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American Business Brokers & Advisors Founder & President MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS BUSINESS VALUATIONS
JANUARY 2024
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Is There a Secret to Creating a Successful Convenience Store?
Since becoming involved in the convenience store industry over 24 years ago, I have visited thousands of convenience stores all over the U.S., sometimes as a customer and sometimes as a business. I work to determine the market value of the convenience store and help the convenience store owner exit the industry while helping others purchase convenience stores. I have seen really good stores and really bad stores. I have been in stores owned by the best in the industry and was appalled at the lack of cleanliness, and I have been in mom-and-pop stores that would knock your socks off with their presentation and cleanliness. My view of convenience stores is always twofold. My first impression is from a customer’s point of view, how the store looks and feels to me as a customer. This is something I think a lot of convenience store owners have a hard time grasping because they are too close to the situation. When they visit a store, it usually is to address a situation or to fix something, and they tend to neglect how the store makes the customer feel and what the customer sees. I understand why they do this because when I owned my 100- plus retail stores, I tended to lose sight of these things, too. I was too busy trying to get stuff done to pay attention to the feeling and presentation of the store. Then, unfortunately, there are convenience store owners who don’t care about how the store looks or feels to the customer; instead, their only concern is how much money is going through the register. These types of owners
give the convenience store industry a bad rap and are generally not long-term players.
as they are friendly and nice to me. Any appearance can go away with a smile and a positive attitude, which is what will make or break a convenience store. 3. Capital investment is crucial. If the owner of the store is not reinvesting in the store, the parking lot is full of holes, the signage is worn and faded, and the interior fixtures are worn out, it sends a negative signal to customers. Maintaining capital investment in a store goes a long way; otherwise, you are a target for a new bright and shiny store to open down the street and take a large portion of your business because they have newer and nicer assets than you. 4. Product mix is something that must be congruent to the customer base the store is trying to serve. We can’t lose sight of the fact that convenience stores must be prepared to stock the items customers are looking for when they come into your store. If you are on an interstate location, you should be carrying a different product mix than if you were a store in a rural community. It sounds simple, but some convenience store owners have forgotten this and instead listened to their managers who were listening to their suppliers who are in the business to sell you stuff. When I had employees in charge of buying products for my stores, I had to remind them their supplier rep was not their friend. If the customer is looking for the cheapest price, they need to go to Walmart and trudge through a 200,000-square-foot building, which is not convenient. Continued on Page 3 ...
But what really defines if a convenience store is successful? For this example, I am going to consider a successful convenience store as one that is generating a positive cashflow annually and continues to grow its profitability every year, that continues to invest in the product mix it sells, invests in capital improvements enhancing the interior and exterior of the building, and invests in its employees. I have given my opinion as to what I think quantifies a convenience store as successful. Now, let’s talk about the basics a convenience store must have to be successful.
1. Location is the number one reason a
convenience store is successful. It doesn’t have to be in a large metropolitan area. I have seen and sold stores in towns of 3,000 population that generated over $500,000 a year in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). I often see convenience stores that are successful only because of their location and the operator is a mediocre operator, and they think because the store is making money, it is because they are a good operator. No, they just have a good location. 2. Employees are the heart of any store. They can make you or break you. I used to be turned off by employees who had multicolored hair and enough metal in their faces to set off the security system at the airport, but I grew up and learned to accept people for who they are as long
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Terry’s House & the Hurricane Damage Finale
Recently, I shared with everyone how my home was almost destroyed by Hurricane Ian, the damage inflicted to the house, how I fought with insurance adjusters for 11 months, and how I got my butt kicked by not being an expert in the field of insurance adjusting. I should have hired a professional who negotiates with insurance companies rather than trying to do it myself. Now that 15 months have passed since Hurricane Ian hit my home in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, I thought I would share the rest of the story with everyone. Earlier, I shared that the hurricane, with its 14-foot surge of water, destroyed the back walls of my home, washed away the garage doors and everything in the garage — including the cars inside the garage — and removed all the landscaping. What the water didn’t take with it, the 155-mph wind took care of by blowing water underneath the sliding glass doors, thereby soaking the floors of the home with water and the sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, which all had to be removed. Because of all the damage the house had incurred, the flooring in the house had to be replaced. My general contractor told me that I needed to get all my furniture and personal belongings out of the house so they could replace the flooring and the sheetrock. I could either move everything to a mini storage facility, or the contractor said I could move everything to a storage area he had in another house down the street that was converted to a climate- controlled storage area. Since it was down the street, and I could go check on my stuff or get anything out of storage I may need while the contractor was repairing my home, I agreed to his proposal. That was the middle of October. Come Dec. 22, 2022, while driving a vehicle to Florida to replace my car that was washed away by the hurricane, I got a call from my general contractor to let me know he had some bad news for me. I was tired from driving all day, and I asked him what was the bad news. He said there had been a fire in the storage building
where all my furniture and personal belongings were being stored, and everything was burned up in the fire. Yes, not only was my house ripped apart from the hurricane, but now all my furniture and personal belongings just got burned up. This is part of the reason it took me so long to settle with the insurance companies because I now had to deal with the contents portion of the policy, too. So, now I have a house that is partially dismantled and no furniture or personal belongings either. Fast forward to August of 2023, and after cussing, complaining, begging, and whining with the subcontractors who would show up to work on my home, I was able to move back into my home. Mind you, I didn’t say that it was finished, but it was livable. Even as I write this story 15 months later, I still have people working on the house.
