An owner-run window cleaning business with vans, staff and a mix of commercial and domestic work usually sells for about one and a half to three times a year's adjusted profit, meaning the profit in your accounts with your own pay and personal costs added back, so adjusted profit of £90,000 would point to roughly £135,000 to £270,000.
Customers on a regular cycle, written commercial contracts, a team that works without you and gutter, fascia and solar panel work sold to the same customers all move the price towards the top of that range. We have sold commercial window cleaning businesses this year, we already know buyers who are looking for them, and a typical sale takes six to nine months from valuation until the money is in your account.
A window cleaning company with vans and employed or subcontracted cleaners is valued on its profit, because wages, vans, fuel and insurance all come out of the turnover before anything is left for the owner, and we start from a year's profit with your own salary, pension and personal costs added back.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Profit in the accounts | £60,000 |
| Add back the owner's salary | £12,000 |
| Add back the owner's pension contributions | £8,000 |
| Add back the owner's personal vehicle costs | £6,000 |
| Add back a one-off legal bill | £4,000 |
| Adjusted profit | £90,000 |
| Price at about 1.5 to 3 times adjusted profit | £135,000 to £270,000 |
Where the business falls in that range depends on how much of the work comes round on a regular cycle, how many commercial clients are on written terms, who runs the vans day to day and how much of the cleaning you still do yourself. The vans, water-fed pole systems and pure water units are either included at their second-hand value or priced on top, with any finance on them settled from the sale money. Larger companies with a manager in place and profit above roughly £250,000 are priced on profit after paying that manager, at a higher level agreed case by case, and our page on what your cleaning business is worth explains the adjustments in more detail.
These are the parts of a window cleaning company that set where its price falls, and each one is something we draw out of your records and present in the sales pack with the evidence behind it.
A business that still leans heavily on the owner sells too, though the price allows for what a buyer would pay someone to do your work, and part of it may be tied to a handover period.
This is how we take a window cleaning business to market, and it is where most of our work goes, because the price you are paid depends on how well the business is presented and how many serious buyers see it.
We write a sales pack that sets the business out properly, with the turnover and profit we have adjusted and explained, the split of commercial and domestic work, the cleaning cycles, the vans and equipment, the team and the exterior services, and it makes the case for the value we have put on it with the figures to back it up. We list the business anonymously on our own site and on the main UK business-for-sale websites, and we approach the buyers we already know are looking for window cleaning companies, including larger window and exterior cleaning firms wanting work in your area, commercial cleaning companies wanting to offer windows to their own clients, and investor-backed and first-time buyers with funding in place. We follow up every enquiry, check that each buyer is serious and can pay, and arrange calls and visits around your working week once they have signed our confidentiality agreement.
We have sold commercial window cleaning businesses this year and have more under offer, so we already know who is buying and what they are paying.
Our fees are £495 when you list the business with us and 4% of the sale price when the sale completes, and the valuation is free. The agreement gives us sole selling rights while it runs, so if the business sells during that time, including to a buyer you find yourself, the 4% is due, and our fees page sets out how this works.
A sale runs through the stages below, and most window cleaning companies take six to nine months from first valuation until the money is in your account.
In an asset sale your cleaners move to the buyer on their existing terms under TUPE, and in a share sale their employer does not change, as our guide to TUPE when selling a cleaning business explains.
This section is for window cleaners who work alone on a domestic round. A round run by one person is usually sold on its customer list to another window cleaner nearby, and the price is worked out from the monthly round value, so our free window cleaning round calculator will give you a sensible figure for it. Our own work is focused on window cleaning companies with vans, staff and commercial work, where a well-written sales pack and a proper marketing campaign make a real difference to the price.
An owner-run window cleaning company usually sells for about one and a half to three times a year's adjusted profit, which is profit with your own pay and personal costs added back. Regular cycles, written commercial contracts and a team that runs without you put it towards the top of that range, and our valuation is free.
Only a one-person round is priced that way. A business with vans and staff is valued on profit, because the wages, vans and insurance are paid before anything is left for the owner, and applying a round's monthly figures to it would leave those costs out.
Yes, where the work is regular and sold to customers you already clean for, since it adds profit from the same addresses. We show it separately in the sales pack so a buyer can see how much of it comes back each year.
In a share sale they stay with the company, unless a contract lets the client end it if the company changes owner. In an asset sale each client usually has to agree to the contract moving, and we plan those conversations with you near the end of the sale.
Most buyers ask for a handover, often a few weeks to a few months, so you can introduce them to commercial clients and the team. The length of the handover, and whether any of the price depends on it, is agreed in the offer.
A free valuation from us looks at your contracts one by one and comes back with a figure and the reasoning behind it.
