Answering the Call

Security and Automation for Commercial Buildings Location: Missouri Price: $6,150,000 These specialty contractors focus on power, automation, and data/security installations with associated maintenance. The team works with large companies and projects include security system installation, industrial machine installation and maintenance, complete electrical installation, data center electrical work, and the installation of building automation with controls.

Owner Profit: $1,375,134

Vancouver Area Architecture Firm Location: Surrey, British Columbia Price: $6,387,000 This architecture firm specializes in multi-family residential and mixeduse designs. The team of 20 creates beautiful properties for developer/ contractors who are building office buildings, residential towers, senior care facilities, and public buildings, in addition to multi-family homes and mixed-use developments.

Owner Profit: $1,344,708

Pet Boarding & Daycare Absentee, Non-Franchise Location: Reno, NV Price: $540,000 This company has fostered a loyal following with many happy customers. The open play spaces accommodate dogs of different sizes and temperaments and the boarding area is comfortable and spacious for those staying the night. An experienced groomer offers baths, brushings, cuts, and nail trims, and kennel staff can bathe a pup while they are boarding or at daycare.

Owner Profit: $148,439

HVAC and Plumbing in Sacramento Location: Sacramento Valley, CA Price: $9,700,000 This growing company completes HVAC and plumbing projects for new construction as well as renovations. With an on-site fabrication shop, this company can meet any HVAC needs of their customers located throughout Northern California. The owner currently focuses on lead generation, estimations, associated negotiations, bonding, PR, and financial oversight.

Commercial Plumbing in Omaha Location: Omaha, NE Price: $940,000 This plumbing business has been serving the Omaha area since 2011. Their service extends roughly 60 miles from the office, allowing them to work in smaller towns outside of the metro if needed. They currently work fully on commercial projects. 75% is large commercial plumbing, and 25% is installing utility lines, also for commercial clients.

Owner Profit: $257,545

Specialized Trucking, Civil, and Mining Support Location: Midwest Price: $17,800,000 This plumbing business has been serving the Omaha area since 2011. Their service extends roughly 60 miles from the office, allowing them to work in smaller towns outside of the metro if needed. They currently work fully on commercial projects. 75% is large commercial plumbing, and 25% is installing utility lines, also for commercial clients.

Owner Profit: $257,545

Expert Masons, $4MM in Sales Location: Eastern Iowa Price: $3,200,000 This company has mastered bricklaying since 1988 and works with both commercial and residential customers. Projects include home exteriors, campus dorms, high schools, churches, community centers, and commercial buildings. Most work is completed locally. In addition to laying brick, the team also completes decorative concrete projects that include everything from grocery store floors to a pool deck.

Owner Profit: $792,485

Advertising Firm: Visual, Media & Communications Location: Toronto, New York and Montreal Offices; Ontario Production Facility Unmatched in terms of technology, production capabilities, and product diversity, this firm is serviced by the most experienced and knowledgeable team of display graphics, digital signage, video production, and print professionals. Reputation for reliability, quality workmanship, professionalism, and customer service is well earned and reflected by the trust and loyalty of clients served.

Nita Chisari, Seller

Jonathan Ratliffe, Buyer

BUY? SELL? PARTNER? The Firm Shakes Up the M&A Industry with an Innovative Opportunity for Two Business Owners by A. R. Goldyn

Nita Chisari had been working as a senior claims adjuster in the corporate insurance industry for several years when she decided it was time for a change: She wanted to start her own business.

“In 1996, I got downsized from a company,” Chisari said. “They went bankrupt, and that caused me to examine the industry and figure out what I wanted to do.” That same year, Chisari’s husband would retire from his 25-year career with the Orlando (Florida) Police Department, and they planned to move to a farm in Tennessee with their young son. Maybe Tennessee would be the right place to start a new business as well. Chisari had a penchant for claims handling, and she was passionate about discovering call management services and solutions that could improve customer service and job efficiency for the first-notice-of-loss (FNOL) industry. Those interests led her to consider starting her own claims reporting business. “A gentleman was trying to teach me how to load the software,” Chisari continued, “when they got a call from a company called Georgia Casualty out of Atlanta looking for a firstnotice-of-loss company, and the gentleman says, ‘Here she is.’ I was taking their calls 24/7 the next day on my cellphone.”