same sentence that comes out of his mouth. “Terry, I have some bad news for you.” (Mind you, I have a house full of new furniture now, and I am living in the house but was not home when I got this call.) The contractor said what happened was the plumber who had been hired to replace the hot water heater, which was located in the attic of the house, had turned the water off to the house, and one of the painters who was painting outside who needed to clean his brushes turned the water back on thereby sending water flowing freely into the house and into the attic and down through the ceiling, ruining the sheetrock in the ceiling of the living room. Which meant they needed to remove all the sheetrock in the living room and start over repairing and painting the ceiling in the living room. No, you can’t make this stuff up. So, the remodeling continued. Then, in November, while installing curtains, they drilled into a water line inside the wall and shot water all through the kitchen. Please keep in mind the reason I have shared this with you is because it is about stuff. Nobody was hurt. Nobody is sick. Only stuff. Thank God nobody is sick, which would be a problem. I was taught if it can be fixed by writing a check, then it is not a problem. Because we all know that if one of our loved ones was sick, we would give all the money we have to make them well again. The moral of the story is that life is a journey, and we have to be prepared to accept what happens to us. Stuff is going to happen we could never think of, like a pandemic, a hurricane, or a fire. It’s never-ending. Life can be humbling, and it continues to remind us things could always be worse, and it helps us to appreciate what we have. I have been humbled and am thankful for every day, which makes each day a great day, and I hope every day in the New Year of 2024 is a great day for you, too. Let the journey begin!
But wait, there’s more. Come October 2023, I get another call from my contractor with the
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SUDOKU (SOLUTION ON PG. 4) Take a Break!
"HIDDEN WEALTH" The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business
► What is the value of what you are selling? ► Want to make sure the sale is confidential? ► Want to sell everything together & fast? Terry has sold over 857 businesses. His book tells you what to do and more importantly what NOT to do when selling one's business. GET YOUR FREE COPY TODAY! Email Terry@TerryMonroe.com Put FREE COPY in the subject line for your free copy of "Hidden Wealth", a ForbesBooks publication.
... continued from Cover 5. Cleanliness. Yes, cleanliness is still a quality that customers strive to see and appreciate. If the MPDs are dirty, which is the first impression a customer sees, then chances are it isn’t going to get any better when you go inside. A dirty store is a turn-off, and dirty bathrooms are the pits. I have been in national chain stores that I can’t mention, and they brag about the layout and products of their store, but their bathrooms are atrocious. And this was not in one store but in every one of the stores I visited. There is NO excuse for a store being dirty. Of course, other qualities are needed for a convenience store to be successful, but these are the main points. The sad part of the story is a lot of operators can’t even get these five points right. However, if you can perform the five main points I have outlined, you will have a successful convenience store regardless of who your competition is. TERRY’S QUOTES OF THE DAY “To err is human, to blame it on somebody else shows management potential.” –Anonymous “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” –Phyllis Diller “Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people.” –Barbara Bush, Former First Lady of the United States
WORD SEARCH
BOOTS CANDLES CARNATION FURNACE
GARNET HOCKEY INSULATE JANUS
OPPOSITE RESOLUTION
SKATING SWEATER
–Terry Monroe
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INSIDE 7824 Estero Blvd., 3rd Floor Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931 1 5 Keys to Convenience Store Success
Sudoku Solution
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Terry’s Home Repair Disasters
Thinking About Selling Your Business in 2023?
The Remarkable Rise of Kierra Henderson, the Trucking Guru
How Kierra Henderson Built Her Multimillion-Dollar Empire KEEP ON TRUCKING
To achieve business success, is education necessary? Not always! Many entrepreneurs without formal education have left a mark on their respective industries and started businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Virgin Group. And Kierra Henderson, better known as the Trucking Guru, has recently added her name to the list of prominent successful entrepreneurs who never finished high school. Henderson faced adversity countless times during her youth, dropped out of high school, became a teen mom, and found herself in trouble with the law. To give herself and her daughter a chance at a better future, she turned her life around and was hired by a local AT&T store.
However, the company outsourced her job overseas, leaving Henderson scrambling to find something new. A friend told her to get into the trucking industry. She knew nothing about trucking but figured it was worth a shot. She lied on her resume, claiming to have a degree and even making up a former employer to make herself more hireable. This company didn’t look into Henderson’s background and offered her the job. Unfortunately, the work was more difficult than Henderson anticipated. She messed up continually but was determined to keep the job and worked to improve. Before she knew it, she had earned an operations manager position with the same company. Eventually, she learned how to dispatch and started doing it on her own time. After she raised enough funds, she bought a truck and
partnered with a trucking company to bring in more money. One truck became two trucks, and two trucks quickly became four. Today, Henderson’s fleet consists of 116 trucks and has brought in more than $100 million. In 2021, she launched The Truckin’ Millionaires Tour, where she offered training and coaching to educate people on self- sufficiency in the trucking industry. She even hosted a huge convention in Dallas in October 2023 called the TTG Fest, featuring over 13 guest speakers who discussed trucking, the transportation industry, and entrepreneurship. Henderson’s story proves your past does not determine your future. Even if you dropped out of school, made mistakes, and found yourself in legal trouble, you can still turn it around, find a new passion, and reach new levels of success. Don’t let any obstacle block your progress!
In this position, she won several awards and regularly earned management’s recognition.
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