Blog & News

The International Business Brokers Association Q2 2019 Market Pulse recently came out. The Market Pulse Report is one of the most insightful reports on the state of the market and includes the aggregate results of surveys ...

August 2019 – Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of Pi Optima Manufacturing, Inc. of Zeeland, Michigan to an individual investor. Pi Optima is a niche machine shop specializing in custom fixture solutions ...

Bizbuysell.com's National Business-for-Sale Trends and Q2 2019 Transaction Activity Report was recently published and I wanted to share with you a quick synopsis of the data. Bizbuysell.com's Transaction Activity Report is one of the most insightful ...

August 2019 – Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of Conveyability, Inc. of Walker, Michigan to an individual investor. Conveyability is a premier integrator of engineering conveyor and material handling systems. The company’s ...

Often in a competitive or potentially competitive bidding environment, buyers are requested to submit indications of interest (IOI) prior to having the ability to engage in a discussion with a business owner or visit the company's ...

We’ve previously discussed how acquiring a business can be one method of increasing the success and profitability of your company. This is especially true when the acquisition extends your company’s reach and service area and its ...

By Max Friar, Managing Partner The IBBA's Q1 2019 Market Pulse recently came out and I wanted to share with you a quick synopsis of the findings. In my opinion, the Market Pulse is one of the most ...

May 2019 - Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of Fabtec Enterprises, Inc. of Byron Center, Michigan to an individual investor. Fabtec is a structural steel fabricator whose clients consist of many of ...

May 2019 – Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Grand Rapids, MI-based Power Supply, Inc. has been acquired by an Individual Investor. Power Supply Inc. is a manufacturers’ representative and distributor of OEM and non-OEM ...

According to a just released report by BizBuySell, the volume of Q1 2019 sales of small and mid-sized businesses was down year over year from 2018. Despite lower sales numbers and longer transaction times, businesses are ...

April 2019 – Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Southwest, MI-based C.N.C. Products LLC has been acquired by Parker Holding, Inc. C.N.C. Products was established in 1987 by Mr. Fritz Knauf, along with his brother-in-law. ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Buchanan, MI-based GP Manufacturing has been acquired by Central Industrial Manufacturing, a precision CNC manufacturing company based in Harbor Springs, Michigan. This Company has grown and demonstrated incredibly stable ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that West Michigan, MI-based Precision Engineering & Manufacturing has been acquired by Individual Investors. Since they purchased the company in 2006, owners Art and Marcy Gajewski have worked diligently to ...

In a December 2018 blog post we reported that, according to a 2018 Q3 IBBA Market Pulse Report, it was still firmly a seller’s market. In the most recent IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey ...

Mergers & acquisitions advisors love to work with clients who have already done their homework about valuation. When owners have taken the time to look at their businesses objectively and made changes that resulted in less ...

One of the challenges Mergers & Acquisitions advisors face is educating business owners about valuation. In an ideal world, owners would begin assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their companies years before they consider putting them ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Grand Rapids, MI-based Think Chromatic, LLC, has been acquired by Individual Investor, Matt Emery. After nearly 15 years working in the 3D industry, Jay Hoelscher decided that he was ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Grand Rapids, MI-based Corporate Conversions, LLC has acquired SLB Networks, a digital marketing company based in Belmont, Michigan. Ryan Duba, founder of SLB Networks, will be partnering with Corporate ...

The most recent survey done by IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse reveals that the market for businesses was still very active and deals were still getting continuously done as fiscal year 2018 closed out. This ...

December 2018 – Calder Capital, LLC, a mergers & acquisitions firm focused on lower middle market industrial and service transactions, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of Grand Rapids, MI-based Performance Die Cutting & Finishing, ...

Previously we’ve discussed how SBA loans are a great way to finance the purchase of a business. Another largely unknown method is to utilize ROBS arrangements. ROBS stands for Rollovers as Business Startups. This method has ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that Founder and Managing Partner, Max Friar, has won the 2018 ACG/MiBiz Dealmaker of the Year Finalist Award! Max Friar wins Dealmaker of the Year Finalist after founding Calder Capital ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce that associate and Director of Corporate Development, Patrick Robey, sourced and closed ACG's Deal of the Year <$25MM. Patrick Robey, Director of Corporate Development Excerpted from Mibiz.com: Midwest Timer finalized ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of southwest Michigan based ADL Home Care to Home Sweet Home In-Home Care. ADL Home Care is a locally owned private duty home-care provider serving clients in ...

