Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This podcast is dedicated to changing the automotive industry for the better, one conversation at a time.
Whether you're a technician, vendor, business owner, or car enthusiast, we hope to inspire you to improve for your customers, your careers, your businesses, and your families.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:04]:
So introduce yourself.
Laura Gay [00:00:05]:
I'm Laura gay with consolidation coach.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:08]:
Very cool.
Chad Smith [00:00:10]:
Chad Smith, also with consolidation coach. Very cool.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:13]:
Awesome. Chad Smith. Consolidation coach. Tell me what it is that consolidation coach does.
Chad Smith [00:00:21]:
What we do is help clients that are looking or even considering exiting the collision industry.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:27]:
Got it.
Chad Smith [00:00:28]:
Help kind of make that decision. Let them know what the ins and outs are of that decision, how it flows through. And we also help them with valuations of their business through different ways. And if we go through that process and all looks like it's amicable for their business or for their family to maybe, perhaps exit the industry, we take the next step and we can help them do that through our connections with different buyers.
Lucas Underwood [00:00:53]:
Well, so I've been watching you for a really long time, and I watched some of the things that you guys do, and it's interesting because I hired somebody who originally lived in Florida, and her dad owned an auto repair or a body shop. Right. And so she said the best thing that he ever did was sell the collision shop. And I said, well, what you mean by that? And she says, well, he was a collision guy, and he didn't really know how to run the business. It wasn't that he wasn't a good business owner. It was just he didn't really know how to run the business. And she said, so when the merger and acquisition opportunity came up, it was like a godsend for them because the stress level was so high, all these different things, and he was getting to that point in life where, you know what I'm saying? SOmEtimes we get tired of doing this after a while. Right?
Laura Gay [00:01:41]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:01:42]:
And so recently there's been some comments, and the reason I've asked you here to talk about this is because I think you guys have a good fill for the market. And I don't think it's just in collision that you all have a fill for the market. I think auto repair as a whole, you all kind of have a finger on the pulse of the market as a whole. But there has been a post going around and, look, I'll just pull it up and we'll read it, but there's been a post going around that got a ton of traction. I won't say that it went viral, but it says, shop owner friends, the amazing run of easy money is over in our industry. I know most owners will say they're different. However, the downturn will affect everyone. I watched our industry shoot to the moon over the past couple of years.
Lucas Underwood [00:02:25]:
Even the worst operators made money and grew their companies. I've watched arrogant vendors dress up like movie stars and show off fancy cars, planes and boats. The froth should scare you. Please protect your company by saving money. I'm praying for my shop owner friends. What do you think when you hear that?
Laura Gay [00:02:44]:
I think there's some truth to that, but it feels a little fear mongering. I think that there's going to be lots of cars to fix no matter what. I mean, the proof was in the pudding through Covid, there was less cars on the road, less miles driven, and most shops in America were still steadily busy and backed up with work. So I don't want to say we're a recession proof business, but I do believe we are fairly recession proof. So I think there's some truth to it. I think there might be some setback. We may realize that some, but I don't think that it's going to be monumental unless we have a depression like in the really don't think that's imminent.
Lucas Underwood [00:03:31]:
Yeah, I don't either. I don't see the writing on the wall for that. You bring up something a lot of people in that post said, or maybe they didn't say it in the post, but there was a lot of chatter behind the scenes and people were saying this is really sounding like fear mongering. What's the purpose of scaring those people? I mean, I think it's great to have some money saved back and I think if you're a good operator, you've got some money saved back. So my question for you guys is, I know what it is in the auto repair space when we talk about collision, are you seeing more of these independent shops that have some money put back? Are they prepared for hard times?
Laura Gay [00:04:07]:
I think you've got two kinds of owners. You've got body shop owners that were a body man or a painter and somehow became an owner. And they've got limited business knowledge and those guys run their business off a checkbook balance. And then I think you've got the more professional owner that really has business knowledge. Maybe they were a painter or a body man, but they've got knowledge and they've learned how to be a professional business owner. But collision shop owner. And I think that you've got some stuff in between that, but I think for the general rule, that's what you have. So I think that probably the folks that are on the more professional side, they're probably the folks that do have some reserves.
Laura Gay [00:04:51]:
And I think you should have reserves no matter what. Because if you're highly DRP centric and let's just say you lose one of your main partners if you're not very well diversified. I've seen shops go out of business because of that. So, I mean, you should have reserves no matter what, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:05:06]:
Well, I remember just about the time that I opened my shop, I've had a shop, but then we opened a ten bay facility. It's just a repair shop. It's not collision. But I went and I bought some equipment out of an auction of a collision shop that was in Asheville, North Carolina. And so I was talking to the auction people and they said, this is actually a really sad story. And I said, well, what do you mean? They said, well, this was a situation where the dad had built up millions of dollars in reserves and opportunity for the business, and it was a good flowing business, and it made money and it did what it did. And they said that the children came in after the dad died and took over the business, and they spent all the reserves and they basically ran the business into the ground. And he said, what was sad about it is he said, if you go back before the dad died, there was enough net profit that the business wouldn't have been able to sell.
Lucas Underwood [00:05:54]:
They said, now that the kids took over, the kids didn't have any net profit. And they went to an accountant, and the Accountant said, oh, no, if you have net profit, you're going to pay taxes. So you don't want net profit. You want to get rid of the net profit. And then the business got to a point that it didn't have net profit. It wasn't worth anything. And the property, because of EPA reasons, the property all of a sudden wasn't worth anything. Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:06:15]:
They basically were going to pay somebody to take it, to clean it up because they'd spilled paint and chemicals and all kinds of stuff all around the place. And so I think about that when we talk about shop owners. If you're going to sell a business, you have to be prepared to sell a business. This is not just something that the tools are going to be worth $100,000, and this is going to be worth that, and I'm going to walk out and sell it. You got to be prepared to sell your business. Right. I mean, you can't just.
Laura Gay [00:06:39]:
Absolutely. Um, I was just on a panel at CIC, and that was what we talked about quite a bit, was that you do need to be prepared, but there's a lot of people that get in a know. Again, we talk know types of owners. You have two different types of owners when it comes to folks that are got, you know, again, the professional owner that is prepared, that has management folks in place that are on a big enough scale where they can leave and go on vacation for two, three weeks a month at a time or completely exit, and the shop runs on its own. And then you have owners that take kind of what I call the ostrich approach, where they come in and they fix cars every day and they do a great job doing that. But as far as thinking about an exit plan or thinking about if I get run over by a bus, what's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my shop? How are things going to continue? I say they're an ostrich because they stick their head in the sand and really just focus on fixing cars. And those are the ones that come to us at the breaking point when they're just ready to sell because they're stressed out. They've had enough.
