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American Business Brokers & Advisors Founder & President MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS BUSINESS VALUATIONS
JANUARY 2025
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A Story About Success, Freedom, and Serving
This story begins in late October of 2021 when I first got the call from a guy who owned six convenience stores in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area. He was in his mid-40s and had spent the majority of his working life involved in the convenience store industry. He was at a crossroads in his life, and wanted to talk to me about the possibility of selling his stores. We had some great conversations, and one of the last questions I always ask someone who is thinking about stepping away from their business is what are their plans after they leave the business. My guy said he didn’t have any real plans for going forward, and at the end of our conversation, he said he may want to be a business broker. Once I heard this remark, I knew for sure the guy was struggling with his future because nobody wants to be a business broker. As a business broker, you spend most of your time being an intermediary negotiating back and forth with the buyer and the seller of the business, which can get testy sometimes.
Regardless of my guy’s answer, I proceeded with obtaining the financial information I needed, then visited his stores and did the analysis as to what I believed his stores were worth in the marketplace. My guy was a very good operator, and his stores looked great, were well-located, and profitable. Overall, a good group of stores. He had tried to enter the food business with the addition of two nationally branded pizza stores which were doing okay but not great. When we finished our market study and reviewed his stores, I shared with him what we believed the stores would sell for in the marketplace. He said we should move forward and take the stores to the marketplace, which we did. It wasn’t very long before we found the right buyer who had the money and the desire to own six well-run and in excellent condition convenience stores in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area. We entered into a purchase agreement, began the process of due diligence, and were on our way to a successful closing, which we had. It is always a wonderful time when you can help someone step away from their business and free them from the daily tasks of having to deal with the employee issues, vendors, insurance issues, and regulations that come with operating a business. Eventually, everyone gets to a point where they are ready to close this chapter of their life and move on to a different vocation, regardless of their age. My guy always had a great attitude, was vibrant, and was full of energy, and this was reflected in his stores. It appeared that because of his attitude, his employees liked him. He was involved in the local community with different organizations, was constantly on the move, and was very successful. Now, he had his freedom from operating his convenience stores. After the sale of his stores, we always kept in touch, talking back and forth about the convenience store industry and what his plans were for the future. I always tell my clients after they have sold their stores not to get involved in another business for at least six months, and if you can, wait a year, that is even better because, after the hustle and bustle of operating a business on a daily level, you have to let your mind and body purge itself of being an operator and focus on something different to get yourself into a different state of mind. My guy took my advice and did not go buy another Continued on Page 2 ...
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HOW FAR AWAY IS TOO FAR WHEN OPERATING A CONVENIENCE STORE?
One of the first rules of real estate is that real estate is all about location, location, location. If this is the No. 1 rule in the real estate business, then the No. 2 rule is competition, which is just as important, if not more. Before we discuss what the perfect location for a convenience store would be, let’s first begin with YOU. What do you want to accomplish? Are you an owner-operator who has a couple of stores and are looking to grow your base of business? Or are you someone who already owns multiple stores and you are planning on growing into the 10–20-plus store range or beyond? Is your plan to build or buy wherever you can and resell the store, or is your plan to grow the family business? It makes a difference. The criteria for finding the perfect location are the same, but the outcome is different because of the cost involved. Most of the larger chains of convenience store operators have a long-term vision where they are looking 25–50 years in the future. They can do this because they have the infrastructure and financial capability to keep the business going for a long time, and they are not dependent on family members to continue the growth, which enables them to develop stores across the country where the people are migrating.
perfect location are, first, going to where the people are. You can do a quick demographic search of the area you intend to operate in or with the assistance of a commercial real estate company with access to demographic information. Of course, the location you select must have easy access, and a right-hand turn into the location is always preferable, especially coming off a major highway or expressway. Competition is the next factor that will make you or break you. Is there already a competitor close by? If so, then how much new business do you expect to acquire from the marketplace? There are companies that, for a fee, will do the research for you to help determine how much business the location will generate. Are your intentions to keep the store and operate it, or are your intentions to sell it in the near future? If you plan on keeping it, then be sure to survey the territory to see if there is a possibility of a new competitor down the road, and incorporate this into your financial proforma.
infrastructure to jump 1,000 miles across the country and acquire some stores or build a group of stores without jeopardizing your entire operation. Therefore, you are restricted to finding a location that is considered an “A” location with minimal competition, which may mean buying an older store and razing and rebuilding it within your region. An owner-operator with only a few stores is limited in their growth opportunities and would be best suited to acquire a competitor who has a good location but is not a good operator. I have seen hundreds of convenience store operators who think they are good at operating their stores, but in reality, they are mediocre operators who have an excellent real estate location, and the location carries the business, not their ability as an operator.
