Purchase of an established round

[Atyeomatt]

Advice please chaps. I am looking in the near future to expand my business. Trouble is, new customers are hard to come by, most major City's are saturated with window cleaners, door knocking isn't as effective as it used to be, and who wants the odd customer here and there. I was looking at the option of buying an established round - a ready made extension to my business. Question(s) - has anybody purchased a round before? How did the transaction go? What are the pitfalls? Fair price?

Thanks in advance for comments.

Matt

 

[harunh]

Hi mate... i am intending on starting a window cleaning business soon. and i always browse the forums and learn a lot of new things each day.

A lot of people purchase rounds... but if you buy a trad round and start doing it with wfp some customers may not like it.

Also when you buy a round i would suggest you make sure its genuine... if i was in your shoes i would tell the person am buying it off.... to introduce me to some of his customers.... say im taking over etc... i know it sounds daft but its worth it... the amount of money you are going to pay for a round... you want to make sure its all legit and good for you.

Also a lot of people say when buying a round you lose 1/3 work. Some people dont and some people do.

If its hard getting customers i would suggest that you get some flyers.... 50% off your first clean... knock them out a good few thousand could do you good /emoticons/wink.png it will be worth it in the end my mate

 

[laddergarder]

I someone is selling off work, and is willing to sell it for a fair price, which I would consider to be 3X the monthly average. Bear in mind that if they are selling it, its because they are weeding out the rounds they don't want, I would snap it up. Because as you say, it can be hard to build compact work.

However, it is cheaper and better in the long run to build a round yourself, because its you who are pricing the work, not someone else. Secondly, they tend not to go up for sale that often, so I would not wait around for one to come up, just get out canvassing

 

[bluemonkey]

what do you class as an established round, less than 1 year old, or 5+ plus,

 

[Ryan]

2 years + i would say is an established round as people used to getting it done year in year out and now just drop u after a year of work

personally i would by a round if i could get one within 15miles of me

 

[badbusdriver]

I bought a large part of an existing round, thats how i got started, and while i would agree with laddergarder that about 3x monthly price is about right, that would only be with regards to small parts of a round, maybe up to half a dozen houses or so. Simple fact is, a large existing round is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and personally, i dont think it is realistic to expect, what is potentially a 'career', for 3x its monthly value. The round i bought was already big enough, profit wise, to pay my bills, and while i am not going to divulge what i payed, it was a lot more than 3x!. I may well have paid much more than the going rate, but as part of the deal, the guy i bought it from, agreed to take me round with him for a full month, this meant that he trained me up to his standards, and also meant that i was introduced to most of his/my customers. This resulted in my loosing 3 customers out of a total of maybe 130, which i dont think was too bad. If the window cleaner isnt prepared to take you round, then i would be reluctant to buy unless very cheap, but if they are happy to bring you round and introduce you to customers, then, well its up to you really. My personal situation meant it would be near impossible to build a round myself, as i had lots of bills to pay, a family to feed and worked very long hours as a busdriver. If i were single, lived with parents, and didnt have many financial burdens, i would probably done it from scratch.

Oh, and i would also disagree that they are only selling what they dont want. That may be one reason why they are selling, but certainly wasnt the case for me, i got some very choice stuff!.

 

[windyman]

Yes I agree with all that BBD said.

I have bought small amounts of work in the past and it's worked fine. I would be careful though & as has been said, I'd want to go round most/all of it and work it with the guy. That's the very best way to find out what the work is like & if it's genuine.

At the moment, I'm renting a round from a chap and have been for 18 months. I have the option to buy it when I want to and this is a massive bonus to me. I know the work inside out, the customers know me, so it could be a seemless transaction. Not sure if you could come to some agreement like that for 6months or so? It's a very big safety net when buying work.

There will be the ones who will try to scam you or rip you off, so be cautious, but not everyone is like that.

As BBD said, there are many reasons people sell up. The chap I rent from just didn't have the motivation to be self-employed, so just got a 9-5 job.

All the best mate!