Hi I am new to the forum, I am in talks of taking over an existing carpet shop as owner is retiring in the north east. anything to watch out for?
I would have thought some questions to ask would be, What is the current profit/loss/turnover ? How does it compare to the cost ? Is the customer base commercial/domestic or a mixture. Would the customers remain loyal to the current owner or the shop ? Are there improvements that could be made to improve productivity ? Are there any clauses in the lease, that will require you to make repairs. How long is the lease ? What experience do you have in retail & in flooring ?
Might be worth checking out Google, Facebook, etc. Just to make sure they don't have a tonne of bad reviews, as they will become yours, also worth looking at the fitting diary, it will give you an idea of how consistent the sales are, obviously make sure they don't have any bad or outstanding credit accounts with suppliers
It also might be worth speaking to the reps,they shouldn't give you any details of the business, but they might have an opinion on it
Like it's already been said, I'd be looking at the reputation of the company first from the customers point of view then checking what volume of work load goes through there...
All the above, always curious about taking over existing businesses... if its thriving then why would you walk away/retire
Also how solid is the customer base and will it be likely that the fella will look to work out of a van in the future and keep some of his customers etc
Biggest problem most new carpet business owners have is getting accounts with manufacturers, and progressing beyond the Lifestyle brand budget shop. It takes years. Sometimes many years. If the shop is of this nature, it is worth very little, probably nothing, and you may as well start from scratch rather than wasting money buying one. Alternatively if the shop is a limited company with extensive manufacture accounts that will be transferred to you, then it has real value, but will likely cost upwards of 50K. However, you will be still starting from scratch, and will need to prove yourself to customers old and new. I went down the latter route. If you are thinking of buying a long established shop and need more advice you can PM me.
Just an update, Area is Teesside- Stockton-On-Tees to be exact, I will be Trading as AL Carpets out of 94 Yarm Lane
Hi, hope you were successful in your quest, my question is...where did you see the business was for sale? The reason for asking this is that I wish to sell my flooring business 's, but I do not want to use agents again, have been burnt badly in the past! Thanks, Geoff
Thank you. Hi Thank you, funnily enough I approached the seller asking if he would sell up, where are your businesses