Are you thinking about selling your cleaning business but don’t know where to start?
Having everything ready to sell is important. Before you transfer ownership of your cleaning company, there are steps you need to take.
If you’re stuck and need help, we’ve got your back. This episode will give you a checklist and tips to sell your business with ease.
Listen: Thinking About Selling Your Cleaning Business?
Watch: Thinking About Selling Your Cleaning Business?
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
Thinking About Selling Your Cleaning Business
Are you thinking about selling your cleaning business? There is a woman who, because of the coronavirus and staying at home, her whole entire life is changing upside down with her kids not going back to school full time.
She’s going to be homeschooling this fall, she’s going to sell her cleaning business because she’s not able to run it functioning at a regular pace. So, she says, “What do I need to know if I’m thinking about selling my cleaning business?”
Go Back to the Beginning of Your Business
This is a fascinating topic, and we need to go all the way back to the beginning of your business. And if you’re going to start a business, think of starting a business on day one. On day two, think of selling your business. “What? How is that even possible? If we’re starting a business, that should be our focus, right?” Yes, and here’s the but. It comes from Stephen Covey, who built into us the concept of “start with the end in mind.” And the whole “beginning with the end in mind” concept is if you’re going to start a business today, what does it look like when you go to sell your business?
You Know What it Looks Like
Because if you know what it looks like, how much money you have to earn, and how much you’re going to work in your business. You know how long or how many years you are going to work in your business, what you want to sell it for, why you want to sell it. What are the circumstances you want to sell it.
Once you know what that end goal is, you can work your way backward, and you can set up the proper steps that lead you there. That’s the whole purpose of that concept.
Ask Yourself What Exactly You Want to Do
So, from the very beginning, what is it that you want to do? And you need to ask the questions of yourself because if you go to sell your business, it’s like going on a walkthrough with a customer. You get to a customer’s house, and a customer’s going to ask you a series of questions. And as the business owner, or as the house cleaner that’s going to be doing the cleaning, you have to answer the series of questions to their satisfaction.
The same rules apply when you go to sell your business. There are going to be bankers who want to ask for your bank statements. They want statements of the money you have earned because hopefully, you’re selling it for a profit. So, you have to guarantee that the new buyers are going to make X amount of dollars per year by buying your business.
You can’t prove that unless you keep certain records and bookkeeping and all that stuff.
If You Go Through a Broker
If you go through a broker, the broker is going to ask you a certain series of questions that are going to have everything to do with your personnel. “Tell me about the people that work for your company.” “Well, they’re nice people.” Is not going to cut it
You have to have documentation of all your employee files, and the different things that you’ve taught your employees. And how well they’re trained, how they’ve done on the job, the ratings and reviews.
All those things about the personnel, because you’re going to package that together and you’re going to sell that as part of your package.
They’re Going to Ask You About Marketing
Also, they’re going to ask you about your marketing. It’s very interesting, because right now, before you spend any money, they’re going to start looking at things like, “Tell me about your website. Does your website bring in traffic? What is your website connected to? Does it connect to different social media channels, and what is on those social media channels?
Is there a consistent brand that goes out on your social media channels, that’s on your website, and does that reflect the person that shows up to the customer’s house to do the cleaning?”
You Have to Know the Pieces of the Puzzle
And so, there are a whole bunch of pieces of the puzzle and its important to know what those puzzle pieces are. Starting from the very beginning you start setting those elements in place so that one day, for whatever reason. Whether it’s a pandemic or whether it’s a life crisis, you have all the stuff in place.
So when the day comes when you need to pull the ripcord and say, “Hey, I got to sell my business right now,” you will have all the puzzle pieces in place. That’s why we say, “begin with the end in mind.”
Did You Set Up Your Business to One Day Sell It?
Did you set up your business on day one so that you could sell it later on for a profit? Because if you have to sell it midway, maybe you don’t get to sell it for big money. But maybe you could sell it for half price, because you have all this stuff still in place, and it’s worth X amount of dollars.
If you’re waiting until one day, like, “Ah, one day down the road, I’ll put all this stuff together“. It’s not going to be worth that at the end, whatever that big, large sum is that you’re hoping to sell your business for.
And so, every step that you make today leads you on a path of one way, or it leads you somewhere else.
It’s Like Buying a House
It’s like buying a house. If you know in two years, you’re going to buy a house, then you have to get your records in place today. You got to make sure your credit is in line today. If your furniture falls apart, you might be eight months from your goal date. And you say, “Wait a second, instead of buying new furniture now for the old house, why don’t we wait and hold off.
So that when we get ready to move, we toss this furniture, and we’re not storing it in a storage unit somewhere. And that the furniture that we buy matches the décor of the new house, and that it fits in the corners and the way that the rooms are structured?”
Have All Your Ducks in a Row
So, if you’re going to sell your business, and when you do then make sure have all your ducks in a row. That’s an American idiom that means we want to have your activities in place. And you want to have your documents in place, and make sure that you’ve done everything properly all along the way. That way the process is easy on the end.
So, there’s a lot to consider, and yes, you can sell your business. However, if you haven’t set it up correctly from the beginning, then stop right now and do that today because every step you take towards that journey from here forward can focus on that end result.
Resources
These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show.
Smart Business, Stupid Business: What School Never Taught You – https://amzn.to/3etJnrG
What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School – https://amzn.to/31gUWhZ
The Innovator’s Spirit: Discover the Mindset to Pursue the Impossible – https://amzn.to/37ZTP7z
The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future – https://amzn.to/36qQjCH
50 Mistakes Business Owners Make – https://amzn.to/2TCFLuX
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