Two weeks · No fee · No obligation
What is your business worth?
Not a calculator, not an industry rule of thumb, and not a number designed to flatter you into a listing agreement. Comparable companies, comparable transactions, and a range we will defend line by line.
Two weeks from the day your financials land. Free, whether or not you ever sell.
A valuation range, with the comparable companies and transactions behind it.
The two or three things currently suppressing your multiple.
Who the realistic buyers are — by name, from our 10,000-company database.
Whether now is the wrong moment to sell. We will say so plainly.
Request your valuation
Confidential. We sign an NDA before you send financials.
Two weeks. No fee.
How we get to the number
Three methods, cross-checked. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the interesting part and we will show it to you.
Normalised EBITDA × sector multiple
We rebuild your earnings the way a buyer’s accountant will: owner compensation, one-off costs, related-party rent, personal expenses run through the business. Then we apply the multiple your sector and size actually trade at — not the one in a magazine article.
Comparable transactions
What businesses like yours in the Carolinas have actually sold for, including deals we were in. Twenty years of buying here means our comparables include private transactions that never appear in a database.
Buyer’s-eye cash flow
What a sponsor could pay and still hit their return, given today’s debt costs. This is the ceiling on your price, and it is the number a private equity buyer is running while they talk to you.
What moves your multiple up
- Recurring or contracted revenue
- A management team that runs it without you
- Three years of clean, reviewed financials
- Growth that continues through the sale process
- Documented systems — estimating, pricing, dispatch
- More than one credible buyer at the table
And what moves it down
- One customer above about 25% of revenue
- Earnings that depend on a single exceptional year
- Add-backs the owner cannot document
- Deferred capital expenditure — trucks, plant, software
- Key-person risk with no succession
- A single unrepresented bidder setting the price
What this is not
Not a certified appraisal
If you need a valuation for an ESOP, a divorce, gift tax or litigation, you need a credentialed appraiser. We will refer you to one and take no fee for it.
Not a listing agreement
Nothing you sign here obliges you to run a process, with us or anyone. Most people who get a valuation do not sell that year.
Not a marketing number
Brokers sometimes quote high to win the listing, then spend six months walking you down. We would rather disappoint you in week two.
Common questions
How much is my business worth, roughly?
A multiple of normalized EBITDA, and the spread between a well-prepared business and an unprepared one in the same sector is routinely double. That spread is why a real valuation beats a calculator.
Why is it free?
Because it is how we find the two or three owners a year we want to work with, and because a paid valuation would make you feel obliged to sell. Neither of us wants that.
What do you need from me?
Three years of P&L and balance sheet, a customer concentration list, and what you actually pay yourself. An NDA first if you prefer.
Will you share my information?
No. Nothing leaves us, and no buyer hears your name until you have approved them individually.
| Sector | Typical EBITDA multiple |
|---|---|
| Roofing & restoration | 3-7x |
| HVAC & mechanical | 3-7x |
| Electrical contracting | 3-6x |
| Building products & distribution | 4-9x |
| Healthcare services | 6-8x |
| Software & data | 7-10x+ |
Two weeks from now you could know
Send the financials. We will send back a range, the comps behind it, and an honest read on timing.