Compelling thread gents, lots of good feedback and information.
It’s rather timely as I’m actually looking to buy a power washing company. Earlier this week I spoke with the owner about the current contracts and existing quality of the gear. The company is doing primarily oil field work with some construction/commercial work as well. They also have a rig that could be used for residential work. After talking with the owner I gathered that he comes from a wealthy family and has an overinflated valuation. His reason for wanting to sell is that his father is retiring and passing another company to him. The owner is looking to receive what he invested into the business, not taking into account depreciation, wear and tear, and overall life left in the gear.
Unfortunately the equipment he’s selling is what I’m looking for, but I’m unwilling to waste time negotiating with someone who has no sense of reality.
As was mentioned by [MENTION=7269]Majestic66[/MENTION] earlier in the thread, this is a way for me to jumpstart an additional line of revenue. While I’m gladly willing to pay the cost to enter, I’d rather wait for the right deal versus jump at the something that does not make sense.
Hey there! - I would be very curious to know what that magic # is your thinking of?
If it’s not on paper, it doesn’t exist.
Meaning handshake deals are very hard to pass on to a potential buyer. A simple signed service agreement you can transfer to your potential buyer showing that x client agreed to pay x$ at x frequency. Having something like this in place will greatly increase your chance of selling it.
Maybe you could get your clients on board to fill that out and sign it.
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Just knowing the above #s - and if you were in my area. I would likely give you $5,500 almost no questions asked. ( if you had signed service agreements in place for them )
If you came to me without service contracts, I would probably give you two grand not many questions asked.
I hope that helps a little bit. I wish you the best of luck with the sale, and on your future career.
Wow! I’m overwhelmed by all of your responses! Thank you so much, you’ve given me a lot to consider. One of the main things I take away from this is that I should work on getting service contracts signed. Its not something I had every really considered before, but I dont think it should be a problem.
Just to clear something up: I’m selling selling the route becuase my wife and I are going to be moving out of state to pursue some goals of ours. All of the accounts are of high quality and were bid at 60 per hour. I get inquiries for more work on a regular basis. Definitely a great opportunity for whoever ends up taking it over.
[MENTION=1]Chris[/MENTION] I was thinking in the 7,000 range.
Wow thats incredibly helpful, I dont think it will be too much of an issue to get these agreements signed.
Really appreciate you taking the time to help me out!
I dunno. But I’d start high and let them whittle you down. If you only want 7g’s, it might be an easy sell (but I’d still start at 12). They’ll settle on a number and then pay a percentage based on how many customers stick with the transition.
So it depends on how big the franchise is and how hungry. A LOT of them are hungry so it might be an easy sell.
I knew the old owner in NY and he was a bulldog. He sold it and I think the new guy might be looking to grow pretty hard. Of course it might also mean he’ll lowball you pretty hard.
I think route work like this could be worth UP TO 2-3x MONTHLY gross, and that is if they are legit customers with signed agreements and you are setup as a vendor in their accounting system. If you are simply being paid on the spot as a miscellaneous expense then the chances of the customer not continuing business with the new owner is much higher.
This is all considering that the work is bid properly. From my experience it is difficult to sell businesses or routes in this industry because the buyer and seller are light years apart when it comes to selling price. In most cases the buyer would be better off spending the money as marketing dollars to create new business rather than buying an existing business.
Your business will most likely be far more valuable for you to keep than its actual market value. Countless times I have seen cleaning companies with gross revenues of 80k and they are trying to sell for 100k, it always give me a good laugh. Good luck
I don’t know if anyone said this or not… But instead of selling it- why not turn it into a franchise and draw a % off the profits to the new manager that you hire?
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His best bet to sell this thing is to find someone in the business already in that area .
Call everyone I mean everyone who owns a squeegee.
Show them what you have tell them your looking to sell start high with everyone. You can always come down.
Forget the signed contracts they mean shit . Give the buyer a gaurntee in the contract for the sale of the business.
We are not talking a lot of money here. 22 thousand a year is 18-19 hundred a month. One day a week 400-500 for one day a week
If you sell it for what Chris said 5000 they can make his investment back in 3 -6 months depending on labor or no labor After that everything else is profit.
What other business can you do that.
I would yawn at 5000 for that work. I would feel bad for you an give you 6.
But let me say this its not worth as much because it’s not a lot of money it’s really not a business were some one can make a living if it were 8000 a month 90 thousand a year them ya that’s a business the value of it will increase per dollar made
Sorry Chris I’m not insulting you.
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