This podcast episode releases on the 3-year anniversary of the day I sold my first solo cleaning business. Over these 3 years, so many cleaning company owners have asked me how I did it. So many people told me that you can't sell a solo cleaning business because I just owned a job and a job has no value. I didn't believe them. I'm not going to start this story where it really started for me and that's where God put a dream and vision in my heart to leave Upstate New York and go home to the Philly Area. I want to confine this story to the "How", so you can see the practical steps I took.
I had many initial conversations with friends like Billy Altman and John VanderMuelen, who have sold small businesses. I learned a lot and even gained valuable insight into proper expectations. It's hard to get full price. Don't be afraid to do owner-finance and take payments. Use legal documents and document every step of the process. The decision to sell was made in November 2017 and I had to leave NY by late June 2018. That gave me 7-8 months to get it done. I first shopped it around to some cleaning companies after getting a rough valuation of $50,000. One company rejected it after seeing my numbers and signing a non-disclosure agreement. They could get the same number of clients I was selling for less in marketing. One ignored me and one just declined. I sensed early on that another business would not buy mine as it was viewed as a cleaning job. I had to be more creative and package the offer differently. I had to sell a dream and offer it to people looking for what the dream provided. I knew that I had a great dream to offer. I had optimized a cleaning company from 5 days to 2 days per week cleaning and still making $55,000 per year in profit. If all my clients would transition to the new person, I knew this was a great deal for somebody. I just had to find that somebody. I called a few people I thought might be a fit. I could tell they were not the right fit. I considered making a list and what I would say to each person in a script starting with every person in my phone contact list. As I was doing this strategic thinking, I scheduled myself to go to a cleaning conference. I've been to many conferences, but this was my first ever cleaning conference. It was called Speed Cleaning, hosted by industry leader Debbie Sardone.
Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website