“I always thought that first notice of loss was a very important part of the claims process,” Chisari said, “and I didn't think a lot of emphasis was being put on first notice of loss outside of the worker’s comp industry. So, I decided to go to Birmingham, Alabama, to buy the software to do first-notice-of-loss [reports]. In March 1999, with a couple of telephone lines, Chisari started Quality Resource Management (QRM) in the living room of their home and the company grew by word of mouth. “By the end of the year, I had five phone lines in my house with different ringtones so I could

• Location: Nashville, TN • Cash Flow: $7,949,406 • Loan Type: SBA Loan • Number of Employees: 160+ • Client Base:large clients, business-to-business, na tionwide footprint • Website: www.qrm-inc.com

“When I talked to Nita, she was adamant that she was not ready to retire or sell her business,” Sells said. “She wasn’t sure she was prepared to buy out a competitor, either. But she did ask about what options she might have for expanding her service offerings.

“I had an idea,” Sells continued, “I wasn’t sure whether Nita would be interested, but I knew that if she liked it, we were going to do something groundbreaking for M&As. So, I said, ‘Nita, what would you think about forming a strategic, symbiotic partnership with a company that complements yours and has the services you’ve been talking about wanting to add?’” you can have partnership contracts with our giving away the farm, so both companies prosper for the next 20 years. You can hold on to your company’s integrity and stay involved.”

By engaging in a strategic partnership with Ratliff, QRM, Inc., makes it possible for adjusters to look at completed claims, which they can adjudicate and manage in a onetouch manner. With the strategic partnership, Chisari can offer pricing that’s beneficial to QRM, Inc., clients because of the business they do with Ratliff's company, and QRM, Inc., receives a volume discount.

determine which client was calling in on which line,” Chisari said. “After the first year, we obtained an office suite and [the business] just started taking off from there.”

QRM, Inc., partnered with regional companies that were either carriers, third-party administrators or self-insured employers. The company also partnered with vendors serving the industry, such as independent adjusters and nurse case managers — vendors that also needed 24/7 dispatch and notification services — effectively providing triage or exposure controls based on the severity of an incident.

“We became known as the 911 of the casualty business,” Chisari said. "Our whole focus was to control the ultimate loss on the claim.”

Twenty Years Later … Not long after QRM, Inc., celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2019, Chisari started thinking about her next strategic move for the company, how and whether she should diversify her service offerings, and how she could preserve her legacy at QRM, Inc.

Around the same time, Cortney Sells, president of The Firm, learned that the insurance claims industry was experiencing spectacular growth. Always on the lookout for opportunities to match up business owners, Sells reached out to owners of leading insurance claims services providers to see if any were preparing for retirement, planning an exit strategy or looking to expand their businesses.

BLUE SKY Bliss • Sale Price: $11,000,000 • Asset Value: $445,000 • Blue Sky Value: $10.5MM • Key Intangible Assets: • Long Term Clients • Streamlined Operations Continued page 14  Chisari was interested and engaged in an agreement with The Firm. Sells started calling The Firm’s qualified contacts. While speaking with Jonathan Ratliff, owner of Collateral Holdings, LLC in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she heard him saying a lot of the same things Chisari had said. He wasn’t looking to sell his business or acquire a competitor. But, like Chisari, he suspected he could be doing more to diversify his business and enhance his service offerings. “I said, ‘Jonathan, I have someone I think you need to meet,’” Sells said. “I told him I represented the owner of another family-owned business who was looking for a strategic partner that could help her diversify her service offerings, and I thought they could help each other.” Ratliff said that was something he’d really like to hear more about. A New Type of Deal “Not all acquisitions are black and white,” Sells said. “There can be hybrid deals. As with this partnership, two family-owned companies can work together to grow without giving up their family’s legacy. The biggest takeaway is that “Our goal is not to integrate the companies,” Chisari continued. “See, everybody, when they acquire stuff, they think of integration. That is not us. We are remaining our own brands but leveraging and working together to bring new ideas [into the] space we’re operating in. We're looking at things that each company does well and saying, ‘OK, how do we fit? What could we add, should a client desire this? How would we work together to deliver that type of cohesive service?’ So, we're taking the best of both worlds.”