Before I decided to devote full time to working with convenience store owners and dedicating my time to convenience store owners and their families, I was a general business broker selling what we call “Main Street” businesses. I would sell a limousine service, a restaurant, a retail store, and other general businesses because I had a background in owning and operating these kinds of businesses, so it was easy for me to relate to them. But since the early 2000s, I have been working exclusively with convenience store owners because I like the industry and the people I get to work with. 21-Year-Old Son Gives Advice to His Father About Selling the Family Business
interested in buying a magazine company. Now, the only thing I know about the magazine business is how to read a magazine, but ultimately, all businesses are the same. They have income and expenses, and they either create a profit or a loss. I told the caller I may know someone who would be interested in buying a magazine company, and I called them. They said yes, they were interested in buying a magazine company, and if it was the one they had been wanting to buy, they were really interested. After signing the confidentiality agreement, I shared with my friend the name of the magazine business I had to sell, and lo and behold, it was the one they wanted to buy. So, the game was on, and I was in the process of selling a very large magazine company. The negotiations between my buyer and the magazine company’s seller were going well. The price had been agreed upon, the due diligence had been completed, and we were down to the closing date. My buyer was anxious to close the transaction as soon as possible, and my seller wanted to hold off until the end of next month.
The seller was a great guy but was quirky about delaying the closing for no valid reason. He was telling his 21-year-old son one evening all about the transaction and was trying to justify his reason for delaying the closing to his son. His son happened to be watching TV while his dad was giving his dissertation about selling the family business and why he wanted the closing delayed when his son turned around to his dad and said, “Dad, just take the money!” This was all it took to get the dad back into reality, and within two weeks, the transaction was closed. The moral of the story is that sometimes we are too close to things to be able to see the big picture, and we make up false reasons to support our false ideas. If this should ever happen to you, remember what the 21-year- old son said to his dad: “Just take the money!” (Without naming the magazine company, there is a very good chance you may be reading one of their publications every month from the convenience store industry.)
–Terry Monroe
However, in 2022, a friend of mine called to ask me if I knew someone who would be
SUNDAY’S TRAGEDY = SELL THEM ALL*
*All of the stories I share in my articles are true stories. I change the names so as not to incriminate myself and my clients. Sigmund Freud had what he called the Pleasure Principle. According to him, the Pleasure Principle refers to the instinctual drive in humans to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Then there is the Reality Principle. The Pleasure Principle drives us to seek immediate gratification and avoid discomfort, while the Reality Principle compels us to consider the consequences of the real world regardless of whether it may be painful. These two principles determine the decisions we make on a daily basis and are the core reasons we do the things we do. Take my friend Rob. Rob owned five very profitable convenience stores and had operated them for just under 20 years. Next door to three of the stores, he had purchased the franchise to Little Caesar’s Pizza, which he operated in conjunction with his convenience stores.
customers and always worked hard to give them the best customer service he could.
who sells convenience stores? I am going to get rid of these stores and this Little Caesar’s Pizza that took me a year and a half to build and isn’t making any money. I wonder if I call him or send him an email on Sunday will he answer me? And you probably know the rest of the story. Yes, he did contact me, and yes, we did get together, and yes, I did sell his stores. When he told me this story lately, we both laughed for five minutes because he told me had been thinking about selling his stores for a while, but dumping the red pizza sauce on his new pants made him madder than the thousands of dollars he was losing every month on the Little Caesar’s Pizza store, which was enough for him to pull the trigger and exit the business. The story has a happy ending because Rob is now in a new business with minimal employees and will never have to worry about someone showing up for their shift. Sigmund Freud’s Pleasure Principle works in all of us every day. Hopefully, you don’t need to dump a container of sauce on yourself to decide what is best for you and your future.
Well, as things happen in the life of a convenience store operator, it was Sunday morning, and Rob got a call that his first shift person, who was supposed to open one of the Little Caesar’s Pizza stores, called, and they were not coming to work this Sunday morning. Rob was aggravated, of course, because he was dressed and ready to go to church, but somebody had to get to the store and get the dough ready to be able to be cooked for the lunch hour, and that somebody happened to be him. So, Rob rushes to the store, still dressed for church with his new pants he had bought on Saturday, knowing he had to get the pizza dough ready for lunch. Of course, while making the dough and moving the pans and condiments around, Rob dumps an entire container of red pizza sauce on his new pants, ruining them. Next comes a flurry of expletives … @#*^!*+#. He is unbelievably mad and upset. Then all of a sudden, he has an epiphany. He says to himself: What is the name of that guy who has been sending me newsletters and emails for years
Rob was a good operator because he was conscientious about taking care of his
–Terry Monroe
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