How to Sell Your Auto Repair Shop for Maximum Value [THA 491]

0:00This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. Hey, what's up everyone? Welcome back to episodic education with a goal to advance our professional automotive service industry one episode at a time. Carm Capriato here with deep thanks to you as a listener and to all of our great sponsors who make the show possible. Hey, let's face it, your shop management system is the most critical tool in your shop, and NapaTracs will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with on-site training, 6 days a week support, and local representation.

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2:10Hey, today I'm loving this episode. We've got a couple of really great people on here to talk. We're gonna talk about the value of your business, preparing your business for sale. And all I can say, guys, is this: it's an overused two-word statement that means so much in our industry. It's called the silver tsunami. And in fact, it's like, you know, a horror movie from Hollywood.

2:35The silver tsunami. And it's so true because what's the percent— it escapes my mind— of shop owners that are over 60 and are really looking to retire? And if they haven't said that they are, they really are, and they haven't publicly admitted it. With me to talk about this is Aaron Woods, Extra Mile Auto Care in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Hello, Aaron. Hey, Carm, it's good to be back.

2:57Good to see you. Good to see you. Congratulations, just got married, right? Thank you. Yes, just 2 weeks ago. Coach and president of the Institute. Yes, sir. Damn, you don't have anything else to do, do you? And she still married you. I, I'm blown away. When you find somebody that's more than 2 points ahead of you, you got to wrap that up, my friend.

3:18So Yes. Married my best friend 2 weeks ago. I met her. Wonderful woman. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. She was on the cruise. All right. Ryan Bushman is also here. Ryan, new coach at the Institute. He just sold his business a few months ago, family business. He did go through the process of raising his value to prepare for a sale. We can't wait to hear all about it, Ryan.

3:41Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be here. The industry needs this. We, we talk about succession. A lot of, we've done a lot of episodes, Aaron, you may have even been on a few in the past, but it's the kind of topic that we just can't let alone and forget we did it a couple years ago or, or 6 months ago.

3:57We gotta bring it back because there's always new listeners who come on that are feeling brand new things going on in their life and things that they want to do, which is why we want to talk about this and probably give it a different kind of a slant than we have done in the past. We want to talk about valuation of your business, what you want, really what you want, and if that number is here and you've done any kind of math or gone to anyone else and where you think you could get is here, how do you close that gap to get what you want?

4:26And are you going to sell to an internal candidate, maybe a local individual who owns shops, who's looking to scale, or private equity? And how you really can plan to get where you want to get. So let's start. When, gentlemen, should a shop owner decide to start to sell? Oh, by the way, I think I know the answer. I want $1 million for my business and I'm just gonna go out and shop it, but I don't know if the numbers that are on my profit and loss statement will support someone giving me a million bucks.

4:59So how do we close that gap if it exists, Aaron? You hit the nail on the head. It's like, when do we start to think about selling our shop? I think that that needs to start at a much earlier stage, right? I mean, when we're ready to exit is not the time that we want to start thinking about our exit. Somebody once told me, and I think it was great advice, where they say that there is, you know, a couple of different ways to look at that, right?

5:29It's like everybody is going to exit in a business. It's whether it's a planned exit or a forced exit is really the difference between the two. What we encourage a lot of people, shop owners, you know, clients, is that you want to be able to be in your position for a planned exit. And so when does that begin? That oftentimes begins much earlier, you know, oftentimes even years before the physical act of the exit.

5:58I think that's always great advice that I certainly intend to live by with my shop as well. Great advice, Aaron. Did that strategy work for you, Ryan? Definitely. I think What really propelled our ability to sell was just the fact that we were building a business that, that was bigger than just me. We had processes in place and we had people in place that wanted to run their positions and their jobs without just me doing everything.

