CBH Business Group

Business Owners — one question.

If a real, all-cash offer for your business landed tomorrow — clean terms, most of it at close — would you take it?

Most people say "depends on the number." Fair. But here's the catch: most owners don't actually know their number. They're guessing, usually off by 30–40% in one direction or the other.

You can't answer the question until you know what it's worth.

What would it take for you to say yes? 👇

Multiples aren't going up this year. Axial's dealmaker survey says 61.9% expect them to stay right where they are.

So if the market won't raise your price, what does?

Where you land inside the range.

A standalone owner-operator home services business around $1M in EBITDA trades around 3.5x to 4.5x. At $2M with the right revenue mix, 5x to 7x. That top-to-bottom spread is worth more than any market shift you'll ever catch.

What moves you up inside it:

Recurring revenue. Service agreements and maintenance plans beat one-time jobs. Sounds great, but how do you practically implement this and other changes to see you multiple increase? Reach out and find out how 😉

A business that runs without you. If you're the top salesperson and the only one with the passwords, the buyer is pricing in the day you leave.

Books that hold up. Numbers a buyer's accountant can verify without a fight.

The market sets the range. You set where you sit in it.

Your tax return says you make $3M. A buyer might see $5.5M.

That gap has a name: add-backs.

Your above-market salary. The truck the business doesn't need. One-time expenses that won't repeat. Legitimate costs a new owner won't carry.

All fine and buyers expect that.

But here's what owners miss: you don't get credit for add-backs you can't prove.

Clean, documented add-backs are normal — every buyer expects them. A messy pile of personal expenses with no paper trail is a red flag. And once a buyer starts questioning one number, it opens up scrutiny and many more questions.

Start the file now, even if not with CBH find someone who knows what they are doing. Every add-back, documented, 12 to 24 months before you sell. It's some of the highest-paid paperwork you'll ever do.

What do you think are the top 3 things a business owner should focus on?

If you are a business owner, want to know what your business is worth today?

Click here:

Free Business Valuation Calculator | What Is My Business Worth? | CBH Business Group Free business valuation calculator — get an instant EBITDA-multiple estimate of what your business is worth. Florida companies $3M–$50M. See industry multiples and value drivers.

Had a seller call yesterday and this topic of owner dependency came up, so we laid out 2 scenarios:

Company A (Our seller call yesterday): The owner is the business. He sells, he quotes, he's the name customers ask for. Solid books — but everything runs through him. 1M Net

Company B: A manager runs the crews, a couple of techs handle sales, and the owner actually takes vacations. Same 1M net

Company A will sell for about 2.5-3x earnings and most likely have an earnout. Company B would sell for closer to 4.5-5x.

That gap — roughly $2 million — came down to one thing: how much the business needed its owner.

Nobody worked harder than the guy in Company A. He just made himself the most important and least sellable part of his own company.

We put a plan in place and in 6 months his business will look completely different, slowing down to speed up will bring 2M or more to our client.

If you wanted to sell tomorrow, which one are you?

A Florida HVAC owner didn't want to fully walk away. So we built a deal where he got paid twice.

He called about 18 months out. Around $10M revenue, strong service agreements, but he wasn't done working.

We used the runway: cleaned up the books, leaned into the maintenance agreements, built out his ops manager.

Then we ran a competitive process. A strategic buyer rolling up HVAC paid up. We structured it so he took most of his cash at close AND rolled a slice into the buyer's equity — a second payday when the bigger company sells later.

Cash now, a second bite later, still doing work he enjoys. That's what runway buys.

A Father's Day thought for owners who've been grinding for a long time.

The risk isn't that your business fails. It's that you hold it past its peak and let the value quietly leak out.

I've seen it happen more times than I'd like.

We had a roofing company — three LOIs, all over $23M. The seller wanted $25M. Little greedy on a 3.5x EBITDA business. The buyers agreed to revisit once the year finished out.

The year didn't finish the way anyone hoped. The business started to slide. Roofing multiples began to cool. By year-end, the valuation had dropped to $12M.

They left $11M on the table because they couldn't sense the tide going out, even though we explained it multiple times.

It's quiet when it starts. You grow tired, energy dips, reinvestment slows. The business doesn't crash — it drifts. And every year it drifts, it's worth a little less.

The owners who win build it to stand on its own while they still have gas in the tank. Then they choose their moment from a position of strength.

Sell near your peak, not after it.

Right now, there's more capital chasing good businesses than there are good businesses for sale.

PE groups, search funds, and strategic acquirers are sitting on dry powder and actively hunting profitable, well-run companies — especially here in Florida.

If your business generates close to $1M in profit, you might be more valuable than you think. The problem is most sellers unknowingly kill that value themselves — through perceived risks and red flags in the financials that give buyers a reason to walk or discount heavily.

I've heard it said, and it's very true: always build your business to sell. Even if you never plan to, your life will be easier for it — and you'll have that option if you ever need it.

The best time to explore your options is when you don't have to. Not ready to sell, but want to know what the market would pay? That's exactly the conversation to have now.

The fastest way to blow up your own deal: messy books.

Before a serious buyer closes, they run a Quality of Earnings review — essentially an audit of whether your profits are real and repeatable. If the financials don't hold up, the price drops or the deal dies in diligence.

The owners who get top dollar clean up their books 12–24 months before they ever go to market.

Planning an exit down the road? Get your financials buyer-ready early. It's the cheapest insurance there is for your number.

Two buyers, same price — $10 million each. But the structure tells a different story on how owners prepared, whether they knew it or not.

Buyer A: $8M at close, $2M seller note.

Buyer B: $7M at close, $1M seller note, $2M earn-out tied to post-sale performance targets you no longer control.

Same number. Very different checks on day one — and very different levels of risk.

So why do some offers carry more structure? Because the buyer is all about limiting their own risk.

If they have more structure, they precieve more risk tied to the business. The more uncertainty in your financials — inconsistent revenue, customer concentration, owner-dependent operations or just plain shenanigans in the books — the more structure a buyer will require to justify the price.

When you evaluate offers, focus on three things: cash at close, total consideration, and the conditions attached to every dollar you are not receiving on day one.

The right deal is the one you prepare for, years in advance whether you realize it or not.