Open Association of Landscape Industries
How to value a Mowing round for sale.
If you were selling a mowing round, what would be the ratio of cut value (Based over a four week period) to asking price.
In a nutshell, I have a mowing round that will t/o £1600 over a 4 week period that I am looking to sell.
What price would you expect to ask for a round like this?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 2p6qs98d2phid on -
What exactly are you selling A list of names?
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Brian www.mibservices.co.uk on -
How many days does the round take to complete over the 4 week period Rob ?
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Permalink Reply by Rob Glassborow on -
Full client details, customer goodwill, and lawn treatment schedule for most of the list. Price list of a major UK lawn care franchise on which the lawn treatment prices are based. And, invoicing in current company name by negotiation if required to ease in change of supplier to customer.
stephen Huxtable said:What exactly are you selling A list of names?
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Permalink Reply by Rob Glassborow on
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Round takes 2 days per week over the 4 week period.
www.mibservices.co.uk said:How many days does the round take to complete over the 4 week period Rob ?
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Brian www.mibservices.co.uk on -
So £200 per day in sales over the period. Really depends on who wants it to be honest. For a one man band its not bad money at all. For a small company, 3 man squad, not bad either because they could batter through it quickly. In current climate I would say maybe £4000 maybe less because the sticking point to the negotioations would be, will the client base stay with the new owner of the round. I think there would be a strong possibility of a big loss of clients as there is no contract between your business and them, difficult one to call Rob.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Dan Frazer Gardening on -
I wouldn't buy a gardening round.
I would maybe consider a deal where you offer client details to a potentially interested party, and arrange a commission of £50 for each one who agrees to go with the new provider? I guess you're talking 40 clients or so? That would be £2k if they all stick.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Steve Sonic Grounds Maintenance on -
I would say 2-3 months turnover as a guide price.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by David Cox on -
I would say the value has alot to do with how long you've had the customers as well, as that impacts on the Good will value.
Say an average of 2-years on the books, then 3 months turn over would seem fair to me, especially for a new Start-up. For an existing company, I dont think It would have alot of value as the same amount of money could be spent on advertising with potentially more leads. My two pence worth anyhows
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Permalink Reply by Classic Gardens on -
A gardener in our area sold there name and round for £14000 !! There was no commercial contracts either. It was bought by someone for there son.
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Permalink Reply by Rob Glassborow on
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Mowing round Dan, says it in the title.
Dan Frazer Gardening said:I wouldn't buy a gardening round.
I would maybe consider a deal where you offer client details to a potentially interested party, and arrange a commission of £50 for each one who agrees to go with the new provider? I guess you're talking 40 clients or so? That would be £2k if they all stick.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Brian www.mibservices.co.uk on -
That would be a completely different deal. Thats a company thats been sold, grass cutting round is completely different. Rob maybe it would be an idea to speak to the members on LJN who have window cleaning rounds and may have bought or sold in the past
martin said:A gardener in our area sold there name and round for £14000 !! There was no commercial contracts either. It was bought by someone for there son.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Graeme @ BGS on -
I have in the past been known to buy a mowing round or two but to be honest it isn’t a great way to gain new customers and a mowing round with what you are offering would be of value from £1K to whatever someone is prepared to pay.
The income from such a small round for a few days work and little on-going expenses should be of interest to someone but if you were to packaged the round to include basic equipment, assistance for the first month and say on-going support for the 1st three months, it would attract more interest particularly to say someone thinking of starting out and in turn attract a much higher premium.
When buying a round, the biggest fear is that the clients will cancel after the first cut or that the seller will eventually try to win them back so you will need to offer some assurances.
If I was to buy another bunch of clients it would be based on a percentage of the first months income and then assuming that a higher enough percentage of clients remained, further % of income over the next few months. Personally it is not just the mowing but additional services that the client could be sold such as you have already mentioned, lawn treatments but also hedge works, leaf clearances and the like – so looking to buy a client base that could potentially be more profitable.
Might be worth a punt and putting it on Ebay for offers and you never know it may attract a bidding war.
Alternatively approach other local companies that you trust and have good contact with and sound them out but the risk is they may use it as an opportunity to try and poach your clients or drop little hints that you are pulling out.
May be contacting a Window cleaning company as rounds being sold around here go very quickly and at a very good price, I know quite a few who make a living of building up a round and then sell it on but I guess these guys are not to be messed with and it all involved cash under the table etc. but a few of them are slowly moving into grass cutting as they believe the two services go hand in hand and opp to cross sell services and not to mention that window cleaning tend to lose out during hard times, first the window cleaner goes followed by the gardener and finally the house cleaner!
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