Business Sales · the broker's view
Sell a Service Company by Proving the Work Will Continue
Revenue is where the story starts. A serious buyer wants to know whether customers come back, whether the crews will stay, whether the license the company works under survives your departure, whether the contracts can pass to a new owner and whether you have built something that runs without you. A company that can show those things is being sold. A company that cannot is offering a buyer the owner's job.
Discuss My Service Company Sale
The Short Answer
A home-service company has few hard assets, so a buyer pays for work that keeps arriving and people who keep doing it. Expect four tests: who holds the license and what happens when that person leaves, how much revenue repeats, how dependable the backlog and lead sources are, and how much rests on you. BreakThru Realty assigns a licensed broker to the sale; Tyson E. Sam, the founder and broker of record, is accountable.
What Is Left When the Owner Steps Out
Air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping, pool, pest control and cleaning companies differ in the work but are bought for the same reason: the phone rings and a trained crew can answer it. There may be no storefront and little equipment beyond the trucks. What a buyer acquires is a set of relationships, and relationships are harder to hand over than a building.
So a buyer tries to remove you from the picture and see what remains. If you hold the license, quote the large jobs, take the calls after hours and know every property manager by first name, a great deal leaves with you. If a service manager dispatches, an estimator prices and customers ask for the company and not for you, most of it stays.
Neither picture is a judgment on how well the company has been run. It decides who can buy it, how long you will be asked to stay afterwards and how much of the price a buyer is willing to pay at closing instead of over time.
The License Question, Trade by Trade
In the licensed trades a company usually operates under a license held by a named individual. Find out who that is, and what the rules say happens when that person leaves or sells.
| Trade | What to establish | Who confirms it |
|---|---|---|
| Air conditioning, plumbing and roofing | Which individual's contractor license the company works under, and whether that person stays, is replaced or must qualify the buyer's company for a time | The Department of Business and Professional Regulation and an attorney |
| Electrical | The same question for the electrical contractor license, plus any local registration | The state department that issued it, the county or city, and an attorney |
| Landscaping and lawn care | Whether any of the work, such as irrigation or applying pesticides and fertilizer, needs its own license or certificate, and who holds it | The state agency that regulates that work, and the county or city |
| Pool and pest control | Who holds the license or certificate the service is performed under, and whether it is personal to that individual | The agency that issued it, and an attorney |
| Cleaning | Which local registrations apply, and what bonding or insurance the customer contracts demand of a new owner | The county or city, the insurer and an attorney |
| Any trade with open jobs | Permits still open under the current license holder, and how each will be closed or handed over | The local building department and an attorney |
Licensing rules change, and they differ by trade and by county. Nothing in this table states a requirement; it lists what to ask. Do not agree to a deal structure until the licensing body and an attorney have answered.
What a Buyer Reads After the License
Recurring agreements
- How many maintenance or service agreements are active, and whether each is in writing
- How many renew each year, shown from your own records
- Whether an agreement can be assigned or needs the customer's consent: an attorney reads the terms
- Agreements paid in advance, which are work a new owner still owes
Seasonality and concentration
- Sales by month for three years, so a buyer can see the busy and slow periods and the cash each one requires
- Revenue by customer: how much comes from the largest builders, property managers or commercial accounts
- Any storm or one-off event that lifted a single year, shown separately
Backlog and leads
- Signed jobs with deposits, kept apart from estimates that have only been sent
- Customer deposits held, and warranty work promised on completed jobs
- Where new work comes from: referrals, repeat customers, the website, paid advertising or lead services
- Whose name the phone numbers, the website, the online profiles and the advertising accounts are in
- Whether the customer list and service history may be handed to a buyer: an attorney checks the contracts and the privacy terms
Fleet, equipment and people
- Vehicle titles, loans and leases, with mileage and condition
- Equipment that is financed or leased, and the payoff or consent each item needs
- Crew roles, pay, tenure and certifications. Whether anyone is properly an employee or a contractor is for an attorney and a CPA
- Insurance and workers' compensation history, which an insurer will ask a new owner about
An Owner-Dependence Self-Test
Answer the first five as a buyer would hear them. A "yes" is not a fault. It is something to change before a sale, or to allow for in the terms.
- Is the license yours alone?. If you are the only person who holds the license the company works under, a buyer without one needs a plan the licensing body accepts before the sale can close.
- Do you price the work?. If every sizable estimate crosses your desk, a buyer must hire an estimator or become one. A written price book, and a second person who uses it, show that the knowledge sits in the company.
- Do customers call you directly?. Count how many of the largest accounts have your mobile number and use it. Those relationships need an introduction, and time, to pass to someone else.
- Does the day stall when you are away?. Take two weeks off and note what stops. Dispatch, purchasing, payroll and complaints each need a name beside them that is not yours.
- Do the records live in your head?. Scheduling, invoicing and customer history kept in a system, not in your memory or on your phone, are what let a buyer verify the business and then run it.
- What will you be asked to do after closing?. The more often you answered "yes", the longer the transition a buyer will ask for, and the more likely part of the price is tied to how the company performs afterwards.
If Your Company Is in One of These Trades
The brokerage's service pages go into the trade itself. This page stays with the questions common to all of them.
- HVAC: Maintenance agreements, technicians and the license the company works under.
