BreakThru Realty

Sell a Cleaning Company in Florida

Cleaning companies are recurring-revenue businesses that buyers like and lenders understand, provided the contracts, the payroll and the margins hold up. Commercial janitorial accounts under contract, residential routes with low churn and specialty work (post-construction, medical, floor care) are each valued differently, and staffing is the question every buyer asks.

Find Out What My Business Is Worth · (786) 914-1017

Your first step: Confidential Business Exit Review

Start With a Confidential Business Exit Review

Your business represents years of decisions, relationships and work. Before anyone hears it might be for sale, know what it would sell for, what a buyer's lender will accept, and what you would take home. A licensed business broker prepares it and walks you through it privately.

What you receive

  • A recast of your earnings into seller's discretionary earnings, with the add-backs documented
  • A price range from closed sales of comparable Florida businesses, with the reasoning
  • The lease, staffing and financing issues that would move the price, and what to fix first
  • What a buyer's SBA lender is likely to accept
  • An estimate of what you would take home after the fee and any payoff

What happens next

  1. Answer a few questions about the business. Revenue and what you take home are enough to start.
  2. A business broker prepares the review from comparable sales.
  3. We call within one business day to walk through it, privately.
  4. Nothing is listed, and nobody is contacted, unless you decide to sell.

Free and confidential. The details you give us are seen only by the broker preparing the review. We do not contact your landlord, staff or customers.

Find Out What My Business Is Worth · How a business sale works

Contracts, Routes and Churn

A commercial janitorial company is valued on its contracts: offices, medical buildings, schools, property-management portfolios, with their monthly value, term and renewal history. A residential company is valued on its active customer count, visit frequency and churn, and on how new customers arrive. Both are presented with the recurring revenue separated from one-time jobs, because the recurring part is what carries the multiple.

Staffing, Payroll and Compliance

Buyers look hard at how the work is staffed: employees or subcontractors, how they are paid, turnover, and whether workers' compensation, payroll taxes and classifications are in order. A company that runs on properly classified employees with supervisors in place sells for more and to buyers using bank financing; one that depends on cash and informal labour sells for less and to fewer buyers. Cleaning up the payroll in the year before a sale is usually the highest-return preparation.

Margins and Supplies

Gross margin after labour and supplies, by account, shows a buyer which contracts make money. Underpriced legacy accounts are either repriced before the sale or disclosed. Equipment, floor machines, vehicles and supply inventory are listed and counted at closing.

Owner Dependence

If you bid every job, inspect every building and cover every no-show, the buyer is buying your job. A field supervisor who manages the crews and an office manager who handles scheduling and billing let the business sell for a higher multiple and to an investor as well as an operator. Where the owner is the business, a longer transition closes the gap.

Who Buys Cleaning Companies

Supervisors and operators buying with an SBA loan; owners of other cleaning or facility-services companies buying accounts; franchisees adding territory; and investors buying a managed company for its recurring revenue. Specialty work, such as medical or post-construction cleaning, draws specialist buyers who pay for the credentials.

Questions you may be asking

Will my employees, customers or landlord find out?
Not from us. The review itself involves nobody but you and the broker. If you later sell, the business is marketed without its name or address, buyers sign a non-disclosure agreement and prove their funds before they learn who you are, and the landlord is approached only once there is an accepted offer.
What does a business broker charge?
A success fee paid from the proceeds at closing, set out in writing in the listing agreement before you sign anything. The review costs nothing.
My books are not perfect.
Few are. The review shows which add-backs a lender will accept and which records to tidy before a buyer looks, so the price holds through due diligence.
I only know my revenue.
Tell us the revenue and what you take home, even roughly. We work out the rest with you and ask for tax returns later, only if you want a firm range.

Find Out What My Business Is Worth

Tell us the type of business, the city, how long it has operated, annual revenue, owner benefit or seller's discretionary earnings, EBITDA if you track it, monthly rent and lease expiry, number of employees, how involved you are, why you are selling, your timeline and whether you would consider seller financing. A licensed BreakThru business broker prepares a confidential valuation from comparable sales and replies within one business day. Everything you tell us is confidential, the valuation is free, and nothing is listed or announced unless you decide to sell. Prefer to talk now? Call (786) 914-1017.

Questions Owners Ask

What is my cleaning company worth?
A multiple of seller's discretionary earnings, higher for commercial contracts and low-churn routes with supervisors in place, lower where the owner does the work and the payroll is informal. A confidential valuation gives you a range from comparable cleaning and janitorial company sales.
Will a buyer's lender finance a cleaning business?
Yes, where the tax returns support the earnings and the payroll is in order. Cash revenue that never reached the returns cannot be counted by a lender and does not raise the price.
What happens to my employees?
In most sales the buyer hires them at closing; they are not told of the sale until then, at a time you and the buyer agree. Key supervisors are often offered a retention bonus.
What does a business broker charge?
Brokers selling small businesses usually charge a success fee paid from the proceeds at closing, commonly quoted in the market at around ten percent of the price, often with a minimum fee; larger sales are usually priced on a sliding scale. BreakThru's fee is set out in writing in the listing agreement before you sign anything, and the valuation costs nothing.

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