When you engage a Grandworth broker to represent you for the sale of your company, or to find a business opportunity to acquire, you are hiring our knowledge and skills.
There is no need for you to become an expert in what a business broker does. Nevertheless, some degree of knowledge about what business brokers do can clarify what to expect and develop a good working relationship from the outset.
Our Team
I began my career in the aerospace industry designing fighter jets having developed an interest in aviation courtesy of my father’s experience as a combat helicopter pilot. After several decades in aerospace and working with many Fortune 50 companies, I wanted a better understanding of small & mid-size businesses, so I joined a tech startup that specialized in the manufacture and service of wireless industrial machine health sensors, and then a well-known international restaurant chain to help modernize their technology and improve operations.
My extensive background includes sales, marketing, engineering, lean manufacturing, operations, quality assurance, supply chain, sustainability, IT, and organizational leadership. I have affiliations with the Ohio & International Business Brokers Associations (IBBA), Small Business Administration (SBA), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program.
But most importantly, I’ve been involved with the Business Brokerage industry for 10+ years, worked with dozens of small businesses, and have owned a small business, making me uniquely qualified for this field. I hold a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, and certifications in the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), lean manufacturing and industrial machine health.
A Columbus native, I’m an active member of Rotary and passionate about community involvement, history, music, travel, sports, classic cars, and time with family and friends.
I’m friendly and easy to work with and look forward to getting to know you!
If you're going to work with an agent, you should know who he is and where his values come from. Mine come from humble beginnings.
My father was a metal fabricator and welder who was excellent with tools of all kinds. My mother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse and played the piano for silent movies, way back in the day. I spent my teenage years with my sister and her husband who was a dairy farmer. Living with them I learned how to work long and hard and succeed under demanding conditions.
When I graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor's and master's degree, I was commissioned as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army and attended flight school, serving afterward in the War in Vietnam as a combat helicopter pilot and platoon leader. After combat duty, I was a ghostwriter for the commanding general at Ft. Riley, KS, and then served as the commanding officer of the HHC, 1st Infantry Division.
Following military service I held various middle management positions at Ross Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio, including a 3-year assignment managing an American training team in Ukraine. I subsequently moved to Pennsylvania to direct a management information systems business serving the dairy industry. Following that assignment, I entered the financial services field at State College, PA, founding a successful business brokerage practice.
In addition to holding a commercial real estate license, I'm a Certified Business Counselor (CBC), a Certified Machinery and Equipment Appraiser (CMEA), a Senior Business Analyst (SBA), a former director of a Small Business Development Center, and a Certified FastTrac Entrepreneur Course instructor. In 2000 I founded the Pennsylvania Business Brokers Association and guided it for several years as its first president.
I am formerly affiliated with Whit Humphreys and his business brokerage company in Columbus and am presently an associate of Best Corporate Real Estate, a well-established commercial real estate company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. I'm a member in good standing of the Ohio Business Brokers Association, the national, state, and local Real Estate Associations, and the Upper Arlington Rotary Club.
Mixed in with major career assignments, I taught business courses at Genesee Community College in New York State. As the director of the Small Business Development Center at SUNY Geneseo, I counseled dozens of clients who started new companies. In 2012 I initiated and taught the Kaufman Foundation's FastTrac Entrepreneur Training Program for Wyoming County, NY, and in 2013 I returned to Vietnam and taught English as a second language at Quang Binh University, the provincial university of Quang Binh Province.
I've been blessed with a loving and talented wife/partner and five successful children. Between family and work, I found enough time to write five books, taught myself how to fly fish for trout, and built and managed a 50-piece community band for five years.
For more than a quarter of a century, I have coached, counseled, and assisted hundreds of entrepreneurs in the process of successfully starting and exiting their own companies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Helping people be successful in the marketplace is what I enjoy doing, and it's something I'm pretty good at. I hope to continue that lifestyle for many more seasons.
Maybe you and I can work together too. Give me a call and we can have coffee together, even if it's for nothing more than getting to know each other!
P.S. The values that have proven themselves to be the most efficacious in my life are, believe it or not, those explicit in the Boy Scout Law that I learned decades ago: Trustworthiness, Loyalty, Helpfulness, Friendliness, Courtesy, Kindness, Obedience, Cheerfulness, Thriftiness, Bravery, Cleanliness, and Reverence. For these, there are no substitutes.
Our Values & Ethics
No organization can provide world-class service without subscribing to high-level standards of behavior and performance. Grandworth Business Brokers strive to abide by and uphold, the ethics adopted by the Ohio Business Brokers Association (OBBA). That Code is nearly identical to the Code published by the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA).
We are consistently rated high on the five key values that drive our performance:
- Exceptional Personal Service
- Confidential Handling of Information
- Achieving and Maintaining Expertise
- Honesty in All of Our Dealings
- Building and Maintaining Trust
Here is what our clients have to say:
... we didn’t realize how long it would take or how difficult it would be. We’re extremely happy to say that the sale is past and our dream has come true: we are in comfortable retirement! That wouldn’t have been possible without your steady guidance through the long and difficult process, and your calm persistence in locating a buyer who would purchase all that we had to offer in an all-cash transaction. We are in a new chapter of our lives now, and the unrelenting stress and demands of business are in the rear view mirror. Life is easier, and even our health has improved! Thank you for your patience and dedication.
Florist, Greenhouses and Garden Center Owner
". . . the past few months have not been easy for us due to our personal situation (divorce). In spite of the difficulties for all parties concerned, however, we wanted to thank you for sticking with the sale of our business to successful completion.”
Retail Food Service Company Owner
When we first met several years ago, I told you that when the time was right, you would be the one to sell my business. . . I liked your professional attitude and sensed you could be trusted. And I'm happy to say that you proved true on both counts. . . . owners who want to sell their businesses are well served by you, and I would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone looking to sell or buy a business."
Metal Fabricating Company Owner
"We want to thank you for arranging and being a strong part in the sale of our business. As you were aware, I was not very optimistic. However, now that the closing has been completed, I'm relieved. Your expertise in handling this large transaction is what made the difference."
Heavy Truck Dealership Owner
"I was very pleased with the closing of the sale of my distribution business last week . . . Without your exceptional persistence, I am not sure the deal ever would have closed . . . It's good to know the company is in good hands and has a bright future."
Retail Distribution Company Owner
"Please take the enclosed check and cash it with a smile - you earned it!!! The real pleasure when I received the purchase check was working with you."
Rental Business Owner
"We think the world of you. . ."
Retail Consumer Products Company Owner