Justin Cotta Holmes with Maine Business Advisors

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me, brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with main business advisors, Mr. Justin Cotta Holmes. Good afternoon, sir.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Good afternoon, Stone. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate.

Stone Payton: It. Yeah, we are delighted to have you on the program. I’ve got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think a good place to start might be if you could share with our listeners and with me Mission Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah. Yeah. You know, so I was a financial advisor and I just had a lot of clients who were selling businesses and we’re trying to figure out the best way to do that. Kind of stumbled into this. We’re actually a franchise of Transworld Business Advisors, the global business brokerage. And so what we do up here in Maine is, you know, we help business owners, you know, value their businesses, market those businesses typically, you know, in a confidential manner and then negotiate the sale of those businesses. You know, Maine’s a very small and rural state. We are a small business state. We have no major corporations that you would find on the on the Forbes 500 list here that are headquartered in Maine. So, you know, we’re just a mom and pop state. And, you know, we get a lot of older business owners that are looking to transition out in both in the near future and the next 5 to 10 years.

Stone Payton: So was there anything in particular that compelled you to go with an established franchise system like Transworld as opposed to something smaller or just kind of your your own thing?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Well, I’m a big fan of of not, you know, trying to, you know, create something from scratch when there’s a model that already worked. I mean, I talked to other business broker franchises out there and, and they all seem to have aspects that I really appreciated. But Transco really had the full package in terms of the marketing system, the reach to the buyers, the 40 year track record, you know, that huge global presence and the people that I met there early on when my wife and I were doing our due diligence were just really great people, you know, with a ton of experience, and we felt very comfortable moving forward with them.

Stone Payton: Well, and I got to believe that when you are initially speaking with someone on the buying or selling side, that while you may not have personally been engaged in that type of deal, I got to believe somebody on the Transworld team has and you have some precedent, you can you can probably almost go to the the Transworld Library of Congress or whatever you call it, right?

Justin Cotta Holmes: You know, 100%. I mean, you know, like if I opened up a coffee shop and I bought a Dunkin Donuts franchise, you know, I’m not worried that I don’t know how to make the coffee and my customers aren’t worried that I don’t know how to make it either, you know, because you got a system there that you plug into and and, you know, you kind of hit the ground running from day one. You got a great support team behind you that can help you in every aspect of the deal.

Stone Payton: So was it a little bit scary, though, going out and doing this? You said you and your wife are doing due diligence. Was a was it a little a little bit frightening to to get out there and do this thing?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah. Yeah. I think it was you know, it was a bit of a pivot for me with my career path. I think I was kind of bored, you know, as a financial advisor and looking to do something different. My wife has a very successful career, as is a national recruiter in the insurance and employee benefits side. But the investment piece of it for us was a big one. And we’ve got three kids and, you know, one one in college at the time and two headed there shortly. And then we closed on our franchise, Stone March 1st of 2020. So when the world stopped turning two weeks later, we thought we had made a colossal mistake.

Stone Payton: Oh, man. Yeah, but you weathered it. You made it. You Not only did you weather, I get the sense that you that you prospered through that process.

Justin Cotta Holmes: You know, we really did, man. And the reason why is because, you know, I think this is sort of a recession proof industry, like the march of time is what it is, irrespective of global pandemics or economic recessions or workforce shortages or what whatever, you know, whatever seems to be happening, that might be an impediment to economic activity as a whole. You know, the reality is, is that business owners are going to reach that day where they no longer want to or are able to run their operation. And they they want to enjoy a well-earned retirement. And so, you know, that that time is going to come, whether things are good or bad. And that’s what we experienced during the pandemic. It just took off kind of by itself and kind of surprising, really, you know.

Stone Payton: So. So what are you enjoying the most about the work? What are you finding the most rewarding now that you’ve been at it a while?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Well, I think. First of all, everybody has a different story, right? And so the stories are all compelling. And you get to know these people that have put their just their blood, toil, sweat and tears into building an operation. And and I find that fascinating. We have an exceptional team Stone our brokers. Know I’m a native to Maine, as is my wife. None of our brokers are, but they are great ambassadors for the state. And they do exceptional work with our clients and with our prospective buyers. So, I mean, I love my team and and I and I really have had only positive experience with our clients. I feel like I don’t deserve to enjoy my job as much as I do.