Laura Gay [00:07:44]:
They don't want to get any education or anything to try to, I don't want to say save themselves. They're just done. And those are the folks. I mean, they'll still do good and everything, but they could do so much better if they were prepared. So I think that the important takeaway from that is if you've got the time to be prepared, it's great. If you don't, it doesn't mean the end of the world. I mean, we've had plenty of clients come to us that were unprepared either. Fire sale.
Laura Gay [00:08:11]:
I've got a client right now that had a stroke. He's got to sell because he's incapable to run his shop now. So that happens, and we can certainly help those. But obviously, if you're prepared and you've got the business where it runs itself, I mean, that's really what consolidators and these buyers that are out buying shops today are looking for, shops that run themselves and don't need the owner there to manage it. But it doesn't mean that those other types of shops don't have value. They absolutely do.
Lucas Underwood [00:08:39]:
So let me ask you this, because in auto repair over the past couple of weeks, we've watched a really terrible and sad situation unfold. And it was that it was a husband and wife team, and the husband is no longer with us. And they have two young kids. And she said, I can't be mom, and I can't run the household and do the things I need to do and run the shop. And we've been struggling to find people to work in the shop and all of these pieces of this puzzle, how do we prepare for that? Right? Because we're seeing a lot of shop owners who aren't prepared. Right. And that's a scary thing when you get to the point, I think we always imagine, we have tomorrow, we always imagine, like, everything's going to be. And it was really neat because Nathan Bryant, one of the moderators in AsoG, we were talking a while back, and he said, I know that my shop, because of what I want it to be, will never be more than me just running the shop and being there.
Lucas Underwood [00:09:38]:
And he said, I know I'm never going to earn enough net profit that the business will ever be worth anything. So I know there's nothing to sell because I'm renting the building. And he said, so what I've done is, he said, I've built insurance and things around myself. I've invested in that now. So if something happens to me, my wife's taken care of. Right. Gosh, we're talking to a lot of shop owners who are nowhere near that thoughtful and thinking ahead. What's the strategy? How do we begin to get them educated to where they know? I mean, I know you're in collision, but across the board, how do we get them educated?
Laura Gay [00:10:11]:
So Chad and I have a mutual friend that we work with. His name is Matt D. Francesco, and he does a lot of that sort of stuff, preparing shops for the worst case scenario. We're more focused on selling shops or helping shops sell and realizing getting the most money out of it. I mean, shop owners work their whole life. They should absolutely get every penny, their value of the business. So I'd say, like Matt DeFrancesco, he's great with that, and he's probably more geared to answer a question like that. But I think, in the same light, I think that a lot of that type of planning is kind of common sense.
Laura Gay [00:10:56]:
You know what I mean? Right. Life insurance is a great place to start. I mean, I carry life insurance. I don't want to say kind of. I do have, God forbid, I get run over by a bus tomorrow. I have a plan in place to, to keep things running right. So I think that's it's common sense things, but I think it's really hard to think about that. What if I died? You know what I mean? It's hard to think about writing a just or a trust or whatever it is, whatever instrument that you're using.
Laura Gay [00:11:31]:
Don't you agree, Chad? Yeah.
Chad Smith [00:11:33]:
And I think that goes back to the nature of the post. I mean, I'm not familiar with the post, but he kind of lost me when he said easy money, because there is no easy money exactly in any of our industries that are related to, and again, trying to apply some of the things we've just talking about to across the spectrum of different owners because every owner is different. You've got some owners that are more, they're so, I guess, what's the word, dedicated or devoted to that business. They feel they have to be there. They have to be on the shop floor. They have to be hands on. They have to work more in the business than working on the business, whereas you have other owners that are more forward thinking as far as maybe not necessarily exit planning or secession planning, but what happens if something happens? So they're trying to gear theirselves more toward that event by trying to think outside the box and working on that business as opposed to in the business. So to say, there's one cookie cutter answer for all this, we're kind of fooling ourselves by thinking that way.
Lucas Underwood [00:12:35]:
Exactly.
Chad Smith [00:12:36]:
But I think the thing about it is, and people in our industry, we need to stop at some point and just sit down and think, where are we in our business? Where are we and how that relates to our family and how that relates to the next day or the next year, whether I'm here to help this business succeed or if I'm not, what does that look like and what do I need to be thinking about outside of the shop as opposed to thinking about what's inside the shop?
Lucas Underwood [00:13:03]:
Absolutely. And we get so ingrained into the business that we can't see it.
Chad Smith [00:13:09]:
It's a vacuum.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:11]:
Yeah, well, what I've watched of you all's posts is that's really what you all do is you all come in from that 30,000 foot perspective and you bring some perspective to them. And I'm sure you've had to have some conversations with some folks that are like, hey, so, by the way, and I've told this story before, the first shop that I looked at buying before we built this last shop, we went and looked at the shop and it was like, not exactly what we wanted. But I said, well, if we can get a good deal in the shop, maybe we should buy it. And so I start talking to him and I'm like, all right, well, have you been paying rent or a mortgage or anything? And he said, no, I own the property. And I said, okay, well, you've been taking a paycheck. No, I don't need a paycheck because I don't want to pay taxes on the paycheck. Okay. Do you have more records than this? Because it shows you made $100,000 last year.
Lucas Underwood [00:13:58]:
No, I took all cash because I didn't want to. Right.
Chad Smith [00:14:01]:
Going up every.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:02]:
I'm sitting here saying, like, I hate to tell you this, but the equipment in the shop is 30 years old. That means you've got a piece of property with some old buildings on it. That's the value here, right?
Laura Gay [00:14:13]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:14:14]:
And he's like, no, the phone number is probably worth 200, $300,000 alone. Nah, man. That's not how it works today. And so I think that a lot of times, we get ourselves to where we're so focused on running the business that we don't see the whole picture. I don't want to say the black book, right. Because when I think of that, I think of, like, I've got a list of things and people that my wife would call if something happened to me. Who do you call? What do you do? What do you tell them? Even account passwords and all of that information in the event that something happens to me? That's not really so much what I'm talking about, but what would a shop owner do? Even collision or auto repair, what would a shop owner do if they want to begin the process of saying, hey, I need to be prepared if I want to sell my shop? What are the big mistakes that you're seeing on the field right now that they could do that would make a major difference for them when they go to sell?
Laura Gay [00:15:14]:
Well, I think the very first thing they should focus on is improving their sales. Sales equals value. It's the number one driver of value. And Chad and I could just ping it back and forth. Chad, no doubt.
