Teddy Velkov explains how he used acquisition strategy, seller motivation, sector focus, deferred payments, and post acquisition upsell to build one of London's largest domestic window cleaning businesses.
Listen to the EpisodeEpisode 149 | Runtime: 29:00 | Audio Episode
Hear Teddy Velkov's acquisition story, from buying small cleaning contracts to consolidating fragmented window cleaning businesses across London.
Three acquisition lessons from Teddy Velkov's growth story in a fragmented local services market.
Teddy targeted domestic window cleaning because the market was full of small owner operated firms with limited systems, creating opportunities for consolidation.
Several deals were driven by owners who wanted out quickly, allowing Teddy to structure low upfront payments, deferred consideration, and rapid completion.
Teddy acquired routes and contracts, then increased value by adding related cleaning and facilities services to existing recurring customers.
In this episode, Jonathan Jay speaks with Teddy Velkov, who arrived in the UK from Bulgaria in his twenties without English language skills or local connections. After building a window cleaning business from scratch, Teddy saw that the domestic window cleaning sector was fragmented, unsophisticated, and full of small operators who lacked systems and scale.
Teddy explains how his first acquisition came through reputation and networking rather than a formal outreach campaign. A seller with a commercial cleaning contract simply wanted someone reliable to take it over, which gave Teddy an entry point into facilities management and led to a much larger ongoing relationship with the same landlord group.
The conversation then moves into buying competitors, acquiring customer routes in South London, using initial payments and deferred payments, and acting quickly when sellers are highly motivated. Teddy also discusses how he increased revenue after acquisition by adding extra services, preparing management accounts, holding funds for opportunistic deals, and weighing up whether to exit or keep acquiring.
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