“The money we paid FocusCFO was right up there with the best money we spent each month. It was a match made in heaven.”
– Jordy Anderson, retired business owner, Mt. Perry Propane
Jordy Anderson started Mt. Perry Propane when he was 23 years old. Propane was a family business: Both his father and grandfather had worked in the industry, and Anderson had spent his youth helping his father, gaining insight and experience that would create a solid foundation for his own venture, which he launched in 2010.
The Challenge: Deciding to Seek Outside Help
Like most small business owners, Anderson had a hand in just about everything at his company, including finance. But there came a point when Anderson wanted to grow and expand his business. He met with Bob Miller, an Area President and CFO with FocusCFO in Southeast Ohio, in a push to achieve those goals. But it wasn’t an immediate yes.
“The hardest part for me was convincing myself that I need to do this,” Anderson recalled.
The Solution: Partnering with FocusCFO
He had been doing everything by himself for the entirety of his business, and he struggled to determine if he needed an outside resource or if he should continue pushing forward on his own. In the end, he decided to bring Miller on board, and he started seeing the benefits immediately. Miller remembers it well, when he put together one of the first budgets for Mt Perry Propane: “We looked at it, and Jordy said probably the most rewarding thing I’ve heard in all my years at FocusCFO: ‘I could have done what you did in the last three hours, but it would have taken me doing nothing but that for the next three weeks.’”
Budgeting and forecasting for the expansion of the business were two of Miller’s top priorities for Mt. Perry Propane when his work there began. Miller focused on the numbers, while Anderson focused on sales and operations and taking care of his team. “I didn't even want to get in Bob's lane. He did it a lot better than I could,” Anderson recalled. “Having him on the team definitely helped me sleep better at night.”
When their work together began, Mt Perry Propane had roughly 40 convenience store propane exchange clients. In time, that number grew to nearly 425. Miller was in contact with Anderson multiple times a week and served as a mentor to Anderson and his wife, Sadie, as well as to the company’s office manager, who was eager to learn.
The Exit: A Successful Sale
The impact of that level of commitment was profound, as Anderson saw in the exponential growth of his business. Then, in 2022, Anderson got a call from a national propane company who was interested in buying his business. The potential offer was compelling, and Anderson decided to pursue an exit in earnest. With Miller’s help, they identified another potential buyer, and negotiations began. Miller and Anderson worked through an arduous due diligence process – collecting vast amounts of historical, financial, and statistical information – and five months after the initial phone call, Anderson had successfully sold his business, “retiring” with an 8- and 5-year-old at home.
“It was a match made in heaven with me and Bob and FocusCFO,” Anderson said. “The money we paid FocusCFO was right up there with the best money we spent each month.”
The Lasting Impact: Friendship and Success
Another benefit: The two men remain close friends, joining each other for baseball games and birthday parties. In fact, that was one of Miller’s biggest concerns about navigating the exit process on behalf of Mt. Perry Propane: He didn’t want to lose a friend.
“That’s my philosophy in this work: look to get a friend for life,” Miller said. “If you’re going to really help someone, you’ve got to have that kind of relationship."
