Another 'Sign Shop' just offered to let me buy him out.

[Gino]

I really don't care what kind of evaluation you want to get or what he has inside his building..... if he can't admittedly get it going, sounds to me like you'd be buying a bunch of bad customers anyway. If he couldn't make a go of it in two years, then he was lowballing, not collecting his monies, not getting a good caliber of customers and most of all.... not servicing them well.

Why would you even consider buying anything from a loser ??

Ah, yeah, I got this here car to sell. It's on a trailer causin' it don't run. The tires are flat, cause it don't run, so why waste the air in 'em ?? Ah-hulk. I only wants $10,000 for it. It's worth a lot more, but I ruined all that stuff. You give me $10k right now and I'll drop her on ya rightaways...........

Wha ?? you wanna car that works ?? You got your nerve.

 

[TheSnowman]

I bought my business from my grandparents for 25K. They had a 13" Gerber Plotter and a Packard Bell w/ Windows 95 on it, (this was 6.5 years ago) but still, old old technology at that point. They had been in business for 25 years, and had a great customer base. Not knowing near as much then as I do now (Hadn't discovered 101 yet) I WAY overpaid for it. Sure, I got several tools, and a bunch of vinyl (which I still haven't used) and misc odds and ends, but right out of the gate, I had to drop 30K on equipment to update the business, and work smarter instead of around the clock.

My biggest issue was not realizing how "for free" they worked. They were basically retired, and didn't NEED to pull a giant income of any kind, so they left a lot of money on the table. I had the same customers come back to me, and when they'd say "your grandpa did it for $XX.XX" I'd say, well, I will just close the doors now if I'm gonna work for that cost.

I think if I ever wanted to sell, I'd basically have some 7 yr old depreciated all the way out printing equipment, a bunch of customer files, and some tools...the only thing MAYBE of value would be the customer files from 32 years, but that'd be about it. I don't think until the person selling puts themselves in the buyers shoes, they'll realize what they're trying to do to screw them.

 

[SD&F]

I think that he wanted something for nothing. He sounds like he justed wanted to get out of the business. He wanted someone to pay him for what he had invested and feel good about it himself. Nobody wants to hear the truth if they have nothing real to offer you. If you need his equipment, make him an offer. If he had a strong customer base would he be getting out? It's always easy to buy and hard to sell.

 

[2B]

If you are in the same town, whats to say the customers have not already left him and come to you?