Sell a carpet cleaning business
A carpet and upholstery cleaning business usually sells for about one and a half to three times a year's adjusted profit, with the equipment and van either included at their second-hand value or priced on top.
A carpet and upholstery cleaning business usually sells for about one and a half to three times a year's adjusted profit, with the equipment and van either included at their second-hand value or priced on top.
The price depends most on how much work repeats each year, how much comes from commercial contracts with hotels, care homes and offices, and how many hours of the cleaning the owner still does personally. A sale of an owner-run carpet cleaning business often takes two to four months from valuation until the money is in your account.
The value of a carpet cleaning business is set mostly by how many jobs you did last year, the average job value, how many of those customers had booked before and how much of the work came from commercial accounts, and we draw these figures out of your records for the sales pack.
A truck-mounted machine is built into the van and powered by its own motor or by the van, giving strong heat and suction for large commercial jobs, while portable machines are carried into the property and suit flats, upper floors and smaller jobs, and many businesses run both.
Buyers value kit at what it would fetch second-hand, which for a truck-mount depends on its hours, its service record and the van it sits in, rather than at what you paid for it. Where the van or machine is on finance, the outstanding balance is usually settled from the sale price or taken over by the buyer, and a list of every item with its age, hours and finance position saves a lot of back and forth during the buyer's checks.
We take last year's profit and add back the owner's wage and personal costs, and carpet cleaning businesses usually sell for about one and a half to three times that adjusted profit, with the sales pack stating whether the kit is counted in that figure or sold on top.
| What the business shows | Effect on the price |
|---|---|
| Regular commercial contracts with hotels, care homes or offices | Towards the top of the range |
| High homeowner repeat rate with reminder system | Towards the top of the range |
| Strong, recent reviews on a Google Business Profile | Easier to sell |
| A trained technician besides the owner | Towards the top of the range |
| Owner does every job personally | Lower, or a longer handover |
| Most work from one-off jobs bought through paid adverts | Lower |
When the owner is the only technician, a buyer works out adjusted profit after paying someone to do the cleaning, since that is the cost they will carry, and our page on what your cleaning business is worth shows how we handle that adjustment.
A customer list with address, job dates, job value and whether each customer is domestic or commercial lets a buyer work out the repeat rate for themselves, and written terms with your commercial clients, even a simple letter setting out the price and frequency, make those accounts far easier to value.
Gather the equipment list with service records, your insurance, any training certificates, and the logins for your website, booking system and Google Business Profile so they can be handed over cleanly. If you have a technician, a staff list with pay and start date is needed, since employees move to a buyer on their existing terms, as our guide to TUPE when selling a cleaning business explains. If you work alone, think about how long you could stay on to introduce the buyer to your commercial clients and show them your methods.
Other carpet cleaners nearby buy to add customers and commercial accounts to their own diary, often paying more for the customer list and contracts than for the kit they may already have, while commercial cleaning companies buy carpet businesses to offer periodic deep cleans to clients they already serve.
First-time owners, including people leaving corporate jobs, buy owner-run carpet businesses with the kit and training included and usually ask for a handover period in which the seller works alongside them. We already know many of these buyers, having sold carpet cleaning businesses this year, and we approach them directly as well as listing the business, as described on our selling a cleaning business page, and buyers registered for carpet cleaning businesses for sale hear about a new business before it is advertised.
Most are sold as an asset sale, in which the buyer takes the customer list, kit, van, phone number, website and Google Business Profile, and we value the business from your accounts and job records, agree our fees in writing (£495 to list and 4% on completion), then write a sales pack that presents the business at its best and sets out the case for its value, then list it anonymously on our own site and the main UK business-for-sale websites, approach the buyers we already know are looking and follow up every enquiry, sharing the business's name only once a buyer has signed our confidentiality agreement.
Once a buyer is agreed we work with both solicitors on the sale agreement, the equipment list and any finance to be settled, the transfer of commercial accounts with each client's agreement, and a handover period in which you train the buyer, until the money is in your account. If you are thinking of selling your carpet cleaning business, we would be glad to talk it over.
It can be either included or priced on top, and the sale agreement should say which. Buyers value it at its second-hand price based on hours and service history, and any finance on it is usually cleared from the sale money or taken over by the buyer.
Yes, most carpet cleaning businesses are owner-operated and sell perfectly well. The buyer will work out profit after paying for a technician and will usually ask you to stay on for a few weeks to train them and introduce commercial clients.
Yes, ownership of the profile can be passed to the buyer along with your reviews, website and phone number. These are listed in the sale agreement and handed over on the day you are paid.
Regular commercial work with hotels, care homes and offices usually adds more to the price, since it repeats on a schedule without advertising. Homeowner work with a high repeat rate and good reviews is also valued well, while one-off jobs bought through paid adverts add the least.
An owner-run carpet cleaning business often sells in two to four months once it is listed, and larger firms with staff and commercial contracts closer to six to nine months. Having your customer list, equipment list and accounts ready at the start shortens the buyer's checks.
A free valuation from us looks at your contracts one by one and comes back with a figure and the reasoning behind it.
