Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Last May, Mark Hoffman, who founded Hoffman Communications in 1988, made his first acquisition: He bought a staging company, which handles such tasks as facility selection and logistics, and set design and set building for meetings and events. Hoffman Communications handles all aspects of clients’ corporate communications projects.
As a result, his staging business “went through the roof,” and his production staff couldn’t keep up with all the related requests for videos and PowerPoints and invitations. “We were doing it, but with a lot of pain,” he says.
He set out to hire a bunch of people. But then Bill Juntunen called in November and said, “it’s time to sell.” Hoffman purchased in December Juntunen Group, a 21-year-old audiovisual production company, and a sister company, MedCentrus Marketing & Education, and instantly added 18 full-time people. Hoffman now employs 45.
Hoffman started as a freelancer and kept his company small through 2001. Prompted by a friend who is also a business consultant, he started considering his exit strategy — what he wanted to get out of the company financially when it was time to retire someday.
“At that point we were a nice little company of 10 people,” he says. “I started thinking, what makes us different? What we offered everybody offered.” He started asking clients what makes Hoffman different. They said, “You go the extra mile.”
“What was unique about that was nothing,” Hoffman says. He began to realize that it was project management — handling every detail of a client’s needs — that made the company different. “And that’s what we were giving away,” he says, because they would charge for the individual pieces produced but not market the whole package.
The idea crystallized in 2003. Genmar, Irwin Jacobs’ boat company, wanted to do one huge meeting in Las Vegas for all its dealers and vendors. In the past, Hoffman had handled individual dealer meetings for Genmar. Hoffman got the huge job.
“I said, 'We can do it.' We did four hotels, the convention center, all the plane tickets, hotel arrangements, plus all the production….” Hoffman recalls. “That’s what really defined us as project management, and that set the groundwork.”
The new emphasis, plus the buzz from the Genmar event, started boosting sales big time. Now Hoffman is busy trying to move the new people, and to consolidate four locations down to three. He’s already anticipating needing more staff members, because each acquisition brings in its own network of clients.
But he says he’s done with acquisitions — although he thought that after last May’s acquisition as well.
He says his role is much different now than when he started his company, when he did the actual production work. “I keep thinking I’m working myself out of a job, but then I realize people are looking to me for direction. I think, Gee, I better come up with something,” Hoffman says.
Mark Hoffman, Hoffman Communications: 612.436.3601; ma***@*******************ns.com; www.hoffmancommunications.com
