Sheryl Vazquez with CSG Capital

Intro: [00:00:07] 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 Radio X Ambassador Program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:32] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon and you guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with CSG Capital backed by EXP Commercial. Ms.. Sheryl Vasquez. How are you?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:00:54] I’m doing so good. How are you?

Stone Payton: [00:00:56] I am doing well. It is such a delight to have you on the show this afternoon. I got a ton of questions. We’ll never get to them all. But before we do dive into some of those that I knew I wanted to ask, maybe it would be good mojo for for me and for our listeners to get just a little bit of an overview. Mission purpose. What are you and CSG capital really out there trying to do for folks?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:01:23] Yeah. What I love to do, right? I love working with people. I’ve worked with people all my life in anything that I’ve done. So it translates into real estate. I’ve been in real estate for about six years now, and so I am in the commercial space, primarily focusing on restaurant and retail space, and I do business brokerage in that as well. So for owners who want to sell or lease their their space, their real estate, I can also help them sell the business if they’re ready to leave that and move on to a new venture or whatever that looks like for them. I like to help people search for businesses to buy. I’m located in the Southeast, I’m in North Carolina, and I also have access to everything nationwide.

Stone Payton: [00:02:13] So how do you how’s the whole sales and marketing thing worked for for someone like you? Like, how do you find the business owners who are looking to sell?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:02:25] Right. So a lot of it. I always start with my sphere of influence who you know, because everybody knows somebody who, you know, either wants to buy or sell or buy or sell a business. In coming out of COVID. There’s a lot of people who have turned to being entrepreneurs and starting their own companies. There’s a huge amount of startups coming, and so a lot of people are looking to lease spaces in that. There’s a lot of people that are looking to exit the business. So I talked to a lot of people that I know. I post a lot on social media about what I do and I send mailers out to people and I do podcasts like this. I have email campaigns going, so I email business owners, let them know what I do, that I’m available to help them value the business, that sort of thing.

Stone Payton: [00:03:18] So yeah, in terms of valuing the business, I guess maybe a more general question for me, how do you know or how does the seller really know if their business is ready to sell?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:03:32] Right. Some some owners just they want to get out of the business and they’re just, okay, I’m ready to sell. But when you look at the numbers, they’re not ready to sell. The numbers don’t really match what they want for the business. It’s it comes down to the big why, right? So why do you want to sell your business? Is it big enough for you to just leave it behind and move on? Or do the numbers not make sense right now? And we can build value in that and you have a little time in that and you want to get the most for your business.

Stone Payton: [00:04:09] And so do you find I think I know the answer to this, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Do you find sometimes that an owner or a set of partners feel like their business is worth more than it really is out there on the market?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:04:24] That’s usually the case. I know. That’s what you’re thinking, right? Right. Right. Yeah, it’s I mean, it’s their baby. A lot of them have built it from the ground up and it is what it is today. It’s tough with COVID and how it impacted business owners and what that looks like for them. A lot of business owners have morphed into doing business a different way and so that increased value one way. But some business owners weren’t able to do that and so value decreased. They still want maybe what they put into the business they want out of it, or if they’re not selling the real estate with it, it’s just the business that can be a disappointment. Know so it’s all about the numbers is what it comes down to.

Stone Payton: [00:05:08] So if they are coachable and they come to you with one number one idea in mind, can you kind of hit the brakes and say, okay, you’re not where you want to be, but if you want to move in that direction, we can help you get there. Or I’ve got a group of, you know, crack experts in these different domains that can help you get there. Do you find yourself doing that sometimes?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:05:30] Absolutely. So I’m with the Exit Planning Institute as well, and I’m a certified CPA. So that’s a certified exit planning advisor. So if I come to owners and they want to sell and the numbers are not where they need to be, I can talk to them about building the value in their business that can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years. So it depends again on how much time and effort they want to put into it. And it’s also a team effort. You know, your whole management staff, your employees, everybody has to be on board with building that value. Where can we put systems in place to build it? What do we need to do? Do we need to acquire another business? Do we need to acquire another space? Roll out a new product? What does that look like? So it depends if the if the owner wants to do something like that. So again, comes back to their big why?

Stone Payton: [00:06:27] Well, it must be really rewarding. Invigorating work. I got to ask, what’s the back story? How did you find yourself getting in this line of work?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:06:40] It’s so funny. I used to be a bartender. I was a bartender for 30 years. So I am really good at reading people, really good at talking to people and just a great listener. So in that you go, you got to grow up at some point. So I got into real estate and I still love working with people, walking them through the whole transaction from A to Z and a lot of hand-holding. But I felt like commercial real estate was really where I wanted to be. So I got into commercial real estate because I’m all about the deal and I love working with investors. So when I got into commercial, I was introduced to business brokerage and I just fell in love with that because I love working with numbers, so. Someone else told me about the exit planning. And again, when I love working with people and taking them from one place to building value and and creating that for them, that that’s wonderful for me, you know, I feel like I’m just helping them in that way. So that’s kind of how it came up. It was introduced to me and I just took it and ran and just love it.

