gmcintire
Graham
Premium
join:2005-08-09
Blue Ridge, TX
| Re: Buying competitor's company Thanks for everyone providing input so far, it's helped quite a bit.
PersComp: Thanks for the advice. My wife and I are on great terms and we don't ever do anything without discussing it with each other. I've seen plenty of marriages fail, especially due to money issues, so I avoid conflicts at all costs.
He had used some older Tranzeo and Senao gear in the past and told me the newer stuff is "custom" 250mW w/15 dBi rootenna (he didn't define "custom"). It's not bad gear, but my entire existing network is all on 5.x GHz and his is 2.4 GHz. The CPEs I've seen (mostly from clients switching to my service) were installed fairly well, although not going that extra mile (using home depot "outdoor" wire, etc).
One thing I've thought about is I have two tower sites within 1/2 mile from two of his (unplanned, one is my parents place and the other is my land with my tower). So a migration from the leased tower spaces to my owned towers would save on overhead and avoid lease issues. My existing stuff is all sectorized and done properly (separate backhaul, etc).
I had a credit card merchant account but ended up canceling it a few weeks ago because it wasn't worth it to pay 10-20% of my total income in payment processing.
McWizzard:
He's told me he wants to sell because of increased business in Arlington, which is about an hour and a half from me. He started with an existing business (VoIP, consulting, etc) and expanded into wireless while I started from scratch. I purposely limited my marketing to limit my growth so I can keep my expenses low. As I said, I haven't gotten any outside money, so funds are always limited. I haven't spent every spare cent on my WISP (although it seems like it at times). I'd hate to market like crazy and get a flood of incoming requests I can't service for several weeks. I started my business in the first place because I knew I could provide better service and support than the other local WISPs.
Thanks again for everyone's input so far. I told him I'd call in a few days after I looked over some of my stuff. |
