Submitted to East Lee News
Denise S. Houghtaling, founder of Southern Country Business Advisors, a business brokerage and M&A advisory firm serving Fort Myers and all of Southwest Florida, was recognized May 7 with multiple honors from Business Brokers of Florida (BBF), including recognition among Florida’s Top 50 business brokers for sales volume and the Southwest Florida District’s #1 Top Co-Broker Award.
Presented during BBF’s annual conference and awards ceremony, the honors included the BBF Deal Maker Award, which recognizes the Top 50 brokers statewide based on sales volume among more than 900 BBF members throughout Florida, the BBF Million Dollar Plus Award, and the #1 Top Co-Broker Award, recognizing the broker who successfully co-brokered the highest number of transactions within BBF’s Southwest Florida District.
The recognition places Houghtaling among BBF’s Top 50 brokers statewide for sales volume and reflects her growing presence in Florida’s business brokerage community as a female broker with extensive operational experience in industries traditionally dominated by men, including construction, trucking, equipment, and waste services.
A Lee County resident for more than five decades, Houghtaling built her career as a business owner before entering the brokerage profession. Alongside her husband, she owned and operated businesses in construction, hauling, recycling, waste services, equipment, trucking, and service industries, experience that now shapes Southern Country Business Advisors’ owner-focused approach to business sales, valuations, succession planning, and business transitions.
Houghtaling has been involved in business ownership since 1997 and sold her first business in 2013. After personally buying and selling six businesses of her own, she transitioned into business brokerage full-time in 2024 with the goal of helping other owners successfully navigate the sale and transition process.
At one point, businesses she owned and operated employed 44 people and generated more than $13 million in annual revenue, an experience that now helps her advise owners facing growth, succession, valuation, and exit planning decisions.
Houghtaling joined Business Brokers of Florida in 2024 and earned her first BBF Million Dollar Plus Award the following year. Since then, Southern Country Business Advisors has continued expanding its presence in Fort Myers, throughout Southwest Florida, and across the state, helping owners of construction, trucking, waste, agricultural, equipment, marine, service, and operationally intensive businesses prepare for growth, transition, acquisition, and successful exits.
As a business owner herself, Houghtaling says many of her clients are approaching major transition decisions after spending years, and often decades, building their companies. She believes preparation and planning are among the most important factors in creating successful outcomes for owners considering a future sale, succession plan, or ownership transition.
Unlike many advisors who come from finance or corporate sales backgrounds, Houghtaling built her career from the operational side of business ownership. She has owned, operated, scaled, and sold multiple companies and believes business owners benefit from working with advisors who understand the realities of operations, staffing, growth, equipment management, customer relationships, and transition planning.
“Business owners want to work with somebody who understands what it actually feels like to carry payroll, manage crews, keep equipment moving, survive storms, grow operations, and eventually think about stepping away,” Houghtaling said. “A lot of these companies are someone’s life’s work. There’s emotion attached to it, not just numbers.”
Today, Houghtaling holds multiple professional designations, including Certified Business Intermediary (CBI), Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), Certified M&A Professional (CMAP), Accredited Business Intermediary (ABI), and Senior Valuation Analyst (SVA).
Earlier this year, Houghtaling was elected Director at Large for BBF’s Southwest Florida District, a leadership position supporting broker education, collaboration, networking, and professional development throughout the region.
Industry colleagues say Houghtaling’s reputation has been built as much on collaboration and operational knowledge as transaction volume. The BBF Top Co-Broker Award specifically recognizes successful cooperation between brokers during transactions, an area where relationships and trust within the brokerage community are critical.
Southern Country Business Advisors has also expanded its outreach into Florida’s agricultural and horticultural sectors through involvement with the Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association (FNGLA), reflecting Houghtaling’s longstanding ties to Florida’s agricultural community.
“The fundamentals still carry the deal,” Houghtaling said. “Strong financials matter, but buyers are really looking for organized operations, scalable systems, and businesses that can succeed beyond the owner.”
About Southern Country
Business Advisors
Southern Country Business Advisors is a Southwest Florida-based business brokerage and M&A advisory firm serving Fort Myers, all of Southwest Florida, and business owners throughout Florida. The firm specializes in business sales, business valuations, succession planning, exit planning, and transition advisory services for privately held companies. Drawing on firsthand ownership and operational experience, Southern Country Business Advisors helps entrepreneurs build value, prepare for transition, and successfully navigate the sale or transfer of their businesses.
For more information, visit www.DeniseSellsBusinesses.com.
