Selling business - worth

[Craig Keller]

Howdy all, I'm considering selling my business and partially retiring. My kids are grown, they both moved to my hometown area about 40 minutes away. I have 3 properties and am looking to sell them all and buy one house and bank the rest of the cash for full retirement. I had a leg injury last Spring that was somewhat of an awakening as to the amount of hours I work. I'm kinda burned out. The only option I have is to hire and at 50, I'm not interested in expanding.

Is the number calculated by what I pay myself + profit + equipment? I'm not worried about the building part, that I can sell easy, it's the numbers for the business I really need. The building is attractive as it has a nice retail area where I work from and an attached 40x50 pole shed that could be finished if one wanted to do installs on site. It has 10' door and a regular 2 car door. Just needs insulation, heat - I was always going to do that but then I didn't LOL

I'm not looking to get rich on the business end of it but it would be soooooo much easier to just sell all the equipment, and building to one person. So, I want to make the price appealing yet not give it away. Honestly, if I could get 50k for the business and then the building price on top of that, I would probably be happy if I could just walk away. I'm happy to private message my total sales...although it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I'm one person and do mostly smaller signs, vans, trucks, apparel. I don't sub anything out. over $100k, less than $300k, with plenty of potential for a go-getter to make more. I turn down a lot of larger jobs because I don't have the skills to install 4x4 posts in the ground, I can't do full wraps, etc.

Equipment is just a HP 315, cold laminator, Summa cutter, a couple heat presses, very limited inventory - so under 20k total.

Almost all my customers are repeat, I have a very solid customer base.

Location?

 

[Stacey K]

Location?

Wisconsin

 

[Craig Keller]

What part I'm n beaver dam now.

 

[Pauly]

Instead of selling, have you thought of employing someone to run it?
If not, scale down to the jobs you want to do?

Or scale down and move some of it home.

Focus just on stickers. Or banners or apparel etc. It definitely makes it easier also.

You may miss it when it's gone.

 

[Stacey K]

Instead of selling, have you thought of employing someone to run it?
If not, scale down to the jobs you want to do?

Or scale down and move some of it home.

Focus just on stickers. Or banners or apparel etc. It definitely makes it easier also.

You may miss it when it's gone.

Yes - totally agree. If I can't sell the building with the business as a bundle for the price I want then I'll take my equipment with me and just do small stuff from my basement. I'm going to do some house flipping with the money from the building and another rental property I'm selling. I'm moving back to my hometown since my kids moved there and all my family is there. I just don't want to deal with all the travel. Right now it takes me 90 seconds to get to work. If I move it will be 45 minutes...don't laugh...I know even 45 minutes is less than most people drive every day but that doesn't interest me LOL

 

[Stacey K]

I decided to keep the business and just rent a garage-type space with an office area. I'll mostly work from my home but I will need a professional garage space so it should work out well. I sold the building within a week of it being listed and will rent for a couple months after closing. I'll have quite a bit more financial freedom now to do some of the jobs I enjoy vs. not enjoy LOL

 

[JBurton]

I decided to keep the business and just rent a garage-type space with an office area. I'll mostly work from my home but I will need a professional garage space so it should work out well. I sold the building within a week of it being listed and will rent for a couple months after closing. I'll have quite a bit more financial freedom now to do some of the jobs I enjoy vs. not enjoy LOL

I love a happy ending!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

i enjoy Stacy's happy endings. Good for you and keeping the business.

 

[Stacey K]

If you’re thinking of selling, a St. Louis business broker like Peterson Acquisitions can help. They specialize in valuing small businesses based on profit, customer base, and assets.

I'm keeping it, thanks

 

[The Blind Signman]

Howdy all, I'm considering selling my business and partially retiring. My kids are grown, they both moved to my hometown area about 40 minutes away. I have 3 properties and am looking to sell them all and buy one house and bank the rest of the cash for full retirement. I had a leg injury last Spring that was somewhat of an awakening as to the amount of hours I work. I'm kinda burned out. The only option I have is to hire and at 50, I'm not interested in expanding.

Is the number calculated by what I pay myself + profit + equipment? I'm not worried about the building part, that I can sell easy, it's the numbers for the business I really need. The building is attractive as it has a nice retail area where I work from and an attached 40x50 pole shed that could be finished if one wanted to do installs on site. It has 10' door and a regular 2 car door. Just needs insulation, heat - I was always going to do that but then I didn't LOL

I'm not looking to get rich on the business end of it but it would be soooooo much easier to just sell all the equipment, and building to one person. So, I want to make the price appealing yet not give it away. Honestly, if I could get 50k for the business and then the building price on top of that, I would probably be happy if I could just walk away. I'm happy to private message my total sales...although it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I'm one person and do mostly smaller signs, vans, trucks, apparel. I don't sub anything out. over $100k, less than $300k, with plenty of potential for a go-getter to make more. I turn down a lot of larger jobs because I don't have the skills to install 4x4 posts in the ground, I can't do full wraps, etc.

