After decades of turning wrenches and serving your community, you might be thinking about retirement.
Stepping away from your shop and legacy is a big decision. As Vic Tarasik wrote in April 2025’s Shop Owner magazine, “legacy is more than numbers. It’s your people, your brand, and your role in the community.”
So how can you cash out and enjoy retirement without losing that legacy—the local, independent spirit you’ve worked so hard to build?
The good news is there’s a better option than selling to a chain or closing your doors: Teamshares, an employee ownership platform that lets you sell your shop without selling out, keep it local, and set it up to thrive for the long haul.
As the former owner of one business purchased by Teamshares, Robb L. shared, “When the Teamshares offer came in, and it included employee ownership, that was an opportunity for me to say, ‘This could be my legacy.’”
Employee-owned, nationally connected
At Teamshares, our goal is to operate as an umbrella of support, allowing each company to run as independently as possible while providing guidance and resources. Customers and neighbors still see the same sign above the door and the same trusted team inside, except now every member of that team is an employee owner.
Here’s how it works:
- Teamshares purchases the entire company from you, the retiring owner, and upon completing the sale, immediately grants a portion of the total equity to your employees.
- Your loyal team—managers, mechanics, and office staff—get a stake in the business they’ve helped build.
- Over time, Teamshares facilitates a gradual employee buyout of the business using company earnings, at no cost to them. This process progressively increases employee equity, ensuring the company’s long-term success is under the stewardship of the individuals working daily.
I’ve been through this firsthand. My name is Peyton Leveillee. I’m a former owner of Brad’s Service Center, a repair shop in Massachusetts started by my father in 1980. That shop is now part of Teamshares, and after selling the business to Teamshares, I joined the company myself.
Today, I work with our auto and truck shops nationwide—supporting employee-owners, helping new leaders succeed, and ensuring that shops like yours stay strong.
My favorite part of my job is facilitating conversations between our different shop leaders and team members.
One recent success came from a meeting where a shop shared its process for training techs on digital vehicle inspections (DVI). For many shops, introducing tablets and new workflows can be daunting, but hearing a real-world example helped us break it down.
Inspired by that meeting, several other shops did trial runs with their teams. We even had one group role-play inspection over Zoom using their actual DVI software. It helped everyone get more comfortable and created momentum for broader adoption.
Now, more shops in the network are implementing DVIs and sharing what works with their teams and peers.
Here’s why I share that story: being part of this network doesn’t mean giving up what makes your shop special. It means enhancing what already works, learning from peers, and making smarter decisions faster, so your employees can keep the business strong long after you’ve transitioned into your next chapter.
Leave your legacy in capable hands
Transitioning your shop to employee ownership through Teamshares means you can retire with peace of mind, knowing you’ve made a deal you can be proud of.
Your employees gain ownership and opportunity, and you receive the financial reward of selling the company you built. Naturally, one of the biggest questions is: Who will lead the business once you step away?
At Teamshares, we work closely with every company to ensure strong, values-aligned leadership—whether bringing in a new empathetic leader or elevating someone already within the shop. In both cases, my role is to provide holistic support to help these leaders integrate operationally and culturally into the teams they’re entrusted to lead.
One of my favorite moments came when a new president noticed the shop was experiencing an uptick in comebacks. Rather than impose a fix from the top down, they worked with the lead technician to address it collaboratively.
That tech spent several weeks preparing a presentation using photos and notes from recent jobs to present to the team. It was his first time speaking in front of the whole team, but it resonated when he did. That meeting sparked a new initiative to document the shop’s oil change process better to train new hires. Since then, the team has created standard procedures for brake work, diagnostics, and more.
What began as a single conversation about comebacks became a cultural shift because someone believed in the leadership potential already within the shop. That’s what employee ownership makes possible. That’s what legacy feels like.
Considering selling your truck/auto repair business? Let’s talk.
If you’re considering your next chapter and want to learn more about how Teamshares can help you transition your shop to employee ownership while preserving your legacy, I’d be happy to connect. Fill out this form with some basic information about your business, and let’s chat about what that might look like.
