Thank You

1. SELLER Prepare letters to advise vendors and that SELLER no longer responsible for accounts after sale date, 30 days prior
2. SELLER prepare letters to receivable customers, joint letter with BUYER most likely
3. Dissolve Seller corporation or what? As of sale date?
4. SELLER work on list of todo’s under Other Considerations, below
5. BUYER creates new corporation and sets up new vendor accounts
6. BUYER get sales tax license, set up federal id, corporation if desired, what else?? --
7. Seller cancel SMS, BUYER establish shop management system, change names, DBA’s as necessary, so printouts are correct
8. Seller cancel all subscriptions in sellers name and BUYER establish those relationships and create accounts as desired
9. BUYER prepare letters to vendors and receivable customers
10. Wind down receivable customers as much as possible, 90 days prior to sale date
11. Seller contact business insurance and health insurance carriers 90 days in advance to see what is required to cancel insurances.
12. SELLER transfer phone numbers to BUYERS account with phone company.
13. ????? This seems like just the start

Other considerations:
Meet with your board, partners, or members to pass a resolution to formally dissolve the business.
Notify the IRS within 30 days of dissolution, using Form 966.
File articles of dissolution with the state where your business was formed and any other state where it is registered.
Notify contacts for all contracts that are being assigned to or assumed by the buyer.
Notify creditors to explain how bills will be paid, either by you or by the buyer.
Cancel business permits or licenses, assumed business names, and other registrations.
Cancel insurance policies
Pay off bills and collect accounts receivable
Distribute assets remaining in your business after the sale closing, to shareholders, partners or members the business is a corporation or LLC.
Close your employer ID number with the IRS.
Close business bank accounts and credit cards.
Close business line of credit, if any.
Pay final wages to employees, and payroll taxes and fees due to tax authorities.
File necessary tax forms, using the IRS “Closing a Business Checklist”

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.

Thanks

Would you just say goodbye to your employees and customers? Say you built up a small chain of shops, could you just give it all up for some cash and take up golf? Its really something I never considered but is interesting to contemplate.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy running the business and helping ppl. But I feel burn out.

I have a few properties and other things that will help me "retire", but I have not seen anything that fires me up into the next stage in life.

Anyone else have experienced anything like it?

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?

Quick background:

Shop is going on 30 years, only 5 with current owner. He also owns smaller shop.

Grossed $400k in 2013. Adjusted cash flow of $80k.

Two techs and a service writer, all about 40 years experience.

Good location, leased building.

All around repair, from imports to small RV.

our formula (things we do differently):

-Customer service is above any in the area including dealerships- we have sales backgrounds

-We are following up all leads - call backs, house visits, text

-we pick up and drop off customers and cars, any time day, night, or weekend

-Good location - high traffic count, clean, professional painting

-Best tech in the area - there is no one that can argue this fact

Our Pros

-Customers love us...period

-Most customers have repeat visits

Marketing

-Direct mail

-coupon book(the best results yet)

-facebook - we have the biggest auto repair facebook following in town

-we have visited most any local business personally and gave out flyers and a warm invite.

-fleet accounts - visited all fleet business in an 5 mile radius

It hurts me to face this reality but a happy small customer base does not keep the doors open. I wonder if this is common in my area(the bmw dealer said it happens in their service dept all the time) or if my expectations are wrong....

I know its only been 6 months I am just feeling discouraged and I don't want to spend alot more money on something that may never take off....

He is turning 65 and wants to retire. There is a lot that needs to be changed in this business. I am a little bit overwhelmed where to start...many of my suggestions have fallen on deaf ears since he would always say "you can do it." Well that opportunity is coming...

I will be around here a lot, and also tapping on as many sources as I can as I transition...

A few questions and concerns:

Our Master Technician

He ran the place for the majority of the time as the owner/operator, smog technician and lead diagnoser with two or three head technicians. In the past 8 years he hired a very capable head technician whose pay is flat rate and has steadily gone up. I have always said to put in a more robust payment plan in order to keep him involved in all aspects of the shop, rather than having him rake in hours on easy brake jobs. Well he always wants more pay, and recently one of our heavyline guys quit due to "bad chemistry" quoting him. Well our master technician was logging 45-50 hours because of it and now wants a 33% pay raise. I am not sure how that is realistic and said let him walk. While Dad is contemplating that he is "still worth it." He is an excellent diagnoser, probably one of the best in the city, always finds work...but I seriously doubt he will walk into another business and get what he is getting paid now, let alone after his raise. Finding a replacement will not be easy, since the craigslist prospects have been mediocre at best. Is paying a technician $100k take home unheard of, it seems preposterous to me.

Procedures, lack thereof

For the most part, he ran this place by sheer grit and a very agile mind, once he got too busy he couldn't keep it all under control. The place is chaos as soon as we get busy. Where do I start? The office is a mess, the lot is a mess, the curb appeal is minimal, the office is towards the very rear of the lot which I always thought was a bad thing. Customers park in the front, walk past most of the work areas...often times disrupting technicians. Where does one start? A full revamp, or chip away at everything slowly?

I know I have a lot of work on my hands, but I think the tough part will be changing things. The place makes money, but I think there is a lot of room for improvement and also without going through the chaos. I understand hard work, but making things easier and more efficient is my goal.