Trades Business Valuation Multiples by Industry (2026 Data)

Business valuation multiples by industry range from about 2x to 3.5x Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) for most Main Street trades businesses under $2 million in value, climbing to 4x-14x EBITDA once a business is large enough, documented enough and diversified enough to attract private equity buyers. The exact number depends heavily on trade: pest control tops the range at up to 5x SDE and 14x EBITDA, while general roofing and cleaning sit at the low end. This table pulls the current ranges for the seven trades ContractorExit tracks most closely - HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, roofing, cleaning and pest control - sourced from the BizBuySell Insight Report and IBBA Market Pulse survey, and refreshed yearly.

Business valuation multiples by industry: the 2026 table

Every trade in the table below trades in two distinct markets. Main Street deals - most independent shops under roughly $2 million in enterprise value - price off SDE, the cash flow available to a single owner-operator. Lower mid-market and platform deals - typically $1M+ in EBITDA, often backed by private equity - price off EBITDA, a stricter measure that assumes a management team, not an owner, is running the place. The gap between the two is not a rounding error; it is the entire reason a business's size and structure matter as much as its industry.

Sources: BizBuySell Insight Report (Main Street SDE ranges and median multiples), IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey (mid-market and platform EBITDA ranges). See the per-trade breakdowns below for the full data and worked examples behind each row.

How to read SDE vs EBITDA multiples

The two columns are not interchangeable, and using the wrong one is the single most common mistake owners make when they estimate their own price. SDE adds back the owner's full compensation on top of profit, because a Main Street buyer expects to work in the business and draw that income themselves. EBITDA does not add back a market-rate owner's salary - it assumes a manager runs daily operations, which is why EBITDA multiples look so much higher than SDE multiples even on the same underlying cash flow. For the full mechanics and a worked example of both, see SDE vs EBITDA: which one buyers use to value your business. If you have not built out a clean SDE number yet, start with what SDE is and how it's calculated.

A rough rule of thumb: most trades businesses cross from SDE pricing to EBITDA pricing somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in annual earnings, which is also roughly where private equity buyers start paying attention. Below that line, price your business against the SDE column. Above it, use the EBITDA columns instead.

Why pest control and HVAC top the table

The spread across the table is not random - it tracks almost exactly with how much of each trade's revenue is recurring versus one-time project work. Pest control leads every trade because quarterly and monthly service routes are close to a subscription business: predictable, sticky, and cheap to service once a customer is on the route. HVAC earns the next-highest multiples because maintenance agreements and replacement cycles create a similar (if less extreme) recurring base, and because consolidators have been actively rolling up the trade since 2022. See how HVAC businesses are actually valued for the worked example behind the HVAC row.

Roofing and cleaning sit at the lower end for opposite reasons. Roofing revenue is largely project-based and weather-dependent, with a storm-chaser reputation that buyers specifically discount for; a business that has built recurring commercial maintenance work closes that gap, as shown in how roofing companies are valued. Cleaning multiples depend almost entirely on the contract mix - a commercial book with three-year agreements is a different asset than a residential book with none, a distinction covered in full in how cleaning businesses are valued.

Plumbing and electrical fall in the middle of the pack, but for different reasons. Plumbing is undervalued relative to its recurring-revenue potential - service plumbing with maintenance agreements earns HVAC-level multiples, while new-construction plumbing does not, as detailed in how plumbing businesses are valued. Electrical carries a structural discount tied to licensing: a business built around one qualifying license holder is worth meaningfully less than one with a documented succession plan for that license, covered in how electrical businesses are valued. Landscaping splits along the same maintenance-versus-project line as roofing, detailed in how landscaping businesses are valued, and the full pest control breakdown, including why the ceiling reaches 5x SDE, is in how pest control businesses are valued.

