What makes a business truly sellable? Is it the numbers, the team, or something deeper? On this episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, business broker Neal Isaacs reveals the secrets to building a business buyers can’t resist. From reducing owner dependency to creating systems that thrive without you, Neal shares practical strategies for long-term success. Whether you’re dreaming of an exit or just starting, this conversation will leave you asking: Is your business ready for its next chapter?

How long it takes you to possibly sell your small business. And we also talk about the importance of networking and marketing yourself and your small business to other businesses that might be looking to buy your business. So listen in.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden. And on today's episode, we have Neil Isaacs with VR Brokers of the Triangle. Neil helps buy and sell businesses every day. And today we're going to talk about what makes a business more attractive and more valuable, what buyers are looking for and how you can make your business better so that it would be more attractive and more valuable to a possible buyer, and it really starts with planning and planning early.

The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single monday. And now we've had well over 50 episodes. We're into our second year and we've had a lot of great guests. So go back and listen to some of the previous guests that we've had on the podcast including County Commissioner Chairman Butch Lawter, Congressional candidate now Congressman Brad Knott, County Economic Development Group Director Chris Johnson, County Parks and Rec Director Adrian O'Neal, Local Dentist Tim Sims, Woody Bailey talking about local IT services and computers for your offices.

Tons of great information on the previous episodes, and there's going to be many, many great guests to come. So if you love Johnson County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. Welcome, Neil. Happy to be here.

Neal Isaacs: Thanks for having me.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh man, we go way back. This is going to be like old home days. So anyway tell the audience who you are and what you do currently, and then we'll go back and talk about some of the many things you've done before.

Jonathan Breeden: That it's hard to believe.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, the thing is you don't age, right? I'm aging. You don't age.

Neal Isaacs: We're all aging. John.

Jonathan Breeden: You just don't look like you're aging. I mean, you know, you look basically the same. You did when I made.

Neal Isaacs: I am 70 next year. And I just. You know, I drink a protein shake every day and I work out a little bit.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness.

Neal Isaacs: That's not true. I'm 46.

Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, so yeah, and I guess when we met you owned. For people that lived in this area while the aquatic store.

And so I moved down here I bought this business and I ran it for five and a half years I like to joke. I'm probably I'm one of two guys that sold a clam and Garner and Johnston County for $500.

Neal Isaacs: So, yeah. So, cause you, you had all kinds of stuff. It was you had aquariums and I sold Nemo and Dory.

Jonathan Breeden: Right?

Neal Isaacs: And that's something I think we'll touch on today is, you know, businesses come and go and they change over time. And I don't know that my, if I hadn't sold it, I don't know that it would have been a viable product in today's world of everyone ordering on Amazon.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's true. That's true. So then you transitioned to Selling Tom Warner cable ads, I think, was it ads?

Neal Isaacs: I sold the business in oh three and I, I remember my headspace was like, okay, you know, I'm, I'm too young to be president. I'm too old to be an Olympic athlete. Like what's next for me? That's where I was at 30 years old when I sold my first business. But I did a couple of things, but I ended up for the longest period before I started their business brokers being a media sales rep.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And you know, and you and I talked about doing some different things back then I was you know, I couldn't do the business that I had at that point.

Neal Isaacs: Another business that's changed dramatically over time and adapt to stay competitive.

Jonathan Breeden: No, well, that's true. That's true because of the way that now they can really target the sets that are seeing these different things, particularly with the streaming ones, maybe not with traditional cable, but with the streaming things, it's, you know, for those of y'all listening, I spend, you know, it nailed us to spend a lot of time talking to people and marketing and stuff.

Neal Isaacs: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: Because I learn about these things as people try to sell me different ways to market to my ideal client and I'm like, you can do that. And they're like, yes. And I'm like, that's scary.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Like they know that much about you that they can really target these ads. And then the ads follow you around the internet. And it's.

And I met some folks that were there and they were like kind of looking at how much more till I retire. And I thought I could become one of those folks. And at the same time I had gotten to where there were a couple of clients that I had, like they were prospects and then they were customers and then they were friends.

And I was getting some FaceTime with some like legit business entrepreneurs that I was like, wow, this is amazing. And their problems were like so much more significant than mine. Like I remember the biggest problem I had is maybe someone's TV commercial doesn't, doesn't run. That's not a big problem.

