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Dallas, Texas – VR Huntington Business Group of Dallas assisted in the successful sale of Sweet Land Tree Farm last week from Wintters Realty, LLC to HHH Nurseries, LLC.

Todd Wintters, president of Wintters Realty, LLC, acquired the farm three years ago from the founder. Sweet Land became a division of his engineering company, but as his core business evolved, it became a priority to move away from the tree business and find a suitable buyer for the farm.

“When it came time to sell the farm, I had two routes to consider,” Wintters said. “I could list the property with a real estate broker or try using a professional business intermediary. In the end, choosing VR Huntington was the best decision I could have made. The farm benefitted greatly from being marketed as an operating business rather than just a piece of property.”

HHH Nurseries, LLC was formed by brothers Blake and Jason Hearnsberger, along with their father, Roy. The group has real estate interests in other parts of the state and Sweet Land provided them an opportunity to expand their operation into East Texas as well as into the wholesale tree business.

“Having acquired other agricultural properties previously, our objective was to expand those holdings with an income-producing opportunity,” said older brother Jason. “This business was a bit further from the Houston area than we were looking to go, but based on the quality of the operation and the amount of detail readily provided by VR Huntington, Sweet Land became a viable option for us.”

Wintters gives VR Huntington credit – not only for generating significant interest in his business and producing multiple offers but also for the expertise they provided in evaluating each buyer individually.

“VR produced four offers on my business,” Wintters said. “The buyers were all qualified and motivated to make the purchase, which puts a lot of pressure on the owner to make sure and choose the right person. With VR’s guidance I selected an offer, and it turned out to be the best buyer I could have hoped for.”

Sweet Land Tree Farm (www.sweetlandtreefarm.com) offers wholesale customers access to a variety of Texas’ most popular hardwood landscape trees, including red oak, live oak, Chinese pistachio, pond cypress, cedar elm, lacebark elm and many others. The farm sits on 20 acres of prime property in Grand Saline, Texas. Contact Sweet Land at 903.962.3986.

The sale was facilitated by Jeremy Furtick, Senior Business Intermediary, with VR Huntington Business Group Inc. a VR Business Sales firm in Dallas.

The VR network was established in 1979 and is the oldest professional business brokerage in the nation with more than 125 offices and 800 agents worldwide. VR Huntington Business Group (www.vrbigd.com) is based in Dallas and has finished the last four years as one of the top VR offices in the world. VR Huntington specializes in assisting the owners of privately-held companies to value, market and sell their businesses, as well as representing buyers interested in professional assistance in their business searches.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DALLAS, Texas – VR Huntington Business Group of Dallas assisted in the successful sale of two Pump It Up franchise locations from Advanced Cycling Concepts, Inc. to John D. Ruchman Enterprises, LLC.

Carol Welch, president of Advanced Cycling Concepts, Inc. opened her first Pump It Up location in Dallas in 2004. Then in 2007 she started a second location in Plano under the “Junior” concept, which caters to smaller children. After dedicating countless hours to opening and operating the two locations, Welch decided it was time to move on and let a new owner with new enthusiasm take over the business.

“I loved every minute of starting and operating both Pump It Up locations,” Welch said, “but there finally came a time where I decided it was a good idea to move on – I was burnt out. So we started interviewing business sales professionals, and ultimately chose VR Huntington out of several options.”

John D. Ruchman Enterprises president, John Ruchman, first became interested in Pump It Up four years ago while attending a birthday party at the Dallas location with his family. Years later when he became aware that the operation was available for acquisition, he dedicated himself to making this venture the next move of his professional career.

“I can still remember being at the Dallas location and my wife telling me, ‘You ought to buy this business someday’,” Ruchman said. “I was absolutely thrilled when I saw this listing go on the market and came to find out the Dallas location was available.”

Welch and Ruchman both had high praise for VR Huntington.

“It’s no secret that the past year has been difficult for good businesses to find qualified buyers,” Welch said. “We are extremely grateful to VR for sticking with us through this tough year and also for being able to negotiate a deal for our business that we never thought we would be able to get in this economy.”

“VR Huntington did a great job of helping me through this process,” Ruchman said. “I felt like I was working with people who actually cared about more than the ‘sale’.”

Pump It Up (www.pumpitupparty.com) is an indoor inflatable party center franchise operation with more than 175 locations nationwide, including 10 locations in Dallas/Ft. Worth. The Dallas location is at 9201 Forest Ln., and Plano is at 4101 E. Park Blvd. Both locations can be reached by dialing 972.792.9663.

