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Category: Office Management

Office Management

Email Interview of WM B Martin by Tom West (Part 3 of 3)

Today's posting completes the three-part interview of industry veteran WM B Martin by BBP's Tom West. It picks up after Bill's second "retirement" and includes what Bill considers to be the secret of his success.

Tom:
But, there’s more to the story.

Bill:
Yes, when ABMI in Kansas City (the brokerage I’d started in 1989 and sold in 1998) found out I was no longer involved in other enterprises, they asked if I’d consider moving back to KC, and taking on a short term consulting contract, to advise them on returning ABMI to the “basics” we’d pioneered at ABMI, that they’d gotten away from. We worked out the details, and from 5-1-10 through 10-1-11, I consulted with ABMI. We were able to re-introduce the “basics” over that time, including recruiting and training managers to continue ABMI’s progress.

Tom:
So, what have you been doing since Oct 2011?

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Posted on 3/8/2012 9:01 AM By Bill Martin
In: [General Business Brokerage], [Office Management] | No Comments »

Email Interview of WM B Martin by Tom West (Part 2 of 3)

Today's posting continues an interview between BBP's Tom West and industry veteran WM B Martin.

Tom:
Then, you “un-retired”.

Bill:
Yes, Tom, I simply wasn’t ready to stop making deals. So, in late 1999, I bought back from ABMI the Springfield, Mo branch office I’d sold them, moved to the Ozarks, and took possession of that one agent, 10 listing office, planning to just “tinker” with business brokerage part time, and enjoy the wonderful Southern Missouri lifestyle.

Tom:
That “part time” plan didn’t last long.

Bill:
Right. We started doing the things in Springfield that had worked so well in KC, and the Springfield brokerage (now called First National Business Brokerage Corp) “took off” like a sky rocket. Within a year we had...

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Posted on 3/7/2012 3:32 PM By Bill Martin
In: [General Business Brokerage], [Office Management] | No Comments »

Email Interview of WM B Martin by Tom West (Part 1 of 3)

This week's postings comprise a three-part interview of Industry Veteran WM B Martin by BBP's Tom West.

Tom:
Bill, you and I, with over 30 years in business brokerage, have done some fascinating things in our industry, and I think my readers would be interested in hearing the history of your experiences.

Bill:
Thank you, Tom, for your interest in my activities. I joined Business Concepts, Inc in Kansas City, Mo (which was, back then, the most successful business brokerage in KC) in 1982, as a new, straight commission agent. BCI was a former VR agency (they went independent the year before I joined them), but they still used the original VR/Tom West agent training materials. So, Tom, like thousands of others in our business, I’m a Tom West trainee, even though I didn’t meet you in person until many years later, at an IBBA conference.

I fell in love with business brokerage those first weeks on the job, even though I was uncomfortable with...

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Posted on 3/6/2012 3:20 PM By Bill Martin
In: [General Business Brokerage], [Office Management] | No Comments »

“Cap X” For Business Brokers

From my perspective, each of us sells businesses all the time (I hope), and with our sellers and buyers we frequently discuss the “Cap X” (annual capital expenditures), the monies our buyers need to invest in the business annually to keep the business running and growing. Each of us, as business brokers/intermediaries, have our own business, with about 50% of us working in multi-intermediary offices, and about 50% being sole practitioners. But in almost every case, each of us “are our business” since most of us are almost wholly commission based, so our success is created by ourselves, and directly effects our income. Just because our profession has a very small barrier to entry is no reason to think that each of us, as independent businesses, do not have an annual “Cap X.” However, in our professions case, most of our “cap x” is in intangible assets, not tangible assets. Nevertheless, those expenditures are necessary to keep our businesses growing. What are some of the key expenditures for us? I suggest that two primary items are Marketing (in multiple manners) and Education. And, in our case, most of the education comes from our associations, and obviously within our particular association, association membership is directly tied to education and vice versa.

Few things in my career as a business broker have had the financial impact that

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Posted on 10/6/2011 11:11 AM By Ron Johnson
In: [Marketing], [General Business Brokerage], [Education Opportunities], [Office Management] | No Comments »

The Independent Contractor

The following article provides some up-to-date information on the independent contractor status. Business brokers in states requiring real estate licenses are probably safe. The real estate lobby through the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is powerful and has battled the appropriate federal committees and those in Congress. The real estate industry is the only business exempted, as far as I know. I believe that real estate agents are really employees: they work for only one employer; they must follow the dictates of the owners of the firm; they can’t work for any other firm at the same time; the list goes on. So, it follows that agents that work for business brokers and follow the same rules would also be exempted from independent contractor regulations. The states really call the shots since they require a real estate agent to follow certain rules and be employed by only one broker, etc.

