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That's why goodwill is considered an intangible asset.
Untangling 'Frank's Automotive has good will' from 'Frank Frankerton who runs Frank's Automotive and has for the last 30 years has good will' is the hard part, though.
Yeah, that's it. If Frank retires and people stop going to Frank's Automotive because they would have gone elsewhere (too expensive, not great quality, takes too long) were it not for the relationship built up with Frank, then the business is not going to survive. If Frank retires and you keep the same level of quality and price and friendly service, it will do okay.
In my experience sometimes it's literally just Frank.
I used to work for one of these small businesses were the owner-operator was prettymuch Mr Krabs for Spongebob. Cartoonishly money grubbing towards customers, most of whom he'd known for decades at this point as their 'Computer Guy'. Towards the end the business was only really viable since he'd put about 2-3x the margin on getting tech for fellow boomers as they'd get from going to an Apple Store direct or the local Walmart equivalent. It wasn't quality, price or friendliness it was literally just 'Frank is my computer guy and he is who I buy computers from' inertia.
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