Business valuation › Restoration
What a restoration business is worth
A restoration business sells for a multiple of its earnings, and one thing moves that multiple more than any other: how much the business still runs on you. On $300,000 of earnings that lever is worth about $555,000.
86% of owners have no professional valuation or only a rough estimate.
The one lever on a restoration sale
The same restoration business, two prices
Two restoration businesses with identical earnings sell for different numbers, and the difference is mostly one thing: owner-held carrier relationships and estimating. Move the slider and watch a $300,000-SDE business travel between the two.
Seller’s discretionary earnings: net profit plus your pay, benefits, and one-time costs.
Example rough number
$729,000
$300,000 SDE × about 2.43x
That distance, about $555,000, is the biggest single swing in what the business sells for, and the one most in your control. Keystone maps where you sit in it.
See what is discounting your numberYour real estimate ranks the three things discounting your price and what to fix first, free in four minutes.
This is a rough public ballpark from the same closed-transaction data Keystone is calibrated on, not the Keystone valuation and not a formal appraisal. For a transaction, work with a certified business valuator, CPA, or M&A advisor. Your real estimated sale price reads your business on all 18 factors and prices in what a buyer sees, free in four minutes.
What a restoration business sells for
| Under $100K SDE | 1.3x to 2.3x |
|---|---|
| $100K to $250K SDE | 1.9x to 2.5x |
| $250K to $500K SDE | 2.4x to 3.2x |
| $500K to $1M SDE | 2.9x to 3.9x |
| $1M and up SDE | 3.5x to 4.5x |
There is no public per-restoration sale benchmark, so these are the Service-business SDE ranges from a decade of closed transactions, the bucket a restoration business sells in. Within a size band, the owner-dependence lever above is the biggest swing. SDE multiples (Main Street), not EBITDA multiples.
The one thing that discounts a restoration business most
Owner-held carrier relationships and estimating.
The carrier, third-party-administrator, and adjuster relationships you personally hold, plus the estimate. The work flows from referral and program relationships that sit with you, and you write the estimates; both have to transfer for the business to sell.
One caveat buyers raise: Insurance-program-driven cash flow and carrier concentration raise a buyer’s margin-of-safety ask, which documenting the programs and broadening carriers can offset.
What moves a restoration business’s value
The diagnostic reads your business on the three things a buyer actually prices, then puts an estimated sale price on it. Free in four minutes.
Business Independence Score
Can the business run without you?
The single value driver inside your control. It reads how much the business still depends on you personally, which is what a buyer discounts hardest.
Systems Maturity Score
How documented and repeatable are your operations?
Whether the work lives in written systems or in your head. Documented operations transfer; undocumented ones leave with you.
Acquisition Attractiveness Score
What would a buyer see when they look at your business?
The buyer’s-eye view: recurring revenue, customer concentration, clean books, and the risks that move the multiple.
Selling in the next few years?
Move the carrier and program relationships onto the business and document the estimating before you list.
Start two to three years out: that is how long the value work takes to show up in the books a buyer reads. It is the same work that buys back your week now, so close the gap on purpose instead of discovering it at the closing table.
Restoration valuation: common questions
- What is a restoration business worth?
- A restoration business is worth a multiple of its SDE, and the multiple hinges on whether the carrier and program relationships transfer. On a decade of closed service-business transactions the range runs from about 1.3x seller’s discretionary earnings at the low end to 4.5x at the high end, and where a business lands is driven mostly by how much it depends on the owner. The free 4-minute diagnostic reads your number.
- Why does carrier concentration affect a restoration business’s value?
- Carrier concentration is a risk a buyer prices in, because the work flows from a few program relationships the owner personally holds. Broadening carriers and documenting the programs lowers that risk. An owner-dependent service business trades near 1.65x SDE and an owner-light one near 3.5x, a $555,000 gap on a $300,000-SDE business.
Free in four minutes
See what is discounting your restoration business's value, and what to fix first
Three scores, an estimated sale price, and the ranked list of what is discounting your value, read against ten years of real closed transactions.
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