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Posted on 9/15/2011 9:03 AM By Tom West
In: [Legal & Tax Issues], [Office Management] | No Comments »

We Sell SME’s

Our focus is on selling SME (Small and Mediumsized Enterprises) – and over 80% of our sales are in the $10,000 to $500,000 price range. We tend to peak out at $5 million.

We like SMEs because they are generally owner-operated businesses and we understand them. There are a lot of them out there. 98% of New Zealand businesses are SME. They are different.

SMEs have different value drivers than large companies. They provide employment to their owners (and possibly family too), independence, security, challenge, and lifestyle – as well as the opportunity to earn good profits and future capital gains.

SMEs are important to New Zealand’s economy – they are the engines of national economic growth and job creation. All big businesses start small and we have seen some wonderful success stories with buyers of SMEs becoming millionaires.

Posted on 9/13/2011 3:31 PM By Clyth MacLeod
In: [General Business Brokerage], [Office Management] | No Comments »

KPI’s

With the tighter times in the last 3 or 4 years, many businesses have tidied up, become more efficient, and focused more on profits. While you cannot cut your way to prosperity, they have controlled costs and kept a much closer eye on bank balances, credit control, and cashflow.

Most businesses have just a few really important figures. These are Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. They will be different for different businesses but can provide quick feedback and early warning on any potential problems.

KPIs for our business brokerage are sales, new listings (i.e. stock on our shelves), conditional sales (future income), number of salespeople, marketing spend (a major variable), and estimated profit. Based on our annual budget we have figures for each category and results for each are posted in one of 3 columns. Crisis, Expected, or Exceptional. If a figure falls in the "expected" column then that is good, we sleep well. If it is in the "exceptional" column we celebrate, but if it is in the "crisis" column, we are alerted to where our urgent focus must be. Our KPI sheet hits my desk on the 1st day of each month and I regard it as our most important performance check. We "borrowed" the idea from a book on Domino’s Pizza some 20 years ago – thank you.

Posted on 9/8/2011 1:25 PM By Clyth MacLeod
In: [Office Management] | No Comments »

Managing/Mentoring Business Brokerage Agents (Part 2 of 2)

This article is a continuation of yesterday's posting.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK:

If the manager has plenty of experience, knowledge and past success at listing and selling, but fails to “show and tell” in live buyer/seller interviews, with each new agent, in plenty of live interviews with the new agent’s prospects, management then is guilty of “wishful thinking” and is likely to fail to capitalize on the potential of each new agent. Forcing agents to “learn by doing”, on their own, is incredibly wasteful of the valuable leads the agent is working. They simply “don’t know what they don’t know”, and it’s not their fault, if they are undertrained, that they fail to make all the deals possible.

Or, if management doesn’t know the answers that are needed to motivate a buyer prospect to move along in an orderly manner, or if management doesn’t know how to convince a reluctant seller to list their business, management then can’t help a new agent, and/or management might even be guilty of teaching new agents “bad habits” that are ineffective.

If management doesn’t have the answers, they should form an alliance with someone who does know the answers, and who is capable of providing that mentoring/leadership to management and to the new agents.

Agents who are supervised by managers or agency owners who “don’t know what they don’t know”...

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Posted on 8/5/2011 10:49 AM By Bill Martin
In: [Office Management] | No Comments »

Managing/Mentoring Business Brokerage Agents (Part 1 of 2)

I think I’ve tried it all, folks.

Since entering business brokerage in 1982, and hiring/training/supervising agents for most of those years, in offices nationwide, I’ve come to understand the true meaning of the old saying…”managing sales people is like herding cats”….In other words, it isn’t easy.

But, hiring and managing agents is a way for a brokerage owner to “Xerox” yourself, and theoretically generate more income than a one man agency can generate, so, like many other agency owners in our industry, I’ve usually been engaged in building multi-agent brokerages, with 5 to 25 agents per office.

THE “LEAVE THEM ALONE” THEORY:

I’ve hired agents, trained them, then hoped that, somehow, on their own, with minimum management involvement, they would figure out all the answers needed, by themselves, and magically turn into productive listing and selling agents.

I’ve worked especially hard at the interview process, so that I only hire “newbies” that have strong sales backgrounds, and who preferably have impressive resumes, believing that those high quality people are most likely to survive and thrive, with minimum supervision. This “leave them alone” theory, in my experience, rarely works, and is counter productive, “wishful” thinking.

THE “SALES MANGER THEORY”:

I’ve hired other agents, trained them, then turned them over to a competent sales manager, who is then required to spend lots of time with each new agent, making seller calls with them “in the field”, and sitting in on buyer interviews, and...

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Posted on 8/4/2011 10:41 AM By Bill Martin
In: [Office Management] | No Comments »