Stone Payton: [00:08:03] So I understand that you do quite a bit of work. And you mentioned it earlier in the conversation in the in the restaurant and retail assets arena. Was that a conscious choice? And does it continue to be a conscious choice or is that just the way things seem to be unfolding for you?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:08:20] So it’s good when you jump into commercial to kind of pick a niche. And I’ve been in restaurants for 30 years, so it was kind of a no brainer for me. I know when I’m listing a restaurant exactly what to look for. I know what the buyer is going to look for. Do you have a hood? Is it a second generation space where the grease traps, what are the walk ins look like? What’s being transferred in a contract to the buyer? All of these things that I need to look for. How is your POS system run? What’s in the business? What do we need to take out of the business? That’s personal. So I look for all of those things because I’ve been in it for so long, so that when you pick a niche, I was like, This is kind of a no brainer. I’m just going to do that. And in that, I’ve just people have come to me as a specialist for it. So and I am I know what I’m talking about when it comes to retail and restaurant.

Stone Payton: [00:09:19] Well, no, I can tell and I know our listeners can tell, just as you rattle off all of those different things. So those 30 years of bartending, they served you.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:09:26] Well, for sure.

Stone Payton: [00:09:30] So is it is it easier do you find to to to secure listings for sellers or to find viable buyers? Or is it just two different sides of the same coin? And they’re equally challenging and rewarding.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:09:47] You know, I feel that it’s pretty equal right now. I mean, for myself, I can’t speak for everybody, but for myself, I find that it’s pretty, pretty equal and I can help both just as easily.

Stone Payton: [00:09:59] So I shared with you before we came on air and my business partner and I. His name is Lee Kanter. We own the business radio network. We have a network of people with studios. We do national shows. And of course, I mean, we’ve been at this for, gosh, 18 years now. Well, Cheryl, I had black hair when we started. So, of course, we’ve had this conversation about exiting, how we want to exit. Do we want to exit on the open market or do we want to sell all or some of it to our studio partners? So for for folks like us, one of the things that we started kind of, you know, batting back and forth without the benefit of, you know, specialized expertise and counsel for someone like you, at least so far at this point, is deal structure, because it’s not that Lee and I necessarily need or even want someone to just write a big check and we ride off into the sunset and it doesn’t have to be that way, right?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:10:56] No, no, absolutely not. You guys want to talk amongst yourselves and definitely bring in your, you know, your family, your financial advisors, that sort of thing. Because not only is it about the business, it’s about your personal life, your financial life outside of the business. Because once you leave the business, what are you going to do? You have to write that down and in detail, write and include the people that you love around you because they’re going to be part of that plan. Right. And then how does that what does that look like? What does it look like for your team of people who are going to stay on? So are they interested in taking over and buying the business? Because that’s one avenue that you could explore. You could build the business to include other radio stations and other podcasts. I mean, it depends on how big you want to be, how long do you want to stay in it? But moreover, what are you going to do after that? You know, because if it’s just golfing somewhere, you’re going to get bored really quickly. You know, you either find a new venture to get into or something else. You know, some people, they do want to golf for the rest of their lives and that’s fine. But just know what that entails, you know? So that’s that’s what I say. First of all, you have to write out that plan. The two of you sit together and write out what that looks like and include your significant others, your family, you know, talk to your managers, your people underneath you, your group of core people around you.

Stone Payton: [00:12:35] And I’m getting the sense that don’t have that conversation three, six months before it’s something you want to do. Maybe have it as far out as well. I don’t know. You tell me. Maybe even a couple of years.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:12:48] Yeah, couple of years. Yeah. Okay, yeah, a couple of years. Because we have to look at different things. You know, we it’s a whole strategy and it depends on where you want to go with it. So if you want to build the value, we’re going to have groups of people and we’ll meet every 90 days and come back and and have a workshop about how did that go for us? Did we build value in this area? Did we do what we were supposed to do and what we set out to do? What are the numbers look like now? You know, and just revisit every 90 days. So every 90 days can be a long time, especially when you have a goal set of where you need to be before you put it on the market. But then again, we’ll revisit that maybe after you grow the business, you want to hang on to it for ten more years, you know, you never know.