Chad Smith [00:15:30]:
I mean, it's sales, but I think one thing is just starting to that. What does it look like? Where am I failing, whatever that might be, if you're looking to exit out or whether it's a session. But you've got to start thinking so many times. Like we were saying, working in our business, sometimes, like I was saying, it's a vacuum. You've got to step back from. I don't want to say a 30,000 foot level, but some kind of level outside that business and say, is this business running me, or am I running this business? And try and change your mindset to that point to where you can start doing what we're just talking about. Okay. With that being, if I'm going to run this business, what do I need to focus on? What's my one year, three year, five year, ten year plan, whatever that looks like.
Chad Smith [00:16:17]:
And it has to be crazy to find, but at least start somewhere and then start pushing. Well, based on that goal, then come back to say, okay, here's my top three things I need to be working on the next six months to a year, which, granted, for valuation. It's all about sales, right? It's all about sales.
Lucas Underwood [00:16:36]:
You say that. How long do they need to have those sales where they should be? Right. Because the people who, especially if we're talking about m and a right, if we're talking about mergers and acquisitions, they know what the number should be. You're not going to fool them. You're not going to pull the wool over their eyes because they've already seen what the numbers or what the shop is capable of. How long do they need to see those numbers where they're supposed to be for that shop to get optimum?
Laura Gay [00:17:02]:
I would say it's typically 24 to 36 months. It varies by consolidator. Okay. Some of them want to see a longer track record than that because of COVID Through Covid, a lot of shop owners grew, had tremendous increase in sales. But there were regional areas that shops were down 50%. Parts of Maryland, there were shops that were down 50% of sales because they weren't considered essential. So sometimes they want to go back that far. But I would say, as a general rule, 24 months.
Laura Gay [00:17:37]:
And again, we know how to play some games with some of that stuff. And I shouldn't say call it games, that's not probably the proper wording, but we know how to get around some of that. And there's a lot of shop owners that have realized a lot of growth post Covid due to various different reasons. And again, we can support all that, assuming that we have the reasons why.
Lucas Underwood [00:18:04]:
Right.
Chad Smith [00:18:04]:
That's kind of market, depending on what market we're looking at. In a lot of ways, I agree with that 100%. Two years is kind of your key benchmark of what they're going to be looking at. Some people would think, my last year, well, that's great, but can you sustain it so that two year gives you that sustainability?
Laura Gay [00:18:20]:
And another thing to think about, and you didn't mention this, but I just want to comment on this like consolidators, as a rule, they're looking for a shop that's a minimum of 10,000 square foot. They're looking for shops that do two to $3 million in sales, and they want it to be fully staffed. And it doesn't have to have. It's ideal to have a manager in place that's running it, but it doesn't have to be completely autonomous. I mean, that's not like a deal killer. And even what I just said is not a deal killer. Certain markets or certain buyers that will buy shops that may not be doing the sales but have the square footage, or maybe has the square footage and not doing the sales or vice versa.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:01]:
Yeah, well, you think of that and you think of where so many of these guys are at, mindset wise, and you think about where they've been. Like I said, fixing the car. Fixing the car. Fixing the car. I'll tell you, one of the big pushbacks that I hear from so many shop owners in both sides, collision and mechanical, is that I'm really nervous about letting my shop go because of my people. I want to be here for my people. And we watch that other situation unfold where all of a sudden, it's not your choice anymore. You don't have say in it.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:36]:
Right. And that, in my mind, is the worst case scenario. We don't ever want to get to the point that we don't have any say in it and it's too late to have say in it.
Laura Gay [00:19:44]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:19:45]:
So it stands to reason for me, we need to be preparing, what, five, six years before we. Obviously, in that case, you wouldn't know that that's coming. Right. But I'm saying, like, how far out does a shop owner need to plan for something like this?
Laura Gay [00:19:59]:
So, Chad and I are former shop owners. Chad had three stores in Mississippi. I had two stores in Maryland. We both sold. So we went through that trauma of what's going to happen to our employees, and it's hard. And for me, my store lost 50% of the people within four or six months. And it was very hard to see that happen. I'd worked so hard to build this team, and it was just like, there was just no appreciation or arms wrapped around keeping my people together.
Laura Gay [00:20:32]:
And it was really hard to watch unfold. But I can tell you that a lot of the consolidators have suffered from taking that approach, and they've learned a lot from it. And we're seeing a lot of consolidators that are really super hyper focused on retention. Some of them are doing retention bonuses, increasing pay benefits, time off, figuring out what makes these employees tick, and putting together packages that make sense for them instead of making it a cookie cutter approach. So we're seeing a lot of different approaches, if you will.
Chad Smith [00:21:13]:
And I think you're going to continue to see that.
Laura Gay [00:21:15]:
Yeah. And when you sold your shops, I don't know if that you and I ever talked about it, but what is the retention level at your shop?
Chad Smith [00:21:21]:
See, we sold our shops, it'll be two years in December. And I think their retention rate as of, I would say, in the past 30 days is probably 80%.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:29]:
Wow.
Chad Smith [00:21:30]:
But again, that's when, of course, we sold two years ago, whereas Laura sold five, six years ago. So maybe between that time, eight years ago.
Lucas Underwood [00:21:38]:
Right.
Chad Smith [00:21:38]:
So maybe in that period of time, they have finally decided that we have to take more approach to being a more employee centric integration. When we acquire, they have to, because all of our clients, every last one of them, at some point in that conversation, when we talk about what it looks like or we're on the road to maybe getting a deal done, the employees come up, well, what is this going to look like for my folks? How are they going to be well taken care of? And we have to be brutally honest with them. Some are better than others, but we all feel that the buyers are looking for a. When they look for a shop, they're looking at the culture of that shop, they're looking at the employee base. And what makes it up, because we've both had conversations with buyers, let's be honest with the private equity or whatever the funding is they have, buying the equipment, buying the green space, the brown space. That's not the issue. The issue is the people. And if they can find a good location that's got a good basis, but great people or great culture, they're going to do all they can to retain that.
Lucas Underwood [00:22:39]:
Of course.
Chad Smith [00:22:40]:
And again, you can get into the whole debate about, well, if you run your business in our spaces, collision non DRP model, and most of the bigger msos that are buying are DRP centric type model, there's going to be a clash there. And some things just doesn't, I guess, for lack of better word, jive with everyone outside of that, they're going to do everything they can to keep those folks.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:01]:
We relate that in our side to that transactional versus relationship business model.
