To be a successful company year over year, it’s critical to keep up with your specific industry’s trends and continue to educate yourself as things change and evolve.
Aside from being licensed Real Estate professionals (which requires ongoing education after initial licensing), two of the main professional organizations we’re involved with (IBBA – International Business Brokers Association, Inc. and M&A Source) also provide education for certifying professionals and ongoing education.
It can be a fairly expensive certification process with ongoing fees and expenses, but there’s a huge benefit to meeting twice a year with other advisors/brokers in the industry, service providers (valuation and research companies, for example), and large strategic buyers. Everyone contributes by sharing activity, concerns, successes and failures, trends across the country, and focusing on improving the industry.
Of course not every business broker will participate and there’s no requirement to do so, but at Apex we believe it’s very important to stay involved and informed.
Both of these organizations offer ongoing webinars and online learning, educational summits, industry surveys, and other tools to ensure active and involved business advisors are well prepared to handle customer demands. These are fantastic benefits for us, but more importantly for our clients who receive the best the industry has to offer.
The message is to business owners is this: Stay involved in your industries. Stay informed. Prove to clients and prospects that you’re consistently at the top of your game.
In the end, it makes for a much more valuable business!