- Plumbing: Service work against construction work, and keeping licensed plumbers through a sale.
- Electrical contracting: Residential service against commercial contracting, with bonding and backlog.
- Landscaping: Maintenance contracts against installation work.
- Cleaning: Contracts, routes, staffing and payroll.
- Roofing, pool, pest control and other trades: No dedicated page. Choose "Home services" on the form and name the trade in the box beneath it.
Questions Worth Asking First
- How do buyers value a recurring-revenue service business?
- By separating revenue that repeats from revenue that has to be won again each month, then asking how safe the repeating part is. Maintenance agreements, routes and contracts count for more when they are written, renewed year after year, spread over many customers and assignable to a new owner. A buyer will look at how many agreements lapse, whether prepaid ones leave work still owed, and whether one large account could end the pattern. The earnings are then measured the usual way, as the benefit to a working owner or as profit after a manager's pay. Recurring revenue does not set a price by itself. It lowers the risk a buyer sees in the earnings.
- Why do contractor license rules matter?
- Because in the licensed trades the company's right to do the work rests on a license held by a person. If that person is you, selling the company may not hand the buyer the right to operate. The buyer must hold a suitable license, employ someone who does, or agree an arrangement in which the current holder stays involved for a period, and the rules decide which of those is allowed and what supervision it demands. They also affect permits already open. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation, or whichever body issued the license, and an attorney should confirm the position before a price or a structure is agreed.
- How does reliance on one owner affect the sale price?
- It changes the price, the terms and the list of people who can buy. When the owner holds the license, the customer relationships and the pricing knowledge, a buyer is paying for earnings that might not survive the handover, and protects against that in one of three ways: a lower offer, a longer paid transition, or part of the price deferred and tied to results. It also rules out buyers who want a company a manager can run. The remedy is time. Moving dispatch, estimating and key accounts to other people before a sale, and writing down how the work is done, gives a buyer evidence instead of assurances.
Who Does What
- A licensed BreakThru Realty broker runs the engagement: the conversations with you, the marketing and the buyers or sellers on the other side.
- Tyson is the broker of record: the licensed Florida broker accountable for the brokerage and every agent under it. He reviews the offers, contracts and closing statements that move through the company.
- In Florida, selling a business for someone else for a fee is real estate brokerage, so business sales run under the same brokerage license and the same broker supervision as property sales.
| Broker of record | Tyson E. Sam, Founder and Broker of Record, BreakThru Realty |
|---|---|
| Florida real estate license | 3565210 |
| Also listed as | Tyson Sam, the spelling in MLS records and on the listing sites they feed |
| Brokerage | BreakThru Realty LLC, a licensed Florida real estate brokerage |
Brokerage compensation is negotiable and is agreed in writing before any work is marketed. No fee or rate on this page is a standard one.
BreakThru Realty is a real estate brokerage. It does not give legal, tax, lending, engineering or appraisal advice: an attorney, a CPA, a lender, an inspector or an appraiser answers those questions, and a broker's opinion of value is not an appraisal.
A business for sale is described without naming it. Its name, location and financial records are released to a buyer only after a signed non-disclosure agreement and a review of the buyer's ability to complete the purchase. No process removes every risk of a leak, so what is shared and when is agreed with the owner first.
This Page Explains the Thinking. The Service Page Does the Work.
What the brokerage does for you, step by step, and how to start is on its own page: Sell a service business.
Every figure on this page is an illustration: arithmetic on assumed inputs, shown so the reasoning can be followed. None is market data, a comparable sale, an appraisal, a forecast or the result of a BreakThru Realty transaction.
Discuss a Confidential Business Sale
Share only what you are comfortable sharing: the industry, the area and a broad range. A licensed BreakThru Realty broker replies within one business day, the way you ask to be reached, to talk through what a buyer will want documented and how the sale stays private. No statements or tax returns are requested through this form.
The form asks for: Industry; Anything else about the business (optional); City or county; Annual revenue; Owner earnings or EBITDA; How should we reach you?; Timing; then your name, an email address or a phone number, and your consent to be contacted about the request. It asks for no documents.
Your request is with BreakThru Realty and is treated as confidential. A licensed broker replies within one business day, the way you asked to be reached. Nobody at the business is contacted, and nothing is marketed unless you decide to go ahead.
Prefer to talk? (786) 914-1017 · sales@breakthrurealty.com
Related on BreakThru Realty
More in Business Sales
- Business Sales: the division page: Strong revenue does not make a business easy to sell. What a buyer can verify, and what stays private, does.
- Restaurants & Food Businesses: A full dining room is not proof of earnings. What a buyer reconciles, and the lease, license and equipment facts to settle first.
- Retail Stores: Inventory, gift cards, suppliers and the lease change a retail deal more than headline sales do. Settle them before the first offer.
- Salons & Spas: Clients follow people. Show a buyer which income belongs to the business and which could leave with a professional.
- Automotive & Repair: Lifts, technicians, waste records and the right site. A buyer tests whether the shop keeps working after the owner changes.
- Franchise Resales: The buyer agrees a price; the franchisor decides whether the transfer happens. Read the agreement before you market.
Every Area of Practice
The full directory · About Tyson E. Sam · Market insights · Business Sales