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As I've posted before, it's my belief is that the sale of an automotive business isn't enough to fully retire long-term. However, I just watched a documentary put out by Detroit Public Television titled When I'm 65 that is a good retirement history lesson as well as good information for Millennials and Gen X'ers. Its content is a little too late for baby boomers. If I had to give one piece of advice to a younger shop owner (I'm currently 67) it would be to buy your shop's real estate. If it's a good location with ample traffic count, the later sale of your shop could fully fund your retirement as it did me. With that being said, here's the link to the retirement documentary, When I'm 65.

I knew nothing about commercial real estate. I had never leased or sold any before 2015 when I leased our shop. When it came time to sell in 2020, I didn’t have a clue. I was forced to sell when the buyer of my business and leaseholder skipped out on a 10-year lease after only 5 years during the summer of 2020. Unfortunately, he stripped the building and took all the shop equipment with him. The only way we found out was after-the-fact when we drove by and there was no sign on the building. By the time we entered the building, he had been gone more than a month. Instead of dealing with all the hassle of leasing, we decided to sell the real estate, It was on the tax rolls for a valuation of ~$1M but I felt it was worth much, much more. But what did I have to sell? A pretty much empty building sitting on 0.92 acres of land? What the hell do I do? I didn’t even know how much to list it for, let alone how to list it without a commissioned real estate firm getting involved. We had a high-visible freeway location. There’s only ONE north-south interstate in Utah and it’s I-15; and we were right on it. I started researching for comparable real estate that was listed in the past 5 years to see what it went for. NADA! There was nothing to be found. Long story made short, I settled on a $3.2M asking price. Ballsy, huh? But how do I get the word out? Then I discovered LoopNet.com. It’s the biggest internet search engine for commercial property for sale or lease. I listed there for about $125 and it generated a ton of calls from people interested in the building seeking a tour of the building. The building was in shambles. At the same time of the listing, I had a huge 8’X30′ banner made and put on the building. I purposely list a Dallas phone number that would forward to my cell phone. (see picture below) I also found out that LoopNet.com also places my ad with several other online search engines sort of like Indeed.com does for employment which generated even more calls. Of all things old-fashioned, a plumber drove by, saw the sign, and called me for a tour. It was a couple in their mid-30s with a fleet of 40 plumbing trucks. They wanted the place to not only work on their own vehicles, but they needed PLENTY of parking. (Which we had) The sign had only been up for a week and I was surprised. A few days after the first tour, he called for a second tour. It was the tour where he gave me an offer of $2.2M. I was desperate to sell so I negotiated a $2.3M sale price. It was 3X what paid for the building just 7 years prior and over twice its appraised value. I had hit a home run. Lucky me. So, my advice is to follow just what I did in this story. The sale could have gone either way; LoopNet or a sign. I designed the sign myself in Adobe Illustrator anId found a sign guy to make, install, and remove the sign. (Image below) I had a lot of pictures of both before and after the shop was stripped; mostly after, that I listed online along with a video of back when we were in the building. Here’s a link to the pictures:… Certified Transmissions Draper, Utah I’ve posted this a couple of times before, but here it is again. The video of the exterior of the building. Notice it has a double fence on the property. https://youtu.be/V89FJzM7KCg 1:07 Lastly, follow the 10 Rules For Selling Your Shop which I posted a few days ago. May you have the same success that I did!

Hi all, First time poster and glad to be here. I'm a 40 something entrepreneur not currently in the auto repair business but I've been exploring shop ownership for several years. Unfortunately, I've come up short using traditional business brokers to find a shop worth purchasing. To date, all that I've looked at have been overpriced and/or have some serious issues. As shop owners and managers, do you have any tips for finding a solid, well-run general auto repair shop (EBITDA/SDE of $250k-$2MM) to acquire? I would be grateful for any insights. Thanks, Mike

With the COVID-19 situation, many shop owners of retirement age may be putting thier retirement plans on hold. I get this. It makes sense in many cases. But, please think about you and your family. Many shop owners have a 30, 40, even 50-year plus history in the auto business, with most of those years owning and running a shop. If it's possible, perhaps succession plan with the right person, or hiring a general manager to run your shop is a possibility. Perhaps a family member? The key thing is to have a secure business that, if you do plan on holding on to it, will bring you an income with stress-free time away from the shop, and back to your family. Your plans, thoughts, opinions?

