The method
How we price a trade business. The Payline.
Your worth is a range, not a single number. The Payline shows you the range, and the three things that move you inside it.
An example. Your read is yours.
The range a buyer would pay: $5.4M to $9.0M. What the market pays a business like this: $7.2M. the example: $6.3M.
Where the example lands today: $6.3M.
This example’s three parts, and what each one is worth. Tap one to see the number move.
- Profitability.Holding.+0.3x
Your true earnings, after the noise, what actually drops to the bottom line.
- Predictability.Soft.-0.2x
How sure next year’s money is. Repeat and contracted work counts more than one-off jobs.
- Transferability.Weak.-0.7x
Whether the crew, the contracts, and the license hold when you step back. Often among the first things a buyer tests, and the hardest to fix quickly.
Move any of the three, and where you land moves with it.
An illustrative example, not a valuation or financial advice.
Why a range, not a number.
Buyers do not price a business at a number, they price it into a range, and the range for your size and trade is set by what specialty contractors like you actually sold for. Where you land inside that range is not luck. Three things decide it, and all three are things you can move.
Who can buy you.
A few things set who can buy you, and at what price: your books, your bonding, and how the license transfers. We check those too.
You run The Read yourself, in a few minutes.
The Read walks you through plain questions about the business and shows you where you stand. Private, and free. It ends in one straight answer: sell now, build the value first, wait, or take a path other than an outside sale.