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The $10 Trillion Opportunity

Book CoverUnderstand the impact the most important demographic and financial trend of this century will have on the M&A markets. Learn about the tremendous opportunities and challenges it presents to owners of privately held businesses.  Written by Richard Jackim and Peter Christman, co-founders of the Christman Group.
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30 Years of Success

30 Years of Success

Peter Christman started his own business brokerage firm in 1978, resigning from a senior sales and marketing role at Xerox Corporation. Based in Crystal Lake, Illinois, Christman's firm focused on the needs of small and medium sized business owners.

By the late 80s, Christman decided there was value in being part of a larger organization and purchased one of the first franchises for VR Business Brokerage. After many years of success working within the franchise model, Peter was recruited by a large and nationally renowned M&A firm to open their Midwest office in Chicago. In his 7 years working for that organization Christman consistently earned their top producer award, helping them generate some of the firm's largest transaction fees.

In 1992, Peter opened his own middle market M&A firm, Business Search LTD. - bringing Wall Street caliber M&A services to small and medium businesses within the greater Chicago area.

But not long after September 11, 2001, Mr. Christman realized that the M&A markets, not to mention the firm's clients, were about to hit difficult times. Peter realized he needed to help clients take a longer view in terms of selling their business. Over the next year, Peter began to develop and refine a strategic planning process to help business owners design proactive exit plans.

By 2003 Peter had transformed Business Search, LTD into the Christman Group. As part of this paradigm shift, Peter hired Richard Jackim as president and general counsel of the Christman Group. Jackim continued to develop and refine Christman's process - spearheading the firm's national growth - while Peter focused on working with clients.

Together Jackim and Christman spent 2004 - 2005 refining the Christman Group's consultative rather than transactional approach to investment banking. As word spread about their innovate exit planning model, Peter and Richard were invited to give over 100 presentations to professional groups, associations, trade groups and companies - not to mention other business advisory firms. With so much pent-up interest in their business model, Richard and Peter unveil in 2006 their critically acclaimed book, "The $10 Trillion Opportunity: Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners."

In 2007 the Christman Group secured the backing of a well respected private equity firm to help implement plans for national growth. With a model and infrastructure in place, the Christman Group is now poised for their next 30 years of success.

Christman Group Time Line

1978 After 17 years with Ford Motor Company and Xerox Business Systems, Peter Christman forms a boutique business brokerage firm specializing in selling companies with market values of between $5 million and 15 million.
1980 Peter purchases and operates a VR Business Brokerage franchise in Chicago.
1985 Peter is recruited by a national M&A firm to open and run their Midwest Regional Office. Peter is one of their top producers and generates some of the largest fees the firm has ever achieved.
1992 Peter forms Business Search LTD, his own boutique middle-market M&A business specialized in the providing merger and acquisition services to companies with market values between $5 million and $100 million.
2002 Peter develops and beta tests the exit planning process and its deliverables.
2003 Business Search LTD becomes the Christman Group, LLC. Richard Jackim joins the Christman Group as president and general counsel.
2004 Richard and Peter further develop and refine the investment banking and exit planning process as well as its deliverables. The Christman Group begins to earn regional and national praise for its unique approach. Crain's Chicago Business names Christman Group as "one of the leading investment banking firms in Chicago."
2005 Richard and Peter begin work on "The $10 Trillion Opportunity: Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners".
2006 The Christman Group represents its first public company in divestiture of three operating subsidiaries. Jackim and Christman publish "The $10 Trillion Opportunity". The first printing sells out in first six months.
2007 Jackim and Christman publish the 2nd edition of "The $10 Trillion Opportunity," achieving best seller status among business consulting and corporate finance books on Amazon.com. As a next step the Christman Group begins developing an innovative growth model for its investment banking practice.
2008 The Christman Group secures private equity funding in order to begin its national expansion.
 

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