Frank Hammill, a three-year employee at YRC Inc., considered going into business for himself five years ago, but he didn’t bite the bullet until early this year. He may have made the move at just the right time.
“We closed on the business Jan. 29. On Feb. 22, (YRC) made the announcement,” said Kingsley Group Business Broker Laura McCune, referring to a YRC meeting where the freight company’s Strafford employees learned corporate planned to close the local distribution center and eliminate 49 jobs.
Hammill’s job as weights and inspection coordinator for Overland Park, Kan.-based YRC Inc. parent YRC Worldwide Inc. may not have been lost, he said, but it wasn’t likely to remain in Strafford.
“I wanted to stay here. I wanted to go back into business for myself,” Hammill said. “I was just looking for something that was solid.”
Change of pace In December, Hammill turned to Kingsley Group, 1350 E. Kingsley St., for help finding the right business. He’d already established relationships with some of the company’s business brokers. From 1995 until 2005, Hammill was in business with Kingsley Group associate – and McCune’s father – Wayne Scheer. Hammill and Scheer owned Liberty Car Rental Inc., which did business as the Thrifty Car Rental franchise for the Springfield and Branson territories, Hammill said.
“(Hammill) came to us and said, ‘It’s possible that eventually, my company may close. Do you have anything that would be a good fit?’” McCune said.
It turns out that Kingsley did, though Hammill’s idea of a good fit and McCune’s weren’t the same, she said. He looked at about 40 of the firm’s listings and expressed interest in RGB Property Management Inc.
“I wouldn’t have picked it for him. He’d been in trucking, he’d worked for UPS, and we had a delivery service listed,” McCune said. “But this really worked out.”
Hammill was drawn to the property management company founded by Ron Bench in 1979. RGB Property manages nearly 140 single-family, multifamily and commercial properties for about 40 property owners, Bench said, and it earns about $1 million in annual revenues.
The company – with rentals in Springfield, Battlefield, Ozark, Nixa and Republic – is a one-man operation that makes use of a stable of vendors for repairs and service calls, Hammill said.
“(Bench) put it together nicely over time, had a good solid base of owners he worked with and ran it really clean,” Hammill said, pointing out Bench was selling the business so he could retire, not because he had to.
“It was like he’d raised one of his kids and was sending them off to get married,” Hammill added.
Due diligence McCune said Kingsley Group evaluates all the businesses it helps to sell, looking at several years of tax returns and determining its growth potential. Hammill also looked closely at the business and asked a lot of questions before making an offer, he said.
“It’s tough to do due diligence on a business, because you never know what’s in the closet or stuffed away in a file cabinet,” Hammill said, noting that Bench also had some tough questions for him.
“I was concerned about who was buying it,” Bench noted. “I had more than one offer, but (Hammill) was by far the one I preferred.”
Both parties declined to disclose the purchase price, but Bench said the sale included the business name, current accounts and office equipment and supplies. Hammill will take over the lease for office space in the Glenstone Square Office Mall, 1722 S. Glenstone Ave. Bench will serve as RGB’s broker of record for the next two years. Hammill has earned his real estate sales license but has to work under a broker for that period.
Bench also helped Hammill learn the ropes during the first days as business owner.
“I think he spent about 20 hours a week for at least a month. In the beginning, he was here all day,” Hammill said. “Now, I feel comfortable doing it, and (Bench) has a cell phone.”
Hammill has made some changes to the company. He’s setting up a company Web site and plans on listing properties on the site and through other sites, including Craigslist.org, he said. Within 60 days, he would like to offer potential tenants the option of filling out an application online.
His admittedly aggressive hopes are to grow the company by 50 percent in the next two to three years, Hammill said.
“Even more than that, I want to grow it in a way that will sustain it and maintain the reputation that Ron has established for it.”