6:26And so I think that was the key, is we were building something that I could send off without me being there. I think he hit it. One of the most important things, and it should be in the takeaway of this episode, is without me in it. Am I right, Aaron? You go and want to buy a business and that owner is front and center, pivotal point, center of the circle, and he leaves, the business could implode if he hasn't let it run without himself.

6:54That's a great point. And a lot of times when we talk about evaluation of a business, right, there's essentially two things that go into the, the valuation of the business. When I start asking myself as a shop owner, What is my business worth? There's what we call the net profit of the business, which we know in the financial world, we call that EBITDA, which is an acronym, right?

7:18For earnings before the interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. And then there's the multiple of EBITDA that we oftentimes bring. So an example might be is if my shop has an EBITDA or a net profit number of $250,000 annually, then, you know, that's what the number is that I have. And then the multiple of EBITDA is oftentimes what I would look to get.

7:47And when we talk about the multiplier of EBITDA, that's really the risk associated with the deal, right? And the, as Ryan had alluded to earlier with talking about in his preparation for the sale, how he focused on processes and he focused on getting the business to where he as the owner was not needed in the operation. Doing all of those things, you know, decreases the risk to a potential buyer.

8:16So therefore it increases the multiple of the EBITDA, right? And so that can, you know, having those things and vice versa, right? Going back to what you said, Carm, is, hey, I'm an owner and I'm looking to sell, but I'm really the hero in the business, meaning the business success each day is really evolved around me, whether I'm at the front counter facing the customers each day, or I'm in the shop as the main technician of the business.

8:46If I'm a potential buyer of this business, then that's going to be more risk for me as I look to remove the owner from that operation. Therefore, that multiple of that net profit or EBITDA is going to be much less. And so that can really swing, you know, the deal, whether we're talking, going back in the example of the $250,000 EBITDA or net profit, a multiple of, you know, say 3 is going to be a much different in number than say a multiple of 1 or 1.5 at that point.

9:19So really focusing on lowering the risk to a potential buyer of the business by processes, by owner involvement, by being able to hand them a turnkey package that runs just like it did the week before, the week after the sale is going to increase that multiple. Ryan, I know you want to jump in and I have a ton of questions for you, but I've got to stop for a moment.

9:46Aaron, you brought up the word hero. If you go back to Donald Miller and StoryBrand, right? There's the hero, the guide, the villain, and the victim. Sometimes owners say that they're the victim cuz the world's against me, but to be the guide for your people and let them become the hero allows you to get up and out of the business. So I wanted to clarify that for one reason.

10:08Oh yeah. So I am the hero of the business. What should I be? You should be the guide. And, and that's just my point. Ryan, did you have an internal candidate? I didn't honestly, I wasn't looking to sell at all. So I think that's the beauty of it is we were building a business that was valuable and I didn't even realize it, I guess.

10:28I had goals that at age 55, I wanted to be able to retire and I'm 46 now. And so we were doing things to try and get ready for that. We were approached with a substantial offer and my wife and I looked at each other and said, well, you know, maybe it's time for me to do something else. If we can sell it for that much money and move on, then yeah, I could do something else.

10:52And. And so, yeah, it's interesting. I wasn't even looking to sell. What a great point, Aaron. We weren't even ready, but we had done the work to prepare for this potential day. Absolutely. I'm sorry. When that piece of gold lands in your lap, you pet it. I think that's a great point. And it goes back to what, you know, we were talking about at the beginning of the episode, right?

11:21It's like everybody is going to exit at some point in time., right? It's whether it's a planned exit or it's a forced exit. And I guess what I mean by forced exit isn't necessarily like, you know, somebody bought your building and kicked you out. I mean more of like you're, you know, whether it be an age or retirement, your body can't physically do it anymore.

11:42Like all of those things, in my opinion, are more of like a forced exit. But even if Ryan wasn't necessarily had the intention right there to sell, it was still a planned exit. Right? Because it was a planned exit because he was thinking about, he had some sort of an end goal in mind. He was preparing the business. It was no longer dependent upon him.

