Plumbing, HVAC, cleaning, detailing. What it is worth, what a buyer examines, and how a quiet sale actually runs.
Small service businesses trade on a multiple of what the owner actually takes home, not revenue. That figure is profit plus your own compensation and any personal expenses running through the company, and it is the number every buyer starts from.
Two companies with identical revenue can be worth very different amounts. The one that runs without the owner on every job is worth more, every time.
How much of the work depends on you personally, whether the crew stays, how concentrated the customer list is, and whether the books match the tax returns.
Customer concentration is the quiet killer. If one account is a third of revenue, the price reflects the risk that the account leaves with you.
Crews leave when they hear a rumour, and competitors call your customers the week they find out. This is why a real process signs an NDA before the company is named and keeps the details out of anything public.
Our intake asks the trade, the state and the size before it asks anything that identifies you, which is deliberate.
Rarely all cash at closing. Usually part at close and part carried, either as seller financing paid from the company's own cash flow or as a share of revenue for a set term.
Carrying part of it raises the total and skips waiting on a bank to approve your buyer. It also means part of your price depends on the company continuing to perform.
Three years of returns, a clean profit and loss, a customer list with revenue by account, and a straight answer on what breaks if you stop showing up.
None of it has to be perfect to start a conversation. It has to be honest, because everything gets verified before money moves.