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Small business valuation multiples by industry and deal size, from closed-deal data

A small US business sold through a broker in 2025 closed at about 2.3 to 3.3 times seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE) in most industries, according to BizBuySell’s closed-sale data. Car washes (4.73x) and laundromats (4.12x) were the high outliers. Deal size moves the multiple more than industry does. Business brokers report an average of 2.0x SDE for deals under $500,000 and 5.8x EBITDA for deals of $5 million to $50 million in Q2 2026 (IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse). Private-equity-backed deals of $10 million to $500 million averaged 7.2x adjusted EBITDA in 2025 across 297 transactions (GF Data). Every figure below links to the page it came from and states its period, sample and basis.

Multiples by industry: closed small-business sales

The table uses BizBuySell’s full-year 2025 closed transactions, which brokers report voluntarily. “Earnings multiple” is sale price divided by SDE, which BizBuySell calls cash flow (definition). The figures are averages, not medians. The five-year column covers sales from Q3 2021 through Q2 2026.

Industry Closed sales, 2025 Median sale price Earnings (SDE) multiple, 2025 avg Revenue multiple, 2025 avg SDE multiple, 5-year avg
HVAC 123 $800,000 2.80x 0.62x 2.83x
Plumbing 61 $837,500 2.62x 0.72x 2.61x
Landscaping and yard service 211 $480,000 2.56x 0.76x 2.49x
Pest control 28 $237,500 2.35x 1.10x 2.46x
Car washes 32 $700,000 4.73x 1.81x 4.87x
Laundromats and coin laundries 169 $287,000 4.12x 1.45x 3.70x
Accounting and tax practices 194 $500,000 2.33x 1.11x 2.27x
Insurance agencies 50 $650,000 2.68x 1.53x 2.87x
IT and software services (closest MSP category) 44 $775,000 2.99x 1.12x 3.22x
Dental practices 22 $500,000 3.28x 0.87x 2.75x
Restaurants (for scale) 1,774 $225,000 2.26x 0.37x 2.18x

Sources: 2025 columns from the BizBuySell Insight Report data tables (sector table, full-year 2025); five-year column from BizBuySell’s industry multiples page (Q3 2021 to Q2 2026). Veterinary practices are not a BizBuySell category; see the veterinary section.

Across all sectors, BizBuySell’s five-year average earnings multiple is 2.58x and the average revenue multiple is 0.67x, on a median sale price of $340,000. In Q2 2026, 2,117 businesses changed hands on BizBuySell at an average cash-flow multiple of 2.7x and a median sale price of $349,250 (BizBuySell Insight Report, Q2 2026).

Multiples by deal size

Size explains more of the spread than industry. In the table above, nine of the eleven industries sit between 2.26x and 3.28x SDE. Across deal-size bands, the average multiple nearly triples before a business reaches private equity scale.

Deal size (purchase price) Average multiple Basis Period and sample Source
Under $500,000 2.0x SDE Q2 2026; 255 advisors, 181 closed deals IBBA Market Pulse
$500,000 to $1 million 2.8x SDE Q2 2026 Same
$1 million to $2 million 3.1x SDE Q2 2026 Same
$2 million to $5 million 4.0x EBITDA Q2 2026 Same
$5 million to $50 million 5.8x EBITDA Q2 2026 Same
$10 million to $500 million, PE-backed 7.2x Adjusted TTM EBITDA Full-year 2025; 297 deals GF Data
$10 million to $500 million, PE-backed 7.3x Adjusted TTM EBITDA Q1 2026; 80 deals GF Data via ACG
US public companies, excluding financials 16.95x EV/EBITDA, positive-EBITDA firms January 2026; 4,822 firms Damodaran, NYU Stern

IBBA prices deals under $2 million on SDE and deals of $2 million to $50 million on EBITDA, so the jump between the third and fourth rows is partly a change of denominator. The $5 million to $50 million band reached its highest level since Q1 2022, according to IBBA’s Q2 2026 release. From the smallest band to the largest, the IBBA average rises 2.9 times (5.8 divided by 2.0). Buyer competition rises with size too: 87% of deals over $5 million drew at least three offers in Q2 2026. GF Data reported that larger platform deals gained value in Q1 2026 while smaller deals and add-ons stayed flat. Public company multiples are trading prices for large, liquid firms and are not a price a private buyer pays for a small company.

