About Fresh•Start
Business Brokers

After 10 years of working as a business broker, I realized something:  There were things I really loved about the work, and things I literally hated.  I guess this helped me connect with owners, as most of them felt the same about their businesses.

I decided something had to change.  Check out my white-board animation on “success vs happiness” for a glimpse of what I did to define that “something.” In my case, I realized I hated it whenever I was interrupted by someone I didn’t know with a call or an email trying to sell me something.  My first reaction was to be upset with them for just finding a way past my “defenses.” That lead to me shutting them down, even IF I might have actually had an interest in what they were selling.  The standard business-brokerage model relies on “cold calling”to generate leads.  While I am actually good at it, there was always that voice in my head saying : ”You hate getting this call……I’ll bet they do, too!”

That’s when I decided to stop cold calling all together, and spend my time and energy doing what I enjoy the most about the work:  Helping owners figure out where they are in their lives, and in the arc of business ownership. After talking with hundreds of owners, the same topics kept coming up.  I developed the ‘Mind Your Business’ series to help owners understand their issues are real, and that they are not alone.  In each 60-second episode I pick an issue, break it down, and give it context.  Plus, once you watch a few episodes, I hope you’ll feel comfortable reaching out to me to explore your options.

Here is more about me… in case you were wondering:

I am a husband, father, grandfather and Colorado transplant from Iowa. After college I did my 25 years in corporate America as an engineer.  Working for start-ups to Fortune 500s, I found I enjoyed working with people, dollars and timelines to make things happen. I have over 50 patents on products with over $1B in sales.

In 2005, we relocated to Colorado, and I worked for a startup for 11 months. When I left I decided I was done with working for someone else and started a couple businesses based on marketing and selling products I had designed and patented.  I realized how hard it is to run a business on a day-to-day basis and in the process realized a product business wasn’t right for me, so I sold them off.

I had always done well with investing and real estate, so I decided to get a real-estate license.  It was then that I found out about business brokering.  I went to work for one of the largest firms in the country and after a couple of years, and several closings in the $1MM-15MM range, I’d realized few things:

1) I love the work.

2) Most business brokers came from the commercial real-estate or private equity professions and don’t dig deep enough to understand what makes each business, and it’s owner(s), special (Hint: It’s not just EBITDA and free cash flow).

3) There was an opportunity to revolutionize the business of business brokerage.

I decided to take what I’d learned and really work to help private-business owners attract and sell to qualified buyers, once both were ready for a “fresh start.”  My wife and I went back to school and got our MBAs together in 2010. School was a place for me to go for “practice laps.” I found that working for yourself is where you really exit the pits, and get out on the track.

After working in and visiting 11 countries in my first 25 year “career” I realized two key things:  we are all more alike than different, and like me, eventually most people need a Fresh Start.