After leaving Iowa 15 years ago with a chemical engineering degree from Iowa State University, Brian Henderson thought it was unlikely he would ever return. But when his father offered to sell the family business to him, coming home suddenly meshed with his lifelong dream of owning his own company.

Henderson recently purchased First National Business Corporation of Iowa, a business brokerage firm in Urbandale. A locally owned affiliate of Springfield, Mo.-based U.S. Business Brokers Inc., FNBC Iowa has worked with a number of former Iowans who likewise have bought businesses in order to return to the state, Henderson said.

“Businesses have become so affordable now, when they’re priced right,” said Henderson, whose father, Dennis Henderson, started the company in 2002. “There is a huge volume of people looking to break out of the corporate world or looking for a way to come back home to Iowa. … We provide a conduit for people to be able to come back into the state.”

Six months ago, Henderson moved back to Iowa from Texas, where he was a plant manager for a major chemical manufacturer.

FNBC Iowa, which on Dec. 19 will change its name to The Henderson Business Group Inc., currently has nearly 200 Iowa businesses listed for sale and 10 full-time agents. Its $40 million in business listings makes it USBB’s top listing affiliate out of its 18 offices in 13 states, said Bill Martin, USBB’s founder.

“We associate with people who are really strong financially like the Hendersons,” said Martin, who began USBB in 1982. “Typically, business brokerage has been one- to two-person offices with low overhead. We decided to build bigger offices, so we’ve had to associate with people who are stronger financially, and Henderson fits that bill.”

Brian Henderson said FNBC Iowa’s name change is meant to emphasize its family ownership and commitment to Iowa.

“We think it’s important that people know that we are an Iowa-based company; native Iowans, family-owned; we’re not planning on going anywhere,” he said.

On average, approximately 20 percent of businesses are on the market at any given time, Henderson said.

“Any business you see driving up and down the street is a potential client of ours,” he said, with the exception of publicly traded companies. Its current listings range from hair salons to flower shops and janitorial services, restaurants and all types of business-to-business service companies, with asking prices from $20,000 to more than $8 million.

“We do about 30 businesses a year,” he said. “The average value year-to-date is over $600,000. I’d say our sweet spot seems to be those businesses listed in the $500,000 to $1 million range, the reason being is that those are still affordable to most buyers.” FNBC represents the sellers who list the properties, charging a 10 percent commission on each sale. Both potential clients and prospective buyers are carefully screened, Henderson said.

“There are a lot of businesses that we go out and look at that we do not list,” he said. “We look for good businesses with good cash flows and good records, because at the end of the day, that’s what the buyers and the banks and the SBA are going to be looking for. In doing that, we’ve found there are a tremendous number of businesses out there that meet those criteria.”

Among the deals FNBC brokered this year was the sale of 7 Flags Fitness & Racquet Club in Urbandale. Returning to Iowa was among his considerations in buying the business, said new owner Frank Santana, a former ISU wrestling champion.

“FNBC did a terrific job of providing service to the seller and to the buyer,” said Santana. “They did a great job of representing the seller, in my opinion.”

Business owners typically enter into a one-year listing with the brokerage, though on average, most businesses usually sell within about four to eight months, Henderson said. The company also handles merger and acquisition deals of up to $50 million.

Dennis Henderson established FNBC Iowa in Cedar Rapids in February 2002, after having difficulty finding a good broker to handle the sale of one of his companies, Millstream Brewing Co. in Amana. He opened the Urbandale office six months later, and earlier this year, sold his shares in the Cedar Rapids office to concentrate on the Central Iowa market.

Because FNBC Iowa owns the rights to the entire Iowa market for U.S. Business Brokers, the company plans to expand to the Quad Cities and Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan areas within the next five years, he said.