As we have discussed before employees’ welfare is of great importance to employers, and concern for what will happen to their workers following the sale of a business remains at the top of sellers’ priorities. Seventy ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the successful sale of the Santa Therese Plantation, LLC to Azulera Farms, LLC. The acquired farm consists of 27+ acres of blueberries and a property parcel featuring roughly 60 acres located ...

According to the IBBA Q2 Market Pulse the market is “too hot to touch” with roughly 21% of advisors saying 2018 is the best year they’ve ever seen for business owners to sell their business. Consistent ...

Baby Boomers own a majority of the estimated 15 million privately owned businesses in the U.S. Approximately 60 percent of these businesses are owned by people born before 1964. The oldest Boomers are already beyond retirement ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the successful sale of Grand Rapids-based Squeegee Squad to an Individual Investor, Troy Butler, of West Michigan. Squeegee Squad is a profitable and growing window cleaning franchise operating in Grand ...

Owning a business is part of the American dream. It’s very, very common for people with entrepreneurial energy to want to own their own business. Half of Americans will list this as a personal goal. Many ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the successful sale of Dowagiac, MI-based Securit Metal Products Company to an individual investor! Founded in 1952, Securit Metal Products is a leading manufacturer of solid rivets. The Company ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the successful sale of Indianapolis-based STAFFWORKS Employment Solutions to ULG Companies. STAFFWORKS provides strategic employment solutions that enable employers to cost-effectively meet their staffing needs. The Company’s three staffing ...

Last November we discussed the changes coming to SBA 7(a) Financing for 2018. Small Business Association loans, partially guaranteed by the SBA, have long been a great way to finance a business purchase. For many buyers ...

Drop the Owner Mentality Here’s a piece of advice business brokers give to sellers: If selling your business for the best price possible is your goal, you will need to cultivate emotional distance. This is hard ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of West Michigan CNC machining company Aquest Machining of Greenville MI to FabX Industries, Inc. FabX Industries was formed to acquire Aquest by Gopi Ganta, an individual ...

Recently the International Business Brokers Association released its Market Pulse for 2017 third quarter. Here we’ll summarize the most interesting takeaways of this report which was based on a survey of 334 business brokers and M&A ...

Calder Capital, LLC is excited to announce the successful acquisition of Core Components, Inc., of Carol Stream, IL, by Benton Harbor, Michigan-based Midwest Timer Service, Inc. Established in 1974, Core Components is internationally recognized as a ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the successful sale of Auto-Lab Howell to two local individual investors. Auto-Lab Complete Car Care Centers, in operation since 1989, is a growing auto repair franchise business with an emphasis ...

This month HMV Holdings LLC closed on a deal to acquire 57 Brew Pub & Bistro in Greenville, Michigan, including the brew pub’s real estate on highway M-57. HMV Holdings plans to keep the current staff ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the successful sale of Bay City, MI-based Wholesale Electric Supply (“Wholesale Electric”) to Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Inc. Established in 1960, Wholesale Electric is a full-line electrical distributor for commercial and ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the successful sale of Greenville, MI-based 57 Brew Pub & Bistro (“57 Brew Pub”) to investment group HMV Holdings, LLC. Founded in 2012, 57 Brew Pub is an award-winning ...

Small Business Association (SBA) loans are an excellent way of financing a business purchase as they are partially-guaranteed by the SBA, which means banks are generally happy to use the 7(a) program as they are able ...

Did you know that the Great Lakes economy is the third largest in the world in terms of GDP?  This economy, including eight states (Michigan, Wisconson, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York) and two ...

Previously we discussed some of the reasons behind the statistic that 9 out of 10 people who seek to buy a business will fail. Purchasing a business is a complicated process with many factors that must ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of Kalamazoo, Michigan based FlowTech, Inc. to David Kersjes and Steven Remstad (DAAD Holdings, Inc.). The company will continue to operate under the FlowTech name. For over ...

Mergers & Acquisitions, like any industry, has its own terminology and acronyms. If you’ve checked out Calder Capital’s page of listed opportunities and successful sales, you will see that we currently have 6 businesses under LOI ...

Calder Capital, LLC is very pleased to announce the successful sale of Grand Haven, MI-based Erickson Electric Service, Inc. to C&S Electric Service, a subsidiary of Custer, Inc. Founded in 1988 by Tom Erickson, Erickson Electric ...

At what age do you as a business owner plan to retire? Are you prepared? If you are like many small business owners - more than a third of them - you don’t ever plan to ...

A Market Pulse Report regarding Q1 business sales for 2017 revealed that after price, concern for what will happen to their employees after a sale tops the list of sellers’ priorities. In fact, 70% of owners ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the sale of Brammall Supply Inc. of Benton Harbor, MI to JCT Industries, LLC (affiliated with Nemic Inc. of Grand Rapids, MI). Founded in Benton Harbor in 1873, Brammall ...