12:04He had the processes in place. And so even though that he didn't know exactly when the day was that it was going to happen, it was still planned. You know what I love about it? He was doing wealth building for whatever possible or potential date it could have ever happened, but he wasn't prepared for it, but he was prepared for it because he got out of his own way, prob— I don't know how long ago and started to be the CEO and really run the business.

12:28And it goes back to, I think something you said earlier, Ryan, we had the protocols, the processes, the driven systems, you know, the hero-driven performance was gone and you end up being the guide. Your people were the heroes in the business, which anyone could walk in and just Go guys, let's go. It's new day. Let's keep working. And they just kept going along.

12:49How's the business doing, by the way? Business is doing well. It's fun to go in and see those processes still working. Certainly they've made some changes. And I think that's another thing that when you sell, you have to be expecting that things may change and that's okay. It's not yours anymore, but it is fun to see, you know, the people that you grew with.

13:12Doing well and some people have left and most are there. But yeah, to see those processes working and, and them excelling at, at doing that is, is always awesome to see. Cool to see some legacy there. Okay. So let's pick some key things to start with. Obviously processes and systems protocols, I call them, but clean financials. That's a big hurdle for so many, isn't it?

13:35Absolutely. I mean, if you think about it, going back to what I mentioned before about the multiple of the EBITDA, Right? And, you know, so many, I'll draw from my experience of coaching, is that when we look at a financial statement, it's unclean, it's unclear, whether it was, I even, you know, whether we're working with somebody that doesn't even necessarily have a P&L.

14:00We were talking a little bit before the show, Carm, I'm actually, you know, on my shop side of things, you know, in the midst of, acquiring a location, you know, about 60 miles away. And so I've, I'm going through this process, you know, from the side of the buyer. And when we were talking about it and the shop owner is sending me the financials and we're having to really go through and decipher what's owner's personal spending through the business, what is going to translate in terms of expenses from them, that ownership, and to us.

14:33When those financials aren't necessarily clean, it makes that net profit or that EBITDA numbers more difficult to arrive to. And when that number is unclear as to what that is, because the financials aren't clean and prepared, then the multiple that we talk about, again, going back to the risk factor, is going to be much lower. And nothing against the shop owner, great guy.

15:00He's ran a, a very successful business for 40+ years. But it's just a testament as to say that this individual and so many people, there's not a planned exit. And so when it's time for them or then they're ready to retire, it's going, you know, here's everything that I have. I know it's not where it needs to be. What can I get for my business?

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18:27And if the industry could share this with people that they know, you know, let's go back to the, you know, the 20 groups that Aaron, I know you lead with the Institute. They wouldn't be in that if they weren't wanting to be just the best CEOs in the industry and prepare one day for, for something, be it acquisition or scaling, however. And I find That if our people in the industry don't listen to this, then I only have one thing to say, shame on, that they're not gonna take something, listen, learn just one thing and implement it.

19:02Take something from here and start to run a better business so that someday you can get out and feel a whole lot happier than you would than having to accept hardly anything for all the years that you put in. Let's go back to, you know, building, staging the business. Ryan, you got to separate owner's expenses from the business. Is that going to be a critical thing to look at?

19:30Oh, definitely. So as we went through the process, the first thing that they ask for before they'll put an offer together is I want to see, you know, P&Ls and balance sheets and 3 to 4 years of that. And so we sent that off. And the one thing that came back as positive feedback was, wow, those are some clean financials. That's made it very easy for us to put an offer together.

19:54And when they go to the bank to get the money, the bank's way more willing to work with them and say, yeah, we can give Lynn money on this business because we can see that it's been making money. Isn't that a cool word, Aaron? Clean financial. Clean. They're clean. That's right. It's clean. And I love what he said there because it's so true.

