Jacksonville is, you know, the secret’s out. I know it’s just changing so fast and so much transition here. So that’s a big question. And then obviously the financial picture you know are you funding it yourself. Are you looking to use all our financing.
Speaker 2
Are you going the SBA route and a lot of education on kind of what those pieces mean. And in the big picture, what they translate to, do.
Speaker 1
You have connections to get finance?
Speaker 2
I do, I have a full network, wonderful. Referral partners with SBA lenders, attorneys, CPAs, merchant services. So I always say if you need someone, I probably know them. Yeah. So yes, we’re able to connect you with the resources too.
Speaker 1
That’s fantastic. So talk to me just about all you. You’re native to Jacksonville. Okay. We’re a handful.
Speaker 2
Of us around here from the west side. Which is the best side, if I may say so.
Speaker 1
I love the West side so much. Is going down to ten.
Speaker 2
It’s crazy. Yeah, I was out there actually earlier this week. It’s nuts.
Speaker 1
It is. I’m looking for investment properties, but, hopefully I know it’s out. I’m going to the side. Yeah, but no, I mean there’s there’s a lot of jobs coming out. There are commercial is going out there massively.
Speaker 2
So like yeah. Major distribution centers like, down Normandy Boulevard where they didn’t exist, Cecil Field area, it’s wild.
Speaker 1
Construction is going on over there and it’s affordable it for now. But again, we’re just putting this out there in the world.
Speaker 2
That’s the thing for an area.
Speaker 1
Yeah. So, for now. Well, thank you so much for Terry Henry for being on the show. I really enjoyed learning about you. I think I might call you for a lease consultation any time. Thank you, Terry. And for you. Oh, I’m gonna have to redo that outro.
Speaker 1
Okay. Thank you very new. Thanks again for being on the show. Terry is so interesting to learn all about what you do and for you to find out more about Terry, go to HGTV. Jax.com.
