Ed Goldman and The Goldman State interviews Andrew Rogerson
Ed Goldman is the author of THE GOLDMAN STATE and writes a thrice-weekly online column. When he was younger and more foolish, Ed was a daily columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal, as well as a monthly columnist both for Sacramento Magazine and Comstock’s Business Magazine. Ed is also the author of five books including Don’t Cry For Me, Ardent Reader; And Now, With Further Ado; But I Digress…, two plays and one musical.
Ed has taught journalism, public relations and marketing courses at three California State University campuses, two community colleges and the University of California Extension. In 1982, he founded Goldman Communications, Inc., a multiple award-winning marketing, PR and advertising consultancy. He would like to be the victim of a corporate takeover.
Although Ed is no longer young and foolish, he’s still foolish as he chose to revisit a conversation he had about 7 years ago and re-interview Andrew Rogerson, the Certified Business Broker that is Rogerson Business Services. So there are no misunderstandings, here is part of the interview Ed had with Andrew directly from The Goldman State.
This past March, just as the world was beginning its pandemic shutdown, Andrew Rogerson still was able to help one of his clients sell a medical-supply manufacturing business for $3.1 million.
“I get a success fee when that happens,” he says. And if the company wouldn’t have sold despite Rogerson’s best efforts? “Oh sometimes I get a thank-you note,” he says in his deadpan, Aussie accent, which somehow can make a situation sound funny rather than frustrating.
For the past 15 years, Rogerson, who’s 64, has been helping clients sell a variety of California businesses—as well as advise them on how to do valuations on companies and equipment, invest in franchises, buy companies and execute a diversity of tactical moves in the industry sector. What he provides through his firm, Rogerson Business Services, are pretty much one-off transactions—meaning, that while he gets plenty of referrals from satisfied customers, he rarely gets repeat business.
“They sell their company, they’re done with me,” he says in a tone that may define the word chipper. “And that’s just fine.”
I first wrote about Rogerson seven years ago, for the Sacramento Business Journal. At the time, he told me his Down Under back-story—how, when he was 21 years old, his grandfather gave him $10,000, which Rogerson used to build a house in his native Melbourne. “My dad was a plumber,” he said, “and everybody pitched in.”
Rogerson still believes in collaboration, many homes and five businesses later—including his ownership of an executive-suites complex, an office equipment business and both retail and wholesale travel agencies (one of which he says he sold for “240 percent of the original purchase price” just before that industry was largely rendered obsolete by the Internet). To help a client sell or buy a business he might bring in attorneys, accountants and an escrow company. In California, buying a business especially becomes a multi-player transaction.
That’s collaboration.
You are welcome to read the rest of the article on Ed’s website, the Goldman State.