About
Jim Stauder is a business broker of the well-known Biz Owner Advisors business brokerage company who helps people sell their business in IL and nearest regions. St. Louis business broker, Jim Stauder is the Founder and President of Biz Owner Advisors, LLC which provides business brokerage services in the St. Louis area, including Metro East. Following is a chronological exploration of Jim’s qualifications. By background, Jim is a CPA (inactive). He spent 5 years in public accounting and 5 years as controller in communication industries, then made a career move into consultative selling, spending 6 years in executive search and 10 years in architectural product sales. At the turn of the millennium, Jim was developing a business plan to pursue angel funding for an internet business to be located at yourleaguestandings.com, but the internet crash of 2000 ended that dream. In 2001, Jim Stauder entered the world of business brokerage – a perfect fit for his accounting/financial and consultative selling skills. He learned through the school of hard knocks that business brokerage is a tough gig. Because it is not stressed nearly enough in brokerage training, it took a while to learn the key to success – managing both seller’s and buyer’s expectations. The ability to do so only comes with experience and exposure to the variety of problems that inevitably arise when selling a privately owned business. The Keys to a Successful Business Sale Far too many business brokers fail to help their clients (sellers) understand the obstacles they face and fail to set realistic expectations. As a result, most owners face huge obstacles to selling their business and have unrealistic price expectations. Under such conditions, most businesses won’t sell, and if they do it’s a painful process for everyone involved (the broker, the seller, buyer candidates, families, lenders, and advisors) as owners slowly reach the realization that they will have to compromise considerably beyond their expectations to close a deal. That is one of the many reasons only about 20-25% of small businesses ever sell. After learning the ropes and understanding the keys to success, Jim experienced tremendous success in business brokerage and sold about 90% of the businesses he listed, including numerous multi-million complex transactions up to $5,000,000 in value. After about 10 years in business brokerage, Jim attempted to acquire the business brokerage firm with which he was affiliated. There were 5 parties to the negotiations, all business brokers, but there was no intermediary to aid in the sale process. The 5 parties were unable to agree on value, structure and terms. Instead of acquiring the firm, Jim ended up with a three-year non-compete agreement, which he decided to honor. The failure of the attempted acquisition is indicative of how difficult it is to successfully sell (or acquire) a business without an intermediary. With a love for business brokerage, Jim pondered his future and ultimately decided to develop a website to educate business owners on the need to plan for the sale of their business. The fact is only about 20% of small businesses ever sell. The primary reason 80% are not successfully sold is business owners’ lack of planning for their business exit. Most owners don’t even realize that forward planning is necessary. Jim committed to become a zealot for that cause and set forth to develop the website titled How to Plan and Sell a Business (HPSB). HPSB, located at http://HowToPlanAndSellABusiness.com, is a free membership website for business owners containing 90 newsletter articles about the process of preparing to sell a business. It identifies 66 potential obstacles to a business sale! HPSB explains how small businesses are valued, how to plan for the sale of a business, how to increase the value of a business and how to successfully and profitably exit a business. All 90 newsletters are available on the HPSB website, but to access all articles in their entirety, owners must be subscribed to the bi-weekly email newsletter (also free) which delivers the 90 newsletters in sequential order. In addition, HPSB offers a White Paper titled “Why It’s Important to Plan the Sale of Your Business” and a Special Report titled “Insider Secrets to Selling Your Business – Business Broker Best Practices and Selection Criteria”. Jim is the author of all content on the HPSB website. In addition, Jim authors a blog located at http://jimstauder.com titled “Jim Stauder’s Business Exit Planning Upon the expiration of his non-compete agreement, Jim established Biz Owner Advisors, LLC to provide business brokerage services in the St. Louis metropolitan area, including the Metro East area in Illinois. Jim Stauder is also a licensed real estate broker in Missouri and Illinois, but only utilizes the real estate licenses to sell real estate owned by business owners who are selling their business.