Business sales for the trades · Ohio first

Your last day. Somebody's first day.

You spent thirty years building a business people trust. LastDayFirstDay finds the next owner to take it over, so the doors stay open, the name stays on the door, and you get paid for what you built. There is no fee unless it sells.

I'm thinking about selling I'm looking to buy
$0 until it closes
5% at closing, nothing before
Quiet No sign, no name online
A service van parked on a small-town Ohio main street at sunrise
Businesses for sale

Twenty-four Ohio businesses, by region, trade and price.

Repair shops, heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing, routes, machine and fabrication shops, from $335,000 to $1.65 million. Three years of figures on every one.

Columbus Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Licking Cleveland Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina Cincinnati Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont Dayton Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark Akron and Canton Summit, Stark, Portage Toledo Lucas, Wood Elsewhere in Ohio Mansfield, Zanesville, Findlay, Chillicothe All of Ohio 24 businesses, every trade
Browse all 24 listings Tell us what you're looking for

Buyers pay us nothing. Search by region, trade and price; the owner's name comes after a confidentiality agreement.

Two doors, one handoff

The owner steps out. The buyer steps in. The business never closes.

For owners

Thinking about stepping away?

Most trade businesses simply close when the owner retires. The customers scatter, the crew looks for work, the phone goes dead, and thirty years of goodwill is worth nothing on the last day. It does not have to end that way.

  • We list your business quietly. No name, no address, no sign.
  • We find and screen the buyer. You meet only serious people who have signed a confidentiality agreement.
  • We help both sides agree on a price and a handover.
  • You keep working until closing, and our fee comes out of the closing.
Tell us about your business
For buyers

Want a business with customers on day one?

A tradesman who has worked for somebody else for fifteen years already knows the work. What he does not have is the phone number people call, the crew, the trucks and the name on the door. An established business comes with all of it.

  • Established trade businesses with a track record, not startups.
  • The owner stays on to hand over the customers and the crew.
  • Every number shown is the owner's own, from his books.
  • Sign the confidentiality agreement and you see the full picture.
See what's for sale
Where your listing goes

Quiet to your town. Loud to every buyer who should see it.

A listing with no name and no address still has to reach the right people. Ours reaches them one at a time, starting with the buyers most likely to want a business exactly like yours.

Every same-trade owner within fifty miles

The buyer of a plumbing company is usually another plumber. We text them one by one, by name, about a business in their trade and their area.

Our buyer list

Tradesmen who told us what they want to buy, where, and what they can bring, screened for means before any introduction.

Lenders who finance these deals

Banks that lend on small businesses see the listings that fit their programs, so a buyer arrives with financing, not a maybe.

The national marketplaces

Where it fits, your listing runs on the national business-for-sale sites as well, under the same confidentiality.

This site

Buyers search by region, trade and price, read three years of figures, and sign the confidentiality agreement before they learn who you are.

Every week it is listed
One text to you: how many buyers looked, how many asked, how many signed the confidentiality agreement, and who we think is serious. No dashboard, no login.
How it works

Five steps. You keep running the business through all of them.

  1. We talk

    A text or a call. What you built, how it runs without you, and what you want out of it. Nothing is written down until you say so.

  2. We put a number on it

    From your books and from what businesses like yours have sold for. The asking price is yours to set; we tell you what we think it will bring.

  3. We list it quietly

    Buyers see the kind of business, the area, the numbers and the equipment. They do not see your name or your address until they have signed a confidentiality agreement and you have said yes.

  4. You meet the right buyer

    We screen for money and for fit, introduce you, and keep the conversation moving toward terms both sides can live with.

  5. You close and get paid

    Your attorney and your accountant handle the purchase agreement and the taxes. Our 5% comes out of the closing. Before that day, you owe us nothing.

Read the one-page rundown of how a sale works, written for an owner who has never sold a business.

Our fee

5% of the sale price, at closing. Nothing before. Nothing if it does not sell.

No retainer, no listing fee, no monthly charge, no fee to the buyer. We are paid from the closing, the same day you are. If the business does not sell, you owe nothing and the listing comes down.

Example

A business that sells for $300,000 pays a fee of $15,000 at closing, out of the proceeds. The owner receives the rest. The buyer pays us nothing.

What we are not

We sell the business. Other people handle the rest.

