Selling Window Cleaning biz, need help

[GravyBoat]

Gents and ladies,

A friend and I have another friend that has a window cleaning business with a massive client base. He has been doing this for almost 20 years. He works 7 days a week, and he's getting burnt out. He is semi old school, so he came to us in hopes that we could help him sell his window cleaning business.

He has a handfull of 1099 contractors, but no real employees.

He has a van or two, equipment.

He has a ton of accounts with re-occurring services (he does lots of stuff, but mainly window cleaning)

We realize that the main value is in the client base. Our current idea is to call up every window cleaning business in the vicinity and see if they want to buy it.

Our issues are, we don't know how much to value it at. We need alot more information before hitting them up.

Do you have any advice for us?

Thanks in advance

Gravy

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

I think your friend should get OUT of the business, but not in the way he is considering...

After 20 years, he should not be washing windows anymore. Your friend has a great opportunity to own a BUSINESS. By your brief description, it sounds like he, instead, has created a JOB for himself. All is not lost. The ideal goal of any business owner should be to work themselves OUT of a job, and let the business run itself. Then do it all over again. And yet again. This is also an ideal business because he has a customer base in place that he can easily build on to double his business. Add lawn mowing, for example. This service, which can scale up easily and run itself because it does not need skilled workers, could be an ideal candidate for great potential in several different directions - all at the same time!

He desperately needs to lay this out in a spreadsheet to see what he can net on every job he does. Then step back and RUN the business, instead of it running him. Since he has a massive customer base, go for the kill. Discount and go for quantity. Can he double his customer base in a year? Triple it? He could own the market with the right strategic moves.

I know a guy that did exactly that, but with lawn mowing. Now he not only mows residential lawns, but many commercial sites and he also does landscaping. He is a pro that is entrusted to all the golf courses, as well. He's a millionaire, and he never mows a lawn himself. He also does not NEED to run the business, as he has a team that does that too.

In the event he does actually want to sell the goose laying the golden eggs, check out this website:

How to Value a Business: The Ultimate Guide to Business Valuation

 

[GravyBoat]

Thanks for the reply man.

This guy really isn't "business minded," and his business definitely isn't "built to sell." We are going to sit down with him this weekend to see A, how serious he is about selling and B, if he's really willing to put in the effort needed to sell.

We are also figuring out that since he has 1099 contractors instead of employees, this could come back to bite him when he sells (IRS). We are also sketched since sometimes he gets paid cash, so we don't know ACTUAL numbers yet.

I'll find out this weekend and report back. Could be a cool little venture for us, and maybe a great thread will come out of it.