Industry by industry

HVAC, plumbing and landscaping

HVAC businesses closed at an average of 2.80x SDE in 2025 on 123 sales, with median SDE of $315,225. Plumbing closed at 2.62x on 61 sales and landscaping at 2.56x on 211 sales (BizBuySell). The five-year averages are within 0.07 turns of the 2025 figures, so these trades are stable. Ranges such as “HVAC 4x to 7x” that appear on broker blogs come with no deal count, period or basis, and none of them is used here. A larger HVAC, plumbing or landscaping company priced on EBITDA falls into IBBA’s $2 million to $5 million band (4.0x EBITDA) or the $5 million to $50 million band (5.8x EBITDA). No public dataset with a stated sample gives trade-specific multiples at that size. If you are screening an HVAC acquisition, a full worked example is in this sample report.

Pest control

Pest control businesses closed at 2.35x SDE in 2025, on 28 sales with a median sale price of $237,500 (BizBuySell). The revenue multiple was 1.10x, above most service trades on this page. At the top of the market, Rentokil agreed in December 2021 to buy Terminix at 19.3x 2021 estimated EBITDA before synergies and 13.9x after synergies (Terminix 8-K exhibit). That is a public-company deal valued at $6.7 billion in equity, five years old, and not a benchmark for a local route.

Car washes

Car washes closed at 4.73x SDE in 2025 on 32 sales, with a median sale price of $700,000 and a revenue multiple of 1.81x (BizBuySell). The five-year average is 4.87x. BizBuySell does not say whether these sales included land, so check what a comparable sale included before using the multiple.

Laundromats

Laundromats closed at 4.12x SDE in 2025 on 169 sales (BizBuySell). Median SDE was $77,104 and the median sale price was $287,000. The five-year average is 3.70x. Laundromats are small by earnings and high by multiple, the opposite of the size pattern above. BizBuySell does not report why. For the evidence on laundromat margins and returns, see Is a laundromat a good investment?.

Accounting and CPA firms

Accounting and tax practices closed at 2.33x SDE and 1.11x revenue in 2025, on 194 sales (BizBuySell). The median sale price ($500,000) was above median revenue ($440,000). Sales averaged 0.99 of asking price, the closest to asking of any industry on this page. The five-year averages are 2.27x SDE and 1.08x revenue.

Insurance agencies

Insurance shows the widest gap between small and large deals. Small agencies sold on BizBuySell closed at 2.68x SDE and 1.53x revenue in 2025, on 50 sales with a median price of $650,000 (BizBuySell). Brokerages with at least $1 million of EBITDA averaged 11.8x EBITDA in the first half of 2025 and 11.9x in 2024, according to Sica Fletcher, a sell-side adviser drawing on more than 450 of its own transactions. Its multiples rose from a 2020 low of 9.4x to a Q3 2024 high of 12.1x. At platform scale, Gallagher agreed to buy AssuredPartners in December 2024 for $13.45 billion, 14.3x pro forma EBITDAC, or 11.3x net of a tax asset and synergies (Gallagher 8-K exhibit). The difference is the buyer. A local agency usually sells to an individual, while Sica Fletcher says its brokerage sales often draw up to 10 bids.

MSPs and IT services

No public MSP transaction dataset with a stated sample was found. The closest closed-sale category is BizBuySell’s IT and software services: 2.99x SDE and 1.12x revenue in 2025 on 44 sales, median price $775,000 (BizBuySell). Its five-year average is 3.22x SDE. Public computer-services companies traded at 14.10x EV/EBITDA in January 2026 (64 firms, positive EBITDA only; Damodaran). Published “MSP multiple” figures of 8x to 14x on adviser blogs cite no deal count.