But these folks were like, you know, we've got pallets and pallets of merch to move. Like everything you see here is going out tonight and we've got more stuff coming in. And I thought, man, that is so cool. So I started to get that hunger to start a business. And then I, kind of explored a bunch of stuff and I just love the business brokerage piece of it.

Neal Isaacs: Like I don't do normal jobs and that's where business brokerage, which is kind of the redheaded stepchild of real estate seemed to be a good fit. I really liked the fact that people don't even know that business brokers exist. That's a big part of what we do is education. That's true. And so we have these conversations with business owners like what's the plan?

Where's this all this going, you know, you help people with the state planning and family matters they're thinking about the end for themselves. Hopefully, they are a lot of them aren't but people should be doing the same thing for their business and they're not.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah, yes, and that's typically how business brokerage goes is you have local specialists and then you have people, market specialists and then you have industry specialists. So there are legal brokers, accounting brokers, dental brokers that only sell dentists or attorneys or what have you.

But for a main street business, your buyer the research indicates and we publish these research guides every quarter because we like to stay on top of the latest but the research indicates your buyer is probably within 20 miles It's a business lesson, say a million bucks or so. So it helps to have a local broker and that's what we serve any business owner that makes money basically in the triangle.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So if I owned a business and I was thinking that I might want to sell it, how soon should I start planning?

So start planning for that. And then you just have more options for exit.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And so for those of us, or those people that did not start with the thought that they were going to sell it. You know, I would say my experience, you know, we work with a couple of people, even though we do family law, they've sold businesses as part of their divorce.

You know you need a uh, at least a two or three year runway because mainly you got to get the books, right? You know, I mean, we'll talk to systems in a minute, but there are a lot of small businesses where the books are not on the up and up, at least as far as the IRS would be concerned.

The tax returns are carved in concrete. So you, you could change those, but you don't want to. So if you want, if you don't like the current status of your business, you're looking at years to correct it. If you, to change the financial state, to improve your financial state.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, and they need to be correct. And a lot of small businesses run their entire lives through their business, which they aren't probably really supposed to do, but they do. And so that can make the numbers a little skewed for what they should be or not. And some businesses dealing cash, and maybe that cash doesn't make it to the bank, you know, but all of that stuff, if you're looking to sell a business, it needs to be on the up and up.

So follow the rules, following the rules and using the, the ways that are available to save taxes is better than, you know, I build decks and I made too much money this year. So I'm just going to put a really nice deck on my house and call that cost of goods sold. That's an example of a way to save taxes.

That's probably going to devalue your business. If that was put into a retirement account, that was put into some type of depreciation. There's other ways to do it. That's what we want our clients to talk to their accounts about.

Neal Isaacs: You can pay your kids a W-2 wage.

Jonathan Breeden: You can pay your, pay your kids a W-2 wage if they work for you.

Neal Isaacs: There's all kinds of correct ways to do it. That's what we want to encourage business owners to educate themselves with working with their team and to do it correctly.

Because if I've heard one banker caught stealing from the business, which literally you're taking the money. You're not reporting it. You're breaking the law you're hurt. You're taking your future consideration of sale today. It's a short sighted, but if you don't know how it seems like, Yeah, I've got money here. Why do I report it? But you're really stealing from your future.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and if you're going to be a small business owner and you're going to want to sell, you're going to have some sort of operating system that is repeatable for the owner who's going to buy it.

What does it do for a small business?

Neal Isaacs: So, let's go back to my origin story. When I was right across the road selling tropical fish, selling Nemo and Dory. I mean, I could barely take a vacation. If I could, if I left for a week, I would, we didn't have cell phones back then. But I'd be worried. I'd be calling my manager.

I was lucky to have a manager, but I'd get back and have to put everything back together. To simplify the great work that, Todd Bailey and other EOS implementers do it's like, hey, how dependent is your business on you? Can you take a vacation? That's a question. We ask business owners, how long does it take your business to fall apart when you're not there because every business buyer?

Here's the secret. Are you ready for the secret? John?

Jonathan Breeden: I am. love to see

So that's, it kind of, it's more than just us, the more value there is. And I think EOS and other, systems like that can really help owners focus on that.

