In any kind of business, you have to ask yourself the question: what are your assets? What is it that makes the business successful, and what is the ‘moat’ that keeps competitors out of your hair? What, in essence, is that secret sauce?
In a lot of cases, this is addressed by a business plan. Some business plans are incredibly detailed with all sorts of financial statements and other information. Others are as simple as just identifying key things like assets and ballparking prospective revenue. That can be okay, depending on your aims and goals, but more research is typically a good and empowering thing.
The Pool Route Game
In our line of business, looking into the assets makes sense, because it’s a big part of how you succeed or fail at this type of enterprise. The field can be competitive. And it’s good for the business owner and manager to have a detailed knowledge of how things are.
So here are three components that you think about when you’re assessing your assets in pool route operations.
Your Customers
Much like with many other kinds of businesses, pool routes assets have to do with the existing customers and their contracts. You can delve into this deeper with an Excel spreadsheet (or you can spring for some CRM with more bells and whistles) that shows how long each customer has been with you, how likely they are to continue, what their needs are, etc. But in general, you know that your customer loyalty base has a value!
And you build that into your calculations.
Gear and Staff
Your other assets have to do with the gear that you bought, and the staff who know how to operate it properly. You may have pool skimmers, pool cleaning machines etc., but if you don’t have the qualified staff, you’re still missing part of the equation. When you know that your staff has value, that informs how you run the business, too.
Pool Routes
Another part of your asset has to do with the information at your disposal. The pool route shows your active customers, as well as those who have been active in the past. Again, that has a value – to you and to others.
Take a look back at the blog to see more about how we develop transactions in pool route buying and selling with the acumen to really succeed in this business. Information is power when you’re dealing with these kinds of service companies, and we have an excellent track record of helping people come to buying and selling decisions with counterparties. Ask us about the process – and we’ll give you basically a tour of how we work, and the context in which we work, all of us, in pool routes.
