Whether buying or selling, many locals look to Paul Brljevich from Tabak’s Business Sales to smooth the transition and seal the deal.
Tabak’s Tauranga director and business broker Paul Brljevich likens selling your business to raising one of your children, such is the time, commitment and love many of his clients have put into their business’s.
He and his co-owner Kevin Kerr at Tabak Business Sales can draw on their first-hand experiences owning businesses, and then selling them, when they sit down and discuss sale options with prospective clients.
“As is often the case the owner will have a different idea of their business’s worth compared to what a potential buyer may have. Paul explains “ And, it can often be the case that both parties are right but are just looking at things differently. So it is up to us to help them bridge that gap in a way that leaves both feeling they are getting the best possible outcome.”
Paul’s 18 years’ experience as a Tabak broker is reinforced by his strong commercial background that spans banking, property development, tourism and hospitality businesses. This allows him to better empathise with both sellers and buyers when assessing business sale opportunities.
“It’s been said that ‘business turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity’ and that is as true now as ever. It is not always the biggest, largest grossing businesses that are the most attractive: there are some very profitable businesses in the $200,000 to $500,000 valuation range that are capable of returning very good profits to their owners, even if they are not the biggest businesses out there.”
Tabak Business Sales has built its success over the past 20-plus years by focussing on establishing strong relationships with their clients, Paul says. This has required understanding the motivations for selling and knowing the type of buyer best suited to a business their clients may have spent years building up from nothing.
“We make real efforts to ensure we aren’t presenting our clients with tyre kickers and dreamers, carefully qualifying those best suited before arranging meetings and getting down to the details of the business itself.”
This approach has proven successful with Paul personally overseeing the repeat sales of several businesses over the years. We have developed a strong network of potential buyers all within easy reach as opportunities present themselves. However, a business can be sold quite discreetly, if that is what a client prefers.
Typically, Tabak’s clients can expect a straightforward process with all marketing costs already incorporated into the brokerage fee.
Paul urges anyone considering selling their business not to be deterred by recent gloomy economic news from assorted economists.
“Reality is that we simply have more buyers than sellers right now, with interest from people wanting to invest and work in their own business greater than ever.”
The reasons for this are numerous, Paul says, including a desire among 40–50-year-olds to make the break while they still can from a salaried, corporate life to one where they have more control over a business’s outcome.
Common reasons for selling may include ill health, marriage breakups, or a recognition it is time to let someone else bring a new set of eyes on the operation.
“The Bay of Plenty remains a highly attractive place to live and do business. Local growth has been relatively constant over the years, and we now form one side of the Golden Triangle, with Auckland and Hamilton, which now includes so much of the country’s population.
Would be sellers should not hang back and wait to make a move when the economy picks up, Paul urges.
“If so, you run the real risk of trying to sell in a market that is saturated with other business owners who have been thinking the same thing, and risk not seeing the full value you should for your business.”
Locally owned by operators with skin in the game, Tabak Tauranga also draws on a well known brand, providing Paul and his colleagues with a solid network to call on from across New Zealand.
We have professional contacts so we can access a deep level of knowledge, which can be invaluable for the sometimes-tricky business of assessing a fair market value.
Taking people on a journey, either when entering or exiting a business, is a rewarding experience, Paul confesses.
“We are often seeing people transition to a completely new stage in their lives when they enter a new business, or if they leave one. To oversee such changes successfully really makes this job worthwhile in both a professional and a personal sense.”