Stone Payton: [00:13:42] Well, and I’m thinking that the cleaner, the books and there’s probably some other things that’s like part of the curb appeal in this market. Like, you know, in residential, you know, you want a nice curb appeal. Part of that that’s really important. Right? And the reason I’m kind of laughing as I’m saying that just yesterday I bought a t shirt with the company credit card and I’m sure I shouldn’t have done that happened. I know the shirt looks great, Cheryl, but no, you got to clean up the you got to clean up the books. And then I’m sure there are other things that they’re looking for in those books that that suggest to them, hey, we can we can buy this and and we can run it without laying stone or at least after a period of time. Right. Those are things. There’s things they’re looking for, right?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:14:30] Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s that’s my job. That’s part of my job is, you know, I get all the numbers, the profit and loss statements, the balance sheets, and then I pull out, what is this? What is this? What is this? Can we add that back into the business so that the. Iyer who comes in, is not paying for that. So that’s value add that we can add back into the business. That’s part of the fun of it for me, actually. I really enjoy doing that kind of sleuthing with the business. You know, a lot of it is like car payments. That’s fine. A lot of folks pay for their car through their business. But will the car be staying with the business? No. So we add that back end personal cell phones, stuff like that, and it can get dicey. It’s like really digging. But that’s I mean, that’s part of what I love about it.

Stone Payton: [00:15:24] Well, and I’m thinking as you’re talking because I mean, this this conversation is very helpful to me personally because of the situation that Lee and I are in. But I mean, I’m getting the sense that even if we weren’t getting ready to sell or did he it was way down the road. It seems like just a great productive exercise to act like you are right and be thinking about some of these things.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:15:49] I think that too. I mean, I’ve taken so many courses and so many classes and I always apply them to my own business. What could I be doing better? How could I be setting these in place so that, you know, where are my financials going? How is that being documented so that it’s easy to read if I want to sell or build or do whatever, you know? So I think it’s just really good to always have these conversations, talk to a business broker that you know, and try to pick their brain about how they look at numbers. And then what do I need to how do I need to apply that to my business? And I think it’s good common practice just to do that on a regular basis. It’s easier, I think, for you for your CPA as well.

Stone Payton: [00:16:38] Well, and after hearing you talk about, first of all, your business, I’m getting, the idea is far more relationship oriented than transactional. And I don’t I don’t think I really saw it that way, you know, but obviously you are building a level of trust and have a depth of relationship with buyers and sellers that I did. I didn’t see it in that frame. And I am and the reason I mentioned that is I don’t think now after this conversation, I don’t think I would feel bad about approaching a broker. And, you know, that would be a transparency. Look, we’re not in any hurry, but we’d really like some insight and perspective. They if they’re if they’re worth their salt, they understand it might be a while and they know they’re going to get the nod when we are ready. So so don’t feel right. Don’t feel bad about approaching about approaching a broker to get some insight and perspective. Right. Okay. Let’s before we wrap in, let’s leave our listeners, if we could, with a handful of pro tips. Well, number one, pro tip, just reach out and talk to Sheryl or somebody on her team. That’s your number one pro tip. But maybe just a couple of things to do, maybe to read, to be thinking about and in preparation for even a conversation with someone like Cheryl or just to start getting ready, buyers and sellers alike, let’s leave them with a couple little actionable ideas, if we could.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:18:07] Yeah, for sure. So I think a really good book to read is Exit Rich. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that. It’s written by Sharon Lechter and Michelle Seiler. Tucker, Sharon Lecter also writes with Napoleon Hill Foundation. So that book kind of focuses on selling your business and getting it to where it needs to be. They work a lot in M&A, so the mergers and acquisitions area of business selling, but I think that’s a good starting point for a lot of owners. A lot of people don’t know the business owners exist or what we even do, so thank you for bringing light to that aspect of it. I find myself explaining what I do to people quite often. I never mind explaining it because people need to know about it and then, you know, educate yourself on where the numbers need to go, what it needs to look like. Talk to your CPA. I know if you’re a business owner, you have a CPA in hand, you have an attorney on hand. You should you know, you can talk to them about what the books look like, what your pal statements look like, and where we need to put things, just like you said, to clean it up a little bit. So those are some things for a buyer. I think one of the best things you can do is get SBA approved because a lot of business owners will look at that like, you’re serious about buying this business, you’re pre-approved. Sba is a huge lending thing that a lot of people. Go to and they’re ready to to help you out. So I have plenty of SBA lenders that I can have people talk to. And most of us do. So I think that’s the best thing. And a lot of buyers I mean, we’re going to guide you through the whole buying process anyway. And they’re going to do their own due diligence in the process. But we we help guide the buyers as well. So. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:20:13] I am so glad that I asked. I think that’s incredibly helpful. Helpful. Counsel, thank you for that. And Cheryl, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:20:25] For having me. I’m super excited.

Stone Payton: [00:20:26] Thank you. Well, it is my pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Cheryl Vazquez with CSG Capital, backed by XP Commercial and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business Near Me.