Ex-catcher now plays in big league of buying and selling businesses — New Business

Growing up, Kyle Hopstad’s dreams centered around baseball. He was on teams throughout grade school and went on to play for the Pacific Lutheran University Lutes.

His position was catcher, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“The catcher is sort of an assistant coach on the field,” the 56-year-old business broker said. “They’re the ones who know the batter’s weaknesses and strengths, and they position the players on the field according to that. They tell the pitchers what to throw to strike the batter out.”
Catchers orchestrate the game, Hopstad said, and though his baseball dreams faded away over the years, he made a career out of his love for orchestration.
With 30 years of hospital administration and business consulting under his belt, Hopstad moved to Boise eight months ago and opened a new branch of Murphy Business and Financial Corp. Murphy is a brokerage firm with 200 agents across the country pooling their expertise and connections to help clients buy and sell businesses.
Hopstad earned a batchelor’s degree in business administration from Concordia University and a master’s in health administration from University of Colorado. As a hospital administrator and consultant, he learned to manage a broad spectrum of business matters.
Hospitals house dozens of businesses, he said, from those that dress patients’ hair to those that operate the hospital’s complex electrical and mechanical infrastructure.
“They’re all the same,” Hopstad said. “You have to optimize the bottom line, work with the public, sell a product, and engage and motivate employees whether you run a small business or a large hospital.”
This understanding of the elemental components common to all businesses allows Hopstad to go into any establishment and quickly grasp where it is and what it can become. He then helps position the owner for the future of the business.
If they decide the business is in a good place to sell, they can then begin the seven- to 18-month process. The broker determines the value of the business, then prepares an offering package and develops a marketing plan to find potential buyers using Murphy’s global networks. Once he locates the buyer, he negotiates the purchase offer and arranges financing. He provides parallel services for buyers.
Aside from all the formal procedures, Hopstad said his job is really about the relationships he forms.
“I like working with buyers and owners,” he said. “I like sitting down with them and knowing their story. I like the fulfillment of helping them fulfill their dream.”
Currently Hopstad has seven listings in the area, ranging from a bagel shop to hotels to manufacturing to small businesses. But Murphy’s national connections allow potential buyers and sellers to look beyond the local options.
“Murphy Business Brokers essentially brings a national business perspective to Boise through a network of offices on a national basis,” Hopstad said. “Nobody else in the valley has that capability, the ability to tap into associate brokers and agents throughout the country that may have buyers and sellers available for a resource in the Treasure Valley.”
This national network makes those businesses for sale in Boise an attractive option for anyone looking to move to the area. “Everybody loves being here,” Hopstad said, “and that creates a climate of optimism and support and a community of family values, and that I think spawns a wonderful environment for businesses to grow and thrive and meet people’s needs.”
And today’s struggling economy does not preclude a local business’s ability to experience this growth through a sale or acquisition, Hopstad said. No matter the state of the economy, at any one time at least 20 percent of businesses are for sale or thinking about selling.
“It’s surprising,” he said. “There’s always a buyer, always a seller.”
As he works with these buyers and sellers, Hopstad brings to the table all the experience and insight he’s gained throughout life, some of which dates back to his early days as a catcher.
He said one of the business sales he’s working on right now has the potential for great synergy if he can orchestrate all the players into a winning arrangement.
“I’m trying to get the players in the right positions. We could either get the batter out or the batter could get a home run,” he said. “Hopefully it will be a win-win situation.”