20:13And it really, it goes back to just the foundational component of any art of negotiation, right? It's who has the leverage. Going back and talking about Ryan in that situation, it's like he presented these financials and they're clean, they're organized. That sends the message to the potential buyer in that sense that Ryan has been running a great, profitable, organized business. Well, in that point, the leverage almost shifts into Ryan's court at that point, because now he knows, listen, I have options to go out.

20:54And if this doesn't— this deal doesn't work with this buyer, I know that I could go approach a different buyer. And therefore, when those options are in Ryan's side of the corner, then the leverage moves over there, and then the value of that business goes up. Right? Versus the other side of, you know, of it. If it's like, well, if it's not clean, it's not organized.

21:15And it's like, well, this, you know, as a buyer, if I'm looking to retire, it's like, well, this might be the only buyer that I can find for my business. Then they have the leverage at that point. So it really just kind of comes back to just the basic component of any sort of a deal, right? It's like, who has the leverage and where does that come from?

21:35Great point. Okay, so clean financials, separating the owner's expenses, good protocols, process-driven performance. Now you mean you want me to make more money too? God help you if you were doing wealth building. You've got to start maximizing profitability. You've got to look at everything going on— marketing and matrixing and pricing. All of that. So, there's such a huge component in there. This segment of this is a heavy lift, right?

22:09Is that right? Absolutely. I agree. You know, I think it comes down to where do we live in the business? And are we coming to work every day and are we focusing on being the role? I talk a lot about the difference between a title and a role in the business. And there's so many times where the owner is the title that they have, but the role that they fill in the business isn't the owner's role.

22:38It's a manager role. It's a technician role. It's a service advisor role. And it's like, what's the biggest advice that I give? Like you say, Carmen, what do I focus on? Well, I think we have to focus on how do I step more into the role of the owner And the owner is to oversee the marketing and the financials and, you know, the processes and all of the things that we need to do.

23:04Because if I'm focusing on being a technician all day or I'm focused on being a service advisor all day, I'm too much in the thick of the business to be able to focus on those higher-level strategy components. And then at that point, that's where the business is really driving you at that point. You're not necessarily driving the business. We have brought up some incredible strategies, things that people need to focus on to do this.

23:33From your both personal experiences, what are the biggest mistakes you see owners making out of all this? Well, I think the biggest thing with most owners is number one, they haven't surrounded themselves with other individuals. You talked about the 20 groups, and I think that that is what taught me the most. Once I hired a coach, got into a 20 Group and had the support of my peers, it's amazing how much faster we grew and how those processes were easier to build because you're working as a team of 20 Group members to build processes, not just yourself.

24:08And so many owners, you talked about it as we were leading up to this, they want to keep their secret sauce. You know, I don't want to share that with anybody, but that's not the way this industry should work. We should be sharing everything with with all of our peers. We're not in competition, we're a team. Yeah. Okay. I'll talk about the secret sauce here for a minute.

24:29A lot of people don't wanna share their secret sauce because what they really are admitting to you is that they're really suffering under a whole lot of stresses and challenges that they don't want to admit to anyone that they have, like meeting payroll, paying their bills, finding really good people, toxic work environment that they believe that they've potentially helped create this, but they don't know how to solve it.

24:54So the secret sauce is that I'm unwilling to get advice from other people. My Aaron, the peer groups are so critical and so important. And especially when you assign an accountability partner to somebody and you've got two people running two businesses and they're each up each other's butt, if you will, on their success and looking at their profit and loss statements and they spend time weekly or monthly.

25:17I don't know the exact details, and how they're assigned. But my God, can you imagine? It's a quality peer pressure I look at. It's nothing but quality. And once you accept that quality peer, the pressure is not to put you down. The pressure is to lift you up. Of course. I mean, Ryan and I were actually just on a coaching call with a client just, you know, shortly before this podcast.

