Repeatable, contracted revenue
Contracted, recurring revenue raises your multiple; one-off and relationship-only revenue lowers it. A buyer pays up for earnings he can count on without you in the room.
WHAT IS MY BUSINESS WORTH? — MULTIPLES
What a “Multiple” Really Means — and Why There’s No Single Number for Yours
Everybody wants the one number: “businesses like mine sell for X times.” It’s the wrong question.
The multiple isn’t a lookup — it’s a risk score, and yours is set by things specific to your business.
See where yours stands — free self-assessmentPrivate, and no email needed to see your results. Or talk it through with an advisor — choose your pace below.
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Photo: Edoardo Deluca / Pexels
THE QUESTION BEHIND THE NUMBER
“What multiple will my
business sell for?”
A multiple is a risk score,
not a lookup.
A valuation multiple is the number you multiply your earnings by to get a price, and it’s set by risk — how repeatable the revenue is and how much the business depends on the owner. There’s no single “industry multiple” that tells you your number; the drivers do.
WHAT A MULTIPLE ACTUALLY IS
Shorthand for how sure a buyer is.
A multiple is shorthand. You take the business’s real, repeatable earnings and multiply them by a number to get a price. The part everybody argues about — the multiple on top — isn’t pulled from a table.
The earnings are called SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) for smaller owner-run companies — your earnings with the owner’s pay added back — or EBITDA as companies get bigger and have real management. The multiple on top is a measure of how sure a buyer is that those earnings keep coming after you leave. That’s why two companies with the same earnings can carry very different multiples.
WHAT MOVES YOUR MULTIPLE
The drivers — not the average.
The same short list that sets any business’s value sets your multiple. It’s what the average can’t see.
A business that runs without you
A business that runs without you raises it; one that’s really you lowers it. Heavy owner dependency alone commonly caps an owner-led business at one to two times earnings and costs at least a full turn of EBITDA.
Clean, believable books
Clean, believable books are the price of admission. Messy financials don’t lower the multiple — they remove the buyer. It’s the most common reason a deal ends instead of closing.
Customer concentration and operations
One big customer, or a shaky operation that only works when you’re watching it, prices down. Diversified customers and a business that runs on systems price up.
The market ranges for your specific trade — HVAC, plumbing, roofing, manufacturing, MSP, and the rest — live on the industry pages, each with the same caveat: it’s a range, not your number. See the ranges by industry →
THE “AVERAGE FOR MY INDUSTRY”
Market ranges — not your number.
These are market ranges, not your number. Published 2026 broker and advisor data shows most owner-led small businesses selling in the range below. Where yours lands is set by the drivers, not the average — recurring or contract revenue, how much the business runs without you, clean financials, and customer concentration can move you from the bottom of the range to the top, or off it entirely. The only way to know your number is to look at your business. Get a directional read →
Where a range doesn’t spend: only the number a buyer agrees to actually spends, and that’s set by the condition inside your business, not the average. A word about value →
Search your trade and you’ll find an average multiple. Treat it as a fact about your business and you’ll be wrong, usually in the direction that hurts.
The average can’t see the one thing that moves your number most — how much the business depends on you — and it assumes clean, normalized books it never looked at. Two companies in the same trade with the same earnings can sit a full turn or more apart on exactly those grounds. Heavy owner dependency alone commonly caps an owner-led business at one to two times earnings and costs at least a full turn of EBITDA.
The average is a starting point for a conversation, not your number. The band on the left is market context from published 2026 broker and advisor data — where yours lands is set by the drivers above.
(Market ranges are synthesized from published 2026 broker and advisor data for owner-led companies, to be confirmed against your real numbers — not a guarantee, an appraisal, or tax or investment advice.)
SO WHAT’S MINE?
Not something a webpage can tell you.
Honestly? Not something a webpage can tell you, and anyone who hands you a firm multiple off a form is guessing. What we can do is read your business the way a buyer will, show you where you land against the drivers, and — if you want — help you move up the range before you ever go to market.
Advisor-led, delivered by a SweetSpot consultant under Daniel’s direction — operators who have bought and sold companies for themselves and for other buyer and seller groups. That hands-on deal and operating experience is exactly how we help you find your true, transferable cashflow and build it up before you sit across from a buyer.
We are not brokers. We don’t list your company or bring you a buyer — we do the work in front of the sale, early enough that it moves the number. See how owners raise the number →
The spread — from the bottom of the range when the business depends on you to the top when it doesn’t — is the whole point. The distance between the two ends is what reducing owner-dependence and building transferable cashflow does to your multiple, and it is exactly the work SweetSpot helps owners do.
A description of the work, not a reported client result. SweetSpot publishes no client names or outcomes.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Three ways to start.
Pick the one that fits.
However you start, the goal is the same: get an honest read on where your business lands — and what would move it up.
Talk it through now
Leave your number and we connect you with a SweetSpot advisor right away — the system rings you and the advisor at the same time. No hold, no waiting for a call back later.
Ask a question
A personal reply within one business day. Tell us what you’re trying to figure out and we’ll point you to the first place to look.
Send a messageCheck it yourself
A few minutes; no email needed to see your results. Rate your business against the drivers that set the multiple.
Start the free self-assessmentIf a deeper look makes sense, some owners go on to a Three Engine Diagnostic — a paid, one-day, on-site review of operations, sales, and finances. No obligation to get there.
BEFORE YOU CALL
Questions owners ask about multiples.
What multiple will my business sell for?
There’s no single number. It’s your earnings times a multiple set by risk — mostly how repeatable the revenue is and how much the business runs without you. Per-trade market ranges are on our industry pages, but yours is set by the drivers, not the average.
What's the difference between an SDE multiple and an EBITDA multiple?
Both multiply real, repeatable earnings — SDE for smaller owner-operated companies (owner’s pay added back), EBITDA for larger, management-run ones. Same idea, different earnings base.
Why do two businesses in the same industry sell for different multiples?
Because the multiple prices risk, not the industry. Owner dependency, revenue repeatability, book quality, and customer concentration move it — two same-size shops can be a full turn or more apart.
How do I raise my multiple?
Reduce how much runs through you, firm up recurring/contracted revenue, clean the books, and diversify customers — the same work as getting ready to sell, and it raises the number whether you sell or not.
MORE ON WHAT YOUR BUSINESS IS WORTH