The five factors that move a business within its range

Two businesses in the same trade, same revenue, same city can still land at opposite ends of their industry's range. The same five factors explain nearly all of that spread across every trade in the table:

• Recurring revenue share. The percentage of revenue locked in under service agreements, maintenance contracts or routes, rather than one-off project work.
• Owner dependence. Whether the business runs on documented systems and a working management layer, or collapses without the owner personally on the tools and answering the phone.
• Customer concentration. Whether any single customer accounts for more than 20-30% of revenue - a concentrated book gets priced down and often restructured with an earnout on that account.
• Documentation quality. Clean, reviewed financials and a defensible add-back schedule versus a shoebox of receipts and a seller's word. See what you can and cannot add back when selling for how this plays out line by line.
• Licensing structure. Especially in electrical and plumbing, whether the license and the owner are the same person, and what happens to it at closing.

A business that scores well on all five typically lands at the top of its trade's range or above it. A business that scores poorly on most of them lands at the bottom - or, in the worst cases, struggles to find a buyer willing to close at any multiple.

Where this fits in the broader market

Trades businesses are pricing inside a market that has held remarkably steady through early 2026. According to the BizBuySell Insight Report for Q1 2026, the median small business sale price was $350,000, essentially unchanged year over year, while median cash flow grew 3% to $165,256 and the average cash flow multiple across all small businesses rose 3% to 2.7x - buyer competition is intensifying for the strongest, best-documented businesses even as softer, more leveraged deals see less demand. That 2.7x all-industry average sits almost exactly in the middle of the table above, which is what you would expect: trades businesses are not a niche corner of the small business market, they are close to its center of gravity.

The mid-market picture tells a similar story about scale. IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse survey data puts the median SDE multiple for Main Street businesses (under $2 million in value) at 2.86x, rising in bands as deal size increases - roughly 2.57x for businesses under $500,000 in SDE, 2.8x for the $500,000-$1,000,000 band, and 3.0x for $1,000,000-$2,000,000 - before the pricing convention shifts to EBITDA above that line, starting around 4x and climbing with scale. Lower mid-market transactions ($2M-$50M in enterprise value) carried a median EBITDA multiple of 4.8x. Intermediaries surveyed for the Q1 2026 Market Pulse were broadly optimistic on pricing: 71% expected multiples to hold steady near term and 26% expected them to rise, with almost no one forecasting a decline.

What these multiples mean if you are buying, not selling

The same table works in reverse for buyers. A low multiple is not automatically a bargain - it usually means the business scores poorly on one or more of the five factors above, and you are the one who inherits that problem the day you close. A roofing company at 2.2x SDE instead of 3.5x is often cheap because it is project-only, storm-dependent and has no recurring base, not because the seller is being generous. Before you let a low multiple pull you toward an offer, diligence the specific factor dragging the price down - see the buy-side process in how to buy a blue collar business - and confirm it is fixable rather than structural.

The reverse also holds: paying at the top of a range, or above it, can be the right call when the recurring revenue, documentation and management depth are real and verified. Customer concentration is the single fastest way to reprice a deal that looks attractive on the SDE line - a business that shows 3.0x SDE but has one commercial account worth 35% of revenue should be priced closer to the bottom of its trade's range, or structured with an earnout tied to retaining that account. Multiples are a starting point for negotiation, not a fixed price tag on either side of the table.

How to use this table on your own business

Start with your trade's row, then adjust for the five factors above rather than assuming you sit at the midpoint. A concrete example: an HVAC business with $400,000 in SDE, 40% of revenue under maintenance contracts, a lead technician who could run daily operations, and three years of reviewed financials is a strong candidate for the top of the HVAC range - 3.2x to 3.5x SDE, or roughly $1.28M to $1.4M. The same $400,000 SDE with no contracts, an owner who does all the estimating and sales personally, and financial records assembled from memory would price closer to 2.0x to 2.3x - $800,000 to $920,000. Same revenue, same trade, a $400,000-$600,000 gap driven entirely by the factors that move a business within its range.

This table gives you the range. Getting an actual number for your specific business - one that accounts for your contract mix, your customer concentration and your documentation - is what a real valuation does. For the full mechanics behind every multiple in this table, read the blue collar business valuation pillar guide, and for the complete process from valuation through closing, see how to sell a blue collar business.

Ready to see where your business actually lands? Get a free valuation built on your real numbers, or browse live listings to see what businesses at each end of these ranges look like in practice.