My own round is now over 25 years old, and it is currently a bloody good round with a terrific balance of very well paying (and I mean VERY well paying) commercial work and some superb residential accounts.
Even on a bad week, or series of weeks, the income it generates is very good indeed.
There is no way on earth I would sell this round for just three times it's monthly value!
If I sold my round for...say, £10,000, the buyer would be in profit inside 12 months.
The odds are they will be coming into window cleaning from a totally different sector, maybe buying the work with a redundancy payout, quite possibly their previous income would barely equal half the turnover that can be generated from the round.
So for nine or ten months they could be working at roughly the same income level they were as before.
And after such a tiny period of time they have paid for the round and are in profit...
How many other businesses could you buy for such a low price, and within a few months have an income considerably in excess of 30k? And with relatively low running costs too..
But I also value my customers, no way would I sell it to some berk who would ruin it inside of 6 months.
So I would also take them on for a month or more to train them and educate them in the round, and also to slowly introduce them to all my customers.
Every round, every account, they all have certain ways of cleaning them that are most efficient, for my buyer to benefit he would need to know exactly what he was doing, so vital he accompanies me for a few weeks, and that I'm also on hand to offer help whilst he gains his feet.
I'm not offering this level of help and support for a piddling three times it's monthly turnover!
And no way would I let it go for a paltry 10k either by the way!
Your round is worth whatever you can get someone to pay for it.
Some rounds I wouldn't give a tenner for, but a round such as Roy harding has...well, that one is worth it's weight in gold!
Ian
Yes ok for a round that's been established for 25 years with good, well paying accounts and somebody to hold my hand/make the introductions for the 1st month or so...then yes 3 times is ridiculous!
But for the vast majority of lesser rounds I still reckon 3 times is about right...because:
1) Books do get cooked
2) I reckon the buyer will lose 1/3 to 1/2 of the customers (because: " he's not my old window cleaner Ian")
3) It's almost as easy to build a round from scratch than buy a round and learn about the various customers funny little ways etc.
Sure thing Simon. When I posted my earlier post, I wasn't just referring to a print out of the jobs and prices and letting someone get on with it. Like Ian says, I just wouldn't allow that to happen. Once someone got to know their way around my current round, they could have a decent income and have a fair bit of time off too if they wanted. And like I said, it's an almost hassle free round. I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's in the same league as Ian's or Roy's rounds, but with a couple or three more years of nurturing, it could be heading that way. Quite a few of the customers have been with me 5+ years and some of them have been with me since my first couple of years (I started in 1991). For my selling fee (not that I want to sell it) I would include an intro to all the customers who were in and a signed letter to all those who weren't.
Of course, as you say, a buyer wouldn't earn what I earn straight away as it takes a while to learn your way around work that is new to you - especially if not familiar with the areas. It doesn't seem much now, but there is a lot of time saving in knowing the best places to park, the layout of a house before you get there etc etc. But three or four times around should be enough to get the hang of that.
Of course a round is really only worth what someone is prepared to pay. However a round that has been nurtured for years is far more precious than someone doing a few weeks canvassing, taking work with locked gates etc., cleaning them once or twice, then putting the worklist up for sale. I would sell my round on "hassle free" rather than "sky high prices" but there are some very well priced blocks of work within it if someone is prepared to put in some effort.