Matt - Business is business and we all want to be earning £1000 a day, why not every other business is there to make money and provide a good service and then sell their business for a good price and move onto something else or grow what they are good at.
It,s what people value their business at.
When I am older and cannot do it anymore if I cannot sell for a good price I will have people running the business as there is no way I am going to put years and years into building agood business to just give it away for peanuts.
Every day you see more and more window cleaners out and about and as the market becomes saturated and business becomes harder to gain prices will increase tenfold for buying top quality work.
To sell a decent round you are going to have to pay someone to sell it for you as a good going concern but a smaller business is still the same, a good going concern but does not attract the same attention from brokers to sell on your behalf.
Thats why people give their business away for next to nothing.
I have a friend who works in the pest control business (6 years) and is now considering selling.
He has been offered 4 years profit.
Still the same type of business where he can lose business at any time.