We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brandon Smithwick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brandon below.

Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Family is well… family! The uncontrollable variable here is you cannot choose the family you are born into; however, you CAN choose your family of choice when you go through life! I am very blessed to partner with both of my siblings on separate business ventures. My sister, Jessie Andrews owns a catering business in Lansing, MI called, A Catered Affaire’. My brother, David Johnson and I co-own a window glass and screen repair shop in Holt, MI. Both businesses allow me the opportunity to give unbiased advice as it relates to digital marketing strategy.

Is family business the right answer for everyone? The short answer is, no it’s not. My strongest advice on this topic is to be 100% open, honest and transparent in what you want to do. You need to partner with those that share your vision and goals. When these two things become misaligned, you are asking for disaster. Think of it as your yin to your yang. The second piece of advice I would give you is to write your ideas out so you can communicate them to your potential partners. When it comes time for a formal agreement, work with a lawyer to help you draw up the verbiage that CLEARLY outlines what your responsibilities will be in the business as well as any potential partners.

This will hopefully keep everyone in their own lane and in the event you have overlap, then you discuss it with all parties. Be prepared to separate business from personal as conflict arises. Look at all situations as a “what can I learn?.” Don’t make this about any single person. A Business with family is a commitment. You are a clan. Stick together!

Brandon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began selling on eBay at the age of 15 (with my mom’s help of course!). I knew then the internet would be the future. I built my first website at 16 (Yahoo! Geocities baby!) and built my first hand-coded HTML site by hand at 17. I’ve always learned from the ground up to begin building my foundation. By age 23 I was introduced to how to build an e-commerce website to be able to ship products around the world in what was known as dropshipping. It was more than just building a website but learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to market the website. This one-year internship was worth so much. It set the path forward for what I would enter into as a professional digital marketer at the ripe old age of 27.

Started off working for a digital marketing agency serving the hotel industry. At the agency, I quickly moved up in the ranks and then moved on to work for a couple of hotel management companies at the manager level and ultimately moving up to being a Director of Digital Marketing. This experience allowed me to get my feet wet, stuck in the mud, and pull myself back out!

Six short years was all it took to lay the ground floor for when I became a Digital Marketing Instructor at a community college while living in Miami. I taught a class on how to market your business on social media which consisted of a 30-hour course 3 times a year. Moving forward a few years later I now teach a full Digital Marketing Bootcamp to students across several universities. The combined BootCamp is ~450 hours of live instruction over Zoom and the students are able to connect through collaboration, real-life business scenarios, and practicing how to be a marketer by being hands-on.

I’ve always been great with people and know how to explain things simply to create understanding between parties. Being an instructor has opened up how to better present and how I can write better plans of action which leads to my next move. My long-term goal has always been to get out of the day-to-day activities and focus more on strategic planning. I feel there is a gap in the market where people think they should just launch ads to boost their business sales. In reality, that may only be a patch on the problem and not the full solution. All marketing should go back to the goal and purpose of why you are running a campaign in the first place. iBrain Web Marketing is the official name of my company and I look forward to serving those who want to take their digital marketing to the next level.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

I co-own a glass and screen repair shop called Discount Glass and Screen with my brother, David Johnson in Holt, MI. We had an opportunity late in 2020 to purchase this business from a business owner looking to retire as he started the business in 1989. We saw an opportunity to continue the legacy of a business that had been in existence for 30+ years that held an impeccable reputation. For 30+ years they served the local community by replacing broken window glass, and worn-out screens, creating custom glass table shops, and more. The timeline for the acquisition was on the quicker end of the spectrum as it took 3-5 months.

From the beginning, you have the initial period of finding out the business is for sale, reaching out to the owner to initially start the discussions and to introduce the proposal. From there you have the back and forth of negotiation which would include reviewing any applicable business records and getting legal involved to write up the formal agreement to complete the sale. Everything must be in writing to make it official and legal. One other task that may need to be done is getting a full business appraisal. We did not do this as the business was small enough in terms of revenue. The value of the business should be based on the yearly sales records, intellectual property, and assets. When purchasing a business, you will have costs involved for legal, licensing, closing costs, and some other miscellaneous items.

When making this big of a purchasing decision be sure to ask a lot of questions. When in doubt, contact your legal team. It is crucial to dot your i’s and cross your t’s as you are dealing with a business legal agreement. Depending on the funds exchanged, it may require you to file a record in the city and/or State you live in. As a legally operating business, you will have taxes. Be sure to keep accurate records of everything and when in doubt, ask for help. It is not worth the surprise tax/penalty bill you may receive later.

Any advice for managing a team?

Being humble, working harder than them, and being there to support them in long-term growth. You should treat your people well as they are the lifeblood of your business. They often are the ones that will see day-to-day operations and will be front-facing with your clientele. If you have a situation where you find your team’s morale low then at some point your customers will sense that too. You need to be able to identify this sooner than later as not all team members will raise the concern with you as a manager or owner of the business.

Operating Discount Glass and Screen we have an open door policy. Anything good or bad can be brought to our attention and we are always open to discussing it. This does not mean the conversation is designed to go one way or another but to be open, honest, and transparent. We ask our team members how they are doing, what can we do to improve and what can we do to better support them. These are the tough questions that must be asked in an honest manner. It could be something simple like buying them lunch, going on the job site with them, or even letting them show us what they have learned.

We favor innovation! If there is a better way of doing something, we want to hear about it! On occasion, we will come across an obscure request from a customer and we may not have the tool needed to complete the job. Sometimes this tool does not exist so our staff will make their own. We like to have fun. When people feel valued, they feel a part of the family which is the environment we choose to lead by!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ibrainwebmarketing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ibraindigitalmarketing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iBrainWebMarketing/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/brandonsmithwick
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ibrain-web-marketing-frisco
• Other: https://ibrainwebmarketing.com/portfolio/ https://discountglassandscreen.com/