How to read these multiples
A multiple is shorthand for value: value ≈ SDE × multiple. A landscaping business earning $200,000 of SDE at 2.56× is worth roughly $512,000. But the "typical" figure is the middle of a wide range, two businesses in the same industry can trade a full turn apart based on quality.
The industry sets the starting multiple. The quality of the business decides where in the range you land.
What pushes a deal to the top of its range: clean books, low owner-dependence, no customer concentration, recurring revenue, and growth. Weakness in any of those pulls it down. Dig into the drivers in our valuation guides and put a number on any deal with the valuation calculator.
Use the multiple to sanity-check, not to price
The multiple tells you if an asking price is roughly in the market. What you actually offer comes from due diligence and what the cash flow can finance, never from the multiple alone.
