Ross Zeiger with First Choice Business Brokers

Intro: 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 RadioX Ambassador program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with First Choice Business Brokers, Mr. Ross Zeiger. How are you, sir?

Ross Zeiger: I’m doing very well. Stone. How are.

Stone Payton: You? I am doing well. Really been looking forward to this conversation, I guess right out of the gate. I’d be interested to know how in the world you found yourself into. Into this line of work. Man. How did you get on this path?

Ross Zeiger: Yeah. So I’ve always loved business. I love talking about it, reading about it, coming up with business ideas, anything, business. And I’m interested in it. And I spent five years on active duty as a marine officer, and then after that I ran my own business for a while. I bought that business without a broker, which was a huge mistake. I’d caution anyone in your audience against that. And my wife and I ran that business for about a year, and then we sold it again without a broker. And it wasn’t until after that whole experience that I learned that business brokers even existed. Had I known that, I would have been a lot better off in the buying and selling process. And so I became a broker because it combines all these interests of mine, and I wanted to help others avoid the mistakes that I made as a business owner who acquired a business and then sold it.

Stone Payton: Well, if you if you won’t mind and if it won’t be too terribly painful, what are some of those mistakes that maybe you made and that you’re helping people avoid?

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. So in the buying process, it was I didn’t negotiate. That was the first huge mistake I took. I took the seller and it was a it was a small transaction. I paid for it with cash savings. It wasn’t like I took a SBA loan and bought a seven figure business or anything like that. It was a small, small transaction. This business, it a doggy daycare. They were going under because they’d open during COVID into the lockdowns. So we bought the kennels. We bought the the brand basically, and almost no customers. So it was like just buying the assets. And so, yeah, that was the first thing as I am kicking myself for not having negotiated the price because they were desperate to sell and I could have gotten priced a lot lower or done some sort of seller financing, but without a broker, I just wasn’t aware that that was even an option. So so that was the big one on the buy side. And then on the sell side, same thing I could have I could have done a seller financing myself. I could have done like some sort of earnout. I should have run the business longer had I had I done my advice to a business owner now would be to run it for three years. I have a solid track record and make the business as autopilot as possible. You know, you want a buyer wants to buy a business, not a job. And I was very much an owner operator. So yeah, those are those are the big ones at negotiation and being a little wiser on the sell side.

Stone Payton: So have you landed on a point of focus, a certain type of business that you look to buy and sell or a certain group of people that you really target your efforts with?

Ross Zeiger: I have so. First choice. The the company that I’m a broker for. They we do all all sorts of sizes industries and anywhere in the United States we help people buy and sell businesses. For me personally, the niche that I’ve gravitated towards is the E-2 visa. And for people who aren’t familiar with the E two visa, it’s a way that foreigners can gain residency in the US by buying a business. And I can talk about that a little more later on if you’d like. But yeah, that’s that’s sort of the niche that I’ve picked is, is E to visa business buyers.

Stone Payton: Well yeah, I’d like to to learn more about what drove you, what compelled you to to work in that specific arena and yet tell educate us tell us a little bit more about how the E-2 visa works.

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. So before I say anything I should preface with, I’m not an immigration attorney, so don’t take this as legal advice. Your best source. Your best source of information is always the USCIS. That’s the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is an agency of the US Homeland Security Department. And so unless your audience has immigrated to the US or you have family members who have done it, you probably aren’t aware of how the process works. My wife is Korean, and so I went through this process with her and I had no idea prior to to how that actually worked. There are several ways you can gain residency and then eventually citizenship. Marriage is obviously one employment. If you have an employer that will sponsor your your residency education, if you’re going to US college and then the one that isn’t talked about as much, which is this one is investment. And so the visa, it’s open to citizens of most countries, countries that have a treaty with the United States. And in order to get it, you must make a substantial investment in the US business. And you do so by buying at least 50% of an existing business, or it doesn’t even have to be existing.

Ross Zeiger: You could start a franchise or start start do a startup type of thing, but substantial is defined as usually a minimum of around 100,000. The USCIS doesn’t publish an official amount, but that from the various immigration attorneys. I’ve worked with these the buyers I’m currently working with on these deals, they’re looking for about a minimum of 100,000. And then there’s some requirements for the business itself. It can’t be a marginal business, meaning the business has to be sustainable, in other words, profitable. It has to be showing growth. It can’t be on a downward path, that type of thing. And then there’s a lot of benefits to the to be E-2 visa, such as the fact that it’s approved quickly relative to other visas. It can be renewed indefinitely. So it’s a two year visa. But as long as you’re running that business, it can be renewed and then it allows the visa holder to bring their spouse and their dependent children into the US. So it’s a really good program.

