Evelyn Correa – Page 2 – News – Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC

Nation’s Premier Business Brokerage Firm to Meet Demand in Western Montana

Franchising.com | November 2016

BUTTE, Mont. – Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC, North America’s leading, full-service business brokerage firm with more than 180 offices in the United States and Canada, recently announced the opening of a new office in Butte servicing Lewis and Clark, and Silver Bow counties as well as eight surrounding counties in Montana. A full range of services and support are now available to local business owners seeking professional brokerage counsel.

John Maslanik, the new representative, has opened the Helena-Butte office to provide one of the country’s most comprehensive business brokerage services to the region. The new office will support entrepreneurs with professional services to aid in the sale of their businesses, including valuations and assistance in finding financing for qualified buyers.

“There is a high demand for business brokerage services all throughout western Montana,” said Maslanik. “I look forward to meeting that demand by being a trusted partner to business owners and interested buyers in Helena, Butte and surrounding territories.”

Maslanik started his business career while attending the University of Wyoming when he founded a plumbing wholesale company in Laramie. He grew the company from one location with one employee to four locations and a staff of 20 spanning two states prior to selling the business. This transaction introduced him to the process involved in selling a business. Since then he has helped a mining company divest its claims, negotiated the sale of telecom leases for a family holding company and analyzed the value of numerous publicly-held companies in his role as a principal of a registered investment management firm.

As he looks at today’s marketplace in Montana, Maslanik sees an increase in demand for business brokerage services. Low interest rates coupled with a growing pool of second or third career professionals, is generating more qualified buyers for businesses. Maslanik points to national statistics that show the number and value of business sales has been increasing, and projects that over half of Main Street business will change ownership over the next decade.

To learn more about the Helena-Butte Murphy Business office and its unique collection of business brokerage services, contact John Maslanik at j.maslanik@murphybusiness.com or visit http://johnmaslanik-murphy.com.

About Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC

Clearwater, Florida-based Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC is a full-service business brokerage firm facilitating business sales, purchases, consulting, valuations, mergers and acquisitions. Closing deals at a higher ratio than the business brokerage industry average, several accolades have been bestowed upon the company including Top 50 Franchisee Satisfaction Award-Winner 9 consecutive years according to Franchise Business Review.

Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC Opens Helena-Butte Office

Franchise Harbor | November 2016

About Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC

Murphy Business & Financial Opens S.D. Office

San Diego Business Journal | September 2016 | By Steve Adamek

Murphy Business & Financial Corp. LLC, a full-service business brokerage firm with more than 180 offices in the U.S. and Canada, recently announced the opening of a new office in Del Mar serving San Diego and surrounding communities in Southern California.

The B2B firm offers a full range of services and support to local business owners seeking professional brokerage counsel.

According to Murphy, Justin McIntosh opened the local Murphy Business office to provide comprehensive business brokerage services. The new San Diego Murphy Business office will support entrepreneurs with the sale of their businesses, purchases, valuations and mergers and acquisitions.

“There is a high demand for business brokerage services all throughout the San Diego area,” said McIntosh. “I look forward to meeting that demand by being a trusted partner to Southern California business owners and interested buyers.”

The company said that prior to his work with Murphy Business, McIntosh cofounded a successful utility business based out of Colorado that grew from four employees to more than 300 employees spanning across three states. McIntosh continued to develop this company for several years before deciding to sell. The sale allowed him the opportunity to hone his entrepreneurial skills in California. He most recently purchased a boutique-clothing store where he began to draw many parallels between brokerage services and experiences with business ownership and acquisitions.

McIntosh says he sees an increase in demand for business brokerage services — a growing pool of qualified buyers is emerging as unemployment continues at its current rate and instability within corporate environments remains the norm. McIntosh says he has seen an increase nationally, as well as locally, over the last 12 months of businesses being sold and at high prices — the industry expects that upward trend to continue through 2016.

Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC Named to Inc. Magazine’s List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Franchise Know How | August 2016

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Inc. magazine announced today the placement of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation on the 35th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy – America's independent entrepreneurs.

Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC Named to Inc. Magazine’s List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

September 2017 | Franchise Harbor

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Inc. magazine announced today the placement of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation on the 35th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy — America’s independent entrepreneurs.

“To be included among such successful companies is a great honor,” said Roger Murphy, founder, president and CEO of Murphy Business & Financial Corporation. “It’s a testament to the hard work of our team and the incredible growth of our franchise movement.”

The 2016 Inc. 5000, unveiled at Inc.com and with the top 500 companies featured in the September print issue of Inc. (available on newsstands August 23 to September 27), is the most competitive crop of privately held companies in the U.S. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region and other criteria.

