For New Comers or Experienced Operators in Gas Station Retail Business. 

I will suggest you to learn more about this business before you get into it. You need to watch at least following things otherwise chances for success are very slim. Don't feel offended. I have no doubt about your intelligence or experience and I am not trying to discourage either. Its all time frame, you don't have much time to venture all these things. Its not easy to make 50 or 100 thousand dollars now a days. You can not afford to loose them. you got only one chance to make better living for your family. If you loose it once, may be you don't have a second chance for rest of your life. So you got to watch it and make every possible effort to protect the future of your family. &  investment.

When you go out looking for opportunity in this industry, this is the least you can do. Look for following:

Specially in Gas Station Business:-

- Prepare yourself to buy a Letter of Credit to Protect Gas Supplier's Interest for at least $20,000 (You have to keep this fund in bank) unless your Supplier agree to work with you if you provide Bond for $20,000, depending upon capacity of your Underground Storage Tanks. It may be more than $20,000.

- Prepare for $10,000 Bond for Lottery Commission to sell Loto.
- Prepare for at least $5,000 to buy the Lottery Tickets in the store.
- Prepare to buy the Inventory somewhere close to $40,000 depending upon size of business. (Unless the owner agree to finance this part for short or long term).
- Prepare to put at least 20% down payment if looking for Owner financing in case you are buying the business with Real Estate.
- Prepare to Pay goodwill upfront if you are buying only business without Real Estate.

Then look for following things:-

1. Does this store has walk in customers or not.
2. If its off of Major or small highway, is this the first choice on right hand side of the road
    after coming out of highway. If not how much is the gap between the store passed before.
    Should be at least one mile if its populated area otherwise minimum 5 miles.
3. Store has easy and convenient in and out without disturbing the traffic.
4. Store size is there if you need to add some more products or there is room to improve the size.

5. The Most important factors: ( Terms used : "Jobber" Wholesale Gas Supplier. "Rack" wholesale price.)
    a) if its a busy road, watch for a Jobber's retail outlet on same side of the road.
    b) if the road is not very busy then how far is your Jobber competition either side or the road.
    c) if it is before you, you are out. if after you , must be at least one mile away.
    d) what kind of gas supply agreement is in place (how many cents over the rack - Normal is 1 cent)
        (Net Rack or Gross - Difference is of 1.75 cents per gallon average). You need to read each single
        word of Gas Supply Agreement.
    e) is there any investment made by the Jobber on this station. If yes, how much and how it will be
        recovered by the Jobber.
    f) when the tanks were installed. They are Metal, Fiber Glass, Single wall or Double wall., Leak detection
        system is installed or not. If yes when, was it inspected every year or after every three years.
    g) when was the last inspection done by EPA, what are the details of Release Letter from EPA for each
        inspection occurrence.
    h) is there any open Release Letter with EPA. if yes, how the sellers will take care of that.
    I) Look for (NFA) No Further Action, note from EPA.
    j) any corrective action required by EPA or not if yes what was done and how long ago.
    k) what kind of repeat inspections are suggested by installing company. It is done on time every time at per
        schedule or not.
    l) what kind of maintenance is done on the station, in the tanks, pipes, pumps, dispensers or system.
    m) how much life is left in the Tanks (approximately).

Not only this much there are way more than above factors need to be watched.

Rest depends upon your personal efforts and creativity. You got to be very creative to make a good marketing plan. Before, even you make an offer for the business, you got to know where your customer is coming from. Go walk into that area, look for the homes or businesses, where you think your customer is coming from. Put yourself into there shoes and figure out. Is there anything which can divert your customer to another direction. Why a customer will come to you, why not to your competition. How are you different than your competition. Are you offering some unique Products, Services or Convenience?

To get through all this, you should be looking for a Professional on your side as a consultant. who you think is qualified enough to deal with this environment.

If you think you don't need one and you have all the tools to get through it, you should do it by yourself. However, in most of the cases it should not cost you any thing to hire a professional qualified enough to help you out because his/her commission will come from the sellers anyway, but still prepare yourself to pay 3% if there is no compensation from seller side for your consultant.

Wish you all the best. If you have any question, you are most welcome. Send me an email or call (937) 470-9400. I will be more than happy to help you out. I can be reached in my Cincinnati, Dayton or Columbus Office.

Sincerely,

Habib Shah
Swairah Web Solutions
An associate of 
Ohio Petroleum Organization
Tel: (937) 470-9400 
Fax: (937) 439-1209
Email: habib@swairah.com