Dental practices

Dental practices closed at 3.28x SDE and 0.87x revenue in 2025, on 22 sales (BizBuySell). The five-year average is lower, at 2.75x, which shows how much a 22-sale year can move. Dental also had the largest gap between asking and sale price: a median asking price of $750,000 against a median sale price of $500,000, and sales averaging 0.82 of asking.

Veterinary practices

Veterinary practices sell mostly to corporate consolidators, and the public data comes from brokers who sell to them. Ackerman Group, a veterinary practice broker, reports a weighted average of 13.4x EBITDA for general practices it sold in the first half of 2026, up from 12.4x in the second half of 2025 (Ackerman Group, Q2 2026). The sample is its own 20 hospital transactions. Practices with five or more veterinarians and over $750,000 of EBITDA averaged 14.7x, and other general practices 11.8x. Cash at closing averaged 8.7x EBITDA, 65% of total consideration; the rest is deferred or contingent. Ackerman counts about 1,100 consolidator practice acquisitions in 2021 and about 350 in each of 2024 and 2025. No source with a stated sample covers small solo practices sold to individuals.

Gaps in the data

Every industry in the target list has at least one sourced figure. Larger-deal (EBITDA) multiples with a stated sample could not be found for HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, car washes, laundromats, accounting firms or MSPs; for those, use the IBBA size bands and say so.

SDE and EBITDA are different denominators

SDE is pre-tax profit plus the owner’s salary and benefits, interest, depreciation, amortization and one-time or discretionary expenses. EBITDA charges a market salary for management, so it is smaller than SDE for the same business. The same price is therefore a higher EBITDA multiple than SDE multiple. An illustration (not data): a business with $400,000 of SDE that needs a $150,000 general manager has $250,000 of EBITDA. A $1.2 million price is 3.0x SDE and 4.8x EBITDA.

Buyers of businesses under about $2 million price on SDE, because an owner-operator buys the job and the profit together. IBBA uses $2 million of purchase price as its switch point, while noting that deals of $1 million to $2 million can fall either way depending on the buyer (IBBA Q1 2026 executive summary). A broker quoting an “EBITDA multiple” on a small business may really be quoting SDE, so ask which earnings figure the multiple uses.

Why sources disagree

  • Asking versus closed. Listings close below asking. In BizBuySell’s 2025 data, sales averaged 0.93 of asking for HVAC and plumbing, 0.91 for laundromats, 0.87 for car washes and insurance agencies, and 0.82 for dental practices.
  • Average versus median. BizBuySell averages each sale’s multiple. Dividing the HVAC median sale price ($800,000) by median SDE ($315,225) gives 2.54x, below the 2.80x average, because a few high-multiple sales lift the average.
  • SDE versus EBITDA. A 3x SDE business can be a 5x EBITDA business. Comparing them directly overstates the difference by whole turns.
  • Buyer type. Individuals with SBA loans pay small-business multiples. Consolidators and private equity pay more for scale, management depth and recurring revenue, as the insurance and veterinary data show.
  • Small samples. Dental (22 sales in 2025) averaged 3.28x, 0.53 turns above its five-year average of 2.75x.
  • Public versus private. Damodaran’s public-company multiples are several times private small-business multiples and measure liquid, diversified firms.

Method

Figures were taken only from pages that publish their own transaction data with a stated period and sample, or from public filings. BizBuySell’s 2025 sector table and five-year table are reported closed sales; BizBuySell states that brokers report them voluntarily. IBBA Market Pulse is a quarterly survey of business brokers and M&A advisers about deals they closed; its multiples by deal size were read from the chart in the Q2 2026 highlights. GF Data figures come from its public press releases. Damodaran figures are the positive-EBITDA column of the January 2026 US file. Derived figures (the HVAC ratio of medians, the 2.9 times IBBA step, the industry spread) are arithmetic on those figures and are described where they appear. Broker and adviser pages that quote ranges without a deal count were excluded.

Sources

All pages were read on 2026-10-04.

This guide was researched with Hyperresearch: its runs gathered the sources, every figure was then checked by hand against the page it links to, and the text was edited by Jordan Gibbs.

By Jordan Gibbs · Updated 2026-10-04