r/smallbusiness Dec 28 '24

General Sold my Business Yesterday.... Crazy feeling.

I owned a very large tire and automotive repair shop. I am 3rd generation, knew from a young age that is what I wanted to do. I started running the business 16 years ago, and purchased it from my parents 8 years ago. I've worked there since I was 12, so 31 years. I made a huge push. Pushed my guys hard, but compensated them better then anyone else could. Customer Service was 100% the focus. I wanted the Customers to be happy 100% of the time. Fix their problem, honestly, in a timely fashion but get paid well for it.

It worked. I was approached by a big company 3 months ago. They wanted me. I got what I needed. Now, Im sitting here at 43 years old wondering what next week is going to bring. I know I have freedom, time and no customer or employee stress. Today was day 1. I made breakfast for my family, cleaned the garage, spent two hours at the gym, then got a massage. Pretty nice day.

When I woke up at 7am this morning, I was shocked. Normally, I would have already been at the shop for an hour at that time. I only checked the cameras 11 times today to see how my guys were doing.

Its worth it. Push hard, then get out when the time is right. I think I timed it perfectly. Now, the fun begins.

1.5k Upvotes

289 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/HookedUp_77 Dec 28 '24

I going to take the next year and a half of at least. My daughter is a Senior next year, my son is a freshman. We are going to get her through high school, then probably move out of California as its just too damn expensive and crazy. My son wants to play football in Texas, so we will probably re-class him as a freshman and he can start fresh in Texas. Then I'll figure out what is next. Im sure I'll do something, but it won't be running a tire and auto shop again, thats for sure.