Chad Smith [00:23:06]:
Sure.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:07]:
Right. And so we see a lot of transactional shops that it's just about the dollar bill. It's about the turn. Let's turn and burn. Get the car in. Get the car out. Get the car in, get the car out. Whatever we have to do.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:17]:
And I've learned more about DRP since I've worked with AASP, and I have a collision shop employee. She was a estimator for a local collision shop. She came to work for us, and I've learned a lot about that and the perspective that they have and working with them. So I was in a three bay shop, right? And we were fairly consistent. We were doing $125,000 a month in three bays. One bay was only seven foot tall. Right? So it wasn't even a full bay. And we did $125,000 a month consistently, like all awesome.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:49]:
And then we move into ten base, and guess what? What it takes to feed ten base is very different than what it takes to feed three.
Laura Gay [00:23:57]:
The break even is real.
Lucas Underwood [00:23:59]:
Yeah, exactly. And so all of a sudden, my whole mindset changes. Right? Like my thought process of how we do business and what we do when we're running a business is very different than it was just two years ago. I think that owners, especially as we talk about older owners who have been in the business for a long time, they can lose some of that perspective of what it's like, especially when it comes into a big business like that. They've been running it, they've paid for it. And so for them, they just do what they have to do. They don't have to earn as much money to pay the bills. The property is paid for all of these things.
Lucas Underwood [00:24:32]:
But the problem is they're getting ready for succession, they're getting ready to move on, and then they get complacent and they get comfortable. And so now all of a sudden, it doesn't matter. Well, I don't have to take DRP, and I don't need their money because I don't want to deal with a hassle. I don't want to have to talk to them all the time. I don't want to have to take the lower payouts. Right. And so the next thing you know, they're getting complacent, they're making less money, and all of a sudden, the business becomes worth way less than it was.
Chad Smith [00:25:00]:
Exactly.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:00]:
And so I worry that they get into this downhill slide they don't even see they're getting on to.
Chad Smith [00:25:05]:
And we see that a lot, too. I actually had a conversation with a gentleman yesterday, same exact thing, second generation ownership. And when we went through our evaluation with him, it just kind of shocked him that it was not worth what he anticipated it would be worth. But again, he's looking at all the factors that although we as owners strive to have good customer service, great quality, good community, standing payback in the community, that doesn't really add to the bottom line. When you go to, I guess, market to sell your business, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:25:39]:
Absolutely.
Chad Smith [00:25:39]:
It doesn't. But it's something in our hearts. As owners, we put a lot of sweat and effort.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:44]:
The number one thing that's important to us.
Chad Smith [00:25:46]:
Right. But when you go into the open market that doesn't cross that breadth of valuation, sometimes the numbers don't go on.
Lucas Underwood [00:25:55]:
To the bottom line. And everybody's looking at that bottom line. That's right.
Laura Gay [00:25:58]:
I think it's also important to know that we have many shop owners that come to us that their profit and loss statement shows either zero profit or negative profit, and they might be doing $3 million in sales. That does not mean that their business is not worth anything. Their business is still worth quite a bit. So if anybody has a takeaway from this, I think the takeaway is, don't feel that if your shop has no profitability on the profit loss statement. Even like, if you're running things, a lot of people run things through their business. Motorhomes, cars, race cars, whatever, those types of things could be added back. But even if you add them back and you still don't have profits, it's not the end of the world. There are ways we know how to, for lack of better words, work the system.
Laura Gay [00:26:47]:
We've got three approaches to doing valuations, and we know how to combat that. And we get that a lot. We have customers call a lot that they're not making any money and they just think their business is worth nothing. And that couldn't be further from the truth.
Lucas Underwood [00:27:04]:
So if that's the case, then do you recommend having them do a valuation sooner than later? In other words, even if they're not planning on selling, is it worth having evaluation done on the business to at least have a game plan or an understanding of where you're at?
Laura Gay [00:27:20]:
I absolutely think it's important to get evaluation done. And while we're talking about that is a lot of people will go to their accountant and get evaluation done, or CPA. And accountants are great. Cpas are great, but they're great for performing tax returns. They're not great for doing business valuations. And I'm not saying that to be picking on them, but they don't know the industry, they don't know what's going on. And often we've seen many CPA prepared valuations that are extremely undervalued. And it comes back to they're using generally accepted accounting principles to determine the value.
Laura Gay [00:27:59]:
And that's great. But a lot of times, especially with these shops with no values, that method doesn't work. And we've got other methods that we can help them with to identify and understand what the value of the business is. So I think if you're going to get a business valuation, I'm not saying you got to come to us, but there's lots of people out here that do what we do. Make sure it's somebody that's a mergers and acquisition specialist that specializes in doing these types of deals in the automotive space, whether it's collision, mechanical, aftermarket, whatever it is, somebody that has that background and knowledge of what deals are trading for, because that's a big difference, what the business is worth and what you actually can get for it. And I think that's an important piece to understand as well.
Lucas Underwood [00:28:47]:
So I've gotten five business cards in the last three months, and I've come back from a show and there's a business card laying on my desk, and I'm talking to a lot of shop owners getting the same thing. And it's brokers coming in saying, hey, we're interested in buying the shop. We're interested in buying the shop. What do you think about that? Because some guys see that and they throw out a number and they just say, it sounds close enough to what I want, and they take the money and they go with it. What do you think about that? Is that broker coming in as a representative of the shop, or is that broker coming in as a representative of who wants to buy the shop? In other words, what is their focus when they come in? Because some of these guys, it seems like they could have got a lot more money if they'd have held off and talked to somebody and maybe prepared a little bit before. But these guys are walking in and offering a big number and they get emotional about it and they take the money and run.
Laura Gay [00:29:39]:
That's a great question. I'm really glad you asked that question. So probably, I obviously am not a mind reader, but I would be willing to bet that those folks that are coming in are by representatives, meaning that somebody has hired them to come in, focus on a market or an area and try to get deals done. We work as sell side, meaning that we represent a shop that's selling. So we're going to make sure that you get the most money. And you're absolutely correct, somebody will come in. And quite honestly, that's what happened to me when I sold my stores. Consolidator after consolidator and their representatives after representatives were kept coming in my shop and throwing numbers out.
Laura Gay [00:30:23]:
And honestly, they were getting my attention and I can see that if you're broken down, you're tired, you're weary where that might look good, but think of it this way. You go out to dinner, you get a pizza and some appetizers, some mushrooms, some fried mushrooms, okay? And the bill is $35 and you got $100 bill or you going to leave $100 and walk away? No, you're not going to leave that money on the table. You're going to pay the $35, you're going to give the tip, you're going to get your change, you're going to go on your way. Why would you do that to your business? You never would do that to your business. You definitely don't want to leave any money on the table. I think it's important whether you want to sell your business on your own or you want help. At minimum, you should get evaluation and talk to somebody to get some knowledge so that you're not leaving those pennies on the table. And then on that, another part is the tax.
