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cornwallwindows

  • Posts: 115
Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« on: May 24, 2015, 09:11:28 am »
Hello. Due to being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease recently I've found it impossible to keep up with my rounds a part from a day here and there.
So I've decided to sell it off.
Has anyone had any experience in selling off an entire business?
This includes, equipment, website, Facebook page, business cards etc. I have about 19 days of solid work, bringing in roughly 1,800 pounds per month.
Any advice about selling it outright or selling it in separate rounds would be great.
Thanks.

Marc Stock

Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2015, 09:25:06 am »
Your likely to make more money selling off the rounds separately.  But for simplicity I'd sell off the whole lot in one transaction.  £21000 turnover business I'd expect  to sell for around £11,000 if you can prove earnings with backed up accounts. 

tlwcs

  • Posts: 2162
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2015, 09:39:47 am »
Your likely to make more money selling off the rounds separately.  But for simplicity I'd sell off the whole lot in one transaction.  £21000 turnover business I'd expect  to sell for around £11,000 if you can prove earnings with backed up accounts.


Sorry to learn of your illness and I hope it improves.
I'm not sure it's worth that.
If it's only being serviced  with a day or two here and there, there may not be much left to  sell
Good luck though

cornwallwindows

  • Posts: 115
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2015, 09:51:36 am »
Thanks. I'm just worried that there's not going to be much interest. I'll be putting it on Gumtree, on here and on Ebay. Anywhere else?

cornwallwindows

  • Posts: 115
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2015, 09:54:12 am »
I'll be selling all my equipment too, this includes 450l tank, pump, DI vessel, pressure washer, x2 brushes, lots of extras. I did hear somewhere that I need to add up the total income and times it by 3. Does that sound right?

Walter Mitty

  • Posts: 1314
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2015, 09:54:56 am »
Sorry to hear that you are unwell.  It's always  difficult to know where to pitch a price when selling up as work quality and prices can vary enormously.  Buying work where you just turn up, clean and leave a bill or get paid is, in my view, far better than work that needs to be micro-managed by pre-arranging due to loads of access problems (I only pre-notify about 4% of my work and that 4% has 90% of the problems).
If I were as potential buyer, the £1,800 turnover for 19 days solid work would raise a red flag for me - so it might be better to focus on the money earned rather than the time taken to do it.  However, this might sound like a decent £ per day turnover for someone just starting out - plus I realise that the economy in Cornwall tends to be generally less buoyant than in the south-east where I live.  It also depends on your cleaning method; are the customers used to and accepting of WFP?
I suggest that you draw up and highlight all the positive aspects of the business in order to maximise your selling price.

cornwallwindows

  • Posts: 115
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2015, 10:02:14 am »
Sorry to hear that you are unwell.  It's always  difficult to know where to pitch a price when selling up as work quality and prices can vary enormously.  Buying work where you just turn up, clean and leave a bill or get paid is, in my view, far better than work that needs to be micro-managed by pre-arranging due to loads of access problems (I only pre-notify about 4% of my work and that 4% has 90% of the problems).
If I were as potential buyer, the £1,800 turnover for 19 days solid work would raise a red flag for me - so it might be better to focus on the money earned rather than the time taken to do it.  However, this might sound like a decent £ per day turnover for someone just starting out - plus I realise that the economy in Cornwall tends to be generally less buoyant than in the south-east where I live.  It also depends on your cleaning method; are the customers used to and accepting of WFP?
I suggest that you draw up and highlight all the positive aspects of the business in order to maximise your selling price.

Thanks for the reply. Why does the turnover raise red flags for you? Just out of interest, no offence taken.
Yes, majority is WFP work and there are some very compact rounds.

tlwcs

  • Posts: 2162
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2015, 10:06:25 am »
Sorry to hear that you are unwell.  It's always  difficult to know where to pitch a price when selling up as work quality and prices can vary enormously.  Buying work where you just turn up, clean and leave a bill or get paid is, in my view, far better than work that needs to be micro-managed by pre-arranging due to loads of access problems (I only pre-notify about 4% of my work and that 4% has 90% of the problems).
If I were as potential buyer, the £1,800 turnover for 19 days solid work would raise a red flag for me - so it might be better to focus on the money earned rather than the time taken to do it.  However, this might sound like a decent £ per day turnover for someone just starting out - plus I realise that the economy in Cornwall tends to be generally less buoyant than in the south-east where I live.  It also depends on your cleaning method; are the customers used to and accepting of WFP?
I suggest that you draw up and highlight all the positive aspects of the business in order to maximise your selling price.

Thanks for the reply. Why does the turnover raise red flags for you? Just out of interest, no offence taken.
Yes, majority is WFP work and there are some very compact rounds.

