Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: MisterC on September 03, 2017, 08:59:25 am
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I am looking at selling my business the early part of next year to try a new life in Spain.
My question is what is it worth? I would like to sell it as a going concern to someone who
Would be able to earn a living from day one and take advantage of what I have started.
Sign written van, 500 litre RO system, various poles and gutter cleaning equipment, good
Website, Facebook page, circa £2400 a month turnover. Also apart from this forum where
Is a good place to advertise.
Any advice much appreciated, thanks in advance
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Sign written.
Is this a Rodney Trotter van or a pro all singing all dancing vehicle?
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The usual rate of sale for the round only is 3-4 times monthly income, The van and equipment is a personal common sense thing, don't kid yourself that because it has got a £300 tank in it and a £250 facelift pole that is there worth, as second hand these drop remarkably quickly especially when sold as a job lot!! Price it to sell not to field enquiries from messers.
Which brings me on to messers and timewasters, the world is full of these types who want to but either can’t or dare not set up and take the plunge, give yourself plenty of time to get the deal done and always keep contact details from enquirers.
Try selling on here, there’s always some for sale on Ebay and Gumtree so have a go on there, there is another site who have a paid page for just window cleaning businesses for sale but as I think it’s a rival to CIU, so I am not going to post a link, you might try a search though.
Good luck Phil.
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Thanks Philip
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People saying the rate is X times monthly value are basing it on the value of selling the work alone.
Much better to sell it as a business.
Two posts on this that are worth reading:
To put things in perspective, in 1997-8 I sold my window cleaning business. It was turning over £1,500 per week. I split it into three rounds at £500 a week and got £10,000 for each one - £30,000 total.
OK. the potential annual turnover was over £70,000 but it was full time, 7 hours a day for each round to make about £24-25,000, but I had no trouble selling it and all the buyers were happy with what they got. Two of them are still running their businesses and the third re-sold at a profit.
Experienced window cleaners on here are not likely to pay those sort of prices, but for someone looking for a ready made business with guaranteed income from day one and no experience of building a business for themselves, anything like this is a bargain.
Never sell yourselves short ;)
It's worth what you can get for it. Will you just be selling a list of customers or will it be a full 'turn-key' business, i.e. absolutely everything included, all the buyer has to do is go out and work. From a novice's point of view the latter is worth far more.
Would include:
Training - Fitted van with signwriting to new owner's requirement (for the sake of a couple of hundred pounds, this is well worth it) - all equipment (Ro/Di, pumps, poles, resin, storage IBC if separate purification system) - full kit of traditional tools plus personal introduction to all the customers and full instruction in record keeping plus guarantee of "probationary" period offering help and advice while the buyer finds his feet.
Offered like this it would be much more attractive and worth many times more than you might get for a 'round'.
Hope that helps.
Vin
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Thanks Vin.
That confirms what I thought.
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Common rule of thumb in any business. 3x annual net profit plus the current value of the assets.
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Common rule of thumb in any business. 3x annual net profit plus the current value of the assets.
So you are saying 3xanual , and others are saying 3xmonthly , thats a big difference , typo or what cos if anual is correct i am selling in the morning !
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It's the difference between:
Here's a list of people. I clean their windows. Here you go. You'll be fine.
and:
Here's a viable business. I can prove that it makes £x profit per annum and everything to run the business is here. I'll help you to get cracking and you won't need to spend a single penny over and above the purchase price to run it.
Vin
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It's the difference between:
Here's a list of people. I clean their windows. Here you go. You'll be fine.
and:
Here's a viable business. I can prove that it makes £x profit per annum and everything to run the business is here. I'll help you to get cracking and you won't need to spend a single penny over and above the purchase price to run it.
Vin
It cant be easy to find a buyer though surely , if i could find a buyer at 3 x anual i would throw in van , system , static and anything down to the last bit of pole hose free of charge !
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Common rule of thumb in any business. 3x annual net profit plus the current value of the assets.
so your saying if i make 30k profit after taxes,insurances,expenses etc have been deducted(which is the norm these days)that my business is worth 90k?
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It's the difference between:
Here's a list of people. I clean their windows. Here you go. You'll be fine.
and:
Here's a viable business. I can prove that it makes £x profit per annum and everything to run the business is here. I'll help you to get cracking and you won't need to spend a single penny over and above the purchase price to run it.
Vin
It cant be easy to find a buyer though surely , if i could find a buyer at 3 x anual i would throw in van , system , static and anything down to the last bit of pole hose free of charge !
