Put every marketing asset in the company's name before anyone asks

Why this matters more in boiler companies

Boiler companies tend to be long-lived and owner-run, which means their accounts pile up over a decade or more. A website built by a nephew in 2014. An ad account opened on the owner's personal card. A call-tracking line set up by an agency that has since closed. Each was a sensible shortcut at the time.

In a sale, each becomes a question. A buyer's lawyer will usually ask for a list of the business's intangible assets and confirmation that the company owns them. If the honest answer is "mostly, we think," the buyer either discounts for the uncertainty or makes the transfer a condition of closing, which puts the pressure on you at the worst possible moment.

What's included

We build and then work through an asset register. A typical boiler company register covers:

• Domains: the registrar, the registrant name, renewal dates, and any old domains still pointing at the site.
• Website and hosting: who holds the hosting account, the content management login and the design files.
• Google Business Profile and other listings: primary owner, managers, verification status, and any duplicate listings.
• Ad accounts: Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta; who is the administrator and whose card pays.
• Phone numbers: main lines, tracking numbers, text-enabled numbers, and which carrier or platform owns each.
• Email and the domain's mail service, including which addresses customers actually use.
• Customer and job software: account holder, export options, and how far back records go.
• Social profiles and review platforms, plus any directory accounts that still drive calls.

For each item we record the current owner, the target owner (the company), who needs admin access, and what has to happen to move it. Then we do the moves, in an order that protects anything generating calls.

Timeline

Most boiler companies can complete the register in two weeks and the transfers in six to ten weeks. Slow items are usually listings with an unresponsive owner and domains held by someone who has moved on. We schedule anything touching listings or phone routing for spring or summer, never the first cold snap.

How results are measured

The result is binary and easy to check: each line of the register either shows the company as owner with at least two named administrators, or it doesn't. We report progress as a simple count of open and closed items, and finish with a clean register you can hand to your lawyer or a buyer.

We also check for a quieter risk: single points of failure. If only one person in the company can log in to the Google profile, it isn't truly transferable yet, even if the company owns it.

Mistakes to avoid

• Starting fresh accounts instead of recovering old ones. A new Google profile or domain throws away years of reviews and search history. Recover, don't replace.
• Moving the phone numbers last-minute. The main line is usually the most valuable marketing asset a boiler company has. Port it deliberately and test call routing before peak season.
• Leaving the agency as owner. Agencies, including us, should have manager-level access to your accounts, not ownership. If any supplier holds your accounts, that should change.
• Forgetting old domains. Retired domains that still forward traffic are assets too, and lapsed ones can be bought by competitors.
• Assuming this is legal clean-up. Most transfers are administrative. Where ownership is disputed or contracts are involved, bring in your lawyer.

Asset ownership is the first item in our due diligence checklist for boiler company marketing. Once the register is clean, the next step is usually buyer-ready marketing data. See the services overview for the other options.