Laura Gay [00:31:19]:
When you go to sell your business, a huge, monumental piece of this is the tax. What are you going to pay? And depending on what your corporate structure is, and I am not a CPA, so I would tell you to go see your accountant and talk through this with them. But if you're a C Corp, you need to put your helmet on and get ready for a crash, because that's the worst probably structure you could have. And if you're an S corp, probably, I don't know if it's the best, but it's a lot better. So I think it's important to understand that. But more importantly is depending on how it's structured, whether it's an asset purchase or a stock purchase, tax allocations, which basically are negotiated no different than the sale price of the business, are an important piece of the deal. And what's favorable for the seller is not favorable for the buyer. So it's a push pull negotiation thing, just like the sale price is.
Laura Gay [00:32:21]:
So that's a huge piece that you definitely want to talk with whoever's helping you and understand that piece, because that is something where you think you're getting $2 million, and then at the end of the day, you're walking away with a million dollars. And the other important piece to know is when they buy these businesses, typically they're buying them free of encumbrances, meaning that they can have no debt. So if you've got paint contracts, you've got equipment loans and other things like that, all that has to be paid off. So again, you get $2 million offer, and now you owe $500,000 on this, and then you owe $700,000 in tax. Then at the end of the day, you don't have a million dollars you're walking away with. So does it even make sense to sell? So that's what Chad and I and our team really pride ourself in, is making sure when we do the valuation that the customer understands what the business is worth, what they can get for it. Help them get with their accountant and understand what we can do as far as the tax and the negotiation, and understand that, so they can get a firm understanding of what the net money is going to look like. And then on top of that, if they own their real estate, help them understand what's the best mechanism on a real estate.
Laura Gay [00:33:34]:
Because a lot of times what happens is whoever's buying wants to come in and buy the real estate, and that's great for whoever wants to buy it. But then what happens is a lot of times, post sale, that buyer will then sell that real estate with a long term lease with whoever the buyer is. And then they might have paid a million dollars for the property, but then they're selling it for two and a half million. So then whatever they paid for the business was offset by that. And that's not fair to a body shop owner, you know what I mean? That thinks they're doing the right thing. That's another way of leaving money on the table, right?
Lucas Underwood [00:34:09]:
For sure. I guess my perspective is this is if somebody comes to you and says, hey, I want to sell my shop, then in my opinion, they are an informed seller, right?
Laura Gay [00:34:20]:
Correct.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:21]:
Because they know they need help.
Laura Gay [00:34:22]:
Right.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:23]:
And they know that, hey, I have to do this. The ones that aren't coming to you are likely uninformed sellers because they don't recognize there's somebody out there to help them.
Laura Gay [00:34:30]:
They're ostriches.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:31]:
Right. Well, so let me ask you this. What percentage of those that are coming to you, because if these are the informed ones that are coming to you, what percentage of them know those things? Right.
Laura Gay [00:34:42]:
It's a good question. You got any idea on that?
Chad Smith [00:34:45]:
What percentage of the sellers that aren't coming to us that are.
Lucas Underwood [00:34:48]:
No. What percentage of the ones that are right, the guys that are informed that are coming to you? She just dropped some heavy stuff on the table. Do five out of ten of them know those things that she's bringing up? Or are they coming into this and saying, oh my God.
Chad Smith [00:35:01]:
Most of them come in thinking they're an informed seller and when we get done, they realize they were uninformed.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:07]:
Right.
Chad Smith [00:35:07]:
Yeah, honestly, I would. Honestly, and I'm not saying that to toot our horn, but there's so many opinions in our industry of what should be or what has happened, and usually we crush all of them. I would say one to two out of ten are really on their P's and Q's in educating. We don't bring something to the table they didn't already.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:30]:
Right.
Laura Gay [00:35:31]:
I would say one out of ten. I can only think of one buyer in the last year, actually, that kind of knew everything and probably borderline didn't need us.
Chad Smith [00:35:40]:
Right. And the thing about it is changing, though, that's the other thing. What the market is today is not what it was six months ago and it's not what it's going to be next year.
Lucas Underwood [00:35:49]:
Exactly. And I've watched some good shop owners that I know out scooping up shops and I've talked to them about their strategy and some of the things that they're doing and the ways that they're acquiring these shops and the things that they're saying to the owner to make them sell the shop cheap and little things they're doing here and there so they get a better deal.
Laura Gay [00:36:08]:
Right, right.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:08]:
And so when we talk about where the market is right now, because you're exactly right, the market is changing and the market will forever change. It will never be consistent. I was actually at this show two years ago, I was talking to a friend of mine and he said, the mergers and acquisitions, it's crazy. He said, especially in the collision space. They're flying through like nobody's business. I've never seen this many mergers. He said, it's insane. And then we were here the next year and he said, surely it's almost over to they're, they're going to stop.
Lucas Underwood [00:36:38]:
And then he's here this year and he said, holy cow, it's still going, but it's like the Andy Andrews thing. Well, we must have really missed it this time. And then they still continue on. Is this going to be a trend we continue to see?
Laura Gay [00:36:50]:
Oh, we're definitely going to see the trend. I think, though, it's going to be like a roller coaster ride. I think there's some things that are forthcoming in the next twelve to 15 months that are going to change things. And beyond that, I don't really know what's going to happen, but I think we're definitely going to have consolidation continuing for a while, a good while, but I think that where it goes, nobody really knows, obviously, but I definitely think it's going to continue. But I think right now and definitely for the next twelve months, I think we're going to see some of the highest values we've seen so far. And I said that two years ago, you know what I mean? And they were crazy then. And again, it's kind of like a roller coaster. I mean, the beginning of this year when interest rates went crazy, offers kind of went down, we just didn't have as much aggressive buyers.
Laura Gay [00:37:47]:
Our Q one was, I mean, we were dead and then Q two, Q three, Q four has been absolutely wide open and really most of what we've done has been in Q two, Q three and Q four of this year. So I think that trend is going to continue. And a lot of people have said, well, wow, the interest rates are so high. How are they doing this? Consolidators and private equity. They know. And anybody that's in this business knows if you're not growing, you're dying. So they have to grow, they have to continue even though the interest rates are high. If they don't, they're dying, especially if.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:25]:
They have shareholders looking at them.
Laura Gay [00:38:26]:
Yeah, 100%.
