What's a tuning business worth?

[Mike Spalding]

Jim,

It's hard to put a value on your client list.  The amount of business it 
brings to the buyer could be nothing, could be a lot.  One experience:  
When I was just starting out, another tech in our chapter was leaving 
the business, and offered his client list for sale.  He had tuned for me 
once, a half-dozen years before, after which I switched to a different 
tuner.  I was on the list for sale.  Figured the list was pretty 
low-quality.  Some months later, he was able to sell the list "on 
consignment".  The deal was, the buyer would pay him an agreed 
percentage of the first tuning of any client on the list.  Grapevine has 
it that not much money has changed hands.

If I were contemplating retirement, I might also consider the plight of 
my clients, and work at finding them a competent technician who would be 
worthy of  their trust.  The buyer of your list will want you to write a 
letter of introduction / recommendation to your clients, and you'll want 
to be able to say more about him than that he was the highest bidder.  
Not that a valuable client list shouldn't bring you some income on the 
way out, but there are other important considerations.  Just my 2c.

Mike

Jim Johnson wrote:
> I will be looking to retire sometime in the next few years and I'm 
> wondering what my business may be worth if I sell it.  Do any of you 
> have experience either buying or selling a tuning/repair business (no 
> physical retail location, just a well established clientele)?  What is 
> the relationship between annual income and selling price?  Any ideas 
> will be appreciated.