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.