In short
Most privately held businesses are valued as a multiple of their earnings, and which earnings depends on size. SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) adds back all of one working owner’s pay; adjusted EBITDA instead keeps a market wage for the owner’s role. Small owner-operated businesses are priced on SDE, larger ones on EBITDA. The multiple depends mainly on your industry, your size, and how much of the business depends on you personally. That multiple is usually 2–3.5x SDE for owner-operated businesses and about 4–6x EBITDA for businesses with $1M+ of EBITDA, with consolidating sectors trading higher at scale; the spread within a single industry is driven by risk, not by revenue. These are market ranges, not a quote or a guarantee.
Published multiple ranges
Market ranges, not a quote or a guarantee.
| Business profile | Earnings basis | Typical multiple |
|---|---|---|
| Owner-operated business | SDE | 2–3.5× |
| $1M+ EBITDA company | EBITDA | ~4–6× |
| Consolidating sectors at scale | EBITDA | Higher — see multiples by industry |
Market ranges, not a quote or a guarantee — the same ranges stated above. Where a specific business lands inside them is what a real valuation establishes. Every sector side by side: EBITDA multiples by industry.
Revenue is the number owners quote and the number buyers care least about. What a buyer is actually purchasing is future profit, so the starting point is adjusted EBITDA: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, with adjustments for anything that will not continue under new ownership.
That typically includes your own above-market compensation, family members on payroll, personal vehicles or travel run through the business, one-time legal or repair costs, and rent paid to yourself if it differs from market. Getting these add-backs documented and defensible is often worth more than a year of growth, because every dollar of properly evidenced add-back is multiplied by the same multiple as every other dollar of profit.
Two businesses in the same industry with identical profit can sell at very different multiples. The gap is risk. Buyers pay more for recurring or contracted revenue than for project work; for a diversified customer base than for one where a few clients dominate; for a management team that runs the business than for an owner who is the business; and for clean, reviewed financials than for numbers that need explaining.
Anything that makes future profit more certain raises the multiple. Anything that makes it dependent on a person, a client, or a contract that could disappear lowers it.
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A calculator can tell you the range that businesses like yours have traded in. It cannot tell you where in that range you sit, because that depends on details no calculator sees: your customer concentration, your lease, your staffing, your books, and who the natural buyers are for a business of your shape. Use an estimate to decide whether the conversation is worth having — then get a real range from someone who has closed transactions in your sector. That conversation should be free, private, and carry no obligation.
Start with net profit, then add back interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Then add back expenses that will not continue for a new owner: your own compensation above what a manager would be paid, family members not working in the business, personal expenses run through the company, one-time costs, and any difference between rent you pay yourself and market rent. Each add-back needs documentation, because buyers will test every one of them in diligence.
Profit, in almost every case. Revenue matters only as context for the profit. A business with $5M of revenue and $500K of adjusted EBITDA is generally worth far less than one with $2M of revenue and $800K of adjusted EBITDA, because buyers are purchasing future earnings rather than turnover.
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General information only, researched and drafted with AI assistance — not legal, tax, financial or valuation advice. See our terms.