Can you sell a Sole Trader Business

[Old-Oak]

Just looking for some advice, Been running now for 30 years, have a great name and logo, with nearly 1000 great reviews on Checkatrade.  A lot of repeat customers. Thinking of jumping out, as pinning down reliable subbies getting hard. How would I value it as a Business, (if that's possible). If so, where to advertise it?.  It will come with the Name & Logo, mobile number , the reviews, book of numbers of customers, saws, tipper truck (Logo front, back, sides) Forst 6 Chipper ST6 low hours and full kits

[doobin]

It's worth the value of the tools in the current market plus whatever anyone values to 'goodwill' at.

 

Can be a good sum if you can find an idiot with redunancy who wants their own business , can also be (most likely) naff all, as you have no ongoing contracts.

 

Locally if I was looking to expand it might be worth a few K. But there's nothing stopping your customers from going elsewhere (particularly if it's you they like dealing with).

 

'Selling' the customer list is almost certainly a no-no with the new GDPR regs also.

[nepia]

Beat me to it; are telephone numbers not 'personal information'?  Presumably they'd have names attached.

 

Coincidentally my house is called Old Oak!

[Steve Bullman]

Not sure of the exact law but I would imagine the telephone numbers would be owned under the umbrella of the company and their data controller and would therefore be transferable with the business name? It cant be the same as just selling the telephone numbers to a 3rd party

 

[AHPP]

8 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

Not sure of the exact law but I would imagine the telephone numbers would be owned under the umbrella of the company and their data controller and would therefore be transferable with the business name? It cant be the same as just selling the telephone numbers to a 3rd party

 

 

There’s no company but if what you’ve said is a thing, maybe there’s a loophole whereby they form a partnership and then the OP sells out to his new partner.

Edited June 21, 2023 by AHPP

[Old-Oak]

20 minutes ago, AHPP said:

 

There’s no company but if what you’ve said is a thing, maybe there’s a loophole whereby they form a partnership and then the op sell out to his new partner.

Yeah, I think this could be an option. Thanks! ... Also could be a good opportunity for someone young and new to the trade, as it's an established name that's been running around...  Why on earth would an idiot with redundancy want to throw himself into this trade at that age! Haha!

[doobin]

2 minutes ago, Old-Oak said:

Why on earth would an idiot with redundancy want to throw himself into this trade at that age! Haha!

No idea, but they or an ex squaddie are exactly the suckers people in your position should be looking for if you want to cash in...

[Conor Wright]

It's different to selling a manufacturing company with contracts, or even a larger arb business with commercial clients. you can't guarantee the customers that have been loyal to you will be transferable.

They may not like the new owner and go somewhere else after one job, the new owner may work to a different standard, someone else may sweep in and take a portion of your work etc etc.

Hard as it is to swallow, this type of business is not readily transferable and while it takes time, money and effort to build up a customer base, it's your customer base. Especially for a sole trader. Its value is to you alone imo.

Best you could hope for is value of tools plus 5-10% goodwill payment.

Others can feel free to correct me, but I don't think I'm far off the mark.

[Puffingbilly413]

If you have at least six months of work booked in then this would make it attractive to some - by the time six months rolls by then hopefully the new faces should be established enough to continue where you left off.

 

Not sure how this works for a sole trader as essentially your firm is just you 'trading as'

[pleasant]

1 hour ago, Steve Bullman said:

Not sure of the exact law but I would imagine the telephone numbers would be owned under the umbrella of the company and their data controller and would therefore be transferable with the business name? It cant be the same as just selling the telephone numbers to a 3rd party

 

Correct. I purchased a small local sole trader business to compliment my existing business several years ago. It was worth more to me than probably anyone else as although a small business it was still a competitor in terms of servicing and repair.

 

The trading name. Email addresses, whatsapp id, reviews, logos, both mobile and landline numbers, historical customer data, website etc were all IP and were transferable to me on completion of the sale.