Stone Payton: And you’re working correct me if this is not accurate, but you have clients on both sides of this buy sell equation. Is that accurate?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah. I mean, we typically represent the sellers in the transaction. I mean, the buyers come through the marketing efforts that we do on our own and through Transworld assistants. But, you know, we’re paid by the by the seller. And so our focus is really to negotiate the best and fairest price for them and make sure that they’re they’re getting what they deserve out of the deal. And we obviously strive to make sure that the buyers are are comfortable as well. We do a lot of work connecting them with lenders, sometimes with attorneys. Cpas, you know, in Maine is seeing an influx of people into the state that we honestly haven’t seen snow in and probably over a century. And so a lot of these folks need to know, you know, what town should they live in, what school should their kids go to? You know, where’s a good place to grab a bite to eat, you know, And so we sort of play the role of ambassador, you know, for our state. And, you know, I mean, along with the business brokering thing, I mean, a big part of our mission here is really just Maine’s been a really well kept secret for a long time. And and we have a beautiful country. We have a beautiful world. But I would put Maine’s quality in place and quality of life up against any place in the world. And so, you know, we’re championing not only the idea of owning a business in Maine, but actually experiencing our incredible natural beauty, wonderful people, fantastic environment. You know, I think we have a lot for for people of all walks of life to really like when you come to live in Maine.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds to me like you could be in the economic development office as well. You certainly.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Well, I was actually there about ten years ago, actually. So I worked in economic development for the state for about six or seven years at the local and federal level before I transitioned into the private sector. So you nailed it, man. That’s that’s you know, that’s what I did before this.

Stone Payton: So the sales and marketing thing, I think we found yet another benefit of being associated with an organization like Transworld. And how does the whole sales and marketing thing work on a day to day basis for a guy like you, a practice like yours, or I guess you’re out there cultivating relationships and you probably really know that that local business community, don’t you?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah, we do. I mean, we partner with a, with a firm who does our business valuations. We don’t, we don’t do that work ourselves. We find there’s real value there. We work with a company that has a ton of experience and they work directly with brokers, including a number of Transworld offices. And then the process of of engaging with the seller, performing the valuation, putting their marketing package together, and then getting that live and getting it pushed out to websites like Biz Buy, sell and business broker, dot net. You know, transfer has made that process extremely easy for us. It’s kind of a plug and play thing. You put the information in and you send it live and they get it out for you. And then, you know, you kind of, you know, I don’t want to make it sound easy, but we typically see interest from buyers coming in, you know, as early as that same day, if not the next day. They’ve really done a really good job perfecting that process.

Stone Payton: All right. Let’s talk timeline here a little bit on either side of the equation. But I guess I was really kind of focusing on exiting. I’m an entrepreneur. I own 40% of a pretty successful media company. We don’t have exit on our mind at the moment. But but if we did have exit on our mind at the moment, we’re probably already too late, right? We we need to be talking before we’re ready to eggs. So talk a little bit about practical timeline when people should start, you know, having conversations with you.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah, well, JFK once said the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining, right? So I think coming up with a plan ahead of time is the right strategy. There are a lot of of of of aspects to to selling a business beyond just getting that check at the closing table. You know, there’s a lot of variables and we don’t we don’t profess to be experts in it. You talk about capital gains while you want to be speaking to a CPA. You want to talk about structuring some sort of owner financing. You really want to get an attorney involved, Right? But there are so many different ways to structure a deal. And so, you know, separate and aside from just determining the value in the business and selling it. A business owner has the opportunity to finance their retirement. You know, if they want to do some sort of owner financing aspect and get interest on that payment for a few years, that helps to augment Social Security payments or any kind of 401 K or IRA that you may have set aside. And then also just structuring deals in a certain way so you can minimize or mitigate the tax impact. Those are all things where we really encourage our clients to, very early on in the process, work with a qualified attorney, a CPA and a financial advisor and get all of their ducks in a row because the last thing you want to do is sell your business and then six months be writing a six figure check to the IRS. I mean, nobody wants to do that, right?