How successful are business brokers at selling their clients’ businesses? We’ve talked previously about some discouraging statistics in this industry, specifically the fact that most M&A firms close between 0-3 transactions per year. Richard Parker, of ...

Capstone CPA Group Acquires Local West Michigan Tax Practice (Sold December 2016!) Established 20 years ago, the owner of this successful tax preparation practice is seeking to sell and transition into retirement. Crystal Valley Catering Acquired by ...

Well Established Grand Rapids, MI Software & IT Services Firm Partners with Entrepreneur Andrew Porter Grand Rapids, MI — Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce that Michigan entrepreneur Andrew Porter has invested in White Ware, ...

With the 4Q data now gathered for 2016, it’s clear now that it was another great year to sell a business. It’s useful to examine the trends of recent market transactions so we can get a ...

High-End Hotel Service Provider Purchased by West Michigan Investors! Grand Rapids, MI — Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Suite Spa, LLC management division by local West Michigan entrepreneurs. Formed in 2011 ...

35+ Year Established Commercial / Institutional Audio-Video Design and Installation Business Purchased by Neil Brown and Wade Thompson! Grand Rapids, MI — Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of Central Interconnect, Inc. by ...

Looking forward into 2017, the big question for Calder Capital and our clients is: will it be a good year for small business mergers and acquisitions or not? Can we expect the positive trend of the ...

Grand Rapids Insurance Agency Adds A Third Branch with the Acquisition of Long-Established Northern Michigan Firm. Grand Rapids, MI — Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of The SAIF Agency Group, Inc. by ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the successful sale of Stap Brothers Landscaping of Kalamazoo, MI, by individual investor John Wiebenga. Individual Investor, John Wiebenga, is taking the reins of 40+ year established Stap Brothers Landscaping ...

Business owners who have been running their companies, managing their employees, and setting and achieving goals for years often find the process of selling their business daunting. In fact, many small business owners try to sell ...

New Carlisle, IN Engineering Firm Acquired by Elkhart, IN Peer Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce successful acquisition of Palm & Associates, Inc of New Carlisle, IN by Marbach, Brady & Weaver, Inc., of Elkhart, ...

By Max Friar 70% of M&As close no more than 3 deals per year! When the time comes to sell a business, no matter the reason - retirement, burn out, other business opportunities - owners are ...

Precise Mold & Plate acquires ErgoStation® product line to expand its portfolio of tooling solutions ZEELAND, MI October 27, 2016 — Extol today announced the divestiture of its ErgoStation line of height-adjustable workstations and machine bases. ...

We’ve discussed previously why business owners have less success selling their businesses themselves, but even with proper positioning and marketing some businesses will never sell. There are a number of reasons for those failures, and here I ...

A recent news report revealed that in the second quarter of 2016 small businesses were a higher percentage of the businesses that were selling compared to Q2 2015. More than half, or 57%, of businesses sold ...

2016 has been an interesting year so far in terms of politics and domestic and world events. If you’ve been wondering how issues like the presidential election and rising health insurance costs have affected the small ...

Calder Capital, LLC is very pleased to announce the successful sale of National Coatings, Inc, a Traverse City, MI-based company. National Coatings was acquired by Zeb Hadley, Owner and Founder of Color Masters Painting of Raleigh, North ...

Many small business owners are self starters and have tolerance for risk as well as a natural optimism, so when they decide they are ready to transition out of the ownership role in the business they ...

Mark Reinhart (left), President and CEO of Award Window Cleaning seals the deal with Nate Wood (right), Founder of Blue Sky Window Cleaners, LLC. Calder Capital is pleased to announce the successful sale of Blue Sky ...

Sadly, the average business broker (the “introducer”) has an abysmal closing success rate of less than 10%. How is this possible, you may ask? It’s possible because typical business brokers do not take the time to ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the sale of Impres Engineering Services, LLC, an established Holland, Michigan-based 5-axis CNC machining manufacturer, to Blue Star Automation.  Calder Capital acted as the exclusive M&A advisor to Impres Engineering ...

Although both 2014 and 2015 were both great years for the small business market, with median sale prices rising over time, we have yet to see the tsunami of small businesses for sale that experts predicted ...

High fourth-quarter mergers and acquisitions activity in 2015 has many analysts expecting a robust year for M&A in 2016. Globally, the industrial sectors that are showing the most activity are: Technology, media and telecoms Pharmaceuticals, med, ...

