Northern Arizona Business Broker Sees Brighter Economic Future
Matthew Uhler of WCI Brokers believes the worst is over.
By Patty McCormacFlagstaff Business News
April 2009
As a business broker who works throughout the state, Matthew Uhler, has his finger on the pulse of small business and he is happy to say, he thinks the worst is over when it comes to the current economic downturn.
“I see strengths growing in the small
business community,” said Uhler who is principal and designated broker
for a division of WCI Brokers in Northern Arizona. “The businesses that
are still here are becoming stronger and their sales are seeming to
pick up more.”He said recently he was talking to a Northern Arizona man who employs 300 in a business that manufactures items for the construction industry.
“He said his sales were higher in January and February than any six months prior. What I have seen for the last couple of months is that more businesses are seeing improvement and it seems to be solid,” Uhler said. “It’s improving across the board. I think it will be quite some time before it is business as usual. People are going to remember what this was like, but it is my personal feeling that we are past the worst of it,” he said.
“What I see in my industry right now a lot of people are under the impression there is no financing for business acquisitions and no one would buy a business right now anyway. That’s not true,” he said. “The financing is there. It’s tighter, but as long as the transaction makes sense, there is money for it.” |
“What I see in my industry right now a lot of people are under the impression there is no financing for business acquisitions and no one would buy a business right now anyway. That’s not true,” he said. “The financing is there. It’s tighter, but as long as the transaction makes sense, there is money for it.”
He said he believes the upcoming economic stimulus package will help things along. He said he thinks some of the requirements for small business loans will be loosened up and some of the feees will be eliminated that can save the buyer thousands of dollars and that a person may be able to get by with a lower down payment than before
Uhler said his feelings are as that fact becomes more well known, it will pump up business and make acquisition easier than ever, he said.
“The other thing that is happening is that buyers and sellers are being more creative about how the transaction is completed. When love is in the air between the buyer and seller, we have got a transaction that is going to happen. We are coming up with all kinds of whys to get the sale complete than we would have a year ago,” he said.
He said those wishing to sell a business should be assured, there are buyers out there, but they should make sure their business is healthy and not on the verge of collapse.
They don’t want to buy someone else’s problems. They just want to keep it going to the bst of their ability,” he said.
Uhler got involved in the business of buying and selling businesses when he sold his own business that he established at age 17. In 10 years, he grew the business from a one-man-show (himself) to 40 employees.
“I had a commercial cleaning business that specialized in medical,”, he said. “I sold it in two halves, two divisions in a two year period. I was introduced to the industry having been through it myself twice. I had a pretty good idea what the process entailed.”
He was hired by WCI Brokers out of Scottsdale and worked there for nine years.
“I was their top agent for seven of the nine years out of 25 agents,” he said.
In 2006 he did presentation for best-selling author, T. Harve Eker, at his guerilla business schools in Florida and California with more than 900 people in the audience at each location. His topic was, “The Art and Science of Small Business Valuation.” To bone up for the assignment, he studied business valuation throughout the United States and Canada.
In January of 2008, he established the Northern Arizona division of WCI and absorbed the five agents who lived and worked in the area.
“Now it is my company. They are still affiliated, but under separate ownership,” he said.
For Uhler, 2008 was his best personal year as an agent. In the first quarter of that year, 125 people contacted his company for the first time. This year, 110 new buyers contacted Uhler.
"That tells me that a lot of people want to be self employed. Maybe they have been laid off. They want to take control of their own destiny instead of working for someone else,” he said.
He thinks this recession has been “an economic wake up call.” He sees business owners paying attention to every expense.
“They are doing much better with what they have. So, I think what is going to happen is that some will have more market share as the economy improves,” he said.
“The other thing I’m seeing with clients from Northern Arizona to Lake Havasu, is that some businesses are going pretty well while others are going out of business. It’s not tied to any industry. I have clients in construction who are within five percent of their sales last year. Restaurants have been hit hard, but I have two restaurants that are within single digits from last year’s sales. The ones that are riding this out were paying attention to their customers, watching their overhead and operating in a lean manner. They are doing more with less.”
As a group, WCI has $21 million in pending sales at the moment. It has 300 listings with the majority of the business opportunity in Northern Arizona.
Uhler, 38, lives in Prescott with his wife Kelly and a 3-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.
Email: info@wcibusinessbrokers.com