Stone Payton: Right. Well, and I can envision you as kind of a quarterback, like you’re the guy who knows the guy, Right. At least can tell me, you know, these are the folks that you need to talk to. And maybe here are even some that we’ve had some really great experience with working with and through. Do you find yourself playing that role of quarterback?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Oh, 100%. I mean, you’ve got to be the quarterback and you’ve got to be the head coach. You’ve got to be the cheerleader. You’ve got to wear all those hats. You have to have a positive mindset. You’ve got to find a way forward. You can’t let personalities and emotions get in the way of things. We’re really fortunate that we have a great network of of attorneys, advisors and CPAs that we work with. We never recommend one. We we put them on a list and we say, here are some folks. We to your point, we’ve worked had good success with these folks. And you know, we’d love to get your feedback after you’re done working with one of them. If you end up choosing them and let us know if we should recommend them again. And you know, we’ve got some really great people up here that really know what they’re doing and our clients benefit from that expertise and knowledge.

Stone Payton: Well, and I suspect that you find yourself educating sellers, because while I may have been doing this for 18 years, I haven’t been selling my business for 18 years. So there’s just so much I mean, we don’t know what we don’t know. Those of us as entrepreneurs who have who have built something and are getting ready, I bet you find yourself and maybe myths is a misconception, maybe as a is a better word. But it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there are some myths or misconceptions about how this whole thing works, that you kind of have to help them work through and really help them understand the process.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Oh, yeah. You know, absolutely. And, you know, I think with very few exceptions, there are some real common concerns that a business owner has going into this. And first and foremost would really be confidentiality, you know, And eventually your employees are going to find out you’re selling a business, right, when you’re introducing the new owner. But there’s there’s a real there’s a real science to doing that in a way that’s not going to get people to leave right now, especially when every business is struggling to keep people. And then over and above that, you know, customers don’t like change and competition loves to exploit those opportunities when there is a transition. So, you know, we really put a big emphasis on the confidentiality aspect of the process. Transworld is really helpful with us as well, but we we do a really good job, I think, of vetting prospective buyers, non-disclosure agreements, buyer profiles, verification of funds, you know, that seems to put business owners minds at risk because a lot of them come in thinking like, Well, the cat’s going to get out of the bag from day one. Everyone’s going to quit. No one’s going to come buy my stuff and my competition is going to take over. How am I going to sell my business? And it just doesn’t really have to be that way. When you’ve got somebody who’s, you know, who has got your best interests at heart, you know, and I like to think that we do so well.

Stone Payton: It certainly sounds like from from your tenor in the way that you’re describing things, that you do have your client’s best interest at heart. And one of the things that I’m beginning to learn from from hosting this series, this is so much more of a relationship oriented business. I recognize there’s there’s obviously this transactional aspect to this work, but man, your business is deeply rooted in building and sustaining relationships, isn’t it?

Justin Cotta Holmes: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, and again, I kind of go back to maybe being such a small state, and we all know each other. I mean, some of the attorneys that have done our closings or classmates of my wife, you know, some of the people that are selling a business are, you know, distant relatives of mine. I mean, you know, you know, everybody knows everybody up here and there. And that’s both good and bad, but. But you do. You do really have to. You have to have the right personality and the right mindset. And again, I just have to mention our team of brokers all follow a similar philosophy and they just do an exceptional job of communication. That’s the other thing I’d say, Stone, is that once your you’re listing is live, it’s almost like you’ve got a secret and you’re expecting everyone to find out. So when you don’t get any communication back from your broker as a business owner and you’re trying to sell, you start getting nervous. So our brokers do a really good job of communicating back to our business owners and saying, Hey, here’s what’s going on this month, here’s who we’re talking to, here’s who we’re vetting, here’s what’s happening. We’re working on this. You got any questions? Reach out to us. You know, people need to be reassured. I mean, we’ve even had instances when people have started this process and they haven’t even told their spouses that they’re selling, you know, So these people need a lot of hand-holding. Yeah, they need a lot of hand-holding. They need a lot of assurance. I mean, they put their life’s work into building this business, and the last thing you want to do is blow it by by letting word get out, because you’re not taking the time to to dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s, you know?

