Know Your Broker: Ron Kleier

In this occasional series, we will share profiles of our team here at Apex so you can get to know the men and women that make us best qualified to help you buy or sell a business.

While it’s true that Ron has only been in the industry for 3 years, he brings over 45 years of experience buying and selling businesses on his own behalf.  

Those experiences inform the way he works with buyers and sellers because he can say he’s been in both positions many times.

Ron lives on 16 acres of wooded property in Wellsville, Kansas, about 45 minutes southwest of Kansas City and 15 minutes from Gardner, where he first got his start in a family-owned and operated grocery store.

He was managing the produce department by the age of 11 and closing the store by 13. He knew the business inside out and so it was no surprise that, after helping his parents expand the business, he bought it from them when he was in his mid-30s.  

He took over when the business was doing $25M in annual revenue and, through selling the smaller stores and doing strategic acquisitions, he grew the business to $100M in revenue.  

The grocery business wasn’t enough to satisfy Ron’s entrepreneurial drive, so he and his wife Sandra went on to grow a sunscreen business 1500% in sales over a 10-year period before selling that company as well.

He eventually got into business brokering but found that as a sole owner-operator in the space, he simply didn’t have access to the same resources and expertise that a firm like Apex did. He joined us and hasn’t looked back since.

Ron knows, having participated in many business transactions (he has owned, operated, and sold more than 40 businesses), that buying or selling a business is a life-changing event.  He has a real passion to help goal-oriented individuals realize their dreams.  He enjoys connecting with them deeply on a personal level not just to build trust, but to know how to structure deals and the process for the best outcome.  

“I know how much anxiety can come from these events and, as a broker, I want my clients to see my number and hope that I’m calling with good news.”