Do You Really Need Consulting When Buying A Route?

Yes, this article is a shameless plug for consulting. But you need to understand why this is so important to you. If I miss out on a few hundred bucks from someone trying to be frugal, it’s not a huge deal. But what IS a huge deal is when that frugal person loses $20,000-$50,000 in earnings that never materialized because of some oversight / misrepresentation, you can understand why getting help is so important for someone wanting to purchase a bread route or a FedEx route.

FedEx Sellers sometimes hide a few surprises

GETTING AND SCHEDULING THE 5 HOUR CONSULT BLOCK:

Truth is…I’m not getting rich selling consulting training. But I enjoy helping people in this industry. 

Sometimes I end up chatting with contractors that end up purchasing a FedEx route without getting consulting or help from me. The people that usually try to save a few bucks by avoiding getting the help are usually people that have a friend that either was a FedEx contractor in the past or is currently a contractor, or worse – someone on a forum. These acquaintances are really just trying to help, but inadvertently might be doing harm than good. They make the buyer feel like they don’t need additional or professional help, which is a dangerous issue. The biggest problem is this –

The helpful contractor hasn’t seen nearly the amount of tricks sellers have up their sleeves.

It occurred to me after a couple years of doing extensive due diligence for FedEx routes for my clients. I realized that there are so many tricks that sellers have for making their routes look good that each case warranted individual help and investigation. If you think that when it comes down to several hundred thousand dollars, everyone is going to be 100% honest and transparent, you’re about to get some very expensive lessons in business. Many contractors ARE honest good people selling their business though, but many have a) forgotten expenses, b) accidentally overlooked certain financial elements or c) knowingly want to exaggerate gains and under exaggerate expenses. I’ve been evaluating routes professionally for several years now, and no one has the experience seeing the amount of things I’ve seen happen out there. This is precisely why I refuse to compile some 200 page book and 10 DVD compilation on due diligence.  Those sorts of things are just lazy cop-outs for what you should be getting, which is –

You getting individualized and personal help evaluating all the routes you’re contemplating purchasing.

We can look at each route you’re considering purchasing, and since your time never expires with the consulting, we often end up evaluating routes together in the future as well. I don’t just offer pre-sale due diligence help, but more of a comprehensive solution. Often I help people even after they’ve purchased the routes and the seller is long gone and no longer providing any post-sale support. I also help established contractors figure out ways to help optimize their routes, grow their routes in the right way, and attempt to turn the business on as close to auto-pilot as possible.

There’s no such thing as a business that runs on auto-pilot forever, but we can try to get close.

Is this what the route seller claims to be doing all day?

In fact, one of the biggest selling points to routes is how much they lend themselves to the marketing points of absentee ownership. Yes, that’s possible, and it’s not too good to be true, but that statement can be highly misleading.

So if you’re thinking seriously about buying routes and you’ve got an experienced friend that wants to help you evaluate the routes, I would still tread those waters very carefully. It might be like hiring a friend that watched Matlock a lot suddenly represent you in court – they probably know just enough to be somewhat dangerous to you. If you’re wanting to determine what the real risks (and rewards!) are of FedEx route ownership (or bread routes as well), you need to go ahead and reach out now.

Just want to say hi before you make the purchase? Just drop me a note, I’d love to hear from you!