Jonathan Breeden: No, no doubt. No doubt. And, Gina Wickman came up with EOS and the first book in the series is "Traction". And then I think the next book is "Get a Grip" and, you know, and they talk about, getting the right people in the right seats with a vision and a core value and, implementing and everybody having a responsibility. And, you know, we don't have time in this podcast to go through it. You can do hours and hours. You listen to the Todd Bailey episode.

So it was not repeatable or scalable.

Neal Isaacs: 100%. And it's natural that that happens because as, as entrepreneurs, we make something out of nothing. We are responsible for getting it from zero to one. That's a Peter Thiel book. But ultimately it takes a different skill set to scale up. So it's hard for entrepreneurs to let go of how to do it, but they have to empower others.

But what it means for the community, The Johnson County community is you build a business, people start coming there. They love to come there and then none of us are going to last forever. But what if you could build a business that wasn't about you, that had a team that, ran it, now you have a succession plan for your business.

I mean, all these are great things as opposed to, you know, I ran it for a little while and then I just kind of ran out of steam and I couldn't carry it anymore. so it ended.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's a good point.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don't have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: So how do you and your team, VR brokers. serve business owners who want to sell?

We have processes to keep this confidential. So. Let's start with the financial piece. I know your business is more than just the numbers, but let's start with the numbers to get kind of a range. Once we have a range, and EOS is really good about this, we can improve parts of the business to get to the top of the range.

But let's start with evaluation. Let's see what it's worth today. Let's see if that aligns with your goals and what it typically works out with. I'll just use a round number of million dollars based on your financials, based on other businesses that have sold like yours. You can get a million dollars for your business. If you sold right now, does that work for you?

And then people say, yeah, I need to retire. That's not enough or that's that sounds okay. Usually they want more or once in a while, they'll say, wow, I can't believe I can get a million dollars for my business, but that's the beauty of, being the owner. You get to decide what to do next. It's kind of a pick your own path thing.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And so what are some of those things that you would that you most commonly recommend to increase the value of the business?

Neal Isaacs: Well, revenue, I mean, it's pretty obvious but more revenue If it's managed well, will inevitably result in higher cashflow. And, but at the same time we look at, are they spending the money on the right things, right? So we talked about not spending enough on payroll. We'll look at how much the owner is spending on payroll. And oftentimes they're not spending enough. They may have really high margins, but they're keeping all of it for themselves. And that's why they're kind of limited. limiting the growth of their business. So that's called benchmarking. Are you spending the right amounts in the right category of your expenses? And that's all on the financial side.

So preserving equity is one of those things that we talk with the business owners about. And then just processes and procedures, documenting everything. Back to that idea of can you take a vacation? To take it out of your head, put it in an employee manual or policies and procedures. That's the hard work, the blocking and tackling, but that really does translate to value in the longterm.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well, that's cool. So how do you market these businesses when it is technically largely confidential?

And we say, right this way, here's an NDA, tell me about you. Do you have any business inquiring? About this business? And if it makes sense, then we go to the next stage, which is, you understand this is confidential, you understand the employees don't know. This is the name of the business. Here's a, we call it a confidential business review, a very detailed report. That we're very protective of we want to get it to the buyers that have been screened we don't want that to go out to the general public.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, and i've looked at buying other law firms. So I know how that works. ultimately chose not to because I felt like it would be my time would be better spent. Working to scale and make my office better than trying to convert somebody else's office and I think that ended up being the right decision for me at the time.

And that's saying I wouldn't buy one in the future.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct. Correct.

Neal Isaacs: The businesses that we sell that it's back to owner dependency. It's less of a factor there.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So does the buyer pay you or does the seller because I know how real estate works and they sort of the buyer the seller pays both sides.

Yeah, you know commission to both brokers, but how does yours work?

Neal Isaacs: Yeah, so we represent sellers only buyers are our customers and one Interesting piece about business brokerage is there's very little buyer representation so all buyers are our customers. Rarely are they, do they have representation? It's different in other markets. In florida go to Florida and it's very much like real estate.

Here's a great attorney. Here's a great CPA give me your diligence list. I can share material facts, but I can't tell you the lowest amount that the seller will accept. That's where my agency, you know, I have a fiduciary responsibility. So we're doing I don't want to say twice the work, but we're working on both sides in service to the seller client and buyers are unrepresented. That is in many cases.

Jonathan Breeden: That's scary, to me.