25:46One of the things that we were talking about on that call was the power of the room, right? And, you know, you don't know what's possible, and sometimes it may seem like it is impossible until you get in a room full of peers and you see what others are doing and what they're able to achieve. And that just almost gets you internally motivated, knowing that you can do those things as well.

26:14And I will always say this till my ending day is that the power of the group is not necessarily the coaches sitting at the room or it's not the facilitator. I mean, I'm not saying that those things don't have value, but the power of the group truly comes from within the group. It's holding each other up. It's lifting each other up. It's seeing how others are doing.

26:38It's drawing from those experiences of others and learning from others and sharing with others. It's truly remarkable. And I agree 100% with what Ryan said as some of the biggest mistakes is not reaching out and getting that support from other people long before the time is that you're looking to exit. Anything to say on that, Ryan? It's just amazing when you sit in a room with your peers and you hear them say, well, I can get, you know, 60% parts margin on a part.

27:10And you're going, "Well, man, I didn't think that was even possible." And then another one says it and another one, and you're like, "All right, I can't be the only one in the group that's not able to do that." And so you just have to, you join in. And that's what you call FOMO. Yeah. I don't want to be a laggard at all because the next time I want to sit with my friends having coffee somewhere and I want to say, "Me too."

27:38I want to be able to say that. I think one of the most powerful things that an owner can say, you know, going back to your original question, Carm, is like, what is something that, you know, you wish owners would do? And I think it's really one simple question in my opinion, which not to take away with what Ryan said, 'cause I agree with that, but it's reframing a question.

27:59It's instead of asking yourself, what can I get out of my business? It's reframing that into, What do I need from my business? And we recognize, and I recognize that selling a business is more than just a cash or a monetary transaction. It's really a culmination of the years that you've served your community. It's the years that you've employed people around you and they've supported their families.

28:31And oftentimes your life's work as to what you've poured into something for, you know, 20, 30, even 40, 50 years into that. And yes, at the end of the day, the monetary value that you receive from that sometimes is how we tend to value that on a tangible side of things. But you have to ask yourself, what do I need from my business in order to then feel that, you know, feel inside that what I've poured into, you know, the things that I just talked about is what I need out of my business to then go on and, you know, do whatever it is that's next in life.

29:17And I think it's just that one simple question. I think too many people wait till the finish line and then ask themselves, what can I get? Instead of starting much earlier and saying, what do I need? And then working on the things of the business to get to that number at that point. All right. Let's just play a simple little game, guys.

29:39I'm loving this episode. I'm a listener and I'm a semi-struggling shop owner, but I think I'm doing pretty good. Life is great. We got all the toys that we need. You know, we're paying for all the grandkids' cell phones out of the business, all that junk, right? So. I want to get just $1 million for my business. And if we do the backwards crazy math, Aaron, and that is the multiple of 3 based on the EBITDA of the business, let's just say the EBITDA is $300,000, $375,000 times 3, it's around $1 million.

30:14Okay, let me look at the EBITDA of my business. Where is my profit and loss statement. Oh, it's at $80,000. Oh, I got to get to $375,000. Oh, what do I got to do about it? Oh, so, and you said something— the power of the room, the power of the group. If you want to get yourself to a place where the $375,000 is real, or the $400,000 all of a sudden is close, And then you're on a roll with your people and your team, cuz you've changed the business.

30:53You've done a 360 and now you're going for 500. I got an 8-bay place, whatever you're building on. You're, oh, I'm sorry. It's like the simplest piece of math I think that anyone can do today and then get their butt in gear and make it happen. How do you make it happen? Ah, you know me, I love coaches. I love 20 groups.

31:18Everybody that I know that has come up to me and I heard you've been preaching this for 11 going on 12 years, Carmen, I finally did. And you were right. And I was the ass that never did anything about it. Maybe this show is not only about valuing your business for, for sale, but maybe it's duh upside the head. I hear all the time, one of the most common things that I hear and I won't name names, Kaan, but you know one of those people from your local market who is one of the biggest people that I hear say this is, "I wish I would have done it sooner."

