Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joe Stafford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joe , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

My wife and I purchased an existing iCode location from the Franchisor. The business is a school that teaches children ages 5 to 17 years old STEAM skills We were under the impression that it was a cash flow positive business and our focus would be on building relationships with local schools and organizations to further grow our enrollments. It turned out to be in a more challenging position than we had originally thought.

As a result, we have had to make adjustments along the way to cut costs and focus on getting children into our campus location rather than building partnerships outside the location. One of the offerings that we provide is to offer after school programs at local schools where we bring the equipment, curriculum, and instruction to the campus. A challenges that we discovered with this approach is staffing programs like that with coaches/instructors during the time frame from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm. Most of our coaches/instructors come from UT Dallas and have classes during those times.

My wife has taken over the location as Campus Director as of early August and has done an amazing job in the few months that she has been in the position. She did not expect to have to do this, but has been more than willing to go all in on making the location a success! For that I am eternally grateful!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been a business owner for many years in addition to providing fractional CFO services to companies in the $5mm to $50mm revenue range. We moved to Dallas in early 2022 and were looking for investment opportunities. My wife and I have always had a passion for education, having home schooled our children for a number of years. We thought that providing the resources and environment for children to learn STEAM skills would better prepare those children for the careers of the future, regardless of whether or not they choose to attend a traditional four year university. Our programs give children a wide sampling of the different opportunities available in the STEAM fields.

We had engaged with a similar franchise concept and were pretty far down the road with them when we came across iCode. What really attracted us to this franchise is that they develop all of there own curriculum in house and they really listen to the feedback that their franchisees provide. The corporate location is also here in Dallas (East Frisco), which is very beneficial should a problem arise. That affords us the ability to pay a personal visit to work through any challenges or issues.

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

I have participated in acquisitions over the years as a CFO and my wife and I recently purchased the iCode location that we operate. Buying a business from a founder is definitely a different process than purchasing from a company. The founder has so much sweat equity and much of their identity tied to the business that it can be a very emotional process for that person(s). When purchasing from a company, the process is much less impassioned and is more about the transaction structure and achieving a specific outcome. More about the numbers and structure and much less about what might happen to the business and staff going forward. I think it is important to have a ceiling as to what you are willing to pay and have the discipline to walk away if you cannot get to that number.

However, whether buying from a founder or a company, it is important that you follow a due diligence process and have the right advisory team helping you along the way. That would include legal, tax, estate planning, and resources to help with the due diligence process. I do think it is important to negotiate directly with the seller and arrive at a price before involving attorneys as that may muddy the waters. It is not that you shouldn’t listen to your legal counsel when discussing price, but rather that may slow a transaction down.

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

I have also sold businesses in my career and I can tell you that it is never too soon to start preparing that business for sale. Having financial and other records readily available to any prospective buyer instills confidence in that buyer that the business is being run well. One of the worst things that can happen is to receive a fairly standard request for information and have to scramble to produce the information. This sows doubt in the buyer’s mind that the business is not being run in an efficient manner. If the organization that you are selling is not large enough for a full-time CFO, then engaging with a firm on a fractional basis at a fraction of the cost of a full time person might save you a great deal of pain and heartache during the due diligence process.

Contact Info:

• Website: icodeschool.com/dallas103
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icodenorthdallas/
• Facebook: facebook.com/icodenorthdallas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icode-school-north-dallas/
• Youtube: https://www.icodenorthdallastx.com/

Image Credits
iCode North Dallas iCode North Dallas