You’re not going to be working forever, that’s a given. You might even take a vacation now and again (imagine that!) Just because you’re leaving, doesn’t mean your cleaning business has to stop. In fact, you can earn more if it doesn’t.
If your business is going to keep growing, even after you’ve walked out of it, you’ll need an exit strategy to successfully transfer ownership to someone else. Setting the wheels in motion now will radically boost the value of what you have built– that will become very clear in the price tag once you sell.
What is a Janitorial Business Exit Strategy?
An exit strategy is a preplanned set of systems and actions which prepare for an important player in a business to leave. This includes a business owner, CEO or operations manager. And this strategy is usually planned by you– the head honcho of your cleaning business.
Why is This Important to Your Janitorial Business
Question for you: when you sell your janitorial business, do you want to get $250,000 for it, or $500,000?
The answer is pretty obvious. But why such a big difference? More often than not, the business with the smaller price tag didn’t have the operational systems in place to prove their true value.
Wondering what a business with higher value would actually look like in practice? Here are 3 important systems you should consider for boosting your janitorial business’ value:
Tips for Selling Your Janitorial Business #1 - Operations
Half the work of building a business is creating the operational systems for it. Some business owners don’t bother taking the time to create reliable systems– which is a huge mistake. Those step-by-step processes give you and your people direction, purpose, and efficiency. And prove to a potential buyer that you have your ducks in a row.
Operational systems are the blueprint for running your cleaning business. You’re essentially selling the handbook or guide of your success to an interested party. What sorts of systems could this look like?
- Scheduling and time tracking
- Problem management
- Restocking supplies
- Employee satisfaction ratings
- Inspection reporting
- And much more
Tips for Selling Your Janitorial Business #2 - Documentation
Documentation means more evidence. Evidence helps you prove the value of your business in a tangible way. Storing information like Problem Reports and Cleaning Instructions in an organized database shows that you’re running your business more efficiently than the competition. This isn’t just better communication, it’s better management. And that has huge value.
Documentation means you’re relying on something more dependable than your cleaner’s memory of a conversation you had last month. Having information like Cleaning Instructions documented in an easy-to-access database will improve the value of your business when you choose to sell. Why? Because it shows that even with you gone, your people still know what to do.
Tips for Selling Your Janitorial Business #3 - Recurring Revenue
Recurring customers mean more loyalty and security. Security is appealing to anyone interested in taking ownership of your business. Wouldn’t YOU pay more if you could avoid building your clientele from scratch, and just walk right into relationships with clients who already love you?
Take the worry away from your successor by offering a portfolio of happy recurring customers, and the already-made systems in place for servicing them. It will save your potential buyer a huge amount of time and money, automatically boosting the value of this seamless machine you’ve created. You deserve to be credited for that!
If your business runs without you in it, then it’s worth more.
Even if your business isn’t quite there yet, it’s never too early to start making strategic decisions for systemizing your organization. You can get more bang for your buck if you have the evidence to prove the price tag is worth a significant boost. If you’re not sure where to start to get clear on the systems you need, you can easily find your answers by asking your people on the ground what could be improved.
