If a layman can buy your business and still make a profit, then that business has value.

Last year, Mike Draper of Renovantage wrote a very popular article about Selling a Renovation Business.  He profiled an Alberta contractor who sold his reno firm for almost $500,000. Lots of us would like to do the same, when it’s time to retire.

So we are writing a second part to that story for our upcoming (Nov/Dec) issue of Canadian Contractor.

One of the keys to selling a business – any business – is having systems in place that your (hopefully) new buyer can follow. In other words, the business has to be able to work without you.

Here’s the best definition of a saleable contracting business, from Pickering, ON contractor John McLellan;

McLelland says he has assembled three binders full of details about his company’s strategies, systems and models.

“(I did this) so other people would be able to do my job. You want to become replaceable, and for every one of your employees to be replaceable, too. If a layman can buy your business and still make a profit, then that business has value.”