Industry Benchmarks

What do businesses in your industry sell for?

This business valuation by industry tool lets you explore benchmarks across 134 industries — median sale price, earnings multiples, and how long businesses take to sell — drawn from a dataset of more than 9,000 reported small-business sales.

134
Industries
9,000+
Reported sales
Median
Market data
Industry Explorer

Find your industry

Search 134 industries and open any one for its full set of valuation benchmarks.

How to read it

What the numbers mean

Each industry shows medians from reported sales — the starting point for any business valuation by industry. Medians describe the middle of the market; your own business may sit above or below depending on its size, quality, and risk.

Median sale price

The middle sale price among reported transactions in that industry — half sold for more, half for less.

SDE multiple

Sale price divided by Seller's Discretionary Earnings. The core valuation yardstick for owner-operated businesses.

Revenue multiple

Sale price as a fraction of annual revenue. A quick cross-check, though earnings matter far more than revenue.

Median days on market

How long a typical listed business took to sell. Longer timelines signal harder-to-sell industries.

A note on SDE vs. EBITDA. These benchmarks use SDE multiples, the standard for smaller owner-operated businesses. For the established companies BizSellDirect acquires, we value on Adjusted EBITDA — typically 3 to 5 times. Use this explorer for market context, and the valuation calculator for an estimate on your own business.
In depth

Understanding business valuation by industry

Why two companies with the same earnings can be worth very different amounts.

Business valuation by industry: median sale multiples compared across car washes, software, home health care, HVAC, landscaping, and restaurants.

Business valuation by industry starts with one principle: buyers do not pay for revenue, they pay for earnings they can count on. How dependable those earnings are — and how easily they survive a change of ownership — varies enormously from one sector to the next. That is why the multiples in the explorer above range from barely 2x to well over 5x.

A car wash or a pest-control route, with steady repeat demand and little owner involvement, tends to command a higher multiple than a restaurant, where margins are thin and success often rests on a single operator. That gap is the whole reason to look at business valuation by industry rather than rely on one blanket rule of thumb.

What moves the multiple within an industry

Industry sets the starting range; your own numbers decide where you land inside it. Within any sector, buyers pay more for size, recurring revenue, a diversified customer base, low owner dependence, and clean books — and less for customer concentration, lumpy results, or a business that cannot run without its founder.

Business valuation by industry: go deeper for your sector

For several of the most active sectors in Southern California, we have built dedicated valuation tools that go beyond the medians shown here:

To see what happens once you have a number in mind, read how a direct sale works. For a broader primer, the U.S. Small Business Administration's guide to selling or closing a business is a useful overview of preparing for a sale.

Common questions

About this data

Where does this data come from?
It is compiled from reported small-business sale transactions — more than 9,000 of them across 134 industries. Each figure is a median, so it reflects the middle of the market rather than any single deal.
Will my business sell for the median?
Not necessarily. The median is a starting reference. A larger, cleaner, lower-risk business with growing revenue typically sells above it; an owner-dependent or shrinking one sells below. Your own financials and operations drive where you land.
Why do multiples vary so much between industries?
Buyers pay for predictable, durable cash flow. Industries with recurring revenue, low owner dependence, and steady demand command higher multiples. Volatile, capital-heavy, or hard-to-transfer businesses command less.
How do I turn this into a real valuation?
Use it as context, then run your own numbers through the valuation calculator, or speak with us directly. Business valuation by industry gives you the typical range; a real figure depends on a closer look at your financials, customers, and operations — not an industry median alone.

Curious what yours is worth?

Industry benchmarks are a starting point. A 15-minute call gets you a real, confidential valuation on your business — no preparation, no fees, no obligation.

📞 Call (949) 393-0098 📅 Book a call Try the valuation calculator

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