This prestigious award validates Murphy Business’ progress in the past year and the 22 years since its launch. In the past 12 months alone, Murphy Business has reached an entirely new level, with more than 180 locations now open across the country, ingraining itself into all of the communities it serves.

Murphy Business & Financial Corporation is North America’s leading, full-service business brokerage firm with offices in both the United States and Canada. Offering entrepreneurs both regional developer and unit franchisee operating models, the Murphy Business home office supports both groups and their agents with extensive training, along with initial and ongoing marketing efforts that leave Murphy Business owners to focus on the most important part of their business – spending more time with their clients.

About Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC

Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC Opens Houston Office

Houston News | July 2016 | Franchising.com

Nation’s Premier Business Brokerage to Meet Demand in Houston’s Business Community

July 21, 2016 // Franchising.com // HOUSTON – Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC, North America’s leading, full-service business brokerage firm with more than 175 offices in the United States and Canada, recently announced the opening of a new office servicing West Houston and surrounding communities. A full range of services and support are now available to local business owners.

Lenny Saizan has opened the Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC office to provide one of the state’s most comprehensive business brokerage services. The new Murphy Business Houston office will support entrepreneurs with the sale of their businesses, purchases, valuations and mergers and acquisitions.

“I am thrilled to be able to provide Houston business owners and interested buyers a trusted partner during the deal-making process,” said Saizan. “There is high demand for business brokerage services in the area and my team and I look forward to meeting that demand.”

Saizan started his career as an electrical engineer and gradually transitioned towards IT, process improvement and project management. After earning an MBA with a finance focus, he transitioned to finance and accounting, while still leveraging his technical background in the areas of operations and financial audits, including managing certain functions of corporate mergers and acquisitions. During the transition, he has also been a small business owner, an experience that he plans to leverage when working with business owners and entities looking to buy, sell or acquire businesses.

As he looks at today’s marketplace, Saizan sees an increase in demand for business brokerage services. There is a growing pool of qualified buyers emerging as unemployment continues at its current rate and as instability within corporate environments remains persistent. They have seen an increase nationally, as well as locally, over the last 12 months of businesses being sold and at higher prices. The industry expects the upward trend to continue in 2016.

To learn more about the Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC and its unique collection of business brokerage services, contact Lenny Saizan at l.saizan@murphybusiness.com.

About Murphy Business & Financial Corporation LLC

When to Call the Business Broker? (Hint: Not the Day You Need One)

The Job 4 Me | May 2016 | By Laura French

Dan Bauer was in the car wash industry for 12 years. When he worked with a broker to sell his businesses, he found his passion. He made the shift to being a business broker 18 years ago, spending 14 years with a downtown brokerage before becoming Managing Partner of Murphy Business of Minnesota.

“As a business owner, how do you know what your business is worth? That’s a service we provide up front,” Bauer said. There might be “three or four different types of valuations depending on the industry and the cash flow. The biggest thing is educating the seller. They’ve been working hard their whole life. They don’t have that understanding: How do you find a buyer, keeping it confidential without letting vendors or employees know you’re selling? That’s a very important part—you want to keep it confidential until the new buyer walks in.”

The biggest challenge, Bauer said, is that “people just wake up one morning and say, ‘Okay, I’m done.’ Ninety-nine percent of business owners call the day they want to sell. They don’t think about calling me three years in advance. It doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t.”

Bauer said, “It’s fine if you have a seller who doesn’t have to sell today. We can help them look at different parts of the company. I can say, ‘Let’s do a valuation. Let’s see where the business is at and where we can make it better.’ When it’s a nice company, tuned, we’re ready to go forward.”

What’s involved in “tuning” a company for sale depends on its size and the industry, Bauer said. The ultimate goal is improved cash flow, which has “a huge effect on valuation.

Too often, Bauer said, the owner starts with, “This is what I need out of it.” A business owner recently told Bauer, “I have to have $300,000.” The problem, Bauer said: “It values at about $205,000.” In this case, fortunately, the owner is not in a hurry. Bauer provided some options for building the business and suggested that they talk again in six months.

Bauer said the number one skill required of a business broker is listening. “They have to tell the story. I’ve been at showings with other brokers—they can’t keep their mouth shut. You never learn anything that way.” Bauer said he tells his agents, “Don’t worry about the money—if you do the job, it will be there. I want them working because they want to help another business owner. I travel the whole state—40,000 miles a year. Sometimes I drive back from a meeting, and I know nothing’s going to happen immediately, but I helped them, and when they are ready I hope they call me. You don’t get paid for everything you do. You have to accept that. It all averages out.”

After 14 years with a local brokerage, Bauer opened the Murphy office four years ago because of “the outreach they have of finding buyers. We have 190 offices around the U.S. with 400 brokers, 36 websites and publications. Smaller firms don’t have that access. I just sold an engineering firm—the buyer came from Wichita. Most of the buyers were not in Minnesota.”