Lucas Underwood [00:38:27]:
Because that's the only way they ever grow, is they have to have more production somewhere. Let me ask you this, this is kind of off the wall Odball question. Is the current market, especially when we talk about technicians, sustainable? Right. Because we've talked a little bit about the fact that these guys are still working to build culture, still working to pay them really well now that they've realized if they lose, everybody that was their primary asset in that organization was the people. Right. Especially in the mechanical space. We've seen guys get massive raises, especially in dealerships.
Laura Gay [00:39:03]:
Yeah, it is insane.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:05]:
100 and 2140 thousand dollars a year.
Laura Gay [00:39:07]:
Yeah.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:09]:
I think my fear for them is you've got a technician who comes in and says, oh, I'm earning $140,000 a year. And I was talking to somebody a while back who's really in the know with a number of dealerships, I mean, 280 dealerships to give you an idea. And he said, you know, he said they did it to themselves. And I said, what are you talking about? He said, lucas, he said, do you know the first people in those organizations that will go when it slows down? He said they traded loyalty and he know, we were going to pay them a little bit less, but we're going to be a little more loyal to them. And he said, but I can promise you now, they're not going to be getting those big paychecks, because the minute that something happens and that shop slows down, he said, they're off. He said, we're not interested in keeping them. And I thought, wow, that's a really crazy thought process because they've been paying all these huge wages. The technicians want more and more and more and more.
Lucas Underwood [00:39:59]:
They want these big benefit packages. But if there's no security in that, is that really worth that extra money? And what's scary for me is I've watched these technicians go, and they're out here and they're saying, okay, all right, I got $140,000. Well, guess what? Their expenses did this right, and they started living $140,000 lifestyle, and now they lose that $140,000. What happens? Is this sustainable? Are we going to continue to see this?
Laura Gay [00:40:25]:
Well, my thoughts are on this, and I'll let Chad chime in here in a minute. I feel like we as a country, we as an educational system, caused all this to occur. I think back to when I graduated high school or when I was in my senior years. I graduated 1990. Yes, I'm telling on myself, but I remember the push to go to college. Chad and I are the same age. Let me let the record show on that. We're both 51.
Laura Gay [00:41:00]:
Anyway, she looks way younger.
Chad Smith [00:41:02]:
Chad, I'm just telling you, I'm okay with that.
Laura Gay [00:41:07]:
But that big push to go to college, and I will tell you, I went to community college the year I graduated high school. My dad's business went bankrupt. So it was a crisis in my household at that time, financially, and not even sure I would have gone to college far away because I was a little scared of it. But at the end of the day, I think that there was such a push, and the people that went to college and graduated and, oh, my gosh, these parties and people raving, and even my own mother, everybody that graduated college, my mother puts on a pedestal even to this day. So I think what's happened is we as a country have created this. If you don't go to college, you're a dummy. You know what I mean? And I don't know about you, I never graduated college. I've done fantastically well in my getting education from other sources, and quite honestly, I think better education in a lot of ways.
Laura Gay [00:42:08]:
So I feel like there's a lot of people that did not graduate that are doing great things. I mean, there's technicians out there making. I had a tech working for me eight years ago that was making $240,000 a year painting cars.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:21]:
Right.
Laura Gay [00:42:21]:
So I think there's a lot of money to be made. There's a lot of really brilliant people out there without a college degree making a lot of money. And I think, honestly, that's going to continue. And I think there's just such a shortage of technicians and skilled trade. I think it's going to continue because we just don't have any youth coming in. And as much as we'd like to see that blow up just because how.
Lucas Underwood [00:42:45]:
Much writing is not on the wall.
Laura Gay [00:42:46]:
For it, we're given all the meat and all the fat on the bone. Like, how much more can we give? So I wish to see that it would get more down to earth, but everybody seems like it's paying fifty cents or fifty percent of labor, or a lot of people are. That's what we see. Or like, they're key people at least are paying that. What do you think, Chad?
Chad Smith [00:43:10]:
No, I'll second that. And I think too, as a country, we're kind of getting away from the whole, you have to go to college to have a sustainable career in life. I think we're finally making that change. But I think going back to what your question was and what the core of probably the statement the gentleman was making was, I think mechanical is going to be a little different than collision. But as cars change or evolve or we move to the electrical platform or the hydrogen platform or wherever that's going.
Lucas Underwood [00:43:38]:
To fall out, we don't know where.
Chad Smith [00:43:41]:
Yet, but we're going somewhere. I think it could be that you're going to still be able to have that same possible technician pay. But as technology improves on the mechanical side, where you might have needed ten techs to run your dealership. Right. Can you do it with five now?
Lucas Underwood [00:43:57]:
Exactly.
Chad Smith [00:43:58]:
I think that's kind of where on the mechanical side he might have been heading with that statement, because as they get more computerized or again, whatever path we're going down, it might not be quite as, I guess, labor intensive as it has been historically, and I think that's going to eventually, perhaps migrate on the collision side. But are we still in a technician Crunch? Yes. Are we going to be in it for a while? Yes. It's going to be an inverse relationship. Regardless what we do, we're going to.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:27]:
Be in a skilled trade shortage across the board. And you're right about community college in North Carolina. You can get a free associate's degree in automotive. It can be an auto body or it can be in mechanical free. No money. Okay. But parents don't know about it. All right? Parents don't know about it.
Lucas Underwood [00:44:44]:
Kids think parents want. Because the IMR study, I've got it on my laptop. I'll show it to you. Kids think that mom and dad want me to go to a four year school, right? They want to go party. They want to do the fun stuff. Did either one of you, at 18, know what it was that you wanted to do with the rest of your life?
Laura Gay [00:45:00]:
Heck, no. And that's what I tell my son.
Chad Smith [00:45:02]:
That I kind of did. I'll just be honest. I was a weirdo and I'll claim it. I'll own it. Because I went into college, I knew what I wanted to do. I didn't know it was going to be a body shop industry I'd eventually land in, but I always knew I wanted to be in business. That's what I wanted to be. So my avenue was through accounting, blah, blah, blah.
Chad Smith [00:45:19]:
But majority, 98% of the kids I've got just turned 20 this weekend, still just oblivious. What do you want to do?
Lucas Underwood [00:45:29]:
Look, I'm going to tell you, and that's understandable. I have got students that come into my shop. They got four years degrees, and they're now in a master's program or a higher program than what they were in to begin with. Okay. After a four year degree, sure. And they're getting liberal arts degrees, and people around them are saying, what are you going to do with that? Well, I don't know. And you know where they're working?
Laura Gay [00:45:56]:
Chickfila.
