Planning Your Exit From Car Sharing

Every day I see another Facebook post about a host exiting their Turo business.

Some of those hosts exit well. Some exits are disasters. Some exits are voluntary, some are forced. Some are planned, others spontaneously happen at the end of a particularly bad day. If you’re considering exiting the business, I want to share my thoughts with you about how to exit well.

It should always begin with a plan.

To make the best possible exit, you need to first make the best possible entrance so that you exit on your terms, instead of being forced out by being removed from the platform for TOS violations, or by financial failure due to poor planning and fiscal management. This requires taking the time to learn the business, learn your market, conduct your due diligence, and accurately assess your financial position all to acquire vehicles wisely for maximum profitability and exit potential. And if you build a business plan the way most business owners built their business plans, it will include a plan for your exit.

When I began hosting in 2018, initially my plan was to scale to dozens of vehicles, across multiple cities, and do so for many years, but after recognizing the misalignment with the more important things to me personally, I made the decision to exit in 2021. But the rental car shortage, record shattering revenue, and unexpected launch of the CarShare Academy, convinced me to delay my exit for a year. But my exit was my exit, on my own terms, and for my own reasons. And I exited very, very well, selling all of my vehicles at historically high prices.

Exit with your head held high.

This is your life and your business, your future, your happiness, and your financial well-being. There is nothing more important than your own peace, fulfillment, and enjoyment of what you do to earn your income. Nobody else’s opinion matters.

There are a lot of good people, successful hosts, in the Turo space, many who I consider to be personal friends. But, unfortunately, this is a community with a disproportionate number of people lacking in emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and business intelligence, and the toxicity level tends to run high compared to other industries. When you begin talking about your exit in places like Facebook groups, there’s no shortage of people who will mock and take jabs at you. I remember one well known host telling me via private message that he would have a lot more respect for me if I had scaled to hundreds of vehicles, like him. That was his dream and goal. I had my own goals and dreams, and neither his nor mine had any more intrinsic value than the other.

When you decide to exit on your terms, there’s no shame. It’s your life. Don’t let the toxic naysayers occupy your mental space. It’s valuable real estate!

Exit on top, with integrity.

If possible, I want you to go out as a 5-star, All-Star, Power host. Circumstances permitting, plan the shutdown of your fleet in such a way that no trip is cancelled, all trips are honored, and every one of your final guests experiences the very best host experience you can provide. Our legacy follows us. You’ll be remembered for, and positioned for your next venture, by the way you exit this one.

Liquidate your assets wisely.

I was blessed with a combination of smart vehicle acquisition, luck, and good timing. Almost all my vehicles were sold at record high prices and I was able to put a lot of money into my pockets through my liquidation. That may not be the case with yours, but I want you to make as much money as you can as you sell your vehicles.

Your first reflex may be to try and sell them to other hosts, but this is likely not going to be your best option. Every host who considers buying your assets is thinking about their profit margins as much as you thought about yours, and is likely to not pay what your vehicle is actually worth.

You’re more likely to get what the vehicle is actually worth by selling it private party to someone in your city. Dealerships will not buy them at their full value, nor give you trade-in value equal to what you could likely get by selling private party.

If your vehicles are leased, with many months left on the leases, you may want to consider trying to transfer the lease through a service such as Swap a Lease. You’re unlikely to have much success here though, because you are likely already trending toward a mileage overage on the vehicle and people who shop Swap a Lease are looking for just the opposite, leases on pace with, or below the lease mileage limits.

If you already have another business in mind, and are in need of hard assets for the new business, you might luck into opportunities to trade/barter your vehicles to someone for the assets you need for the new venture.

A final option, if you don’t need the capital immediately, is to send your vehicles to another host to manage for you, and maintain a passive revenue stream, but this can be fraught with peril as finding a reputable co-host you can trust is shockingly difficult. Even I have been shocked at how the most seemingly trustworthy partners can be just the opposite.

Play every parlay.

Some people move through life and business by chance and happenstance, carried about like Forrest Gump’s feather on the wind. Other people view life and business as a chess game, with every play made, every piece moved, with a well-thought strategy, capitalizing on every opportunity that presents itself, recognizing that every move, every play, sets up the next. And the best of us play every parlay with integrity, not to defeat or harm anyone, but to simply achieve all that we were meant to achieve.

I parlayed my 30+ years of experience in the corporate world into building a small Turo fleet that generated just under $500,000 gross earnings and vehicle sales in four years, with profit margins I was pleased with. I then parlayed my hosting experience into a coaching practice that helped over 1,800 hosts get started well, and generated just shy of $200,000 in revenue, in two years, from coaching alone. I then parlayed my coaching experience and the revenue from that venture into the formation of my new company that helps people open businesses in many different industries, at no cost to them, while providing me with the highest income I’ve ever earned, with the lowest stress I’ve ever experienced from my work, all while working hard to serve the greater good.

Everything you learned, every experience you had, every dollar you made has prepared you to be wildly successful in your next venture, one that is better aligned with your long-term goals. Even if your Turo hosting experience was incredibly frustrating, and not as profitable as you’d hoped, all of the intangibles from that experience are priceless as you move forward into your next business.

I’m cheering you on!

As you exit the Turo business and invest in your next venture, I’m in your corner, cheering you on, wishing you all the success, happiness, and wealth that you deserve. You’ve got this!