Black Car / Limousine Service
Car Service Business for sale in Austin, Texas

Summary:

Austin Private Car Service Corporation (APCS) is uniquely positioned in the Austin Texas market. The corporation benefits from a wide-variety of market factors that have created a sustained steady stream of organic transportation requests from new and existing clients. APCS is one of few black car services that have adapted to the new gig economy and is enjoying explosive growth.

APCS operates differently than most livery services. APCS does not obtain business from 3rd party networks such as Blacklane or Limos.com. We are not on the Limo Anywhere network. APCS does not engage in farm-out or farm-in business. It does not make sense to APCS to put clients into farm-out and/or contracted vehicles with drivers who harbor little vested interest at significantly reduced margins. Rather, APCS focuses on developing its own clients and subsequently controlling the quality of experience with its clients.

APCS develops its schedule to handle 99.9% of business in-house with its own employee drivers. The end result is that APCS controls the quality of its client's experience while enjoying very high margins. Bottom line? All business is APCS clients ... and APCS handles 99.9% of its own business. As a result of these business practices, APCS is flooded with transportation requests by loyal clients as well as organically generated requests through google SEO website positioning.

APCS cannot handle all incoming transportation requests on a monthly basis. Requests totaling a value of $15k to $30k a month are left unfilled. APCS is not concerned about its clients going to other services because it cannot fill their requests. After all, clients that do go elsewhere often come back to APCS to handle future business because of the lack of quality and bad experiences at other services that acts as a stark difference to the company's reliably consistent quality of service ... which builds even more loyalty. Even if they do permanently go elsewhere, there is significant incoming business to back-fill. Bottom line? Our schedule is constantly full with high-margin business. Isn't that what it's all about?

Rideshare services have brought thousands of new gig-economy consumers into the mindset of utilizing car services. As many of those same consumers have become disenchanted with rideshare, they have been searching online for other alternatives that are not only professional and reliable, but also employ modern approaches to doing business, making interactions easy and effortless. In addition, established black car services have generally resisted change. Long-time private and corporate users of black car services have been exploring alternatives and are hungry for professional, modern services like APCS that harbor strong ethics, and have made working together transparent, easy and effortless. APCS's website enjoys top rankings on search engine results in key search terms. Combined with solid 5-star ratings, APCS is well positioned for client retention, new client attraction, and continued growth.

The Austin Texas market is well-known for sustained growth, consistently appearing on lists such as "fastest growing cities in America" as well as "best places to live in America". Austin is not only a growing housing market, but is also a destination market for corporate events, weddings, and tourism. Austin enjoys major yearly events such as South by Southwest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Formula 1. APCS has positioned itself as the premier provider of black car service in Austin, Texas for both corporate and private consumers.

Austin is a magnet for business growth. Tesla recently relocated to Austin and has purchased additional property near the airport that is larger that the entire footprint of downtown Austin. Oracle relocated to Austin from Silicon Valley and built a $300MM sprawling campus in Southeast Austin. After investing $250MM on a new distribution center in Pflugerville (just north of Austin), Amazon just purchased an additional 200 acres in Round Rock, home of Dell Computer and also just north of Austin. Apple is building a new 1 Billion dollar campus in Austin. Samsung just announced a new investment of 17 Billion in a new chip plant, which is largely considered the largest corporate project in U.S. history. The Austin metro area is red hot.

At its inception, APCS had identified and executed a clear business plan to achieve its current success. The goal of APCS has never been to be the largest service in Austin. Rather, its goal is to offer unparalleled professional service at high margins. The market has responded accordingly.

APCS has clearly identified a business plan for additional future expansion opportunities as well as mitigation of possible business risks. APCS is a perfect fit for existing black car services in Austin looking to expand, black car services in other areas of the United States looking to quickly establish a presence in Austin.

The managing partners are looking to semi-retire, but are available for up to 1 year for consulting. Buyer will harbor strong ethics and demonstrated management ability. Therefore, please expect our conversations to reflect a mutual interest in obtaining facts and information. Experience in financials and how to read P&Ls and other financial documents are a must.

Facts:

• APCS is a registered C-Corporation with the State of Texas, filing taxes as a S-Corp with the IRS
  
  
• APCS formally incorporated in June of 2015
  
  
• APCS has consistently enjoyed year-over-year growth since its inception, except in 2020, the year of COVID
  
  
• APCS management insists on professionalism and unvarnished ethics from its employees. Our standard is that every interaction with a client is professional and transparent. We also expect professionalism from our clients. APCS is in a position to pick-and-choose our clients. Accounts of unprofessional clients are terminated
  
  
• APCS's largest client represents less than 2% of total yearly sales, therefore APCS does not rely on any one client for sales
  
  
• APCS enjoys a database of over 7,300 contacts (contact is defined by someone who placed an order and/or who was the main passenger for an order)
  
  
• APCS enjoys an extremely high rate of client retention for clients who frequently utilize car services
  
  
• 99.9% of clients are house clients. APCS does not utilize third-party networks to obtain business. APCS does not seek any affiliate farm-in work whatsoever. Because APCS does not engage in third-party or affiliate work, APCS enjoys very high margins. It is the practice of APCS to NOT farm-out business so that APCS controls quality. APCS handles 99.9% of business in-house. Therefore if the schedule on a particular day is getting full, APCS will turn down new business from new clients. APCS does not farm-out nor seek farm-out partners in other cities
  
  
• APCS has no receivables. All work is charged to the client's credit card at the conclusion of each performed service, creating excellent daily cash flow (Note: Our policy of not extending terms has also limited our business. For example, the University of Texas has made multiple requests for us to extend terms/credit. Their policy prohibits them from buying services with a credit card. They are frustrated with their current livery providers and are looking for alternatives. We have so-far declined to offer terms to any client. Therefore, other business is available should new management decide to extend terms)
  
  
• APCS executes no paid marketing spend whatsoever. All incoming business is organically generated through existing repeat clients, word-of-mouth referrals, and organic search engine results. Because APCS does not need to execute any paid marketing tactics, expenses are lower and margins are higher
  
  
• APCS's modern brand is well-known for quality vehicles, well-dressed professional drivers, and an easy and effortless business interaction.
  
