Running the Business · Part 6
Selling or stepping back: what a plumbing business is worth, what a buyer is actually buying, and what the license will and will not let you transfer
A plumbing business that can be sold is one that runs without its owner, and the license is the reason most cannot: it is not transferable, the number follows you only into a company you control, and the buyer of a sole owner's business is buying customers, trucks, and a phone number, not a license. This lesson is the end of the road planned from the start: what a buyer values (recurring customers, systems, staff, a clean record) and what a buyer cannot buy (your license, your qualifier history), the two ways a sale is structured around the license rules, the qualifier transition that keeps the buyer licensed, and the exposure that stays with you after the check clears. It also covers the quieter option: stepping back as the qualifier of a company someone else runs, with the 7068.1 duties intact.
What the full lesson covers
- No license transfers (7075.1(a)). A buyer of your business needs their own license, or a qualifier of their own, before the sale closes; you cannot stay on as the qualifier for a fee (lesson 6.8) unless you keep at least 20 percent and actually supervise.
- Your license number follows you only into a corporation or LLC you formed and control with more than 50 percent (7075.1(c)(5)); sell more than half and the number cannot go with the business.
- A saleable business is the systems from this track: the price book, the software, the job folders, the customer list with permission to contact, the trucks, the staff, and the reviews; a business that is the owner's phone and memory sells for its trucks.
- Structure: an asset sale of the business to the buyer's licensed entity (most small shops) or a sale of the entity's stock or membership interests where the entity holds the license and the buyer brings a qualifier within 90 days (7068.2).
- Your exposure on past work, the four- and ten-year windows (7091), stays with your license after the sale; keep the job folders and the warranty obligations addressed in the agreement.
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More lessons in Growing the Business
- 1Hiring under AB 5: the ABC test, why a 1099 helper is a lawsuit unless they hold their own license, and the construction subcontract exemption
- 2Employees: wage and hour, overtime, meal and rest periods, final-pay rules, and the workers' compensation class code
- 3Apprentices and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards: how a small shop trains its next plumber lawfully
- 4Adding classifications: when to add the B, the C-20, or a second specialty, and how the exam waiver works
- 5Systems: field-service software, the price book, and dispatch. What to buy, when, and what it must produce
- 6KPIs: average ticket, close rate, gross margin, and the three numbers that predict failure
- 7Supply-house credit at scale, the fleet, and inventory: the second truck's paperwork and the parts on it
- 8Becoming an RMO for someone else's company: the liability you are taking on, and the only version that is lawful
- 9Selling or stepping back: what a plumbing business is worth, what a buyer is actually buying, and what the license will and will not let you transferYou are here
- 10Template: the hiring checklist (AB 5-safe), from the decision to the first day
- 11Template: the new-hire packet index
- 12Template: the monthly KPI sheet