Neal Isaacs: It's much harder to buy a business than to sell a business. There's no doubt about that.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, that is. Yeah, that is scary.

Neal Isaacs: It's scary.

Jonathan Breeden: But Hey.

Neal Isaacs: That's gotta put on your big boy pants.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, right. No, that's true That's true. I mean, you know and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't So, well, that's cool. I know you're working on becoming a certified exit planner.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: What is that?

We're kind of onto the next deal with, with a SEPA certified exit planning advisor, it's a longer window. So now we're, partnering with the financial advisors, the accountants, other CEPAs, actually. To do more long term planning and to just dive deeper into the financial planning the accounting planning it's more about preparing for the exit than the actual exit itself it's very complementary to what we do as transaction agents.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that's cool.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah.

Neal Isaacs: Yeah. So why do I network? You know, I'm a business intermediary. I sell other people's businesses. Most people don't even want to talk about that. In similar ways to a divorce attorney, people aren't going to say, Hey, I want a divorce. Hey, I want to sell my business. They want to talk about that, but they don't want to kind of, they don't want to talk about it at the same time. So my networking in the events that I do and the work that I do with the chamber, it's community service. And it's also a way for me just to be present. In the business community to serve others.

So, you know, we do a coffee events every month. Hey business owners You want to meet other business owners? Come get a coffee on us. We hosted it Lorraine's which is a Garner business my work with the Chamber I've been a part of the Chamber even back to the when I was selling advertising And when I started this business, I said i'm just gonna go all in with the Chamber, Hey, It's a place for business owners to connect with each other.

But you're not shaking them down to do business, but you're rubbing shoulders with them and your peers with them. And you're all in this service mindset. Inevitably, you're going to build relationships so that you can do business in the future and you'll get referrals from them.

And, I like that, that service mindset. And you know, I just think the Chamber is a great organization and it helps when business owners start, especially they need a lot of help. And the Chamber serves a great role there. It also has a great partnership with the town of Garner that they, it's an amazing partnership. And, you know, the mayor of Garner comes to a lot of our events and stuff like that.

And that's only because of the service that we do and because he's great mayor and everything. So it all kind of ties together.

Jonathan Breeden: No, no doubt. No doubt. No doubt.

Jonathan Breeden: You know what I mean? You know, when I think of Neil Isaacs, I think of Neil Isaacs as a connector. You know, a lot of people. You know, you can help people connect. I do the same thing, you know, between the two of us, there's not a lot of people in the business community around 40/42 and Garner that we do not know.

And so, and that's just, you know, some of that is, I'm an extrovert, I like to be around people. Some of that is just being a resource in the community by being able to connect people. And I know you do a great job of that and I try to as well.

Neal Isaacs: Not everybody needs legal services today and not everybody needs to sell a business today, But everybody wants that next connection for their own business for their own personal stuff and we can provide that today that's the fun part.

Jonathan Breeden: No doubt. No doubt. Well the last question we ask everybody on this this podcast I know you owned a business in Johnson County and you're working on several deals selling Johnson County businesses. What do you love most about Johnson County?

Jonathan Breeden: It does help to be in a growing market, you know, and it's, allowed me to grow my business over the years and we do provide a great service here and we do work very hard, but it does help that there's just more people to provide our services to every single year as this area continues to grow.

Neal Isaacs: I love the opportunity of Johnson County, and I think we've got a long. Long way to go of continued growth and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, if somebody wanted to reach out to you about VR brokers and what you do or your certified exit planning, how would they do that?

Neal Isaacs: Yeah, so I run a YouTube channel. John, you're talking with a D-list YouTube celebrity today. I don't know if you're aware of that, but I'm on YouTube at Raleigh Business Broker and I do educational content for business owners, business buyers, and other business brokers at Raleigh Business Broker on YouTube.

People can reach out to me, sell. SELL, like, I wanna sell my business. Sell@vrbiztriangle.com and VR Biz Triangle VR is is the firm. VrBizTriangle.com is our website. We can learn more about us.

If you'd also give us a five star review down at the bottom of where you're seeing this podcast, so that more people become aware, and would you tag us in your Instagram stories, The Best of Johnston County Podcast, that will also raise our visibility in the community.

Until next time, I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden.

Narrator: That's the end of today's episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.