Dont know till you try! personally i wouldn't aim at selling it to another window cleaner.
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It's the difference between:
Here's a list of people. I clean their windows. Here you go. You'll be fine.
and:
Here's a viable business. I can prove that it makes £x profit per annum and everything to run the business is here. I'll help you to get cracking and you won't need to spend a single penny over and above the purchase price to run it.
Vin
It cant be easy to find a buyer though surely , if i could find a buyer at 3 x anual i would throw in van , system , static and anything down to the last bit of pole hose free of charge !
Dont know till you try! personally i wouldn't aim at selling it to another window cleaner.
If it was as easy as that CIU would be a tad empty in one part of the forum !
Did I mention I had a biz for sale ?
Part time round 20 hr a week , will throw in 12 plate Fiat Fiorino with 350 DI system , solar conversion , Gardiner poles , DIY power reel , and i will work with you free for 3 months until your settled , only want £60,000 any takers ?
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It's the difference between:
Here's a list of people. I clean their windows. Here you go. You'll be fine.
and:
Here's a viable business. I can prove that it makes £x profit per annum and everything to run the business is here. I'll help you to get cracking and you won't need to spend a single penny over and above the purchase price to run it.
Vin
It cant be easy to find a buyer though surely , if i could find a buyer at 3 x anual i would throw in van , system , static and anything down to the last bit of pole hose free of charge !
Dont know till you try! personally i wouldn't aim at selling it to another window cleaner.
If it was as easy as that CIU would be a tad empty in one part of the forum !
Did I mention I had a biz for sale ?
Part time round 20 hr a week , will throw in 12 plate Fiat Fiorino with 350 DI system , solar conversion , Gardiner poles , DIY power reel , and i will work with you free for 3 months until your settled , only want £60,000 any takers ?
Oh oh oh me me me!!!!!
Darren reckons i need more work
😂😂😂😂😂😂
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This is a bargain , lets not forget i yap a bit , i plod around in no rush , i have a heart condition , am a stroke survivor , i complete both school runs ........young strapping lads could be earning 20k a year in less time than i do it , come on boys , talk to ya mums !
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At the end of the day all you are buying is goodwill re the round.
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Common rule of thumb in any business. 3x annual net profit plus the current value of the assets.
so your saying if i make 30k profit after taxes,insurances,expenses etc have been deducted(which is the norm these days)that my business is worth 90k?
Thats not what he is saying Daz. You need to remove your wage to find your profit.
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Common rule of thumb in any business. 3x annual net profit plus the current value of the assets.
so your saying if i make 30k profit after taxes,insurances,expenses etc have been deducted(which is the norm these days)that my business is worth 90k?
Thats not what he is saying Daz. You need to remove your wage to find your profit.
That's both his profit and wage, yes he could say his wage is £14000 a year leaving £16000 profit but that means nothing.
To be honest that's why I don't consider a window cleaning round without employees a business, we are self employed
with a list of repeat work.
Would I pay £90k for a £30k a year net profit list, personally I wouldn't as it would mean working at least three years for nothing
which I couldn't handle, as has been said 3x monthly sounds a more realistic price.
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keep your round and employ someone to run it. do it properly and you will make a good wage. Spend time working on your bussiness and not in it grafting on the tools. i live near marbella and thats what i do . ive got 4 children in tow as well.
:o ;D
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3 x the monthly take 😂 yeah right oh why don't you just give it away.
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I would make sure the person I was selling it to was the right person I wouldn't just sell it to anyone,my customers trust me and I would sell it to someone that's likewise. Even if they had the cash if it was the wrong kind of person I wouldn't let it go to them.
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Yes that's what I'm saying
Its well known (clearly not on here) in the business world that 3x annual net profit plus assets it what businesses sell for. A byer would want to see accounts of 3-5 years at that level.
I have lots of friends in business and several have sold for that.
At the end of the day its only worth what someone is willing to pay.
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Yes that's what I'm saying
Its well known (clearly not on here) in the business world that 3x annual net profit plus assets it what businesses sell for. A byer would want to see accounts of 3-5 years at that level.
I have lots of friends in business and several have sold for that.
At the end of the day its only worth what someone is willing to pay.
You should be buying rounds then surely Lee , yet you say you dont , if you only pay 3 times monthly and hold them on the books for a few years they would make your biz worth way more when or if you sell .
But instead you spend vast ammounts on tv , radio , A4 leaflets , surely buying up rounds would be cheaper in the long run ?
