Exit-thinking sessions for HVAC owners

Who this session is for

It suits owners who are five to fifteen years from stepping back, and owners who have just been approached by a buyer and realised they don't know what their company looks like from the outside. It's equally useful if the plan is to pass the business to a family member or a long-serving employee.

It's not for owners who are ready to sell now and need a broker. For buying and selling HVAC companies, hvac.broker is the group's site for that kind of advisory work, and BizSell.ca is the group's business-sale and exit brand alongside Sedighi.ca.

What buyers of trade businesses tend to look at

Every buyer is different, but the same questions come up again and again. Ali walks through each one against your company:

• Owner dependence. If the owner disappears for a month, do calls still get answered, quoted and invoiced?
• Recurring revenue. How much of next year's revenue is already likely, through maintenance agreements and repeat customers?
• Customer concentration. Does one builder or property manager make up a large share of revenue?
• Records. Are job, customer and financial records clean enough that someone else could understand the business in a week?
• People. Is there a manager or senior tech who would stay, and could lead?
• Brand and marketing. Does work come in through channels that belong to the company, such as its website, phone number and Google profile, or through the owner's personal network?

That last point is one Ali sees often. A company whose leads arrive through a website and accounts it owns outright is easier to hand over than one whose leads follow the owner's mobile number.

A simple dependence score

Ali uses a quick scoring exercise in the session. Rate each statement from 0 (not true) to 2 (fully true):

1. Someone other than me answers and books most calls.
2. Someone other than me writes most quotes.
3. At least a quarter of revenue comes from agreements and repeat customers.
4. No single customer is more than 15% of revenue.
5. Our website, domain, phone number and Google Business Profile are owned by the company, not by me or a vendor.
6. Monthly financial statements are ready within a few weeks of month-end.
7. A manager or senior tech could run the schedule for a month.

A score of 10 or more suggests a company that's starting to stand on its own. Below 6, the exit conversation is really an owner-time conversation, and the hiring and owner-time session comes first.

What's included

• the dependence score above, worked through together
• a review of revenue mix, customer concentration and how leads arrive
• a ranked list of changes, with a rough timeline for each
• a note of the professionals you'll need later: accountant, lawyer and, when the time comes, a broker or valuator

Timeline and how results are measured

Exit work is slow by nature. Ali suggests re-scoring the dependence exercise every six months. The business measures that should move are agreement revenue as a share of total, the owner's weekly hours on tools and admin, and the share of jobs that came through company-owned channels. Building service agreements is often the first lever.

Mistakes Ali sees most often

1. Waiting for an offer to start preparing. By then there's little time to change anything that shows in the numbers.
2. Running personal expenses through the company. It muddies the picture a buyer sees. Discuss it with your accountant.
3. Keeping marketing accounts in a vendor's name. Make sure the company owns its domain, website, ad accounts and profiles.
4. Being the only relationship. Introduce key customers and suppliers to your manager now.
5. Assuming the price. Owners often anchor on a number heard from a friend. A qualified valuator should set expectations, later.

Read how sessions are quoted on the pricing page, or call, text or email Ali with how many years you have in mind and who you'd like to hand the company to.