Mike Andes evaluates a Florida lawn care business listed at $150,000 with $70,000 in equipment. The real value depends on customer retention after 30, 60, and 90 days, plus room to raise prices 20-30%. A smart deal lands around $100,000, saving years of building from scratch.
This lawn care business in Florida is for sale for $150,000, and I think it's a pretty good deal. The owners retiring after 30 years. A lot of times what that means is that they haven't raised prices in a long time. This leaves opportunity to be able to raise prices immediately by 20 to 30%. However, you got to be careful because a lot of times owner operators that have worked with customers for decades, they have such a good relationship with the customer that when they leave, the customer leaves also. So in this case, I would probably try to make the acquisition based upon customer retention own over 30, 60 and 90 days. In my opinion, if you could get this business for $100,000, in other words, the equipment is 70,000 and you're only paying $30,000 for everything else. I think it's a good deal because you basically save yourself an entire year or two years getting a business off the ground from zero.
