Art Blumenthal, Author at Shop Owner Magazine
Will A Few Unhappy Customers Kill Your Chances Of Selling Your Shop For Top Dollar?

Just a handful of negative social media reviews can paint an inaccurate picture that poisons the sellability of your thriving business. Develop an action plan now to avoid scaring off buyers later.

Record-Setting Speed Of Shop’s Sale Thrills Both Seller And Buyer

Although every sale of a shop in which I am involved has its own unique set of circumstances – which makes my job both very interesting and very challenging – Gasoline Alley stands out as particularly memorable because everything that could’ve gone wrong ended up going just right.

Common Questions From Shop Owners Who Are Thinking About Selling Their Shop

The decision to sell your business is one of the most important decisions of your lifetime. Turning your operation into cash is a complex matter involving a number of variables, many of them unique to your business and to the auto service industry. Additionally, you may be facing an uncertain economy, unbridled competition and sophisticated buyers.

10 Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Business … An Insider’s Guide

The majority of challenges and frustrations experienced by sellers can be avoided with solid information about the pitfalls of selling a business in today’s market. While there are dozens of challenges to overcome, here are 10 of the most common mistakes that can have drastic repercussions and cause both stress and loss of value on a business sale.

Selling Your Auto Service Business To An Employee

Selling to an employee isn’t an option for every shop owner. Sometimes, healthy businesses simply don’t have any employees who are willing or capable of taking over. In other cases, financial considerations and/or the seller’s exit plans make an employee-based sale a no-go.

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How Your Previous Year’s Taxes Will Affect The Sale Of Your Shop This Year

Jim’s Auto Repair and Tire has been a fixture in a Midwest community for 31 years. Jim is now 64 years old and has agonized about when to retire for the past couple of years. The business has enabled him to live a good life despite the ups and downs of the local economy, put his two children through college and spend more time lately on his hobbies.

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When Your Shop Is Worth Much More Than You Thought

Although every sale of a shop in which I am involved has its own unique set of circumstances, which makes my job both very interesting and very challenging, Cowden Automotive stands out as particularly memorable because I was able to demonstrate to the long-time owner, Paul Cowden, that his business was worth about three times what he had initially thought.

Top 10 Reasons Shops Don’t Sell

Many auto service shop owners and tire dealers have focused their lives on growing and developing their businesses. When life happens – time for retirement, moving on to another career opportunity, family or health issues – a seller can find that a huge gap exists between what they had hoped the business was worth and what a buyer will actually pay for it.

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Increase Your Shop’s Financial Performance To Boost Its Market Value

There are many factors at play when determining the right time to sell your business. Each business and each owner is unique. The timing of a business sale is critical because putting a business on the block at the wrong time can result in a significantly lower selling price.

Buying And Selling: A New Generation Of Buyers

“As long as I can remember, ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be my own boss,” was the remark made by new business owner Dallas Griswold when asked what had made him decide to buy his own business. Nothing can better define the entrepreneurial spirit than that simple response, which really tells the whole story.

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Interacting With A Buyer Of Your Shop

As an expert in your business, you can play a valuable role in staying engaged and working in partnership with your broker. While some brokers, especially those who sell commercial real estate, go out of their way to keep buyers and sellers from directly interacting, this is rarely the best method to achieve a successful sale of a business in the shortest amount of time.

The Sellability Score In Action

The “Sellability Score” has become an integral tool in my business in assisting a potential aftermarket business seller in answering crucial questions such as: If you wanted to, could you sell your business today for a number that you’d be happy with? Is there anything that you could be doing each day to make your business more valuable?