Ultimately, the perfect location for a convenience store is one on a parcel of
property large enough to facilitate the store with enough real estate for future growth, easy ingress and egress for vehicles to enter and leave the location, and strong demographics of available customers and minimal competition.
–Terry Monroe
If you are a regional player with 10 or more stores, then you generally won’t have the
So, the perfect location can be different things for different people, but the basics of the
... continued from Cover
When I first heard this, I thought maybe he was going to become a preacher, but instead, he wanted to become involved with people and serve them as a politician. He had decided to run for public office. Not just any public office like a city commissioner or the mayor of a local community. No, he was going to run for the office of Wisconsin’s 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.
with Donald Trump, and spoke to the people from his heart. He used his experience as a successful businessman and shared something the people had never heard before: common sense. Tony was sincere in his message to everyone he spoke to, and his voice resonated with the people of the 8th congressional district of Wisconsin. He was elected to office in November 2024.
business or make any commitments to another business. Instead, he was feeling himself out and trying to decide what he would enjoy doing with his future years. Then, one day, I got a call from him to let me know he had decided what he wanted to do. He said he enjoys people and wants to get more involved with helping people and to serve people in helping them improve their lives.
Well, my guy is Tony Wied, and he did go for it. He ran as a Republican, aligned himself
Tony’s story is a great example of how someone could start a small business,
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SUDOKU (SOLUTION ON PG. 4) Take a Break!
Find out, with just three pieces of information about your business, how we can provide a convenience store operator with a market valuation showing what their convenience stores and businesses are worth in today’s marketplace. Best of all, it costs you nothing and it is entirely confidential. Simply send an email to Terry@TerryMonroe , and in the subject line, put “3 Point Market Valuation” Information is the key to everything. Don’t play a guessing game. Get the information you need. TERRY’S ‘3 POINT MARKET VALUATION’ become successful, exit the business on top, and decide to continue to serve the people who helped make them successful by giving back and using the talents they learned from their business background. I know Tony will be as successful as a United States Representative as he was in his business. And maybe there is another Tony Wied among us who may want to use their talents and experience to serve the people who helped make them successful. Congratulations, Tony. We are all proud of you and what you have accomplished, and all the best to you. –Terry Monroe TERRY’S QUOTES OF THE DAY “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” –Albert Einstein “I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all.” –Simone Biles “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” –Nido Qubein
WORD SEARCH
BEGINNINGS BLANKETS CARNATION CAPRICORN
GARNET HEALTHY ICICLE PENGUIN
PLANNING RESOLUTION SNOWBOARD SOUPY
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INSIDE 7824 Estero Blvd., 3rd Floor Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 1 A Story About Success, Freedom, and Serving
Sudoku Solution
How Far Away Is Too Far When Operating a Convenience Store?
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Discover Terry’s ‘3 Point Market Valuation’
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‘Murdering’ the Competition
At first glance, not much about 42-year-old Mike Cessario stands out. Like many in his generation, he’s heavily tattooed and likes to wear band T-shirts. Depending on your age or sensibilities, you’re likely to either pass him on the street without giving him much thought or walk to the other side to avoid him. Either way, your preconceptions would be wrong — dead wrong. Cessario’s the man behind Liquid Death, a name you’ve likely seen on your supermarket shelves. Although you’d expect someone with his aesthetics to fill his company’s aluminum cans with alcohol, he’s made a fortune by selling good old-fashioned … water ?! MURDERING THIRST — AND THE MARKETPLACE Cessario revolutionized the beverage industry by adhering to the philosophy that the best way to someone’s wallet is through their eyes. With its provocative, skull-emblazed cans and promise to “murder your thirst,” Liquid Death has exceeded expectations of what a water company could achieve. It has grown from a cheeky concept to a $1.4 Liquid Death’s Daring Ascent MARKETING THE MACABRE
billion business in just five years , proving that just about anything will sell if given the right spin.
THE BRAIN BEHIND THE BRAND Liquid Death’s leader had already mastered the art of millennial-focused marketing long before his brand dominated the field. In addition to collaborating with influencers Steve-O (“Jackass”) and Travis Barker (Blink-182), Cessario’s viral promotion skills helped drive the success of the Netflix shows “House of Cards” and “Stranger Things.” Now at the helm of an outrageously successful company, he readily admits his upward climb has resulted mainly from choosing what he describes as “the dumbest possible name” for a safe and healthy beverage. As he told CNBC, “If someone I knew saw [one of our cans] in a store, I’m pretty sure they’re going to have to pick that up and be like, ‘What is this?’ And once someone picks something up, you’ve basically won.”
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