What actually moves the multiple.
Two businesses earn the same profit. One sells for three times it, the other for seven. The difference isn’t performance — it’s who is allowed to bid.
Climb it and the price changes twice over.
Four rungs. Each one lifts the multiple and opens the business to a new type of buyer. Set your EBITDA, then click through them.
- +An owner-operator buying themselves a job
- +A local competitor, or a buyer with bank finance
- +Trade buyers and regional consolidators
- +Private equity — the point where bidding starts
- +PE platforms and international strategics
Bands are indicative and vary widely by sector, size, growth and deal structure. This is a way to think about the drivers — not a valuation. Yours is a different conversation.
Leave your email and I’ll send a one-pager within a day — where you sit and what would move the multiple.
Value = profit × multiple. You get paid on both.
Lift profit 20% and you’re 20% better off. Lift profit 20% and climb one rung, and you’re 50% better off. Most owners only ever work the first number.
$1.0m EBITDA at 4× = $4m. Lift profit 20% and climb one rung: $1.2m at 5× = $6m.
You’re not raising a multiple. You’re widening the field.
A multiple isn’t a score a business earns. It’s the price set by whoever is willing and able to bid. An owner-dependent business can only be sold to someone buying themselves a job — a small pool with shallow pockets. Every rung you climb admits a wealthier class of buyer, and price is what happens when two of them want the same thing.
Which rung are you on?
The baseline read tells you — free, from your own accounts, no obligation.
No pitch, no obligation · about thirty minutes · phone, video or coffee