He had been working with his accountant for 6 years. That’s over $134k in over-payments. The reality is most CPAs only do tax preparation not tax planning, there is a HUGE difference! I am offering free tax planning assessments to all group members. Where we will look at: Deductions review & Strategy planning Legal Entity Optimization Retirement Option & Plan to Hit Extra 1M by Retirement Insurance Review & Assets Protection TCJA (Trump Tax) Review Message me direct or book your slot on my website. View full article

After 39 years in business, it's time to get serious about my exit plan. While I don't think I will ever truly retire, I do think it's time to plan the next chapter in my life. I would like to hear from shop owners out there in the same situation. What are your plans? Are you selling your repair shop? Do you have a succession plan? And are you thinking about a different line of work to keep you busy?

According to The NY Times, you should have a well-padded cushion of savings by age 50 if you want to retire comfortably. This is how it should look: By age 50, have five times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $500K savings) By age 55, have six times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $600K savings) By age 60, have seven times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $700K savings) The Times also reports that less than 13% of Americans have a pension or a solid retirement plan. How does your situation looks? Are you on track to retire comfortably? If not, no need to panic. We can guide you in getting there. If a shop owner who is currently 50 years old starts putting away $2,700 every month until he retires at 67. He would have amassed $1,245,344 by the time he retires. Now you might be asking where will I get the money from to save? Well, most of the shop owners that I encounter are overpaying an average of $22,679 in taxes yearly. This amount alone could easily be used to fund your retirement plan. When we met Henry he was 62 and his shop was netting a little over $283K per year. We were able to find tax savings which allowed him to save $84K per year and in 8 years he had over $1.1M in retirement savings. To learn how to use your tax savings to build your retirement portfolio message me directly or book a free consultation via my website.

Our industry has many shop owners well into their 60s and 70s, some even older. For many, they have taken a secondary role and have handed the business off to a younger family member. For others, they know that there are more years behind them then in front of them and planning their exit plan or succession plan. A question for all the senior shop owners out there. What are your plans for future? Sell the business? Keep it in the family? Continue to work as long as your can? Or something else?

Hi everyone, I had a conversation with a client yesterday who just discovered he wasn't going to be able to sell his business, at the number he hoped for. A little background: We have only been working with him for 4 months. The original plan was to help him increase his sales and profits and improve his paycheck. Basically, he wanted to put systems in place to accomplish the following things: Increase the sales from $650,000 to a million dollars per year Maximize the gross profit Phase himself out of the day to day business operations He is currently one of the two service advisors and was in the process of interviewing his replacement. His goal for selling the business was 2019. To make a long story short, two weeks ago, he found out that due to an unexpected family situation, he must sell immediately. He was shocked to find out that his business is not worth what he hoped to get out of it, mostly due to a number of factors discussed in these articles: http://www.shopownermag.com/know-shops-sellability-score-part-1/ http://www.shopownermag.com/know-shops-sellability-score-part-2/ The number one factor that decreased the current value of his business is described below: To be valuable to a buyer, your business must be able to succeed and grow without you at the hub of all ­activities, and your employees must be more than mere spokes that cannot operate independently of you. And the more your customers need you and ask for you personally, the harder it is for you to scale back your hours, take a vacation or eventually sell your business. Your business is significantly more valuable if you are successful at building a “brand,” not simply a place where your own reputation and your personal handling of customers is what brings them back. It’s the difference between thinking of yourself as having a “job” that requires you to show up at work to make money, ­versus creating a “business” where the brand is more important than the ­personality of the founder. The majority of buyers who contact me don’t want to be a slave to the business and work every hour that the business is open. In fact, many buyers already own a business and are ­looking to supplement their income by purchasing an additional business where they will provide part-time ­supervision and marketing and business acumen. These buyers will pay a premium for a business that can clearly demonstrate its ability to run ­profitably without the seller as the critical hub. It's interesting to see Art's current listings and see how the performance numbers relate to the listing price for the businesses: https://art-blumenthal.com/ What are your thoughts on the sellability score Art talks about, in his articles?