After the considerable success business owners have had in finding buyers for their businesses in 2015, the question that’s being floated is: Can this last? In analyzing all sales of small businesses in 2015, BizBuySell determined ...

It can be difficult to know when the right time to sell your business might be. For a business owner with a company that is in good shape financially, this will always be a matter of ...

Calder Capital, LLC is pleased to announce the successful sale of Baumann Tool & Die of Zeeland, MI, by individual investor Mark Brown. Baumann Tool & Die is a custom machine shop specializing in prototype molding fixtures. ...

It’s no secret that, from a financial perspective, these last ten years have been “interesting times” to live in both in the United States and worldwide. The financial markets have been less predictable than during earlier, ...

Do you have questions about what Calder Capital is about or what exactly we do for our clients? Check out Max Friar's interview with Tami Parks for The Small Business Life about the process buying and selling a ...

We’ve discussed before what the state of the market is for buying and selling businesses. Earlier in the year it was record-breaking fantastic, and buyers and sellers both have confidence that this trend will continue, and ...

According to a new survey by BuyBizSell.com, the annual Business Buyer-Seller Confidence Index, business owners who seek to sell their businesses are feeling more confident about their ability to do so and for a higher price. ...

Last month we discussed about Baby Boomers and how this demographic is influencing and will continue to affect business sales for the foreseeable future. We discussed when would be the best time for a Baby Boomer ...

The news about business sales always mentions that Baby Boomers who are hitting retirement age are behind the big numbers we’re seeing currently. Back in February we reported that 2014 was a record-breaking year for small ...

Calder Capital is very pleased to have brokered the deal that allowed manufacturing executive Mark Allen to find the right business opportunity to invest his talents and capital into: D&J Precision Machining. MiBiz writer John Wiegand ...

When it comes time for a business owner to sell his company, letting go of both his accomplishment and his control of the outcome can be something of a process. Part of this is because entrepreneurs ...

When it comes to business, getting larger isn’t always getting better or more profitable, but in many cases a smart acquisition is a good strategy for success. It all comes down to when, why, and how. ...

In February we at Calder blogged about the current good news in the small business market. 2014 was a record-breaking year for small business sales, and it’s looking like 2015 may bring even better news. Bizbuysell.com ...

Calder Capital is pleased to announce the sale of Shoppers' View to Jake Stroburg and Tony Abbo (Moorings Consulting, LLC), two local West Michigan investors.  Calder Capital acted as the exclusive M&A advisor to Shoppers' View. ...

Check it out! Five business brokers, including Calder's Max Friar, were recently profiled by MiBiz.com in “Tips from 5 M&A professionals for business owners looking to sell.” Highlights include: Smart things to do to prepare for ...

The real estate market in West Michigan has been bouncing back, and, as residents and homeowners, we are seeing properties move faster and at higher selling prices than we could have imagined just a few years ...

There is good news for business owners who hope to sell their business in 2015. Bizbuysell.com reports that 2014 was a record-breaking year for small-business sales, with the largest number of transactions occurring since 2007, the ...

Manufacturing business brokers Calder Capital confidentially marketed the opportunity to select individual, strategic, and private equity acquirers via a highly-focused search process.  Multiple, competitive offers were received, allowing the client the opportunity to select the acquirer ...

You’ve made the decision to list your business for sale. This next period is crucial to your success in getting the best asking price for your company, and it’s important to be able to identify and ...

Determining a business’s value is not as simple as profit and loss. When asked, many, if not most, small business owners do not have a firm answer to give to the question, “How much is your ...

Michigan’s economy over the last decade or more, coupled with lowered property values from the last recession, have left business owners wary. Unsure of whether they would get a decent deal on the sale of their ...

by Max Friar The majority of owners who spend their time, energy, and vision building their own businesses hope someday to either pass them on as a legacy to their families or sell them to another energetic ...

by Max Friar Does Your Online Profile Matter When Selling Your Company? I read a very interesting article the other day that does a great job of summarizing why, in general, you should care about your online ...

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." - Napoleon Hill by Max Friar When the owner of a business hears the word "auction," they typically get queasy; "auctioning your business assets" is reminiscent of ...

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." - Napoleon Hill by Max Friar This article is directed primarily at strategic buyers - mid-to-large companies in a fragmented industry that are seeking to “roll ...

The Negative Effects of Owner Dependence On Business Valuation and the Sale Process, and Steps You Can Take To Mitigate Them. “A business that can't run without its owner is a business with a deadline.” - Guy ...

We are pleased to announce our new website. We have designed the site to be updated often, so please check back frequently to read new Case Studies, Relevant Articles, New Businesses for Sale and Testimonials.