£95 per day less expenses.
If you can get a new starter to buy the lot it won't seem so bad, but thats quite a low day rate..
I would look to bundle work into roads or villages and sell them to guys who already have work in those areas.
Kit can always go on ebay
Tony

wpclean

Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2015, 10:34:56 am »
Advertise it on www.wforsale.co.uk
I have sold a few rounds in there, and believe me when I tell you there are lots of people wanting to buy work.
You will get some bad advice on this forum regarding work, don't listen.
You have to market the work right, and have all the facts, and figures, and look professional to give the buyers confidence.
Offering to work with the buyer for the first clean will be a big bonus, it amazes me when I see rounds for sale with a list og house numbers, and wanting a deposit before showing the work . . . . yeah right  ::)roll

wpclean

Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2015, 10:36:23 am »
If you want some advice, you can contact me, and will talk you through it.

wpclean

Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2015, 10:37:51 am »
You can get a minimum of six cleans,  so don't take any notice of some of the posts on here.

Matt.

  • Posts: 1836
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2015, 11:15:21 am »
I am also sorry to hear about your misfortune, and agree with above post, try to sell the work to locals, you will get more by braking it up, equipment won't be a problem to sell

I do wish you the best of luck


Smudger

  • Posts: 13459
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2015, 11:42:07 am »
Cornwall, sorry to hear of your health issues.

Without trying to sound condescending, £1800 for 19 solid days is really a poor return, HOWEVER someone else may knock this work out in say 10 days, it's hard to judge  your pricing value without seeing the work etc...

But the size of your round is ideal for selling, a good amount for a starter but not too big for say another windy to take on and build there biz. The amount of cash required to buy your round wouldn't be frightening  for either parts of the market.

Price really is dependant on what you can really make p/h - if it's £35 + then to me I'd pay 6 or 7x the monthly anything below £25 then to me it's worth at best 3x  and a sliding scale for everything in between.

Equipment I'd try to sell with the round price it up retail then sell for 1/2 the new value price, I'd sell the round first then the equipment
Darran
Never argue with an idiot, they will only bring you down to their level, and beat you with experience

TomCrowther

  • Posts: 1965
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2015, 04:16:55 pm »
That's great advice from Smudger 're round value. It's the hourly rate that determines the value.

Walter Pole

  • Posts: 199
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #14 on: May 24, 2015, 04:28:15 pm »
This isn't an offer to you...but the last 2 businesses I bought were on this basis..
You are 1800 a month so I'll give 900 now and then in 2 months I'll deduct all losses...your not the man I started with etc..off the remaining 900.
taking panes to exceed expectations

AuRavelling79

  • Posts: 26534
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #15 on: May 24, 2015, 05:06:41 pm »
Could you "oversee" it? Employ someone to do it? Rent it to someone? Keep the cream and sell the rest?
It's a game of three halves!

Walter Mitty

  • Posts: 1314
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2015, 05:32:42 pm »
Sorry to hear that you are unwell.  It's always  difficult to know where to pitch a price when selling up as work quality and prices can vary enormously.  Buying work where you just turn up, clean and leave a bill or get paid is, in my view, far better than work that needs to be micro-managed by pre-arranging due to loads of access problems (I only pre-notify about 4% of my work and that 4% has 90% of the problems).
If I were as potential buyer, the £1,800 turnover for 19 days solid work would raise a red flag for me - so it might be better to focus on the money earned rather than the time taken to do it.  However, this might sound like a decent £ per day turnover for someone just starting out - plus I realise that the economy in Cornwall tends to be generally less buoyant than in the south-east where I live.  It also depends on your cleaning method; are the customers used to and accepting of WFP?
I suggest that you draw up and highlight all the positive aspects of the business in order to maximise your selling price.

Thanks for the reply. Why does the turnover raise red flags for you? Just out of interest, no offence taken.
Yes, majority is WFP work and there are some very compact rounds.

Well your figures seem to indicate that it would be difficult to turn over £100 a day - and then you would have to deduct any expenditure before you reach the profit figure.
Of course, thinking about it, it may be that your daily turnover was low due to your health problem - and that a healthy buyer could earn much more from it.

bobplum

  • Posts: 5602
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2015, 06:55:16 pm »
Try asking Alex Gardiner, im sure he has work which he rents out to other cleaners, maybe they will be interested, or he may know someone, im taking it you are in cornwall

Walter Pole

  • Posts: 199
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2015, 07:01:04 pm »
Or David Morris...
taking panes to exceed expectations

britishwill

  • Posts: 537
Re: Selling my business due to ill health - advice.
« Reply #19 on: May 24, 2015, 07:02:33 pm »
Just a thought they might be able to get the disease under control so that you could work it? In that case I would get someone to cover for you