Two companies, same numbers, different price.
Two companies can have the same revenue, the same profit, the same customers and crews, and still sell for very different amounts.
The difference is whether the business runs on documented systems and a leadership team or on the person who built it. This calculator shows roughly what that difference is worth in dollars.
Enter your annual revenue and your profit margin before interest, taxes, and depreciation. If you are not sure of your margin, ten percent is a reasonable starting point for most service businesses.
$3,000,000
Your EBITDA
Your annual profit before interest, taxes, and depreciation. This is the number a buyer starts from.
$16,500,000
Running on systems
What it could sell for if the business runs on documented systems and a management team.
$12,000,000
Running on you
What it would likely sell for if the business runs mostly on you.
$4,500,000
The gap
That is the difference between the two prices above. It is the part of your company's value that depends on how the business runs rather than on what it earns.
The transaction data puts this discount between one and two turns of EBITDA, so for a company your size the gap runs from $3,000,000 to $6,000,000. The figure above uses the midpoint.
Where these numbers come from.
The industry multiples come from FISART's published table of EBITDA multiples for service businesses with enterprise values between one million and fifty million dollars, drawn from GF Data, IBBA Market Pulse, and the DealStats Value Index, and last updated in August 2026.
The one to two turn discount comes from the same source, which finds that businesses where the owner works fifty or more hours a week and holds the primary client relationships sell at that discount, while businesses with a general manager, department leads, and documented processes sell at or above the median.
These are guide values from completed transactions rather than a prediction about any single company, and the range within any industry is wide because buyers price recurring revenue, customer concentration, growth, and size alongside owner dependency.
What a buyer is paying for.
A buyer is purchasing future earnings, and the question underneath every diligence question is whether those earnings continue without the current owner.
A buyer never asks that directly. They ask who approves pricing exceptions, what happens when the estimator is out, how long onboarding takes, and how the month closes. Every answer tells them the same thing.
The owners with the most to gain here are usually the best operators, because the company leans hardest on the person who carries the most.
What closes the gap.
Documented process, a leadership team that decides without the owner, and systems that do the work rather than people who remember how.
Read the free resource, The Owner Dependency Discount, and listen to the podcast episode, The largest number you control before a sale.
Two minutes, and you know what to do next.
It is free, it takes about two minutes, and the reading is yours whether or not you ever speak with us.
This calculator is illustrative and it is not a valuation of your company. Growth Right Solutions are not valuation professionals, accountants, or M and A advisors, and nothing here is financial, tax, or valuation advice. Real multiples depend on industry, size, growth, recurring revenue, customer concentration, and many other factors. Any figure you intend to rely on in a transaction should come from a qualified valuation professional.