  • Not lawyers. Your attorney writes and reviews the purchase agreement. We will tell you what to ask for.
  • Not accountants. Your accountant handles the books and the taxes on the sale.
  • Not real estate brokers. If you own your building, or the buyer wants your lease, that is between the buyer, you, your landlord and your attorney. We sell the business: the name, the customers, the phone number, the equipment and the crew.
  • Not a sign in the window. Nothing about your sale is public until you say so.
Ohio first

We start where the trades run deep and the owners are ready.

Ohio has more one-owner trade businesses per town than almost any state, and more of their owners are past sixty than ever before. Many of those businesses will close for lack of a buyer, not for lack of customers. We work Ohio's metros and the towns between them, in the trades we know: repair shops, heating and cooling, electrical, pest control and lawn routes, machine and fabrication shops.

  • Columbus Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield
  • Cleveland Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Lake
  • Cincinnati Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont
  • Dayton Montgomery, Greene, Miami
  • Akron and Canton Summit, Stark, Portage
  • Toledo Lucas, Wood

Ohio requires no license to arrange the sale of business assets that involve no real estate interest (Ohio Revised Code 4735.01). We stay out of buildings and leases, which belong to the parties, their landlords and their attorneys.

Two owners shaking hands beside a truck outside a workshop
Sold, not closed

What a buyer is really paying for

  • The phone number and the name people already trust
  • Customers who call back year after year
  • A crew that knows the work and the town
  • Trucks, tools and a shop that are already set up
  • You, for a few months, showing them how it is done
Who we are

A small group that buys and sells for a living, working one state at a time.

LastDayFirstDay is run by its principals, who have spent years buying assets from private owners across the Midwest and the Mountain West and sitting across kitchen tables doing it. We answer our own phone, we text back the same day, and we would rather tell an owner his business is not ready to sell than list it at a number it will not bring.

Our Ohio office is in Concord Township, in Lake County east of Cleveland, and we work the state in person when it matters: a walk-through before a listing, a meeting when a buyer is serious, a closing when it is done.

Where else we work

Most states, under the same terms.

Where a state requires no license to arrange the sale of business assets, we list and sell under the same terms as Ohio. Where a state licenses business brokerage, we work only as a listing service or through a licensed partner, and we say so before anything is signed. Illinois, where a state registration applies, follows Ohio.

We never broker real estate anywhere.

Questions owners ask

Straight answers.

Why did you text me?

Your business is in Ohio's public business records as established years ago and still active, in a trade where owners are retiring faster than new ones start. We reach out to owners like you before the business closes for lack of a buyer. If selling is not on your mind, say so and that is the end of it.

Who are you?

A small company with its Ohio office in Concord Township, east of Cleveland, working Ohio first. We never ask for money up front, we never ask for your bank or Social Security information, and our fee is paid only at a closing handled by your own attorney. Our Ohio line is (440) 659-1619 and the office address is at the bottom of this page.

What is my business worth?

It depends on what it earns you, what equipment comes with it, and how much of it runs without you. For a one-owner trade business, buyers commonly pay a multiple of the owner's yearly earnings plus the value of the equipment. We work the number out with you from your books. The asking price is yours to set.

Will my customers or my crew find out?

Not from us. There is no sign, no name online and no address. Buyers see the kind of business and the numbers, sign a confidentiality agreement, and only then learn who you are, after you have said yes to meeting them. You tell your people when you are ready.

Do I need a lawyer?

Yes, for the purchase agreement, and an accountant for the taxes on the sale. We are neither. We will tell you what the agreement should cover and what to ask about.

What about my building or my lease?

We do not sell real estate or broker leases. If you own the building, that is a separate sale handled by a real estate professional and your attorney. If you rent, the buyer and the landlord work out a new lease, with your attorney's help. We sell the business itself.

Do you charge the buyer?

No. Our 5% is paid by the seller, out of the closing proceeds, on the day the sale closes.

What if it does not sell?

You owe nothing. The listing comes down and we part as friends.

I am a buyer. How do I start?

Tell us what trade you know, where you want to be and what you can afford. When a business fits, you sign a confidentiality agreement and we send you the full picture, then set up a meeting with the owner.

Have a text from us?

Reply to it with a question, call or text (440) 659-1619, or tell us about your business here. Every evaluation starts by text, so the first thing you hear from us is a text from Tom.

Tell us about your business See businesses for sale