The Right Buyer When Selling Your Small Business

lot of times, is a cycle of poverty. They’re forced to make choices between their basic needs. ‘Am I going to feed my kids healthy food or am I going to pay for transportation to get to work? Am I going to pay for my medical bills?’”

Finding the right buyer for your business goes beyond getting the highest offer possible. As a seller, you’re looking for the most qualified buyer that best aligns with your values. Add value to your company and contribute to the continued success of your business by balancing these goals.

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Create An Ideal Buyer Persona – When it comes to selling your business, you’re looking for your ideal candidate. Be flexible although it is important to consider what type of buyer your company can best support.

Understand the Different Types of Buyers - Selling your business comes down to a basic fundamental: getting to know your target audience. People buy businesses for different reasons. Their motive behind purchasing will affect how you reach them.

Appeal to Your Potential Buyers - Prepare your business for showing – make sure everything is in its best shape before approaching prospects. This includes getting your books and financials in order, too!

List Your Sale with A Business Broker - A broker helps you save time. They identify the right match for your business and ensure you’re only dealing with qualified prospects. All while maintaining your anonymity.

ANN BARHAM ABarham@tworld.com

Jones added that this cycle of poverty creates low grades in school, high unemployment rates and many other negative effects.

Even though the area boasts some of the toniest homes, high incomes and high levels of education, there are pockets of poverty similar to those near Clarkson, where refugees are given solace, or west of Mercedes Benz Stadium, where homelessness and addiction are high.

Better Work Gwinnett

Luisa Beeco, a program manager for Better Work Gwinnett, part of the Georgia Center for Opportunity, (GCO) explained that GCO focuses on family work and education.

Once the applicant signs up, Better Work has a 30- to 60-minute conversation to understand where they fit in the work world. They assess the barriers to work — transportation, childcare, etc. Instead of creating more programs, Better Work connects clients to existing resources such GED classes and English language classes.

Next Generation Focus

Rachel Mannino, a recent UGA grad, is one of the after-school program directors of Next Generation Focus, a nonprofit afterschool program that meets Monday through Thursday, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Norcross First United Methodist Church.

KARL BARHAM KBarham@tworld.com

At Transworld, we’ll advertise your business to a worldwide network of buyers who are either interested in growing through acquisition or are searching for their next opportunity. To learn how Transworld Business Advisors can offer you sound advice and insight into selling your business, schedule a consultation today by giving us a call at 770-766-9855 or email atlantapeachtree@tworld.com today!

“Our goal is removing barriers, and we do it in many ways so that every person, no matter their race, past mistakes or the circumstances of their birth, can have access to quality education, fulfilling work and a healthy family life,” she said. “We have people who are working on research and policy and working on trying to keep families together.”

One way to keep families together is by making sure the adults have jobs. That’s where the Better Work program comes in.

“It’s not like a staffing agency — it’s different,” she said. “I would call it a referral program.”

Better Work has partnered with multiple employers in the area that have agreed to reach out to job candidates within 33 business days for an interview or a conversation to be able to go through their process.

“We have people go through our portal. It takes five minutes. They can do it on their phone,” said

“We also have locations at Discovery High School and Summerour Middle School, and we also meet virtually,” she said. “We provide out of school tutoring for our youngest scholars. That provides year-round academic support, enrichment activities, character education and life skills development for under-resourced and vulnerable youth and their families.”

She explained that since its inception, the mission has been to provide high quality educational and developmental opportunities to impact underserved communities. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade receive assistance in all subjects, including English language classes. There are even English language classes for parents.

Rainbow Village

Rainbow Village is the largest transitional housing nonprofit in Gwinnett County. It was founded by Christ Church in 1991 and used to be a bunch of scattered homes. It is now a 2.5 acre campus in Duluth.

“We can handle 30 homeless fami- lies at a time. Those families can stay with us for up to two years. We are not a quick fix program,” said Redner. “This is not a rapid rehousing program, because that just keeps rehousing them again and again. That doesn’t really help families.”

Redner explained that Rainbow Village is working to expanding so it can help more than 30 families at a time. “We have over 2,000 homeless kids in our school system,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re working hard to expand.”

He said that when he was the CEO of the Community Foundation, he saw that there are six great cooperative ministries across the county that were created 30 years ago by very future thinking leaders.

“When you add all those cooperative ministries together, we see 100,000 people a year; 10% of our population will go through our cooperative ministry,” Redner said. Rainbow Village sees a 90% success rate in helping families break the cycle of poverty. So, the charities started a pilot program in January where one or two social workers were embedded at other nonprofit organizations.

“We’re working side by side to take a look at that and learn how nonprofits can work closer together,” said Redner.

The NCM tour

Intake at NCM begins in the front lobby where clients are screened to make sure they are eligible for services. “Here they tell a little bit of their story, their background, a little bit of what’s going on,” said Jenny Ortega of NCM.

After being processed, they meet with caseworkers. “Once they come back to us, the options include clothing, food, hotel, rent and utilities,” added Ortega.

The complex also has space for those who just need a little extra help, such as once-a-month food distribution to stretch the grocery budget or clothes for back to school or job interviews, as well as assistance with utilities or finding work.

“We talk to them about all the various different ministries that we have here,” said Ortega. “It’s not just financial; there are also spiritual ministries,” she said.

And there are English classes and healthcare sessions where clients can get blood pressure checks and talk to someone about medical assistance and/or prescriptions assistance.

During COVID, NCM offered a drive-through pantry, but now clients can enter the expanded food facility with more space for cold and frozen foods. Healthy snacks are offered during tutoring sessions.

The changes at NCM are focused on helping families become independent and stand on their own. With the newly formed partnerships, all involved pray that the years ahead see more at-risk families becoming stable and able to give back to the organizations so they can help other families. ■