I’m in the process of leaving the industry and in negotiations to sell my customer list. Mix of pressure washing, window cleaning, and gutter cleaning customers. Have done over $175k so far in 2021. Over $210k in last calendar year. In business since 2018, many repeat customers, great reputation and goodwill built up with them. Not selling a turn key business, or any equipment or employees, pretty much just customer list. What would you ask for?
Nothing. If you aren’t selling equipment, then you aren’t really selling anything. Customer list doesn’t guarantee income. Only signed contracts, and they are usually voided if ownership changes. It sucks. I’ve thought about selling a few times and can’t get a decent offer.
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I went through this when I sold my landscape business years ago. Unfortunately, if you don’t have signed contracts you’re basically selling air. Website, phone number, advertising offers some value as does equipment. Otherwise, you don’t have much to sell.
I agree that there’s not much to sell but there is some value to a substantial list of customers (800+) to a company looking to enter a new market. I know this because I’ve already received an offer. The value of the offer is based on sales from my customers for the next calendar year. I will be selling equipment just not as a part of this deal.
People buy and sell ‘customer lists’ all the time.
I’m not saying someone won’t buy it. I’m just saying it’s usually challenging to find a buyer for just a list of names and numbers with no binding contracts. I wish you the best and hope you make a nice payday!
How about an even trade, all you got, for a almost new hotdog cart (with umbrella)?
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That may be a fair deal…if that cart’s “all you’ve got”, sounds like it’s an even trade to me 
You know I’m a sucker for a hot dog cart. How do you want to make this happen? I’ll throw in a customer list for the umbrella
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If you’ve already got an offer, then why ask us? You’ve got a better idea than we would have.
Must’ve been a long week for some of you. Lol. Tough crowd.
It’s likely more attractive to a new guy. Seeing $200k on paper and realizing you could start making good money is very appealing to a newb.
Those that have a customer base and been in business awhile don’t really have much value in adding on like that unless they were thinking of hiring more employees and really expanding.
You should try some of the Facebook groups selling power washing equipment. You could even say something like “Make an offer.”
Why not sell everything as a package deal including the equipment and name?
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May geta higher total parting it out? IDK For me I’d want to at least see what I built keep going, so I’d rather sell it as a package…
Ok, this may work in getting you something, or at least more than nothing. You could have a contract where you get say 25-30% of each customer that the new person gets from your list for the first 2-3 years. They would have a phone with your old number so they could know it was from your business. You could do monthly payouts. You may need to sweeten the deal by emailing/calling all the old customers to upsell the guy and then making sure your available to him for the length of the contract if he has any questions. After the first service it would be up to him to retain them.
I like the concept…maybe it’s a sliding scale over those 3 years. Some % amount in year 1, which cuts in half for year 2, and again in year 3. Gives him the incentive to bring them back. Just a matter of making sure you actually are getting what you’re due in that case though. And, if you’re looking to be “free” of it entirely, you lose that…but that will always net you less money anyway.
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@FatFIRE That’s in essence the deal that we’re discussing. However it’s only for a year and less %. As most of us know, this business is easy to get into and not terribly difficult to build a little bit of a market share so I have to take that into account.
It would be naive of me to think I could sell what I have for a ton but what I’m offering does hold some value. As far as parting out vs package deal, I feel that I can get more selling separately. The established company has their own preference of setups but can immediately use the customers to expand into the new market where as the equipment is most likely going to go to a new(er) guy who is looking to hop into the business part time and can’t justify paying what the customer list is worth right off the bat.
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