How to buy out competition

You guys have all talked me out of this business

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Scaleability schmalability. It’s a great business if you want to make a nice living. Stay healthy. And not have to listen to anyone’s interminable bull
Also there no loyalty left anywhere in the world except for the loyalty my customers have for me. And my wonderful wife. Whom I surely don’t deserve

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^^y u so sensitive?

there’s nothing wrong with starting a window cleaning biz. i really like my business and it’s working out great for me.

i’m just making the point that if you are Joe Investor with a pile of cash, looking for a business that will grow that pile of cash into a much larger pile of cash over and over again, then window cleaning is probably not your best choice. that is all.

[MENTION=7230]c_wininger[/MENTION]
Very true I know Fish has national franchise, but I have a lot of their customers who said they are ridiculously expensive and theres guys all over the house and they were nt confortable with that. They like good ole Josh, if the watch is missing, they know who to call

Why did you take the watch?

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[MENTION=74]EcoClean[/MENTION] pay up homie. I did my part.

Fixed the $10 to $10k, thanks

I think I am 1 of the only people who suggest buying a new vehicle for a business and the biggest reason is because of down time. You are not buying it for resale value, you are buying it for dependability reasons AND because they will usually come with a multiple year coverage on the drive train, this means the dealer/manufacture will eat the expense if something goes wrong. If you take care of it, the vehicle will easily earn at least 10x’s what ever you pay for it, probably more depending on the business. When it starts to fail, you trade it in on another new vehicle. A $50k vehicle will earn you at least $500k over 5 years with very little, if any, down time or expenses plus you will have 10-15 years of workable life left in the vehicle. Try getting 15-20 years work life out of a used vehicle without spending a big chunk on repairs and down time.

When buying a used vehicle, you are buying someone else’s junk that is sure to have repair issues which means down time which means NO INCOME at that time.

That being said, there are some businesses where a personal vehicle can be used as a work vehicle and that changes things somewhat, heres how. You and your business can best be served with a pick-up truck so you buy a new one for yourself. After you pay it off, you sell that vehicle to your company and buy another new one for yourself. The business can purchase at a high price to increase deductions and put tax free money in your pocket, or at a low price to show higher profits.

I am not a tax professional and everyone should check with their own tax professional for their own needs.

Hi there!

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IyyDvb

I know huh. This thread got really depressing. But I’m sticking because the only thing that I took from the franchise was the bigger you get the easier it is to run. IF you have systems in place.

Yeah, I used to think exactly like that. Then I had to start listening to Dave Ramsey everyday to motivate me and instruct me on how to get out from under the debt we incurred buying/closing a franchise. We’re now debt free and my views on vehicles has definitely changed.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, it’s just that for me, personally, here’s how I now think.

1. It’s a work vehicle. For me, it’s strictly work, it’s not a half work/half family vehicle. I’m going to be using it everyday, lot of route work, there’s a chance it’ll get dinged, damaged, or bumped by nutbars in the parking lot.

2. New cars drop like a rock in deprecation (that’s where Chevy got their motto). It loses like 70% of it’s value within 4 years. It loses like 25% as soon as you drive it off the lot. So if you buy a new Express cargo van at 30k you’ll lose 7500 bucks immediately. 7500 bucks will get you a pretty nice WFP setup. Even if you buy a really nice car that holds it’s value and say you only lose 10% off the lot, that’s still 3 large. You’re talking a couple of Unger hi-mod carbon poles in that range. $3,000 will buy a lot of equipment.

3. You can buy a really nice used vehicle for 10-15g’s you could even go as high as 20k. The delta from a new vehicle (new $ - used $ = delta) can easily cover repairs. The delta from #2 is $10-20,000 which would cover body work, tranny, engine, whatever. But in the 10-15g range, you shouldn’t have any problems unless you bought a rental or a rez rider and those aren’t really in that price range.

4. I’d rather buy a good solid used vehicle where someone else ate the depreciation, get it painted/logo’d and save the delta towards a second vehicle and a third and etc. Or the delta can go towards more equipment which will make me more money.

“Good” for me would be a vehicle 4 years old. “New” for me would be one 1-2 years old.

I watched a lot of franchee’s having to close and sell off their brand new vans (the franchise convinced them that new was the way to go). But just starting out, I’d invest in a vehicle but before I bought expensive, I’d make sure that I was going to make it. How are my routes coming along? How’s the residential season? Do I need to hire someone? What equipment do I need? In a new venture, new territory, I probably wouldn’t spend more than 10,000 which includes paint, wrap, or logo.

