If you're building a real cleaning business, not just a job you do yourself, its resale value is worth understanding well before you're actually ready to sell. The math is more approachable than it sounds, and it's the same math a serious buyer will use whether you like it or not — better to know it in advance.
The formula buyers actually use
Most buyers price a small service business as a multiple of its owner's profit. Not revenue — profit, and specifically a version of profit called owner's profit (sometimes called seller's discretionary earnings). Revenue tells a buyer how big you are; owner's profit tells them how much money the business actually generates for whoever owns it.
The multiple itself isn't fixed. It depends on the size of the business, how much of the revenue is recurring, how dependent it is on you personally, and your local market. A business broker who works with service businesses can tell you what's realistic for yours.
What counts as "owner's profit"
Owner's profit isn't just what's left on your P&L at the end of the year. It includes your own salary, any dividends or bonuses you've paid yourself, and personal expenses that run through the business — a vehicle, a phone plan, a portion of home internet, anything a new owner wouldn't actually need to keep paying for.
Adding all of that back on top of your bottom-line profit is called building an add-back schedule. It's standard practice in small business sales, and it's what turns your actual tax-return profit (often modest, on purpose) into the real number a buyer uses to value the business.
Putting it together
Say your business shows $120,000 in profit on paper. You also pay yourself a $60,000 salary and run about $15,000 a year in vehicle and phone costs through the company. Your add-back schedule brings owner's profit to $195,000. Here's an illustrative example, not a benchmark: at a 2x multiple, that's a business worth about $390,000; at 3x, about $585,000. Where yours actually lands depends on the factors below.
Why a range, not a single number
- How much of your revenue is recurring vs. one-time — recurring is worth more, since it's predictable
- Whether the business runs without you personally on every job — buyers pay less for a business that's really just your own labor
- How documented your systems are (scheduling, pricing, onboarding) — the easier it is to hand off, the more it's worth
- Crew stability — a team that stays is worth more than one a new owner would have to rebuild
- How concentrated your revenue is — a handful of large accounts is riskier than a broad customer base
How HCTAC fits in
Everything HCTAC helps you do — get found by more customers, build a real review history, keep a consistent crew customers ask for by name — moves the same numbers a buyer will eventually look at. Growing your business isn't just about this year's income; it's what determines what you can sell it for.