The best route into business brokerage, Bauer said, is through being a business owner. The company that first hired him was “looking for somebody that had business ownership experience. They didn’t care after that.” Similarly, Bauer said, “My agents are ex-business owners. They’ve been there. They know what it’s like to deal with vendors or clients, know the financial part, tax returns, P&L. We do a lot of training, so if they’re not up on a lot of that, they will be.”

What he can’t teach, Bauer said, is “to want to help. If that’s not in your DNA, you shouldn’t be doing this.” He recalled a meeting three months ago with buyers who told him up front that they had already spoken to another broker. Bauer told them, “That’s fine. You should get two or three options.” He spent 45 minutes with the buyers. “They both said, ‘We decided to go with you after the first 5 minutes.’” When Bauer asked why, they said the other broker made it “all about him, his commission, how it was structured.”

Bauer said if a broker wants to charge for an initial meeting that should be a red flag. “Unless you’re going in and need a valuation for legal purposes—that’s different. You have to pay for that up front. But for somebody to charge you to come talk about your business, don’t pay for that. Sit down and talk for a couple hours. Maybe you’ll find out you’re not ready. That’s okay—at least now you know,” Bauer said.

The bottom line for business owners: “Don’t wait for the day you get up in the morning and get mad at the world. Step back. If you talk to a broker that’s trying to help you, they’ll tell you, ‘Don’t sell.’ If they can get through this year and get another full year in, they can get things straightened out.”

Changing Trends in Business Ownership

The Job 4 Me | May 2016 | By Laura French

Business ownership is changing, according Dan Bauer, Managing Partner of Murphy Business of Minnesota. “From 2009 to 2012, it was pretty tough,” he recalled. “The bankers weren’t talking, a lot of buyers couldn’t buy because there wasn’t any money. I think the trend really changed.” Bauer said that prior to 2009, the time to complete a sale was three to five months. “Now it’s eleven to thirteen months. There are fewer buyers out there. There’s more work to do on the financing side. We work with a lot of different banks around the Twin Cities. We can help buyers with all that.”

There’s also a shortage of good businesses on the market for sale, Bauer said. “People wanted to sell back in 2008-2009. Retirement got pushed off about five years, or even longer. They have to rebuild and have at least three good years. Some people have been pushed out eight years.”

Eventually, Bauer said, “All this is going to catch up with us. We’ll have a lot more businesses on the market.” Still, the demographics of buyers are likely to change. “The people who are buying are older,” Bauer said. “They know they’re going to be working until they’re seventy-plus. It’s not so much the money. They’ve watched the past generation retire at 62, and that person doesn’t last very long.”

The older buyers “might not be working 60 hours a week. They’re buying a business where they can work 20 to 30 hours,” Bauer said. “There are small distribution companies where you set up management so you don’t have to be there 50 or 60 hours a week. There are ways of changing businesses. Just because people ran it one way doesn’t mean you have to run it that way. If you can’t see past the person who owns it, how they run it, you probably shouldn’t buy it.”

On the other hand, Bauer said, “The younger generation is not looking to be business owners. There’s a lot of talk about that. That generation, they want to work for somebody, they want their nine-to-five job. The attitude isn’t what it was thirty years ago.”

Trends aside, Bauer said, today’s buyers range from “the late 30’s all the way up,” and buy for a range of reasons. “Some are managers for other companies, corporate people tired of the corporate world, people who want to add onto their current business. That hasn’t really changed. We’re still bringing in people from all different segments.”

Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette-area Business Briefs for May 1, 2016

The Advocate | April/May 2016

Business brokerage service office opens

Murphy Business and Financial Corp. LLC has opened a business brokerage office at One Canal Place, 365 Canal St., Suite 1470, in New Orleans, also serving the Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas.

Services include the sale and purchase of businesses, valuations, and mergers and acquisitions.

Franchisees are Floyd and Ida James, who have more than 25 years of executive management and business ownership experience within the service/logistics, food service, manufacturing and sales/marketing sectors. They have owned seven businesses together that eventually were acquired by startup creation, purchase of an existing business, or through a merger and acquisition.

Clearwater, Florida-based Murphy Business & Financial Corp. has more than 175 offices in the United States and Canada.

Making An Exit

QSR Magazine | March 2016 | By Jessie Szalay

Whether retiring or moving on to new pursuits, the day will come when it’s time to sell your business. Here’s what you need to know.

Guillermo Medellin has owned his three Russo’s New York Pizzeria stores in Houston for six years and business is going well; Medellin and his team turn out pizza to a steady stream of customers every day.

But he’s already preparing for the faraway day when he decides to sell his business.

