Company builds success on selling businesses

FORT COLLINS — John Smith and Chris Frevert saw an opportunity when they were structuring their new business, intermediary and brokerage firm Citadel Advisory Group.
While there were business brokers in the region, Smith said, ?No one was really helping middle market business owners who had larger businesses to sell.?
The partners also saw opportunities in the economy and demographics of the time. Smith explained: ?A lot of the baby boomer generation is being displaced by corporate America. They?ve cut their teeth on growing and building businesses for their employers and now they?re ready to do it themselves. They?re looking for opportunities at the same time an increasing number of business owners are ready to retire. They?ve had their businesses for seven years or longer, (and) they?re looking to do something else.?
Smith and Frevert created Citadel to help bring those two groups together.
Despite a 15-year record slowdown in business transactions over the past three years, Citadel Advisory Group has grown dramatically.
Founded in April 2001, the company?s revenues expanded 233 percent between 2002 and 2003. Citadel ended 2002 with gross revenues of $1.4 million. The following year, 2003, saw that number swell to more than $4.6 million.
That amazing growth earned Citadel Advisory Group the No. 3 spot on this year?s Mercury 100 list of fastest-growing companies in the region.
The staff at Citadel grew to five in 2003 and added a sixth employee so far in 2004. Smith said Citadel hopes to bring an additional associate on board in Greeley later this year and he expects even larger revenue growth this year.
Smith said Citadel grew in spite of sluggish overall business transaction numbers ?because we?ve put our customers? needs first.?
Business owners who opt to sell want and need strict confidentiality, Smith noted.
Without that, employees can find out about a sale and get scared, competitors may try to take advantage of the transition to gain market share and bankers can become uneasy.
Citadel prepares a professional profile of the businesses it represents so buyers can make informed decisions about their interest without ever setting foot on the business premises.
It takes discipline and organization to excel as an intermediary, Smith said. ?We make sure we match a good buyer to a good seller.?
He said it?s important that prospective buyers have the right skills and resources to take on the business they?re considering. That business has to be the right match, as well.
Citadel?s two partners bring years of experience in business operations, sales and marketing to their endeavor. With a background in sales and marketing, Smith began selling businesses 17 years ago for an employer. Frevert said his ownership of multiple units of a quick service restaurant showed him he enjoyed the aspects of buying and selling those restaurants more than their actual day-to-day operation.
Recruited by a Denver firm to open a branch office, Smith and Frevert worked together and later left that firm together ? with its support and blessing ? to begin Citadel.
Frevert said he and Smith launched the company with an aggressive growth plan in mind. However, Citadel?s expansion since its formation has exceeded their expectations.
?We knew we had something different to offer in the marketplace that people aren?t used to seeing up here,? Frevert said.

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