Lucas Underwood [00:45:57]:
Chickfila, McDonald's, the local restaurants, the hotels. Now, look, from my perspective, I think we're in a bigger mess than what we realize because IMR study shows that we need 880,000 technicians in the next six years. Okay? And you would think, well, wait a minute, automotive technicians, we're in a real shortage. No, I hate to tell you, they're only number five on the list. Right. There's trades that are hurting worse than us, and we're number five as far as the image and the way that people would consider coming.
Chad Smith [00:46:30]:
Perception of the industry.
Lucas Underwood [00:46:32]:
Right. We're only number five. So could you imagine all those other trades? Now, here's my thing, okay? What we have officially done at this point in time, from my perspective, is we've told everybody that you should really go get a four year degree and you should really learn this whatever trait. Well, the problem is not everybody can be doctors and lawyers. And so what we have created is we have created an industry of service in this country, which is we've got a lot of hospitality. Look how many people work in hotel here at Apex, right? We've got food service, we've got hotel maids, we are offering services. And we have not trained up the next generation to be able to do the actual work, to create actual production, to create actual GDP. We're depending on other countries to give us money, right? In the basic sum of things, it would seem like we're just going to expect people to come here and spend money, come stay in our hotel, right? What do we have to offer, right? Are we not in trouble if this continues? Do we not have to change the direction we're going? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.
Chad Smith [00:47:39]:
No, I agree 100%. I think the younger generation is losing what that essence of work, really what it looks like, what it means, or the desire to even participate. We're in such a digital world now, I guess to just use a term, that's where they think they should land, but that's where they're expected to land because that's the newest and latest whatever versus what we're talking about.
Lucas Underwood [00:48:07]:
One of the things that I fell in love with, with my business, right? I was in the technical role and so I was the tech working in the shop and I love turning nuts and bolts to achieve a result. And I like to see things improve and I like to see things get better. And so when I started working on my business to fix it and make it what it is today, I realized that maximizing my business was fun. It was enjoyable. Watching it grow, watching the numbers change, managing to the KPIs and making it do what it does is a fun process. I think that in so many ways we have discounted everything that is the skilled trades because we've said, well, if you want to be a mechanic, if you want to go to automotive school, right, whether it's a trade school, whether it's a high school with an automotive program, a community college, whatever it is, we've said your only option is you'll work on cars for the rest of your life. But that's not true. And I think they miss it because our local high school, the way it works is they have this whole classroom set up that works on teacher cars.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:16]:
And so they teach them from the very, very first interaction. Here's how you speak to the client, here's what you do, here's how you explain what the charges are going to be, here's how you get the authorization, here's where you work on the car, and here's how you do this and the entire process. And so he teaches them how to be business owners. He teaches them how to be service writers. He teaches them how to be estimated maters. Right now, it's not in the curriculum, and the curriculum is very set to the NASA for Natev standard, what they have to teach. And it's very interesting to see how he does it and incorporates it all into one. But the point is, I want you to look around this room out here.
Lucas Underwood [00:49:50]:
How many people are here in the automotive industry right now? You could be in marketing, you could be an engineer, you could be in computer sciences. You could be in any single field in automotive that you wanted to. But what we've done is we've told them, if you're going to be in automotive, you have to go to automotive tech class. I don't know about you all, but this new technology that we're seeing develop, and I'm curious, are you seeing that folks are saying, hey, I want out because of the new technology that's coming in? Ados, ev, are they saying, hey, I don't want to work on this?
Laura Gay [00:50:21]:
I think there's a mix of that. I think there's a mix of people not wanting to spend the money to retool. There's going to be a tremendous amount of expense in retooling, especially on the collision side. And then when you talk about all these calibrations and different things that are involved with adas, there's a lot of folks that aren't really doing what they're supposed to be with, that they're overwhelmed by it. And honestly, there's just such a mix of education out there and consequently creates a mix of understanding. I think that just complicates issues. And I think that where we're at right now is that there's a lot of older people that are specifically in the collision trade and on the mechanical side that just don't want to be aggravated with it. They're used to pulling their pants on the same way they've been using zippers.
Laura Gay [00:51:18]:
They don't want to start using buttons. You know what I mean? I think that's my best assumption of it. What?
Chad Smith [00:51:24]:
Yeah, I agree with 100%. And I think in this space that we are now, the automotive trends are changing more rapidly than they've ever changed before. And I think we're going to see it. I see a lot of clients that just see it coming. They just want any part of it. And I think that's the downside of it. But I think the upside of that, too, is I think that opens up, going back to what we were talking about with technicians, that opens up another avenue to bring the younger generation in that might otherwise would never have came in because of that.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:50]:
Absolutely.
Chad Smith [00:51:51]:
So I think it depends how you look at it.
Lucas Underwood [00:51:54]:
The guidance counselors. Sure. When we talk about that, do you know what the number one thing is? When the guidance counselors finally come into the automotive program and they look and see what it is that we're doing now, they say, holy shit. What do you mean? We just thought you all were down here, like, turning wrenches or something. No, actually, we're taking boards apart and we're writing EPROM to the chipset on the board in hexadecimal code. Oh, well, we've been sending you kids that can't read and write. Sorry about that. Right now.
Lucas Underwood [00:52:26]:
I think it shows that there's so much opportunity and so much potential, and I'm excited for the next generation of shop owners. Right. And I know you guys work a lot with corporations and things like that, but I'm excited to see what the next generation of independent owner looks like in the automotive space because I think it's going to be really cool to see what they're capable of.
Laura Gay [00:52:45]:
And honestly, that's one thing that at CIC, I said a couple of times, it's important to understand that we're not fear mongering by any. We're absolutely anti fear mongering. There's absolutely a place for the independent body shop owner, mechanical shop owner, tire shop owner, whatever it is that you want to do in the automotive space. There's absolutely a place for you because there's people like Chad and I. That's who we're going to have our car fixed at. We're not going to go to McDonald's or chick fil a and have our car fixed. We're going to choose an independent every single time. And not only that, I think independents have a lot more control.
Laura Gay [00:53:28]:
It's just a different feel. And I just think that there's always going to be a need, a desire, a want for that type and level of service.
Lucas Underwood [00:53:38]:
Yeah. That true care and compassion that independent provides for their people.
Chad Smith [00:53:43]:
And I think that's one thing that came out of some of the CIC panels this morning was, and it was unanimous that this space that we're in now is still the best time to be a shop owner. It's the best time if you're a consolidator, it's the best time if you're a small regional MSO. It's the best time. If you're a one shop independent.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:01]:
Yeah.
