Will my lawn care customers stay after I sell the business?

A lawn care roster is a set of small, regular relationships. Clients rarely think about who owns the company. They notice whether the grass is cut on the usual day by the usual faces. That is good news for a seller, because a sale can feel invisible to them if you handle it well. Here is how to prepare.

Know which clients are on paper

Go through the roster and sort it. Some clients have a written service agreement, some have a season plan, and some have simply been served for years on a handshake. A buyer will want to know the difference. Ask your lawyer whether and how your agreements can pass to a buyer, and consider putting long-standing handshake clients on a simple written agreement well before you list.

Prepaid season plans

If clients pay ahead for a season, a buyer will ask what has been paid and what service is still owed. Keep a clean record of each plan. Your accountant can help you work out how those payments are treated between you and the buyer, and your lawyer can write the arrangement into the sale agreement.

The introduction and the crew

Plan a short letter or message to clients, sent once the sale is firm, introducing the new owner and saying the service, schedule and crew will carry on. Where you can, keep the same crew on the same streets. Clients who see familiar people on their lawn tend to relax. Ask the buyer to keep the main contact numbers and the invoicing look steady for the first season.

A transition period

Offer to stay involved for a defined stretch, riding along with the buyer, taking calls from long-standing clients and handling any complaint that arrives early. See the guide to selling a landscaping business.