The sale was facilitated by Jeremy Furtick, Senior Business Intermediary, with VR Huntington Business Group Inc. a VR Business Sales firm in Dallas.

The VR network was established in 1979 and is the oldest professional business brokerage in the nation with more than 125 offices and 800 agents worldwide. VR Huntington Business Group (www.vrbigd.com) is based in Dallas and has finished the last four years as one of the top VR offices in the world. VR Huntington specializes in assisting the owners of privately-held companies to value, market and sell their businesses, as well as representing buyers interested in professional assistance in their business searches.

Understanding how much money the business owner is truly making is one of the most difficult, if not THE most difficult aspects of buying a business. If the 5.6 million-word tax code doesn’t make it difficult enough, business owners and their accountants sometimes only add to the confusion with their “creative” bookkeeping techniques.

You’ve probably heard a dozen terms that describe the profits of a business – Cash Flow, True Owner Net, Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE), Seller’s Discretionary Cash Flow, Owner Benefit, EBITDA – these terms all pretty much answer the same question … How much money does the owner really make?

What you have to understand and accept first, before even looking at a financial statement or report, is that the objective of a business owner is to make as much money and pay as little tax as possible, and that “good” accountants and CPAs find ways to help business owners accomplish this goal. This can make your attempt to determine true cash flow a little more difficult but always keep one thing in mind – business owners have to prove what they claim.

Recasting

The first step we take in determining a business’ cash flow is to recast the financials. Recasting financials is a fancy term that simply means we “correct” them or adjust them to provide a more accurate picture of what the business is truly producing in regards to profit. When we recast financials, we are looking for expenses to “add back” into the net profit of the business – we call these items add-backs or fringe benefits.

Personal Expense

As a rule-of-thumb, anything that is a personal expense is an add-back. This commonly includes items such as family cell phone plans, family health insurance coverage, personal vehicles and meals. Keep in mind that some of these items could be a combination of both personal and business expenses, so we must be careful only to add back the portion of the expense that is truly for personal use.

Discretionary Spending

In addition to personal expenses, we also have discretionary spending to account for. These expenses can include charitable donations, excessive legal fees or season tickets to a local sporting venue. What we are looking for here are specific items, although they are often legitimate business expenses, that are not mandatory to operate the business – hence, discretionary, meaning a new owner can choose not to spend this money and the business will not suffer.

Non-Recurring Expense

Another major add-back can be the one-time, non-recurring or extraordinary expense. Maybe a business owner paid cash for a new piece of equipment or maybe there was a major repair that had to be done to the building after a storm. These are examples of legitimate business expenses that were unique and only appear once in several years of financial records. We add those items back in because they skew the “normal” cash flow picture of the business.

Owner’s Salary

Don’t forget about the owner’s salary, or any payouts to partners or other family members that are shown as expenses. We add these items back too. They are the easiest expenses to add back because the owner could very easily choose not to pay himself a salary and those dollars would simply fall to the bottom line profit of the business.

EBITDA

Finally, a note on EBITDA or Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. This simply refers to a business’ profit before any interest, certain types of taxes, depreciation and amortization are deducted as expenses. Any CPA will tell you that EBITDA is universally accepted. Although EBITDA becomes less and less relevant as businesses become smaller in size, those items are still added back in our recast.

So once we have examined the financial statements and determined what personal expenses, discretionary spending, non-recurring charges, owner’s salary and EBITDA items should be added back, we have completed the recasting of the financials. Now we have a very clear understanding of what the business’ true cash flow is. Think of it as a pot of money at the end of the recasting rainbow – then it’s up to you as the new owner of the business to determine how you want to run your books, and allocate those funds accordingly to empty your pot as you see fit.

Jeremy Furtick is a Senior Business Intermediary with VR Huntington Business Group Inc. a VR Business Sales firm in Dallas (www.vrbigd.com).

VR Huntington Business Group, located in the heart of the DFW Metroplex, serves the entire Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area as well as North Texas. The company specializes in Business Brokerage, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Valuation and Consulting services focusing on small businesses and mid-market companies.

It’s no secret that acquiring a business can prove to be one of the most lucrative and rewarding financial decisions an individual can ever make. What else can you invest in that offers immediate cash flow along with long-term appreciation while providing the freedom associated with being your own boss?

Unfortunately, too many perfectly capable and motivated people are scared away from the idea of purchasing a business simply because they don’t understand the process.