31:50Yeah, he tells me that often. Yes, that is the number one thing that I oftentimes hear is, "I wish I would have done it sooner." And to go back and to talk a little bit about, I wanted to give some advice. I was talking with some shop owners that Sold out. This has probably been a couple of years ago. And I was asking them, I'm like, what are some things that you wish, you know, when you got to the finish line that you wish you would've done a little bit differently?

32:15And I thought it was really good advice. And one of the things was you had mentioned, hey, I'm looking at my profit and loss statement and I see $80,000 at the bottom of that number. Right. And I'm looking to get up to that $350,000, but Hey, I'm a semi-successful shop owner and I'm going to go back and use your reference of pay for my grandkids' cell phone payments.

32:39And I'm sending my kids and my kids are on the payroll, you know, as a tax strategy. And one of the things that I oftentimes tell shop owners, listen, there's oftentimes, you know, that going through the business as maybe part of a tax strategy. And I'm not an IRS person. I'm not here to judge people on doing that. But what I will say is there is a very, very important thing in the valuation of a business that we oftentimes call add-backs.

33:08And when somebody is looking at your profit and loss statement and they see that number at the bottom, you need to be able to easily identify and pull out some of those, whether that be a grandkid's cell phone payment, or, you know, you've got your children on payroll as a tax strategy. You have to be able to identify those things very easily.

33:32And if you can, you can pull those out of the expenses to raise that net profit back up. And when it— going back to the beginning of my story, when I was talking with these shop owners that sold out back in 2022, they said, you know, we didn't ever do that. And so we were going back for 3 years of credit card statements and bank statements and trying to highlight like, what was this payment and what was that payment?

34:02And oftentimes they probably did their best, but at the end of the day, they probably still left a lot on the table with not being able to separate that out. And so when you're looking at your profit and loss statement, if you've got those things that you are running through the business, you know, look at what we call class accounting or something that is able to separate those things easily out of the P&L so that you can ask for that as a, what we call an add-back to raise that net profit up.

34:32That's incredible advice, Aaron. And back in the day when I was, when I worked for corporate America and I was on an acquisitions team, we would sit down with the potential acquisition and we'd say, have you done any work to normalize the P&L, and that's the add-back piece to try to normalize it for me to look at, not for you to look at.

34:55And so those are great points, but if, again, if your plan is 5 years, 6 years from now, here's my target profitability so I can get a 3, 3.5 multiple, then you need to start normalizing it now. Even if you don't take it out of your P&L, you need to have a separate little listing going on each and every month. For what the add-backs need to be.

35:17And, and, and again, let's go back to tax strategy. We have a podcast on the aftermarket, the Automotive Repair Podcast Network with Hunt Demarest, the accountant. And you should hear how Hunt talks about that stuff. Stop being the tax man, just keep it clean. Hunt's always in this keep it clean mode, but yet do anything you want to do. If you called him up for advice, he would probably recommend against it.

35:40Absolutely. You know, and I'm going to say this as a joke, but I was talking with somebody one time and they said, yeah, you always want to have 3 sets of financials. You want to have, you know, one for the banker, one for the tax man, one for the seller or for the buyer. Right. It's like, yes, obviously we're not saying do anything that's against the law or anything nefarious.

36:00It's just, you know, as another example of an add back, right. Could be, Hey, I have invested, you know, all of these thousands of dollars into training. We talk about the 20 groups and the peer groups and all of that. And I've seen several shop owners that have been able to say, hey, that training is what I took and I invested into my people to get the business to where it is, to where now it's able to be ran without the owner being present.

36:31So I'm going to take that thousands of dollars in training and I'm going to ask for that as an add back into that net profit. So again, it doesn't necessarily have to be like a, you know, grandkids' cell phone. I was just using your example, but you know, it could be training, right? It could be things like that, that if we, if we're running those clean financials and we're keeping a separate set of numbers that we can pull out and ask for, At the end of the day, that could increase that net profit by tenfold, and it could also raise that multiple as well.

