Buying out competition

The Office Business
1

So as the title says I’m looking to see if anyone has any experience buying out their competition? one of my main competitors, Is an older guy that has been in town here for a long time. Since I started my business I’d been hearing rumors that he will be ready to retire pretty quickly. I’m thinking about calling him and seeing if he might be interested in working something out.

If anyone has any advice at this point it would be greatly appreciated.

I don’t have much money on hand, but I was thinking about seeing if he would be interested in taking 15-20% of the profit I earned from customers on his customer list over the next 2 or 3 years. I’m curious what you guy think of that? is it a fair offer or should I up it or lower it or what’s your take on it.

2

http://windowcleaner.com/vBulletin/business-techniques/39349-how-buy-out-competition.html

this thread is pretty recent and contains a lot of useful info. there’s also an older thread that’s pretty involved. have you checked these out yet?

3

Doesn’t hurt to call him …will he except your offer . It’s all going to depend on how desperate or how dire his situation is.
If his situation isn’t the latter I would never see anyone selling a business without a down payment .
With all that said call him, an put it out there the worst that could happen is he says no .

Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app.

4

if you lose those customers or they move out of town or die, where will he get his money?

5

They can’t pick the store up an bring it with them if they move

If they die the business wlll still be there

Yes they can cancel they can go out if busines

Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app.

6

That’s all valid concerns but if I buy it and they all leave I’m SOL, if he stays in business he will eventually loose all those customers. The majority of my customers were his, but left him for one reason or another. And this method would keep him invested in my success. But that’s just my take on it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app

7

http://windowcleaner.com/vBulletin/conversation/39412-my-competition-got-hurt-what-should-i-do-2.html

So I Like the approach in this thread. Sorry for not doing my research yesterday, I was crazy busy and just wanted to throw a thread on here and see if anyone had some quick tips for me.

That being said it seems like my idea (if he would go for it) would pan out to very similar purchase prices as to what was mentioned in some of the other threads. I think I’ll just give him a call and see how his shoulder is and if he needs any help and make a friend first and work it that way.

8

You should deff call him. Let him know who you are, and let him know that you are interested in buying his business. He will take well to it if he is looking to retire, less work for him to find a potential buyer.

Give him a down payment, have him finance the rest, work out a deal for customers who cancel service(like that amount off the total price), and get that all written into contract.

I did it 3 times, [MENTION=7269]Majestic66[/MENTION] has done it. Its a common thing for route work. Your terms with him will vary on your negotiating and his willingness to sell.

Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app

9

Check out this excellent thread on the subject:

http://windowcleaner.com/vBulletin/business-techniques/39349-how-buy-out-competition.html