We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Wilbur a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jonathan, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back at the decisions you made early in your career, particularly whether to join a firm or start your own, do you feel you made the right choice for that stage of your career?
I joined Transworld Business Advisors last year and it was absolutely the right choice. I had started a business and owned rental properties prior to joining their firm, but at that point last year I was really searching for my next move. I knew what I wanted to do, but didn’t think that the idea was a realistic option: helping small businesses sell their business. I had never heard of anyone doing this type of work before, but I had a deep passion for wanting to help people in guiding them through the very challenging process of selling their business. Through multiple conversations with people in the firm I discovered that not only was this a realistic option, but a viable opportunity for me to truly make an impact in my community.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was born and raised in St. Louis and currently live in the Des Peres area. I got into the industry of business advisory last year after a random encounter led me to meeting with Transworld Business Advisors.
Transworld is a full-service business advising firm specializing in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs buy and sell businesses.
We start by holding the business owner’s hands through the process and walk them through how to value their company, package their business confidentially, find a buyer, and negotiate terms that lead to a successful closing.
I think what sets us a part from other firms in the industry is that we use a team-based approach including a valuation department, marketing department, and closing department that are all working together towards the owner’s success in selling their business.
We are experts in the process of buying and selling businesses. All agents have gone through a dedicated training program and are local to our communities to support the needs of small business owners. I am truly proud of the integrity, sincerity and genuine care we offer to all our clients when going through a very transformative time in their lives.
When trusting someone with the largest financial transaction of their life, you want an expert in the field with a proven process and honest advice.
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.
To date, Transworld has facilitated over 10,000 transactions in all types of industries and locations. We sell businesses ranging from small individual operations to multi-million dollar companies. The one lesson I can share to anyone selling their business is to keep good books and records which can help convince a buyer of the value already in the business. This way the buyer of the business would not have to reinvent the wheel, and be able to get cash flow day one after acquiring an existing business with systems and processes and customers in place without having to start from day 1.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I believe the most effective strategy is to always focus on building honest and strong relationships with your clients at all levels of business. Selling a business, on average, takes six to nine months and it’s important to make sure that our goals are aligned with the seller’s from day one. By constantly working towards a successful relationship, we can cultivate multiple referrals from just that one transaction and ultimately help the business owner sell their business and achieve their goals.
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