Owner-run trades sell for 2–3x SDE. Businesses that run without you: 6–10x EBITDA.
Start here — what kind of business do you own?
Takes 30 seconds, then we give you a valuation range on a 30 minute call. No obligation, and nothing is shared without your permission.The honest answer is that it depends far less on your revenue than most owners expect, and far more on how much of the business runs through you personally. Here is how buyers actually work it out.
Start here
Two Florida HVAC companies both do $6M a year. One is worth roughly twice the other. The revenue is identical, so the difference is entirely in what is left at the bottom and how dependent that number is on the owner.
For an owner-operated business, buyers work from SDE, seller’s discretionary earnings. That is your net profit with your salary, your personal expenses run through the business, and one-off costs added back. It is what the business actually generates for whoever owns it.
Once a business is large enough to run with a general manager in place, buyers switch to EBITDA, which does not add the owner’s salary back, because a buyer would have to pay someone to do that job. That switch alone changes the number, which is why two owners with the same profit can be quoted very different multiples.
The ranges
These are the general ranges we see in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, pest control and restoration. They are ranges, not an appraisal, and where a specific business lands inside one depends on everything in the next section.
| If this is you | Typical range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You are still the business. You sell, you quote, you handle the difficult customers, and the phone rings to you. | 2–3x SDE |
A buyer is taking on the job as well as the company. Much of the goodwill lives in you personally, and it walks out with you. |
| It runs without you. There is a general manager, the sales process is not you, and you could be away a month. | 6–10x EBITDA |
The buyer is acquiring a working system rather than a job. Recurring service contracts, a real management layer and clean books push it toward the top. |
Want to know where your business actually lands?
Tell us the four basics and we will give you a valuation range on a 30 minute call.What moves it
Maintenance agreements and service contracts are the single biggest lever in these trades. Pest control businesses trade well for exactly this reason.
A general manager or operations lead who runs the day to day without you. This is what separates the two bands above more than anything else.
Three years of consistent financials. Every hour a buyer spends untangling your accounts is an hour they price into the discount.
If one builder or property manager is more than a fifth of your revenue, a buyer is buying that relationship, not your company.
An aging fleet, tired equipment or a hiring gap you have been putting off. All of it comes out of the price, because the buyer has to fund it on day one.
If the crew works for you rather than for the company, and the best customers call your mobile, that value is harder to transfer than it looks.
Before you call a broker
A broker will give you a valuation, and they are usually good at it. But their fee is a percentage of what you sell for, so the first number you hear is rarely a conservative one. It costs nothing to know where you actually sit before that conversation.
We are the buyer. That means we have the opposite bias, and you should weigh what we tell you accordingly. It also means we will give you a real number rather than a listing price, because we would have to pay it.
One 30 minute call. You tell us what the business does and how much of it runs through you, and we will tell you what we think it is worth and what we would pay for it. Most owners we speak to do not sell, and that costs them nothing.
Get my valuation or call 448-288-6406The ranges on this page are general market observations for Florida home service businesses, offered for orientation only. They are not a valuation, an appraisal, or an offer, and no specific business should be assumed to fall within them. Any figure we discuss on a call is indicative and subject to review of financial information and to the business meeting Dhamma Capital Partners’ acquisition criteria. Dhamma Capital Partners is a buyer of businesses, not a broker, a licensed appraiser, or a financial adviser, and nothing here is investment, tax or legal advice.