Re: I Want Out

["TomR" <TomR@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Smith wrote:
> I've been an alarm dealer for nearly 20 years and I want out.  I
> don't have a bunch of accounts 140-160 give or take.  I don't have asshole
> contracts. Just simple annual auto renewing contracts with 60 days written
> notice to cancel.  Last time I looked into it none of the big contract
> buyers
> wanted to talk to me (I had 180 or so contracts then), so I am not sure
> where to go with this.  I'm just tired of being a contractor.  I want to
> do
> something else. Heck even just being an unlicensed handyman would be a
> pleasant
> change.  Anybody know who I would talk to about getting a decent buy
> out on my accounts?
>
> Somewhere out west.  (Not Kalifornika)

I just saw this today or I would have replied sooner.  I am not in the alarm
business.

Years ago, I used to work for a business broker listing and selling small
businesses.  One small business that I listed was a small ambulance
transportation company.  The first thing that I did was write a letter to
all of the other ambulance transportation companies in the area (there were
only about 4 or 5 of them) and, without giving the name of the company, I
wrote that I had just listed an ambulance transportation company for sale,
and if they wanted to sell their business, or if they wanted to expand their
business and buy this one, to contact me.  The listing sold in about 2
weeks.

A year ago, and completely unrelated to the above, the oil company that I
buy my heating oil from for my home announced that they were "merging" with
another local heating oil company.  What really happened was that the other
company bought the oil company that I was using, but they did it in the form
of a "merger" and kept my heating oil company's name for a while.

Your circumstances are different, of course, and you are not a business
broker.  But, the point of all of this is that I think your best potential
buyers for your company would be your local competitors in the business.
You may want to just contact them directly and pitch is as you are thinking
of expanding your business by merging with another local company where the
two companies could benefit by sharing administrative and overhead costs,
etc.  But, the reality would be that any merger that you do would end up
being a takeover of your company.  They wouldn't have to know that at first,
and they could initially think of it as a merger or partnership deal.  My
guess is that my oil supplier company sold their business to the oil
supplier which probably paid them for any assets such as vehicles, maybe
real estate, etc. and then paid them a percentage of the revenue on all of
their existing accounts for "X" number of years.

I just thought that I would pass those ideas along in case they are helpful.

Or, you could advertise in Craigslist under "Businesses" that you have an
alarm company franchise for sale with good pricing, financing, and terms and
with an initial existing account base to help them get started.  Then sell
that sucker to the new buyer as a franchise and make money on the sale and
maybe a small percentage franchise royalty fee on all new accounts that the
franchise brings in.