{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Dataset",
  "name": "What multiple do small businesses sell for?",
  "description": "Most small businesses sell for 2–4× seller's discretionary earnings, or 3–6× EBITDA once earnings pass roughly $1M. Recurring-revenue and low-owner-dependence businesses trade at the top of the range; owner-dependent service businesses and restaurants trade at the bottom.",
  "url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/answers/what-multiple-do-small-businesses-sell-for",
  "dateModified": "2026-08-12",
  "creator": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "RevenueLab",
    "url": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi"
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "keywords": [
    "Business Acquisition Valuation Calculator",
    "SaaS Valuation Calculator",
    "Profit Margin Calculator"
  ],
  "distribution": {
    "@type": "DataDownload",
    "contentUrl": "https://www.revenuelab.fyi/api/public/page.json?path=answers%2Fwhat-multiple-do-small-businesses-sell-for",
    "encodingFormat": "application/json"
  },
  "json": {
    "type": "answer",
    "question": "What multiple do small businesses sell for?",
    "shortAnswer": "Most small businesses sell for 2–4× seller's discretionary earnings, or 3–6× EBITDA once earnings pass roughly $1M. Recurring-revenue and low-owner-dependence businesses trade at the top of the range; owner-dependent service businesses and restaurants trade at the bottom.",
    "tableTitle": "Typical sale multiples by business profile",
    "columns": [
      "Business profile",
      "Multiple",
      "Basis"
    ],
    "rows": [
      {
        "label": "Owner-operated service, under $250K SDE",
        "value": "1.8×–2.8×",
        "note": "SDE"
      },
      {
        "label": "Established trades / contracting",
        "value": "2.5×–3.8×",
        "note": "SDE"
      },
      {
        "label": "Ecommerce brand, stable 3 years",
        "value": "2.8×–4.2×",
        "note": "SDE"
      },
      {
        "label": "Managed business, $1M+ EBITDA",
        "value": "3.5×–6×",
        "note": "EBITDA"
      },
      {
        "label": "B2B SaaS, sub-$5M ARR",
        "value": "3×–7×",
        "note": "ARR"
      },
      {
        "label": "Restaurant, single location",
        "value": "1.5×–2.5×",
        "note": "SDE"
      }
    ],
    "context": "The multiple is a summary of risk, not a market price. Three things move it more than anything else: how much of the revenue recurs, how replaceable the owner is, and how concentrated the customer base is. A business where the top client is 40% of revenue is discounted heavily no matter how good the margin looks. Clean, reviewed financials add real multiple on their own, because a buyer paying 3× is buying the reliability of the earnings figure as much as the figure itself.",
    "methodology": "Broker-reported closed-transaction multiples across main-street and lower-middle-market segments, mapped to the risk adjustments used in the RevenueLab business acquisition valuation calculator.",
    "dateModified": "2026-08-12",
    "relatedCalculators": [
      {
        "label": "Business Acquisition Valuation Calculator",
        "to": "/business-acquisition-valuation-calculator"
      },
      {
        "label": "SaaS Valuation Calculator",
        "to": "/saas-valuation-calculator"
      },
      {
        "label": "Profit Margin Calculator",
        "to": "/profit-margin-calculator"
      }
    ],
    "relatedReading": []
  }
}