Brokering is his business Cypher Group founder brings buyers, sellers together
Jerry Cypher was not a business major at, what was then, Waynesburg College. Sociology and political science were his primary pursuits.
Nearly four decades later, he is taking care of business.
“This is all life experience stuff. I didn’t learn any of this in school,” said the president/owner of the Cypher Group, a business brokerage organization that – he believes – is the only one of its kind in Washington County.
From the sixth floor of the Millcraft Center in downtown Washington, he and his staff of five assist those who are selling businesses and those looking to buy.
“Anyone who is interested in selling, we will take it on. We’re comfortable selling any kind of business,” Cypher said.
Business brokerage “is a unique industry,” according to this former boys’ basketball coach at Chartiers-Houston High School. Scoring in that industry, he said, is dependent on five factors.
“We evaluate the business itself and determine its value,” Cypher said. “We evaluate real estate and determine its value. We evaluate assets, inventory and goodwill and determine their values.
“Because we also work with buyers, we don’t want them overpaying but paying what (a property) is worth.”
His group works largely in Washington County, but also in Greene and Allegheny. “That’s where our comfort level is,” Cypher said.
Cypher Group clients include Beau Mart in South Strabane Township, Shelley’s Pike Inn in Houston, two physicians’ practices and an amusement park north of Pittsburgh, all of which are on the block.
“In the majority of cases, we deal in a confidential manner,” Cypher said. “Many (clients) prefer to be confidential.”
Operating from 90 W. Chestnut St., the group is very much a family business. Jerry’s wife, Barbara, is the administrative manager, and sons Jordan and Jerad are consultants. Neil Freeze and Debbie Short complete the staff. Debbie is the only part-time employee of the six.
Business brokerage isn’t the only facet of their work. The Cypher Group also is an employment agency. “We represent some chain restaurants with the hiring of managers on the national level,” Jerry Cypher said.
The president/owner has an interesting background, forged mostly in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Cypher grew up in McKees Rocks and graduated from Bishop Canevin High School in a section of Pittsburgh near Carnegie. He played basketball there and at Waynesburg.
Cypher, who will turn 59 in September, became immersed in Washington County in the 1980s. He married a woman from Richeyville, moved to East Washington and started an employment agency, Pittsburgh Placement Services, which he sold more than two decades later. In the interim, Cypher became involved in business brokerage and later got back into employment agency work.
He took another shot at basketball, a game he loves, and coached the Buccaneers for 11 seasons. At a school renowned for wrestling during the winter, Cypher led Char-Houston to the playoffs three times.
“We were competitive,” he said.
A return to the bench, apparently, is unlikely.
“The business is taking off to the point that I have to put all my efforts into this,” Cypher said.
Living – and coaching – in Washington County for more than three decades has enabled him to establish a vast network of contacts, a major reason he is bullish on succeeding in this “unique industry” of business brokerage.
“We are somewhat aggressively looking to expand,” Cypher said.