Frank Barnes, President, Special Events Staffing

March 2, 2019

My name is Frank Barnes and I am the Founder and Seller of Special Events Staffing. We are a temporary staffing company with over 700 employees providing specialized staffing to well-known corporations and well-known entertainment companies. We provide staff to some of the top events in Los Angeles including the Academy Awards, the Espy and events at University Studios, Disney, the Getty Museum, to name a few. After growing the company for 20 years and becoming the Gold Standard in the industry, I decided it was time to sell.

I first reached out to a Business Broker who I worked with for 3 months. Unfortunately, I had a bad experience with that Business Broker and had to move on. I did some research, interviewed some other Advisors and came across Matt Coletta. Matt and I met, and I was impressed with his knowledge, experience and involvement with deals he had completed. Matt explained in detail everything that is involved in selling a business. He told me the good, the bad and the ugly and what I could expect. He then explained his process and what we needed to do to prepare the business for sale. All of this helped me better understand what would be involved in selling my business.

After hiring Matt, he went to work on putting together a detailed analysis and package on my business. He asked me a ton of questions so he would be able to discuss my business with potential buyers. After putting everything together, Matt went to market and immediately started setting up meetings with potential buyers. Everyone asked for a ton of information and Matt was great at managing it all. We moved forward with one buyer and we went through a lengthy and detailed due diligence process. This was a difficult process and Matt managed it all to make sure the buyer had his questions answered and we were always moving forward. This due diligence process took several weeks and was somewhat stressful. We finally moved forward with a purchase agreement which had several components and involved attorneys on both sides. Matt was the captain of the ship and kept everyone on course and moving forward. After weeks of back and forth issues including several last-minute items, we were able to close the transaction and celebrate.

I have to say that this was somewhat stressful for me. I underestimated what would be involved in selling my business. So many things could have gone wrong and I am therefore thankful that I hired Matt and that he was there to manage this entire process from start to finish. With that said, I would highly recommend Matt Coletta to anyone looking to sell or buy a business.