Chad Smith [00:54:02]:
There's a lot of opportunities out there still that are available for you to be successful. You might not be able to do the same thing you've done ten years ago. Of course, we all know what change is. Nobody likes it, right? But change is always constant. And you have to realize that you better accept it, you better, because it's going to be there. But if you're willing to understand that there's a place for you still as an independent shop, it might not look like it did two or three years ago, but it could look better than it did. And you just don't realize it.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:29]:
Exactly.
Laura Gay [00:54:30]:
And you just have to put on a different pair of glasses. I think that's the biggest struggle for all of us. We're used to putting our pants on the same way. We have to think about a different style of pants or a different outfit.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:43]:
Creative. Think outside the box a little bit.
Laura Gay [00:54:45]:
Yeah. You just have to start kind of looking around and seeing different ideas and thoughts that are out there.
Lucas Underwood [00:54:52]:
Well, so in closing, I do have one more question for both of you. Since you've retired. Is retired the right word?
Chad Smith [00:55:00]:
No, I hate that word.
Lucas Underwood [00:55:02]:
Since you've sold your shops, what is life like? You. I see your facebook post. I don't even want to ask you that question. Chad, what do you. Are you sitting on the beach all the time?
Chad Smith [00:55:13]:
No, I work just as much now as I did when we had three shops.
Laura Gay [00:55:17]:
What are you talking about?
Lucas Underwood [00:55:18]:
He asked me. He didn't ask you?
Laura Gay [00:55:20]:
Okay.
Chad Smith [00:55:21]:
No, she's not either. She's hardcore, just like I am. That's why we get along so well. And it's simply because I just knew that I wanted to change whatever that changed. And honestly, whenever we know, Laura helped us with our transaction and we were getting close to the closing date, and I was like, you sound like you're kind of busy. She's like, yeah, I'm swamped. I don't know what I'm. I need to come to work for you.
Chad Smith [00:55:44]:
She's like, we can makes that happen. Three months after we sold, I'm like, hey, I'm ready. Let's do this. Because I'd already gotten bored. But it's a lot different. And it goes back to what your statement was to say as a young individual. If you get into the automotive world, you're going to be a technician, and that's where you're going to land. I mean, you've got two prime examples in you as well.
Chad Smith [00:56:05]:
Just because you enter into it one way does not mean you're pigeonholed in that lane. There's all kind of different things that you can. I'm going to use the word, blossom out from that most people don't see. I mean, my background was in business accounting. I got into the shop, I grew the shop, and then I'm still in the industry now. And I do that by choice because I have that love for that industry. I want to stay involved and see other people be successful, whatever that success looks for them. If it's migrating to another career, if it's migrating to the beach or whatever, it is.
Chad Smith [00:56:35]:
Enjoying that.
Lucas Underwood [00:56:36]:
Exactly. And, man, that's a perfect explanation of it, because I've heard so many people talk about retirement and say, I'm going to be done. I'm going to sell the place, and I'm going to be done. And look, my dad. In 89, my dad retired from the family business, and two months later, it burnt down and it cost him $3.6 million in the end of the day. And he said, well, I'm not retiring anymore. So he still works to this day. I think we've got to stop putting the conventional lens of retirement on retirement.
Lucas Underwood [00:57:12]:
And I think we have to understand that retirement is really a place that we're getting to, is a destination that we're trying to achieve, where we can set some goals and set some stuff in place for what we want the rest of life to look like, be prepared for the future. What about you? How do you feel now that you've gotten busier?
Laura Gay [00:57:33]:
So when I first sold, my intention was not to work again. I was not going to work and was in a position where I didn't have to. But what happened was, just like Chad, I went stir crazy. I focused on being a mom for the first couple of years and enjoyed every moment of that. But then my son got his license, and he was homeless, and my mom duties were less and less. And I was realizing that I was getting ready to enter the emptiness mode. And then that's what got me kind of getting my feedback in. Meanwhile, along, I was still helping some friends sell friends.
Laura Gay [00:58:14]:
That's how I started this business, was I was helping friends, and one of my friends came to me and said, gosh, I could have never gotten through this without you. You really need to start a business. And I was just doing it. You know, how you help your friends out, and that's how this business got started. But I think that, yes, I have a good time, there's no doubt about that. But I do work really hard, definitely. But I start really early in the morning. We all get the same 24 hours.
Laura Gay [00:58:48]:
You just got to figure out how you're going to use it.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:50]:
Maximize every square inch.
Laura Gay [00:58:52]:
Exactly.
Lucas Underwood [00:58:53]:
Every square inch.
Laura Gay [00:58:54]:
But yes, I'm happy that I still work probably 50, 60 hours a week now. But I think, again, it's 2.0 careers. There's lots of them out there. I'm enjoying loving what we're doing. I think for me and for Chad, we love to help other shop owners, even if it's just understand and have some understanding of everything, even if they don't help us. Because I think for us, both of us, it just drives us crazy when we see shop owners get screwed or get the short end of the. It's. We were shop owners, so we get it.
Laura Gay [00:59:30]:
You know what? You know, we worked our ass off. I wash cars in my high know. Chad did not wash cars in high heels, I hope.
Lucas Underwood [00:59:37]:
I mean, he might have. You never know. I know this is a weird world.
Laura Gay [00:59:40]:
We live, but what I'm saying is, seriously, is that we've all walked the walk, and when it's time to sell, you should definitely realize every scent that's coming to you and not leave anything on the table. And however you get to that is important that you take the time and not scurry through the process, because it's easy to, I don't want to say get confused by the smiles and the handshakes and the comp and circumstance and the emotions of all of it going on.
Chad Smith [01:00:12]:
And we've never been advocates for anyone to sell, but we're advocates. If you're going to sell, do it right, because you've only got one shot.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:18]:
I really believe that if you own a business, you should get evaluation done and you should at least have an emergency plan that if something happens, you've got some structure, you've got some idea, you know what to do, you know how to handle it, you know what to expect, because it's not you that's going to pay that price, it's your loved ones that have to handle that. And so I think it's really important to at least have a succession plan, a black book with all of your telephone numbers, all that information in it, so you can at least prepare whoever's going to come behind you and clean the mess up, you know?
Chad Smith [01:00:51]:
Right.
Laura Gay [01:00:52]:
Well, thank you.
Lucas Underwood [01:00:52]:
Of course, how can they contact you if you got a collision shop you want to sell?
Laura Gay [01:00:56]:
So our website is consolidationcoach.com and you can reach us at 301-399-8675 or my email laura@consolidationcoach.com you can also add her.
Lucas Underwood [01:01:07]:
On Facebook and see what beach she's on today. Thank you guys for being here.
Chad Smith [01:01:12]:
Thank you.
Laura Gay [01:01:13]:
Thank you.