For over 23 years, Bob Hughes has specialized in buying and selling businesses throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Based in Palm Springs, his firm, Hughes Properties, connects retiring owners and growth-minded entrepreneurs with qualified buyers through a vast local and international network.
A USC grad and lifelong entrepreneur, Bob has founded, purchased, and grown companies in publishing, advertising, retail, manufacturing, and software—even taking ventures public on NASDAQ. That firsthand experience gives him unique insight into what it takes to build, scale, and sell a business.
Today, Bob calls Hughes Properties his most rewarding venture yet—helping sellers achieve successful exits and buyers find the perfect opportunity to expand.
Bob Hughes is a commercial real estate broker and the owner of Hughes Properties. This well respected business brokerage has provided invaluable service to buyers and sellers for more than 23 years. Bob and his firm, Hughes Properties, specializes solely in the buying and selling of businesses.
With a presence throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, Hughes Properties‘ headquarters are located in Palm Springs, California.
Hughes effectively connects sellers looking to retire, move, or expand into new business paths—with potential buyers through Hughes’ vast network of connections and his widely popular website hughesproperties.com. The site offers sellers both local and international exposure to a broad spectrum of potential, qualified buyers on the hunt for that perfect fit.
Both sellers and buyers stand to gain from Hughes’ perspective that comes from owning numerous businesses. From companies that he founded, to those he bought and developed once he recognized the potential for revenue expansion.
Hughes’ business experience runs from advertising agencies to travel agencies, newspapers to publishing, retail to manufacturing, even those he took public on NASDAQ.
Hughes‘ insight was earned from both sides of the desk; as a successful business owner and that of the excited business buyer. Tested experience Hughes freely shares with the sellers and buyers he works with. Business professionals and novice entrepreneurs alike stand to gain from Hughes’ vast knowledge, his connections and his reputation.
Starting with a master’s degree from USC in Public Administration, Hughes first ventured into city government in Orange County, CA. He then started The Westminster Observer, a newspaper which led him farther into publishing and the ownership of a busy round-the-clock printing company churning out weekly mailers. The giant leap into national advertising came with the opening of Hughes Ad House, an advertising agency that dominated the mall marketing niche in the 70’s and 80’s. Hughes Ad House sought and fulfilled the annual campaigns for mall developers and their more than 100 shopping malls nationwide, plus Puerto Rico.
During that time frame Hughes also found time and energy to start Orange Coast Magazine, a glossy lifestyle publication featuring celebrity covers that caught the eye of Orange County’s lucrative Newport Beach and South Coast clientele. The magazine spoke the love language of the subscribers offering up ads from the likes of Tiffany, Gucci and more. Under his stewardship, and always one to think big and far out of the box—the magazine holds the record for the largest Holiday Buying Guide. That year’s December issue was so large it had to be published as a hard cover book.
Then came the development of imaging software for hair salons, landscape architecture, cosmetic surgery and more. This was followed by the development of
proprietary software that allowed the printing of original art directly onto artist’s canvas forever changing the way in which artists economically and rapidly reproduced their art. This invention garnered Hughes a US Patent.
Many more businesses grew and flourished under Hughes’ vision, his leadership and business acumen. Yet, of all his business ventures Bob proclaims Hughes Properties as the most exciting of all. This is where he gets to meet seasoned fellow entrepreneurs looking to sell, and those visionary entrepreneurs seeking to buy, develop and expand businesses. Hughes finds his every day filled with respect for these like-minded professionals and the chance to find that perfect match between a seller and a new, excited potential buyer. “It doesn’t get old and it doesn’t get any better,” adds Hughes.