What would you pay: Acquiring new accounts

Turban said:
What would you pay for a established weekly account? I was thinking about buying 40.
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One word of advice. If they are not under a written contract, then you could get burned big time. Without a contract with the home owner who ever you are buying from really owns nothing.
 
jekjr said:
One word of advice. If they are not under a written contract, then you could get burned big time. Without a contract with the home owner who ever you are buying from really owns nothing.
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They really own nothing anyway. contracts are about worthless and unenforceable. The big problem with buying accounts is there no guarantee that the people will consider you for taking over the account. They can tell to go take a hike, especially if they don't like the previous guy that did the account and you've wasted your money.
 
Ric said:
They really own nothing anyway. contracts are about worthless and unenforceable. The big problem with buying accounts is there no guarantee that the people will consider you for taking over the account. They can tell to go take a hike, especially if they don't like the previous guy that did the account and you've wasted your money.
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I had a guy call me last night wanting to "sell" me 20 customers. Supposedly all of the customers would be on board and a $3000 investment would be worth over $16,000. Course the closest one to me was 30 miles or so.
 
It's better to just build your own customer base rather than try to build off of someone else's...
 
exotion said:
It's better to just build your own customer base rather than try to build off of someone else's...
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Personally I feel like I would be giving this guy $3K and probably by the end of the year I would lose half of them. I picked up through the grape vine that somebody gave him some of these customers and he has never cut any of them either. I think it is a com. Course I think anybody selling anything they don't own is a con.:)
 
Ya customer accounts is not something that can really be sold. Even with a contract, the contract has his name on it not yours. To get your name on it you need the customer to sign a new one which goes back to the original problem. They don't know or trust you.

When someone is selling a business they can sell equipment, trailer, truck. Then as a side bonus they can take you to each of the customers and introduce you but that's all they can do beyond that is a relationship that needs built between you and the client. If I sold out I would sell my trailer and equipment for $xxxxx.xx then introduce for no cost I can not sell people
 
I don't think there is anything wrong with having a customer transferred to you if the customer buys in. But I'd pay the seller on a buy out basis. Pay him down maybe 10% per month. That way you are not out of your money totally if they drop. As for how much to pay I'd say no more than 5% of expected revenue based on your average customer retention time. In other words if an average customer stays with you 3 years then take 5% of 3 years revenue. That is my rule of thumb.

Lonnie
Eastside Landcare
www.eastsidelandcare.com
 
$3k for 20 customes is like $150 per customer. You can easily get them cheaper using the web. Plus they are your own customers at that point. You can price them etc...

I would go no higher than $50 per customer. That would be $1,000. You would be pretty safe in that range.

let us know how it works out for you.

Bryan

http://www.lawncarebusinesstips.com
 
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