buying accounts.........

[lja]

hey guys

had a pretty good summer this year.....i ran into another lawn care professional who who filling in for his sick dad .....it seems he wants nothing to do with his dads customers and offered them up to me ..... there r only 4 customers and he gets 400 a month each to maintain them ..he says i can meet the new customers and they will stay with me ...his dad has had them for 15 years or so ...

i never bought customers before ...always picked them up on word of mouth ..how do i go about it ....monthly payments or a lump sum(ohh no)......and whats a good bid to buy accounts ......

i know its long .... and do i have a hangover ..but if any one has ideas ......

thanks
ricks lawn care............

[bob]

Here is a search on the subject, http://www.lawnsite.com/search.php?query=buying+accounts&forumchoice=-1&booleanand=yes&searchin=subject&searchdate=-1&searchuser=&searchdateline=&exactname=yes&action=dosearch&getdaily=&pagenum=

[awm]

This deal sounds a little more solid than
most.Meet the customers. if there pretty solid, I'd
bid two times two months gross on each one. Thst is
if your work is on par with his.



thanks tm country.

[cleancut]

5%-10% of annual gross for those accouns..So if you mow them for 9 months give him $200 to $400 for the accounts as long as they sign a contract stating that they will continue to use your services..There was a guy in my area that bought about 240 accounts...By last count he was down to 160..So he's already lost 80 accounts and will not be able to recoup his investment...I think he will be in big financial trouble after the winter is over...Clean-Cut

[BadAndy]

awm, why 2 times 2 months?
can't we just go 1 times 4 months?

[landscaper3]

Cleancut has it right, 10% of sales GROSS sales. We are trying to purchase a company thats does $120,000.00 gross sales without equipment and will only give them 10% plus equipment at added cost. They want 30% we said 10% is all we will give, we will see in a month or two if he will let it go for our terms. MAKE SURE all customers have contracts or are willing to sign contracts before purchasing them. To start out you realy should make up flyers or have door hangers made up, pass 1000 around get 5% return thats 50 lawns.

[Edited by landscaper3 on 12-16-2000 at 03:38 AM]

[awm]

I was getting a little help from my
13 yr old when i did this.I assumed most
would figure out what i meant.To be clear
I would only give two months. TOO many ifs
to pay more.COUNTRY TM