Stone Payton: All right, before we wrap, I would love to leave our listeners really on both sides of the equation if we could, buyers and sellers alike, with just a couple of pro tips, things to be thinking about, reading, doing, not doing. Number one Pro tip gang. If you’re listening out there is reach out and have a conversation with Justin or somebody on his team. But just if we’re beginning to think about about this kind of thing. Yeah, maybe a couple of actionable pro tips.

Justin Cotta Holmes: I think I think from the owners perspective, you can know the current owners perspective. You can never start too early. And if you’re talking to a business broker and they’re focused on getting you listed and getting you to market before you even know what your company is worth, you know, hang up the phone and go talk to somebody else because this process is meant to be deliberative. It’s meant to be slow for a reason, because, you know, it is probably the biggest financial transaction that a business owner will perform in their life more more than selling a home or certainly selling a car. And so, you know, make sure that you don’t feel like you’re being rushed. Take your time. And if your valuation doesn’t come back where you want it to be, then make sure that your broker either either in their firm like we do or other they have partners that can guide you in terms of increasing your valuation. Don’t allow yourself to be rushed through the process. You get one bite at the apple and you and you can’t you can’t redo it. That’s what I would say on the seller side, on the buyer side.

Justin Cotta Holmes: It’s really a matter of supply and demand. Keep in mind the demographic shift in this country. We have baby boomers who are going to be retiring by the thousands over the next 10 to 15 years, and a lot of them are small business owners. It is a buyer’s market right now to a degree. And so make sure you’re buying a business that you’re comfortable running, that you feel good about running, that you have some sort of relevant or transferrable experience, and that there’s a team of employees in place that can guide you. And when you buy a business, don’t change anything, don’t change the name, don’t change the service offerings, don’t paint the building. You know, don’t do anything. People like consistency, you know, And so if you do buy a business, the best compliment you can get is when six months go by and somebody says, Oh, I didn’t even know that you bought this place. I thought it was still the other people. You know, that means you’re doing something right because you change too much and they just won’t come back.

Stone Payton: What Fantastic. Counsel, I am so glad I asked.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Well, thanks, man. Off the top of my head. So there’s probably a few holes in that, but we’ll go with it.

Stone Payton: Yeah. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to learn more? Connect with you. Have a conversation with you or somebody on your team.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Yeah. You know, you can go to Main Business Advisors. That is our website. It has all of the information about who we are, what we do. And, you know, that’s a great place to start. Everything is automated. I see every email and inquiry that comes in. So chances are, if you’re interested in selling a business or in buying a business, you’re going to start by by talking to me and you know, and if you’re interested at all in owning a business in Maine, you know, do a Google search. I mean, I couldn’t be more proud of where I’m from. Stone I really can’t. Maine is just a beautiful, wonderful place to live, work and play, regardless of how old you are. And, you know, I know we might seem like the last stop on the bus line up here in the corner. A lot of people think we’re part of Canada, but we’re not. But come visit us, maybe not in January or February if you don’t like snow, but come see how wonderful our state is. And I think you’re going to fall in love with it just like we have.

Stone Payton: What a pleasure, Justin, to have you on the program this afternoon. Thanks for investing the time and energy to visit with us and share your insight and perspective. This has been informative, inspiring and I don’t know, man, just a fantastic way to to invest a Wednesday afternoon.

Justin Cotta Holmes: Now, man. Well, the pleasure was all mine. Stone, I can’t thank you enough for having me on there, and I appreciate your audience taking the time to listen to this. And and best of luck to all of you out there.

Stone Payton: My pleasure as well. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Justin Carter Holmes with main business advisors and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business near me.