The Original Mixer with Frank Mottek—Matt Coletta

Echelon at the original Mixer with Frank Mottek from 790 KABC's Mottek On Money and Matt Coletta of M&A Business Advisors.

Frank interviews Matt Coletta, CEO of M&A Business Advisors. Frank Mottek conducts podcast interviews for Echelon Business Development at The Original Mixer at The Luxe Hotel in Los Angeles. Read here for information on Matt Coletta.

The Original Mixer is a business networking event that has been bringing together great business people in one place since 2018. Echelon Business Development has sponsored the event beginning in 2023. There are a lot of great people at The Original Mixer who can help you find new clients and make connections. Additionally, it lets you promote your business, work together with experts, become a leader in your field, and discover fresh ways to expand.

There is only one Voice of Business News in Southern California, and that's Frank Mottek. Listen to Frank on 790 KABC on your way home during the week. He has been following news for more than thirty years and focuses on business and money. Frank is the host of Mottek on Money, which airs every day at 5 p.m. and talks to the biggest names in news and business to give you the financial health and success tips you need. People in Southern California believe in Frank Mottek. You have to listen to Mottek on Money every day...High-return listening time that gets you better and more money!

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

From Los Angeles, this is the Echelon Radio Network

Frank Mottek: 0:04

Tonight, I'm at The Original Mixer, I'm Frank

Matt Coletta: 0:04

Thank you, Frank, glad to be here. So a group of Motek from 790 ABC. And it's an honor to be with you tonight here on the Echelon Podcast Network at the Echelon Business Developments original mixer. And right now, Echelon member, one of the founders, as a matter of fact, and Co-Founder and us started Echelon, which focuses on business development. Managing Partner in the M&A world here as well, Matt Coletta is with me here at The Original Mixer. Matt, great to meet you. Thank you very much. Stepping up to the microphone here this evening. And first of all, tell us about your involvement with Echelon and this big event. And we saw a need for an organization to provide various services—podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, and we do a lot of work with LinkedIn, and so forth. So a lot of our energy and focus is on helping our members basically adapt and learn how to market themselves today in the digital age.

Frank Mottek: 1:21

Right? Social networking, and there's no substitute for a real social networking site, which is what we're seeing here at this fantastic event. And, and you're also involved in the M&A world, right? So tell us about that.

Matt Coletta: 1:33

I am. I am the co founder and managing partner of M&A Business Advisors. We have seven offices throughout California and Nevada. We specialize in the sale of privately owned businesses and a wide range of industries, manufacturing, distribution, service, construction, medical practices, and others. And we help privately owned businesses prepare their business for sale. California is unique and how people do business here, it's a very high tax state. So people get very creative. So we have to essentially help people unwind a lot of what they do, or what they have done over the years, help them prepare their business, put it into a position where it's saleable and also financial. And, and then we put packaging together and then go out into the marketplace and find buyers and manage the whole process of transferring the ownership.

Frank Mottek: 2:35

Are you seeing more people unwinding these days, I was m&a activity, looking at the moment.

Matt Coletta: 2:41

So we are finally seeing what is referred to as the baby boomer effect. There's been a lot of studies and reports that talked about the baby boomers selling their business. A lot of those studies were done based on people retiring 60s 60 to 64. And what we're seeing is people are retiring a little bit later 6870. So they were off a little bit and now we're starting to see the peak of that. So activity is high, a lot of baby boomers looking to sell. And what's interesting is a lot of people that are in their 40s and 50s using their savings 401 K, looking to purchase those businesses.

Frank Mottek: 3:25

All right, what's the hottest area in m&a activity at the moment?

Matt Coletta: 3:30

Well, there's a lot of private equity money out there. So we work with a lot of those groups. They like to focus on manufacturing and service businesses. And so any company that has made it through the Great Recession, and has made it through COVID, and has proof of concept, those businesses are in high demand. Alright,

Frank Mottek: 3:52

we're seeing pressure in commercial real estate these days. What do you see happening in that world.

Matt Coletta: 3:58

So we represent the commercial properties that are related to the businesses that we sell. For example, I recently sold a company that manufactures foam packaging products. And that owner also owned the 40,000 square foot, commercial property industrial building. So those those transactions that we handle are typically related to to the business itself. And commercial property is on is on fire in California, especially if it's industrial, lots of demand. And so those properties tend to generate a lot of interest and sometimes we will actually sell the business just because we're selling the business

Frank Mottek: 4:43

but looks like we have a lot of distress. So office buildings or seats or office buildings out there at the moment.

Matt Coletta: 4:49

There are distressed office buildings out there we're starting to see things turn. So depending on the market, anything along the one on one corridor is is starting to rebound and And so most of our most of our clients are maintaining their office space. And they're starting to bring back staff and and their employees back. So that demand will start to do better as as we move along.

Frank Mottek: 5:15

Alright, and what's your gut feeling on the economy this year?

Matt Coletta: 5:19

This year is going to be an interesting year. There's a lot of money out there, but it's very cautious. The people that control that money are very careful. Everyone is pretty much predicting a recession this year. Obviously, interest rate cost of money is super high right now. So we're, we're seeing deals, we're seeing transactions, but it involves being creative on making the buyer, whoever it may be a private individual or private equity group and industries, you know, synergy buyer. They've got to feel comfortable with the terms of the transaction to help mitigate any risks that they may feel

Frank Mottek: 5:58

those based on the energy in this room, it seems the animal spirits are definitely back and very high at the moment. Looks like a perfect time for deal making.

Matt Coletta: 6:08

Yeah, this is a great crowd here. We've got over 250 people that registered and it's a rainy night here. We're supposed to have a big storm and it's great. These people, apparently a blizzard right in LA. But great to see this crowd here. And this is very impressive.

Frank Mottek: 6:28

That's great. And, and certainly, you're active locally. With all the movers and shakers in the m&a world. I'm sure you've been involved in some of the big m&a awards, events and AC GLA, right and right down the line. Yeah,

Matt Coletta: 6:42

involved with ACG one on one, and occasionally, LA. And then of course Echelon and involved in other organizations as well. So we're definitely seeing people coming back and getting more involved, which is a great sign.

Frank Mottek: 6:59

That's great for people in the m&a world, a lot of connections being made here and so on.

Matt Coletta: 7:03

Absolutely. We got it, bankers, private equity groups here. A lot of service providers, so great to see a lot of old friends.

Frank Mottek: 7:11

That's great. And for those who are maybe first timers here, what else do we need to know about echelon?

Matt Coletta: 7:16

So Echelon is a great organization. And we have a lot of value, a lot of the assets that we have with Echelonbizdev.com with our YouTube page. We also own toptrustedadvisors.com. And so if you go to our website, you'll see at the very top all the assets that we have. And we have a lot to offer for a pretty nominal annual fee. And we hope that everyone checks us out and considers joining.

Frank Mottek: 7:48

Fantastic, Matt. Well, we'll let you get back to the to the mixing and the mega schmoozing here tonight. What a night. Absolutely fantastic. maculata. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us.

Matt Coletta: 7:58

Thank you, Frank, great to see you.

Frank Mottek: 7:59

Likewise. Thank you very much

Announcer: 8:06

Presented by Echelon Business Development, more than just networking, way more.