Rich
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I don't by rounds because I want the customer to have chosen to use us. Our price, our way from the start and all our customers have to use gocardless and agree to our terms. For these reasons we don't have any cash flow problems (none) and very little mucking around. Who knows what messers/ late payers we would end up with buying from someone.
Also if you drill down into the cost per customer leafletting (for us) is way cheaper than buying.
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Just checked the next 500 jobs due. Not a single person owes us the last clean, not a single one!
Trying buying that from someone else. lol
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Now that would be nice to deal with , yes i get what you are doing now , sounds like a flawless biz model you run there mate !
I suppose thats why you have had to deal with green eyed monster w/c's from time to time eh , cos you appear to be doing it right .
Rich
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Lee in the past you have said you do some commercial work do they also pay via Gocardless ?
Martin
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Lee , you dont fancy a week half board in Plymouth sorting my sh*t out do ya ;D
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Lee in the past you have said you do some commercial work do they also pay via Gocardless ?
Martin
We do very very little commercial work. We only do it at our price and with good paying customers. We invoice them and they pay by bacs so we have to wait longer for it but we have them at very good prices so a bit of a wait is no bother. We have one job that 1 of my team can do in a 9 hour day priced at £750 plus VAT! Don't mind waiting a month for that.
We probably do only 30-40 commercial jobs now.
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Lee , you dont fancy a week half board in Plymouth sorting my sh*t out do ya ;D
Happy to.
Actually I have been doing paid consultancy work for about a year now. I charge £100 per hour plus VAT for my time. Minimum booking is 2 hours.
I usually see 2 or 3 people a month on that basis at my office.
I have never mentioned it on here for obvious reasons!!! but I get approached a few times each week by window cleaners all over the country for help/advice.
Before anyone has a meltdown why shouldn't I charge for my experience and knowledge and business model if that transforms someone elses business. People don't mind paying hundreds for a pole with a brush on the end lol.
I can imagine whats coming next....................
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Lee do you clean an old peoples place near Hampton Court in Surrey
Don't worry it was not one of my jobs
Martin
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Lee do you clean an old peoples place near Hampton Court in Surrey
Don't worry it was not one of my jobs
Martin
No not us. In fact we dont do any care homes at all.
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Lee , you dont fancy a week half board in Plymouth sorting my sh*t out do ya ;D
Happy to.
Actually I have been doing paid consultancy work for about a year now. I charge £100 per hour plus VAT for my time. Minimum booking is 2 hours.
I usually see 2 or 3 people a month on that basis at my office.
I have never mentioned it on here for obvious reasons!!! but I get approached a few times each week by window cleaners all over the country for help/advice.
Before anyone has a meltdown why shouldn't I charge for my experience and knowledge and business model if that transforms someone elses business. People don't mind paying hundreds for a pole with a brush on the end lol.
I can imagine whats coming next....................
Bet you cant ;D
Lee do you clean an old peoples place near Hampton Court in Surrey
Don't worry it was not one of my jobs
Martin
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£100 per hour? Peanuts.
A solicitor won't lift a pen for less than £250 per hour.
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£100 per hour? Peanuts.
A solicitor won't lift a pen for less than £250 per hour.
lol My other half said the same.
Next year it will be £200 per hour
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I would make sure the person I was selling it to was the right person I wouldn't just sell it to anyone,my customers trust me and I would sell it to someone that's likewise. Even if they had the cash if it was the wrong kind of person I wouldn't let it go to them.
Why?
Odd thing to worry about. I'd sell it to the highest bidder. Look after yourself no one else will.
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AshBash. What sort of financial arrangement do you have with the person you employ to run your round ?
I had thought about this option but think anybody with anything about them would want to have a business of their own, so how do you keep him/her happy and doing a good job?
Thanks for all replies
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AshBash. What sort of financial arrangement do you have with the person you employ to run your round ?
I had thought about this option but think anybody with anything about them would want to have a business of their own, so how do you keep him/her happy and doing a good job?
Thanks for all replies
Not really.
I worked at halfords for a while. The store manager essentially ran that branch of halfords and got a nice salary for doing so.
Did he want to go open his own automotive store? Of course not because it's bloody hard to do it yourself.
Point is most businesses have managers who run the business to a certain extent. It's the same thing here.
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depends on the buyer, big difference between selling a part time window cleaning round done by a sole trader vs a proper window cleaning business with multiple vans employees turnover in the hundreds of thousands of pounds