  
• APCS enjoys a higher rate structure than most black car services in Austin, attracting private and corporate clients who expect quality and are willing to compensate for the same
  
  
• APCS enjoys dozens of solid high ratings on Yelp and Google
  
  
• APCS is a member in good standing with the Austin Limousine Association
  
  
• APCS avoids cumbersome business practices like the plague. It's all about client service, throughput and margin.
  
  
• APCS employee retention and development is important to the values of APCS. As such, APCS provides drivers a compensation package unheard of in the Austin market, which includes a base salary plus additional benefits including 401k with corporate matching, major medical health insurance (50% employer paid), life insurance (100% employer paid), mobile phone allowance, electronic tablet, uniform reimbursement allowance, and more.
  
  
• On average, APCS currently turns down an estimated $15k to 30k in business monthly because of a lack of professional drivers that meet our corporate standards. APCS estimates it turned down approximately 50k of business in October of 2021 alone, a month that APCS achieved $100k in sales.
  
  
• APCS purposely avoids stretch limousine work since the clientele who order stretch service is not the target market of APCS. Stretch clientele tends to be "one-offs" with limited spend ability. Rather, APCS targets high earning private clients as well as corporate clients who are generally more reliable, repeatable, and have a higher monetary spend ability. Target clientele are also more seasoned, having used multiple services during travels and know quality value-added service when they experience it ... and are willing to compensate for the same
  
  
• One of the Managing Partner's is an expert in website development & SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and has positioned the APCS website to enjoy organic Google search engine rankings within the top 3 organic positions for dozens of important google search terms, including variations of the following terms:
• car service austin
  
• black car service austin
• austin to san antonio car service
• austin to dallas car service
• austin to houston car service
• airport car service austin
  ... and dozens more
  
  
• Company fleet consist of 6 vehicles. Company owns 4 SUVs (1-2020 Lincoln Navigator L, 1-2021 Lincoln Navigator L, and 2-2022 Lincoln Navigator Ls) and 2 Mercedes Sprinter vans (2015 15-passenger Mercedes Benz Sprinter 3500 (170") recently refitted by JR's Custom Auto and a 2019 12-Passenger Mercedes Sprinter 2500 (170") fitted-out by Grech Motors). All SUVs purchased brand new through Ford/Lincoln Livery program with 150k warranties. All vehicles are consistently maintained by vehicle manufacturer's dealers (Mac Haik Ford Lincoln of Georgetown & Mercedes Benz of Georgetown). Maintenance records and service advisors at both dealerships are available for contact. All vehicles have free-and-clear green titles.
  
  
• Company has full set of financials (QuickBooks) reviewed yearly by professional CPA who also prepares corporate taxes (Maese Fulmer CPAs PLLC, Round Rock, TX). P&L immediately available to qualified buyer. Tax returns to verify and back-up financials made available prior to closing.
  
  
• Company has a full set of legal operating documents, such as corporate policies, procedures, driver handbook, and other documents reviewed for compliance by corporate attorney (The Fowler Law Firm, P.C, Austin, TX)
  
  
• Managing partners have interfaced with SCORE (U.S. Small Business Administration) as well as CPA with forensic business valuation expertise to assist with business development & valuation.

Sales:

2019 SALES:

• Sedan Sales: $122,298
• SUV Sales: $252,519
• Sprinter Sales: $46,065
  
• Total Sales: $420,882 [average per month: $35,074]

2020 SALES (year of COVID):

• Sedan Sales: $57,558
• SUV Sales: $141,010
• Sprinter Sales: $41,092
  
• Total Sales: $239,660 [average per month: $19,972]

2021 SALES:

• SUV Sales: $491,310
• Sprinter Sales: $165,215
  
• Total Sales: $656,525 [average per month: $54,710]

2022 SALES:

• SUV Sales: $459,083
• Sprinter Sales: $282,401
• Total Sales: $741,484 [average per month: $61,790]

APPROXIMATE SELLER'S DISCRETIONARY EARNINGS: $400,000

Statement from Managing Partners:

John is 61 and Brad is 58 years old. We've had long careers in government and corporate America, with various small businesses on the side. For the past 7 years, efforts have gone into nurturing Austin Private Car Service. We are now looking to semi-retire. We recently purchased a yacht located on the Great Lakes and spend summers on her in Saugatuck, MI. We never see ourselves totally retiring, so we plan on starting a very small car and yacht charter service in Saugatuck, MI to serve tourists during the summers only on a part-time basis. It'll give us something to 'putter around'.

Here in Austin, if we sell the entire business, we will most likely sell our home and spend fall, winter and spring in Costa Rica and/or Portugal as Austin is getting to be a bit too busy for us. If we just sell the SUV portion of the business, we will remain in Austin and operate high-capacity Sprinter-only business for a few more years on a part-time basis. If a buyer is interested in SUV only, we could work a deal to pay referral fees for Sprinter work and/or a future buyout of the Sprinter portion of the business as well.

The business provides an excellent return on investment, therefore we are in no rush to sell our business. We are more interested in finding the right fit.

Following are a couple of purchase options. We welcome a respectful dialog.