Shop Owners: Do you have an exit plan?

[Joe Marconi]

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[autoguy]

@Joe Marconi here's a pretty good article from last year in tire review that lays out some points and things to think about:

Setting Your Auto Shop Up for Your Retirement

[Hands On]

I am hoping to have enough rental properties that I do not care what happens to the business for my own personal financial reasons. Then I hope to pass it on to a young person In the industry that wants to make a go of it. I will work out a deal that will make it easy for that person to succeed and wish them the best. I will then sail the world.

[Transmission Repair]

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[Transmission Repair]

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Edited November 18, 2019 by Transmission Repair

[Alex]

@Transmission Repair I added your preface to your original post. 😀

[rpllib]

I started looking at exit plans almost a decade ago. I approached my 15 year manager with a 15/20 year "manage to own" plan. It was better structured then some, but still woefully lacking in key ingredients. It did not speak to his needs, only mine. After all, if i am going to give him the "business" (no real estate), why should i have to worry about his needs? Right? Not right...   He declined and made it clear that he was not interested in ownership. 

I did not give up and brought a much stronger plan back, a few years later, designed to use with potential candidates from outside my organization. That offer culminated in a 10 year plan that allowed a candidate the ability to own the business and the real estate with a 10 year commitment. It basically involved paying the rent(we own the real estate outright), minimal salaries for myself/my wife, and health insurance for myself and my wife.  It also involved strict guidelines for financial viability of the business and a 30% "bank letter of credit" as collateral.  That one peaked some interest, but in the end, we could find no one with enough confidence in the location and/or their ability. 

Unlike Larry, we have 2000 cars a day driving by our shop. The main highway one block away(which we do not face) has 10,000 cars a day. The county has 2 traffic stop lights and several caution lights. We have a 10k sq ft building which includes 8 service bays, a two bay quicklube and two tire bays. We are general generalists. We work on most things that don't eat us. We have done 1.3-1.4 million in sales for the last several years. We have generated an average of 180k in discretionary cash flow a year, for the last 4 years.

A few years ago I had multiple good fortune opportunities. First i hired a 30 year old as a quick lube manager, who is hungry and anxious to be a business owner. Second, I meet a gentleman whose passion is assisting small business owners in transitioning their business to the next generation, usually by working with individuals from within the organization. 

We will be signing a legal Letter of Intent" on a several year plan shortly after the new year, 2020. 

I am seldom impressed. I am exceptionally impressed by the process and the documentation that Bob Ward from Perpetual Business ( https://www.wardden.com/#/home ). The letter of intent is exceptionally well done, his preparation of the mindsets of the buyer and the seller has been key to the success of this  transaction, and he is sincerely consumed by the success of the transactions he works on, for the life of the agreement.

This post is not about being a testimonial for Bob.

It is a testimonial for the possibility of exit opportunities for profitable automotive service shop owners. Like everything with our business's, it doesn't happen by itself . It starts with you.