37:06Ryan, I have to ask you this question on what Aaron just said. Training, let's call it education. The education for us, me, our people, our sales advisor team, the whole thing. I want to add that back because it brought me where I am today in the valuation of my business. And I'd say, what, you want me to pay you for what you did to get where you are?

37:31And so I don't know what that argument is and if it's healthy and strong, but Aaron, you bring up such an incredible thing. What's your feeling about that, Ryan? Well, I definitely agree with Aaron that without that training, you aren't where you are. Your service advisors aren't as well equipped to handle customers and to do the job that they need to do.

37:52Your technicians especially in our world today with the complex systems that they're diagnosing. If they don't have the training, then they are not gonna be able to be the top of their game. And so I think asking for that is not unreasonable because you have done what a lot of shops are not doing, and that's you've invested in your people. I do think that's what sets apart the great shops from the average shops is that they invest in their people, not just in their their own selves, their own pockets.

38:24It's been great to have you guys on the show, but I have one final question for both of you. The same question for both of you. I'd love your opinion of this. What's one thing that every shop owner listening today should do in the next 30 days if they think they may sell their business someday? Ryan, I'm going to start with you.

38:43Well, one of the biggest things that we did a few years back is we hired a good accountant, Hunt. Demarest was my accountant, and I think every shop owner needs a very good qualified accountant that knows the automotive industry. And oftentimes they're too scared to do that because it does cost a little bit more in the short term, but in the long term you always get that back.

39:07And so that was really one of the huge, uh, finds that we had is hiring a good accountant that could help us through it on a month-to-month basis. And when I had questions Hunt was the first person I called when I had an offer and I said, what do you think? And he was there to help guide me through the whole process.

39:25And so I just think that's a key component in the day-to-day. Clean financials, a new accountant kind of goes hand in hand. It does. Great point, Ryan. Aaron, take us home. As Ryan was bringing up that great point, I was thinking, and honestly, I don't know that I can choose just one. So I'm going to give you two, but they're going to be quick.

39:48One is seek help, get support, you know, get into a 20 Group, whether, you know, there's lots of options out there, right? The other one is, you know, I'm a big proponent of a vision board. And I think that if you see it, you achieve it, it becomes real, becomes tangible. And so I'm going to draw back and I'm going to say, what do I need from my business?

40:10And what am I going to do when that day comes after my business sells? And I think answering that question helps then guide you along to that process. And therefore now, you know, am I going to retire at 65? Is it 45? Is it 55? What is my life going to look like and what am I going to do after that? And then what is the number I need to support that?

40:37All great points, uh, guys. Appreciate it. Look at, it was a great episode. I think we covered a lot of heavy content here. Something, I mean, if anyone was taking notes or can go to the show notes of this episode, either on my website or on the app, and, and look at some of the bullet points that we're gonna create because of this discussion, I think you got a little mini roadmap and maybe, as I said earlier, maybe a kick in the butt to at least start getting where you wanna be.

41:03So, If anything, pick your number, work toward it, figure out how to work toward it, and go get the power of the group working for you. Love that. And I know you guys got all kinds of great groups at the Institute, so who knows, just maybe call the Institute. We'd love to hear from you. I bet you would. Hey guys, always a pleasure.

41:27Aaron Woods, Extra Mile Auto Care out in Stillwater, Oak Lohmann, coach and president of the Institute, and Ryan Bushman, brand new coach at the Institute, sold his business a few months back. And, uh, he figured out a while back how to get the number he was unexpectedly gonna get. Good for you, my friend. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you, Carm. Thanks for having us.

41:52Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the premier automotive repair business podcast, Remarkable Results Radio. Get your episodic education on the ARPN listing app at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com. Also enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel. Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry. Until next time.