Terry Lammers - You Dont Know What You Dont Know: Everything You Need to Know to Buy or Sell a Business

PRAISE FOR
You Dont Know
What You Dont Know

Terry Lammerss extensive knowledge of the mergers and acquisitions business, combined with his straightforward and honest approach, connects readers with the expertise they need to succeed in todays business world. His book is the perfect resource for the entrepreneur just beginning their journey and the business owner looking to retire. As an author and entrepreneur, Ive spent my life striving to make a difference in the lives of others. Terrys book will have a positive and lasting impact on the industry.

Dr. Tom Hill, Founder of the Tom Hill Institute, Author of Living at the Summit, and Coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneurs Soul

You Dont Know What You Dont Know dispels so many myths around starting, operating, and selling your business. Terry Lammerss wealth of practical knowledge, in addition to his vast experience, makes this book one that youll want to keep in your library as a reference and resource. Navigating the path to business success isnt always easy, but why try to reinvent the wheel? Most of your answers will be all laid out in a simple and totally applicable style in this book.

Alvin Brown, BSc, D.O.M.P., CEO and Founder of The Centre for Healing and Peak Performance and Author of Journey to Personal Greatness: Mind, Body and Soul

Terry Lammerss book is FANTASTIC! Whether you are planning to sell your business, buy a business, or both, Terrys advice is spot-on. With humility, transparency, and straight talk, Terry literally guides you through every step of an otherwise complicated business buying and selling process. I strongly recommend this book, and I will use the wisdom so effectively shared by the author to guide my future decisions about buying or selling a business.

Brett Blair, Life Coach and Author of From Autopilot to Authentic

An outstanding framework for every business owner. In this engaging book, full of business wisdom, Terry Lammers packed the best insight and information I have ever seen. With You Dont Know What You Dont Know in your toolbox, youll walk away with great value and understand the simple steps to get the best and most $uccessful deal for your business.

Tammy Fadler, Keynote Speaker and award-winning Author of Finding The Pearl: Unstoppable Passion, Unbridled Success

Terry has been in the trenches of buying and selling companies. You Dont Know What You Dont Know is a great resource for any business owner.

John Warrillow, Founder, The Value Builder System and Author of Built to Sell and The Automatic Customer

I run a successful novelty company that generates more than $100 million dollars in sales. It seems like everyone in the financial field claims to be an expert, but no one connected with me the way Terry did. He actually knew what it was like to build a company from the ground up, as I had. The Billy Bob Teeth Company owes a great deal of thanks to Terry Lammers!

Jonah White, CEO Billy Bob Teeth inc.

You Dont Know What You Dont Know

Everything You Need to Know to Buy or Sell a Business

Terry Lammers, CVA

Stonebrook Publishing
Saint Louis, MO

A STONEBROOK PUBLISHING BOOK

Copyright 2017 by Terry Lammers

All rights reserved.

Edited by Nancy Erickson, The Book Professor

TheBookProfessor.com

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Stonebrook Publishing, a division of Stonebrook Enterprises, LLC, Saint Louis, Missouri. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from the author.

Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017938364

ISBN: 978-0-9975210-8-5

www.stonebrookpublishing.net

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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I dedicate this book to my family, whose unique qualities have made my journey through life possible.

To my dad, who taught me about hard work and had the vision to let me be a leader.

To my mom, who, although we didnt always work together well, was the greatest mom I could have had. From her, I learned to keep business and family separate.

To my sister: The older we get, the closer we get. To my wife, who, although she doesnt always like my business ambitions, she always supports me 100%.

And finally, to my children, Sydney, Caitlin, and Trent, who continue to impress and inspire me.

Table of Contents

We were locked in the conference room. Mike, my CPA, slammed down the phone and said, The son-of-a-gun wont budge!

How could this be happening? Negotiating the purchase price was supposed to be the hard part, not this. The sales contract was written, the closing date was set, and we were hung up on the allocation of assets. How could the sellers CPA squash this deal at the last minute? This was my largest acquisition to date and the most complicated, from a banking perspective. The way we laid out the allocation of assets was going to cost the seller over $100,000 in taxes, but it was the only way the bank would accept the deal.

What are we going to do? Mike asked.

Im going to make a phone call, I said.

I came out of the conference room with a huff, and the office staff snapped back to their desks. They knew I was mad because they overheard the talk in the conference room. I stomped into my office and shut the door. It was time to have a come-to-Jesus talk with Jerry, the owner of the company we were trying to buy.

Jerry answered the phone in his typical fashion, Hey Ter, whats going on?

This was the second trip to the altar for us, in terms of trying to get this deal done. Jerry wanted to retire, and I needed his facilities.

Jerry, we have to talk, I said. The conversation only lasted a couple of minutes.

Back to the conference room, I shut the door and sat across from Mike.

Well? Mike said.

Run the numbers like we have them, I said. Were good to go!

Introduction:
Meet Terry Lammers

I grew up in a small town in southern Illinois called Pierron, about thirty miles east of St. Louis. Pierron boasts about six hundred people. Its the type of town where nobody locks their doors, and everybody knows everybody. Both of my parents came from hard-working German families, so in our family, no one sat around for long. There was always work to do.

After his tour in Vietnam, my dad grew tired of his work at the GM auto plant in St. Louis and got a job as a tank wagon driver for Pierron Oil Company. A tank wagon is a truck with a tank on it. In those days they held about 1,500 gallons and had four or five different compartments for gasoline and diesel fuel. This is what eventually brought our family to Pierron. By 1975, my dad had saved enough to purchase Pierron Oil Company, an act that sealed my fate in the oil business. Eventually, he built a new office for the company, which included a grocery store, a warehouse, and a shop area where workers could change tires, oil, batteries, and more. As a boy, I stocked shelves, changed tires, loaded trucks, swept bays, and did a variety of endless chores. By the time I was sixteen, I was behind the wheel of a tank wagon myself and made deliveries after school. I even made trips into St. Louis to pick up bulk motor oil. As a father of three kids who are driving age now, its hard to believe I was trusted to drive a large truck into the big city at such a young age!