That’s just my thinking on it. As for personal vehicles, here’s a good breakdown from DR.

Is this where we’re meeting?

I like Dave’s stuff and follow much of his ideas.

But when it comes to vehicles that you NEED to earn a living, they need to be running all the time. Buying used vehicles, think about it, people trade in or sell because they are not happy with their vehicle for any number of reasons, including maintenance issues. Every used vehicle I purchased (I’ve owned over 30 trucks/cars over the years, less than half were purchased used) has had problems that left them un-drivable for some time. Only one was a work vehicle and it cost me weeks of lost time/money over the years. When I buy new one now, I own it until it is no longer drivable and never worry about it failing because I take care of them.

hi to you too! you are sort of a hybrid, larry. you started out cleaning windows for another company, so you were already in the “technician” phase of the business. you have to admit that was a big part of why you started your own business in the same field, right?

but yes, you and eddie are a great example of developing the window cleaning business to meet it’s peak potential.

jared is right. your anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal. sorry your used vehicles sucked, maybe you just chose poorly. it’s still not a good reason to buy a business asset that depreciates in irreplaceable value so quickly. even newly purchased vehicles will eventually be off the road for a day or two at a time for replacement of wear and tear items.

heck, you could spend the thousands you save buying used and buy a backup vehicle.

Hello, this is my first post and I thought I’d share some of my experiences. By the way I think this website is absolutely incredible and everybody at that window cleaning resource has been great. I’ve had experience with buying and selling residential window cleaning lists. Most of the time you’re just buying the lists with a few hundred dollars worth of equipment. I sold a business in the suburbs of Chicago that was grossing about $60,000 a year in window cleaning. I sold that business for 50% of my gross. I got 30K but I only received 7000 up front and the rest were payments over the next 18 months. I moved to Arizona, purchased a window cleaning list that was grossing about 50K and I purchased it for 17K. I gave him 10K upfront and 7 over six months. Both transactions worked out pretty good. Thanks everybody for all the great info.

You certainly have more experience buying cars than I do. I’ve only bought 6 of them and only two were new. I was young, an engineer, and thought the world was at my fingers…

But I guess my view comes from buying and closing a franchise. A lot of businesses close the first or second year. If I had the 80g’s, here’s how I’d recommend someone starting their own business.

1. Don’t buy a franchise - there are exceptions, but I’d fight it tooth and nail until it’s obvious they can really make you a lot of money.

2. Buy a van/minivan and get it wrapped: cost 10,000 max.

3. Buy the equipment: cost 10-15,000 depending on whether you want office equipment, various ladders, wfp, uniforms, paperwork (estimate sheets, biz cards, etc) and whatever else you might need.

4. Buy insurance: cost 1,000-5,000 depending on whether you want workmans comp and other coverage’s.

Total investment is about 25-30,000. I’d recommend starting it by yourself, get out there come up with systems on how to bid, how to clean, how to do work orders/invoicing, etc. Get the systems nailed down and then hire an employee.

But with 30,000 you still have 50,000 sitting in the bank ready for emergencies, bringing on new employees, buying out competitors, etc. 50g’s is a heck of a safety net.

And if everything absolutely sucked, the market sucked, the employees sucked, you sucked, whatever and you had to bail, you’re only out 1/3 of your investment. You could suck it up and swallow that easier than a whole nest egg.

I think the difference is that I’m looking at this starting from scratch. You’ve got an established business, you know what you made last year, you can predict what you’re going to make this year, so if you want to buy a new vehicle, you can budget for that. A new business owner isn’t going to know what the market is really like and they certainly won’t be able to tell you what they’re going to make the first year. Even a franchise can’t tell you that.

And if an inspiring young man wants to start a business, I wish him well. But if something happened, I’d rather that he lost 30k than the full wad.

[MENTION=6077]Steve Belcastro[/MENTION] great input! Thanks for the real world numbers.

Thanks JaredAl. I just got Dragon natural speaking and, since I’m the worst typist in the world it has been incredible. I will be posting on here more often now that I don’t have to type. I think this place is awesome and the knowledge that this form provides is absolutely invaluable. I also just started a street bidder campaign. I will let you all know how that goes.

Nope, working for that other company was all part of the master plan… Muhuhahhaa!

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IyyDvb

It’s pretty wild to see the numbers some of you are talking…

I started in this business as a high school kid shitting his pants, looking down 24 stories at the Detroit River.
(Canada looks like [B]a map[/B] from that height.)

• But then again, if I would have had 30k in my pocket… I probably would have been still sleeping.