Medellin wants to make sure he’ll profit from the sale as much as possible, that the process will be smooth, and that he’ll leave well-running, community-oriented restaurants behind. To do that, he’s keeping meticulous records, working hard to build equity, foraging strong community bonds, and ensuring all his titles and leases are transferable.

Medellin’s commitment to thinking ahead comes from first-hand experience in buying and selling businesses. He previously owned manufacturing plants and another restaurant. His family members were fans of Russo’s food but didn’t like the service at a particular location, so when it went up for sale, they decided to buy it. Things went well, and they acquired two more restaurants. “We’re not considering selling right now; we’re just building equity in our business,” Medellin says. “It’s always on our mind, because at one point or another, we’re going to be in a situation to sell it.”

He keeps thorough records on how money comes in and where it goes. He tracks phone records; personal, discretionary, and essential business purchases; tax returns; and lease agreements.

“You want to do everything in your power to get that business running as well and as profitably as possible to make it attractive to a buyer,” says Bob House, general manager of BizBuySell, an online marketplace for business buyers, sellers, and brokers. Business owners should consider improving the curb appeal of their restaurant, making renovations, working with a PR firm, and doing what they can to improve reputation, as these things can improve the selling price.

Maintaining good records should be a key component in every business owner’s long-term exit strategy. In fact, Russ Bieber, vice president of sales and training at broker Murphy Business & Financial, says detailed bookkeeping is so important that if a seller comes to him with messy records, he will advise maintaining the business for another year to get things in order.

When someone comes to Murphy Business looking to sell, a broker analyzes the business’s financial statements, as well as sales information for similar businesses, to come up with a likely price range. When financial statements are incorrect, the estimated selling price becomes incorrect, as well.

“It’s like when you’re taking the test: If you have the answer in your head but you don’t write it down on the paper, you’re not going to get credit for it,” Bieber says.

Some restaurant owners undervalue their business because they don’t count all the cash flow or they deduct personal expenses. Others overvalue their business because of the amount they’ve put into it.

When it comes time to sell, restaurant owners have to decide whether to use a broker. The process of marketing and selling a business is long, complicated, and daunting, and a broker acts as a guide and advocate through it. House, whose business BizBuySell hosts some 40,000 active listings, says a broker allows the operator to run the business while someone else focuses on selling it.

Brokers also bring marketing strategies and networks of buyers. Steve Zimmerman is president, CEO, and principal broker of the California-based Restaurant Realty Company, as well as author of the book Restaurant Dealmaker. In addition to the expertise that comes with dealing exclusively in restaurants and nightclubs, Restaurant Realty Company boasts a database of potential buyers with whom Zimmerman keeps in regular contact through weekly and quarterly newsletters. These kinds of networks help brokers find the right match of buyer and seller.

For any type of restaurant, the prospective buyer’s financial viability is the most important factor in making that match. Experience is equally key when it comes to buying independent restaurants.

“Landlords are skeptical of dealing with newbies,” says Zimmerman, whose firm only deals with independent restaurants and nightclubs. “[Buyers] must have cash, good credit, … three to five years ownership or management experience, and food finance experience. Dealing with the landlord is the biggest hurdle, so we screen buyers from the perspective of a landlord.”

Other factors that go into a good buyer-seller match include the buyer’s location preferences and personal financial needs.

Zimmerman, House, and Bieber all advertise listings confidentially, meaning that the name and address of the business and its owner are not advertised. Bieber says that if customers know the restaurant is for sale, they may not come by anymore because they think the owner’s given up, and employees sometimes quit and find new jobs.

Secrecy often permeates the entire process. For example, Zimmerman’s brokerage firm requires each potential buyer to fill out a confidentiality agreement and undergo screening before being given the business name and address. Then, the potential buyer is instructed to go the business as a customer during a busy period. Next, the broker will set up a time to meet with the owner. Zimmerman emphasizes that all meetings take place discreetly, in out-of-the-way locations.

Buyers don’t see the books and records until an offer has been made. The broker writes an offer, which the seller accepts, rejects, or counters. The agreement includes some contingencies, like transfer of licenses, inspections, approvals of landlord, and financial review of books and letters, Zimmerman says. In business, it’s common for a broker to represent both buyer and seller.

“Dual agency exists because there aren’t a lot of restaurant brokers,” Zimmerman says. “When you get a residential broker or someone who doesn’t have restaurant business brokerage experience, it adds complications and time. Time and surprises are the biggest things that kill deals.”

Once the sale is final, the seller trains the buyer in running the business. Training usually lasts a month or two, Bieber says, and is done in both independent and franchise restaurants.

After that, someone like Medellin will walk away from the restaurants he nurtured and move on to his or her next adventure.