Stone Payton: Well, now that you’ve been at this a while, what are you finding the most rewarding about the work, man? What’s the most fun about it?

Ross Zeiger: Yeah. So I love teaching. I love that I get to explain to business owners how the process works. I’ve been I’ve been actually making a how to buy a business YouTube series that I’ve been working on. And so I just enjoy getting to share what I’ve learned both from my own experience and then from working with other. As I’m starting to go through this process of helping buyers and sellers. Achieve their dreams of business ownership. It’s it’s been really rewarding to watch people step into careers that they love into into businesses that fulfill their dreams and and lifestyles that they’re looking for.

Stone Payton: So how do you get the new business? How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you?

Ross Zeiger: Yeah. So a big one is just cold emails right now. I get I use different softwares to generate leads and then I’ll just cold email. It’ll find people who are business owners and I’ll reach out to them. I’ll inform them about what I do. And most people aren’t even aware that business business brokers exist like myself when I was a business owner. So nine times out of ten there aren’t anywhere close to selling there. They’re just focusing on running their business and they’re in the peak of their career. But at least they get to know me and they keep my name in mind. And then the last question is like, what would what looks good? What should I start doing now so that when the time comes, I’ll be ready to to sell my business? So, yeah, to answer your question, cold emails. And then on top of that, the other agents in my office, they’re so swamped with, with work that a lot of times they’ll pass leads off to me.

Stone Payton: Well, and I would think being part of a system like first choice business brokers, you’ve probably had some pretty strong guidance, mentorship and helping you get this thing up and running and navigating this world, having it.

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. Yeah. So I’m based out of Austin, Texas, but the office I’m associated with is in Houston, Texas, and my broker is Lenwood Mills. And he’s been a great mentor. He’s he’s been doing it for a few years. And he always takes my calls, my emails and just very patient, like, here’s what you should do in this situation. Here’s how you can help this, this client, that type of thing. So absolutely, they’ve been they’ve been really good about that. And they have a strong training program. And we’re first coming on into the first choice system.

Stone Payton: So you touched on it briefly earlier in the conversation, but I’d like to dive into this a little bit because I’m learning hosting this series, I’m discovering that there are a lot of different ways to to structure a deal. It’s not always just sit at the table. I write you a check, you hand me the keys. There really are quite a number of options in how to put the put the deal together, aren’t there?

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. There’s a there’s a saying in the business broker world that you either get your price or you get your terms. You pick. So what that means is either you pay the asking price. Let’s say a business is $200,000. If you pay the price, you get your terms. So maybe you do seller financing, you say, I’ll give you 10% down and then I want 90% financed by the seller, or I’ll offer you 150,000 and I’ll I’ll come up with the cash or I’ll get an SBA loan, that type of thing. So so absolutely, you can either get your price or your terms.

Stone Payton: So talk to me about timeline. If I’m getting ready to sell the business, I mean, how far out do I need to start talking to you and kind of thinking through getting my ducks in a row and getting everything prepared in order to get a good price forward and get some genuine interest built up.

Ross Zeiger: Yeah. So first thing is to know that it takes a long time. If you if you want to sell, expect or know going in that the average time from getting the listing out on the marketplace to closing it is about eight and a half months. So that’s the average. Sometimes this can go into two years, maybe even three years on the on the slow side. So take take the time to know that that you’re you’re going to be running this business for a while and you don’t want to drop the ball know. Don’t let revenue drop off. Don’t let let your infrastructure decay. Keep everything up to date, keep your employees trained, that type of thing. And ideally, you have three years of runway. So you want three years of really solid panels to show. And the business ideally is firing on all cylinders and showing strong growth heading into the sale.

Stone Payton: And then on the buying side, I don’t know, maybe some pro tips, some things that we should be reading, thinking about doing, not doing. If we’re out there looking to possibly buy a business, maybe you can shrink the timeline and remove some of the friction for us by giving us some some guidance on that front, too.