Admittedly, successfully buying a business is going to be more complicated than picking out a new couch for your living room, but as is the case with most multi-faceted procedures, having the right guidance, direction and advice can make all the difference in the world.

With these ideas in mind, it became clear in 2009 that the rules have changed – buyers need an advocate in the acquisition process. Although attorneys and accountants can offer their expertise on certain aspects of the business buying process, purchasers in the marketplace just don’t have the representation they need to smooth out an often bumpy road to acquiring a business.

The world of business brokerage has long been focused on the seller – list the right businesses and the right buyers will find you, then it’s up to the buyer to figure it out and jump through hoops to actually buy the business. I propose that it’s time for buyers to be offered an equal voice, as well as an equal level of expertise, in the business-buying process.

Buyers need someone from the broker’s side of the table to join their team and shed light on this complicated process so that they can break through the uncertainty and doubt and move forward with their dreams of owning their own business – and that is just what VR Huntington Business Group is offering.

We have taken our years of experience with hundreds of transactions and created a buy-side representation program that is designed to assist purchasers in the acquisition process from the initial moment they begin looking at a business, all the way to the closing table.

• How can you tell if a listing is “too good to be true?”
• Is it appropriate to submit an offer sheet or LOI?
• Is it possible to get financing on a business you are looking at?
• What are the typical offer structures that sellers should consider?
• What details should you expect a seller to disclose and when?
• When is it appropriate to meet the key employees?
• Should you assume the current lease or negotiate a new one with the landlord?

These are just examples of the hundreds of questions you will find yourself asking at certain points in the buying process, and these are the types of questions a buyer’s agent will be able to help you answer so that you can move forward more quickly and confidently.

Acquiring a business is like walking through a minefield – a buyer’s representative is there to navigate you through that minefield – they have been through it before and know where to step to avoid fatal results.

Jeremy Furtick is a Senior Business Intermediary with VR Huntington Business Group Inc. a VR Business Sales firm in Dallas (www.vrbigd.com).

VR Huntington Business Group, located in the heart of the DFW Metroplex, serves the entire Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area as well as North Texas. The company specializes in Business Brokerage, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Valuation and Consulting services focusing on small businesses and mid-market companies.

DALLAS, Tex. – CKS Transport, Inc., a FedEx Ground line haul contractor domiciled out of the Hutchins terminal near Dallas, was acquired by The Perham Group, Inc. of Arizona last week with the assistance of VR Huntington Business Group in Dallas.

Prior to acquiring this FedEx Ground operation in 2007, CKS president Colin St. Clair actually considered acquiring a different business with VR Huntington. Although he went a different direction with his decision, he always remembered the way VR Huntington Business Group presented businesses for sale and the way he was treated as a buyer. So it was only natural when it came time to sell CKS that he called VR.

“As a buyer, I met with several Dallas area business brokers looking for purchase opportunities,” he said. “Not one organization provided the level of professionalism, knowledge and access to data that VR Huntington did. As a seller, I wanted to make sure my business had those same advantages, so listing with VR was an easy decision.”

Bob Perham, president of The Perham Group, Inc., was actively searching for a suitable acquisition opportunity in the FedEx Ground system. He researched dozens of opportunities around the country, but in the end no available business fit his criteria as well or was presented as effectively to him as CKS.

“When I started researching FedEx listings to acquire, I discovered several that appeared to be what I might be looking for, but I was discouraged by the lack of response and information I was able to get on these operations, “ Perham said. “At the end of the day, VR Huntington was the one organization what was able to deliver the quality and depth of detail I needed to actually review the business and ultimately make an offer.”

VR Huntington not only assisted St. Clair in the marketing of his business and the qualifying of potential purchasers, but they were also deeply involved in every detail of the sales process – from negotiating the purchase price and the asset purchase agreement, to coordinating closing and funding, VR Huntington was critical to this transaction being a success.

“There’s no question that without VR Huntington and my agent that this transaction would have never closed,” St. Clair said. “There were several occasions where the deal stalled and I thought we might have hit a dead-end, but my agent never got frustrated – he was always there with a new solution, and ultimately that’s what helped make the difference.”

VR was established in 1979 and is the oldest professional business brokerage in the nation with more than 125 offices and 800 agents worldwide. VR Huntington Business Group (www.vrbigd.com) is based in Dallas and has finished the last four years as one of the top VR offices in the world. VR Huntington Business Group specializes in assisting the owners of privately-held companies to value, market and sell their businesses, as well as representing buyers interested in professional assistance in their business searches.