Equipment is just a HP 315, cold laminator, Summa cutter, a couple heat presses, very limited inventory - so under 20k total.

Almost all my customers are repeat, I have a very solid customer base.

if you dont have any accounts with contracts good luck...

 

[The Blind Signman]

1

 

[The Blind Signman]

dont get any advice with anyone who was never in business...there trolls who failed in life...and never will succeed ..

 

[Black Star]

if you dont have any accounts with contracts good luck...

I've been in business for 30 years and have never had accounts with contracts.

 

[Stacey K]

if you dont have any accounts with contracts good luck...

I decided to keep the business and operate it from home. Best thing I ever did!

I've not heard of any small sign shops have signed contracts? About 8 years ago a sign shop similar to mine down the road was sold and I know they had no contracts because I ended up with all the customers within a couple months. The new owners went out of business. Two more popped up - both out of business. Then another - out of business. I'm the only one that lasted in my area.

I did have some interest but if you're serious about buying a sign shop, you know all you need is a vinyl cutter and an account at Signs365 to get started. One gal who was interested was working from her home making 4x8 ACM signs for $100...she's done already and it's been under a year.

 

[mbasch]

For a small 1 man shop, I'd sell the equipment and the building and broker any print or install. You just ride your current customer base until it dwindles to nothing but monetize the relationships in the short term. You'll probably make more money that way than you would selling outright. You could just sell your client list separately. That would have value to another shop especially if you make the introductions as "taking over your business". You could even give the client list to another shop and take a percentage of business for the next 3 years although if they are not honest, they'll play with the books and pay you nothing....just my thoughts.

It sucks as a small business you hope for a valuation of cash to owner of 2.5-3x while public companies trade with multiples much much higher. Small business is the backbone of the American economy and we all invest our lives into building these businesses with a fraction of the reward to most corporate CEO's whether their businesses make money or not.

 

[Johnny Best]

I think Stacey knows more about business than the people who give her advice.

 

[Stacey K]

For a small 1 man shop, I'd sell the equipment and the building and broker any print or install. You just ride your current customer base until it dwindles to nothing but monetize the relationships in the short term. You'll probably make more money that way than you would selling outright. You could just sell your client list separately. That would have value to another shop especially if you make the introductions as "taking over your business". You could even give the client list to another shop and take a percentage of business for the next 3 years although if they are not honest, they'll play with the books and pay you nothing....just my thoughts.

It sucks as a small business you hope for a valuation of cash to owner of 2.5-3x while public companies trade with multiples much much higher. Small business is the backbone of the American economy and we all invest our lives into building these businesses with a fraction of the reward to most corporate CEO's whether their businesses make money or not.

So, the shop/shed and a rental property I owned were connected. I physically separated the buildings and sold them separately, making me an extra 70k (actually 40k because it cost 30k to separate). I sold my house. I bought a new house with a finished basement and paid a moving company to move my HP 315 printer for me. After these deals went through, it seemed foolish for me to sell my equipment or even my customer list. I had already made up that money separating the buildings. I have less than 20k in equipment and materials. Everything is paid for, my house, equipment, and financially, so I'm "partially retired" but more like just not working over 40 hours anymore LOL. It's been working out pretty well working from home. A few bumps here and there. I do bookwork for my son part time also. At some point, I'll need to stop doing ladder work but right now I can still muddle through. My son also races and do his car wraps and my other son is getting into it so I will probably always have some kind of printer/cutter even if it's just for fun use. I also do all their business and race apparel. So, anyway, I think it worked out well for now. I think when I'm done, I'll see if I can sell my customer list but I'll keep my equipment for personal use.

 

[ProSignTN]

Sounds like a plan! As far as ladder work goes, I'm losing about a foot a year. I'll be on a step stool in a decade, lol. I can still dig holes, but I always take plenty of water, help and time. Installs are still done, but only when necessary. Small building in back yard, no customers visit. Truck & van installs in a rented space three minutes away. Metal shop around the corner. But the best part is plenty of time to be the family handyman and coach my grandsons in baseball, basketball, kayaking, fire building, filed stripping, knot tying, swimming, etc, etc. Good Life.

 

[Matt Lachance]

Interesting thread. I am putting my business up for sale in June. Been at it for over 25 years and it is time to retire. My business is e-commerce and focuses on automotive graphics and we are one of the top two providers in that niche with killer search engine placement. I have one employee and I only work at it about 5 hours a week unless it is busy season. Then it is about 10. I have another business that takes most of my time and I will drop to part-time on that one and my partner will run it. Lots of things to consider going forward.

 

[Stacey K]

Interesting thread. I am putting my business up for sale in June. Been at it for over 25 years and it is time to retire. My business is e-commerce and focuses on automotive graphics and we are one of the top two providers in that niche with killer search engine placement. I have one employee and I only work at it about 5 hours a week unless it is busy season. Then it is about 10. I have another business that takes most of my time and I will drop to part-time on that one and my partner will run it. Lots of things to consider going forward.

When you are ready to sell, you should tell us, I can think of a couple members that might be interested.