Ross Zeiger: Yeah, so I’ll answer that with some some good ways to educate yourself as a buyer, huh? I’ve heard I’ve heard some of your previous guests talk about different books or different resources that that are helpful and informing yourself, educating yourself about the buy process. And I’ll give you I’ll give you a YouTube channel that I really like and some Twitter recommendations. So one YouTube channel that I really like is Cody Sanchez. She’s a woman who runs. She’s bought and run something like 70 businesses and she specializes in boring businesses like laundromats and pick and chip stores and pool cleaning routes. And she’s got some really high quality and excellent material. So I recommend her her YouTube channel and all of her social media content. And she gives you high, actionable and educational material about being an informed buyer. As for Twitter, if you go to my my own account at Ross underscore Zeiger, my last tweet was a link to a curated list that I’ve created of people who tweet about small business and business acquisition and everything from lawyers to SBA lenders to operators to just all people involved in the small business realm. So I highly recommend those sources for educating yourself as a buyer.

Stone Payton: Well, you bring up a very interesting topic. You use the term boring businesses, But I think it’s worth diving into a little bit because, you know, just because I like pizza doesn’t mean I should get in the pizza business, right?

Ross Zeiger: Right. Yeah. So especially in the last couple of years, everything’s about tech. Everyone wants a ecommerce store, Amazon FBA store, something SAS company. That’s a software as a service company. These companies that are high growth but risky, they have a high rate of failure and they’re they’re difficult to pull off. They require a lot of technical skill or a lot of a lot of the cases with these tech companies, they’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. It’s a new, new type of product. But when you get these boring businesses, things like laundromats, like I mentioned, they’ve been around for decades and it’s there are things that will always be needed. People are always going to wear clothes and are always going to need to wash their clothes. And people, they might get an apartment that doesn’t have a washer and dryer. So there’s always going to be demand there. And there there are companies that aren’t as glamorous as the tech companies, but they’re they’re good companies. They’re steady cash flow. And in the case of something like a laundromat or a car wash or. Trying to think of like a vending machine route. These are all companies that don’t require a lot of labor. You could run it in a case of a car wash. It could be completely automated. So we call those boring businesses, but they can be really good businesses to run.

Stone Payton: Well, I’ve got to tell you, it strikes me that once you buy one of these boring businesses and learn how to work with someone like you, Ross, there’s no reason in the world why you can’t rinse and repeat and replicate that that process and continue to to to grow that empire, Right?

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. Yeah. And there’s a lot of a lot of these you can open a franchise, an existing franchise like there’s in the carwash space there’s I think it’s called Mr.. Mr. Wash, Mr. Carwash, something like that. There’s a big one. And you can buy a franchise, open it up like a McDonald’s, or you can buy these mom and pop pop up ones. Start your own franchise and expand your start your your car wash empire like that. So absolutely. A lot of room for scaling it.

Stone Payton: No, it’s an excellent point. And I’m really glad we had a chance to visit about this because you’ve not only is this valuable for our listeners, but for me personally, you know, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a partner in this media company. And now as I go out and look for other opportunities, I ought to really give a fair shake to these. And I’m using air quotes, boring businesses. But I mean, it’s it’s math. And if the math makes sense and then learn how to do it and then and then replicate. All right. Let’s make sure that our listeners have an easy way to connect with you. I want to make sure that they can get to that YouTube channel that you mentioned, the Twitter account, and I want them to be able to pick up the phone and and have a conversation with you, man. So whatever you feel like is appropriate. But let’s leave them with some coordinates.

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. So all staff with the Twitter at Ross, Ross underscore Zeiger, z, e, i, g, e, r, And then my email is Ross dot Zeiger at FCB Orbcomm. That’s the abbreviations of first choice business brokers dot com and then website. The brokerage website is Houston, TX X Businesses for Sale. I won’t spell that all out, but hopefully we can get in the show notes. And yeah, I think that’s a good starting point for getting a hold of me.

Stone Payton: Well, Ross, thanks for investing the time and energy to visit with us this afternoon to share your insight and perspective. This has been this has been helpful to me personally and I know it has to our listeners as well. And man, you’re out there doing such important work. This kind of work is it’s just so fundamental, in my opinion, to what makes entrepreneurship such a marvelous opportunity. And we sure appreciate you, man.

Ross Zeiger: Absolutely. I appreciate you, Stone, and thank you for the chance to come on and talk about what I do.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Ross Sieger with First choice business brokers and everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you again on Buy a business near me.