Buying a hardware, building supply or garden store in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida

• Counter staff who can tell a customer how to fix a running toilet or wire a switch. That advice is why people pay a little more than at a big box store.
• Inventory that sells steadily, with little dead stock, and computer counts that match the shelves.
• Contractor accounts spread across many builders and trades, plus steady walk-in homeowners.
• Service income from keys, paint, rentals and repairs.
• Contractors who pay on time, with few old unpaid balances.
• A convenient spot for a neighborhood or for job sites, with parking and room for trucks to load.
• For garden centers, someone who keeps the plants healthy, so few are thrown away.

• Inventory at closing. Have it counted independently at cost, leaving out damaged, discontinued and obsolete stock. It's often a big part of the price.
• Co-op or dealer agreements. Will the membership carry over? What equity stake or minimum purchases does it require? And if it doesn't, what happens to the sign?
• Contractor accounts. Get a list of what each contractor owes and for how long, decide whether you buy those balances or the seller collects them, and see how sales held up when local building slowed.
• Storm years. A hurricane can lift one year's sales well above normal, so look at several years.
• Equipment. Check the age of forklifts, delivery trucks, paint machines and any rental fleet.
• The seller's unpaid taxes. Buying more than half of a business or its assets can make you liable for the seller's unpaid sales tax and other Department of Revenue taxes, up to the price you paid or the value of what you bought, whichever is greater (section 213.758). To protect yourself, get a certificate of compliance from the department before closing. You may also hold back part of the price and pay it to the state within 30 days. Let your attorney handle this.

• Which departments and customers bring in the most profit, and how has that changed over the years?
• How much of your stock hasn't sold in the past year, and what do you do with it?
• Who are your biggest contractor accounts, and how quickly do they pay?
• How do sales in a hurricane year compare with a normal year?
• Which of your counter staff do customers ask for by name, and are they planning to stay?
• Are you in a buying cooperative, and what would I need to do to keep the membership?
• If you were staying another ten years, what would you add: rentals, delivery or a bigger garden section?

This region covers Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau, Baker and Putnam counties: Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, Macclenny and Palatka. Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, which makes it the largest city by land area in the lower 48 states.

The economy leans on logistics, the Navy and financial services. Logistics runs through JAXPORT, major rail lines and the meeting of Interstates 95 and 10. The Navy has Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport. Insurance and health care matter too. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, and Amelia Island draw steady tourism. Trucking and logistics firms, the building trades, medical practices and home services all fit this market.

Northeast Florida is less seasonal than South or Southwest Florida, with fewer winter residents and more year-round employers. Direct hurricane landfalls have been less common here than on other parts of the coast, but storms still bring flooding along the St. Johns River and the beaches, so check insurance costs and flood zones.

Military families bring skilled workers and working spouses into the labor pool, though they also move on when orders change. St. Johns, Clay and Nassau have added the most new homes, and companies serving those suburbs have grown with them. Georgia is close, and some companies here serve customers across the state line. Work in Georgia may need Georgia licenses, so ask how much revenue comes from there and who holds those licenses.