Specialist M&A advisor, business broker, or investment banker

The short answer

What is the difference between an M&A advisor, a business broker, and an investment banker when you exit a physical therapy business? Paul Martin, Founder and President of Martin Healthcare Advisors, explains each role and when each one makes sense.

In this video:

• A broker finds you a buyer, usually one at a time, across every type of business
• An M&A advisor runs a process, with every realistic acquirer at the same table on the same information
• Your CPA and attorney protect you on the numbers and the documents. Keep them either way.
• When a broker is the right call: a small single clinic, a local buyer, a simple transaction
• Why MHA sits in the middle: investment bank discipline, broker-style hand-holding, and five physical therapists on the team who each built and sold a large company

Full transcript

People use broker and M&A advisor interchangeably, and the difference shows up in what the owner is paid at closing. We are not a broker. We are a specialist M&A advisor, and we only do physical therapy.

Back in 1996, my two partners and I sold the company that we had built from three clinics to 21 in just three years. We didn't hire a business broker. We didn't hire an investment banker. We hired a gentleman by the name of Alan Cox, from Cox and Associates, a former CEO of a large outpatient physical therapy company, and he got us to the best finish line with the best company at that time. That's the day I learned something: who represents you determines your outcome.

So, I went and learned every seat at the table. I went inside NovaCare's acquisition department and learned how acquirers price, structure, and move on transactions. Then I got certified as a business intermediary, and later as a merger and acquisition master intermediary. I wanted to understand how Main Street brokers work and how the big investment bankers work, so I could build the right product for the rehabilitation industry.

From the brokerage world, I took the deep understanding of local markets, the relationships, and the way a good broker takes your hand and walks you through every step. From the investment banking world, I took the discipline: a real process, materials that hold up to scrutiny, making sure the EBITDA an acquirer is buying is clean, and multiple acquirers at the table at the same time on a level playing field. So, I hired an investment banker and CPAs to match that.

And then I added the piece nobody else has: five physical therapists. Every one of them built a large company and sold a large company. They guide what a banker or a CPA can't: clinical operations, staffing, culture, referral relationships, and what life actually looks like after closing.

Now, your accountant and your attorney, keep them. You need both of them, and you need good ones. But their job is to protect you on the numbers and on the documents. Ours is to build the competition that gets you the best price and terms. The one thing I'll never recommend is doing it alone. Somebody did this for me in 1996, and it changed my life. That's what we built this company to be.

Transcript lightly edited for readability.