What Is My Business Worth? Valuation by Industry and Size

You have a business with 1 million EUR EBITDA. A broker says: "That's worth 5x EBITDA – so 5 million EUR." Your friend says: "But in my industry you get 8x!" Another says: "That's crazy – I've seen 3x."

The truth is: There's no simple answer. The valuation multiple depends on many factors: industry, size, growth, profitability, stability, market conditions, buyer type.

But there are patterns. With real market benchmarks you can estimate whether 5x is fair – or too low or too high.

SaaS businesses: 6-10x EBITDA (because: fast growth, scalable, recurring revenue)

E-Commerce / Retail: 4-6x EBITDA (stable, but more competition)

Business Services / Consulting: 4-6x EBITDA (skills are important, but often owner-dependent)

Trades: 3-5x EBITDA (stable, but location-based, often owner-dependent)

Manufacturing: 4-7x EBITDA (depends on products and margins)

Healthcare / Pharmacies: 5-8x EBITDA (regulated, stable, high barriers to entry)

These ranges are real market data from 1000+ deals. But every business is different – and the exact multiples depend on additional factors.

An important factor: Size impacts the multiple. A business with 10 million EUR revenue gets a higher multiple than one with 1 million EUR.

Why? Because larger businesses are less risky. They have diverse customers, different market channels, stable management. Small businesses are often heavily dependent on the founder.

Rule of thumb: Under 500k EUR revenue: 3-4x. 500k-2M EUR: 4-5x. 2-10M EUR: 5-7x. 10M+ EUR: 7-10x.

This explains why a founder with a small, but super-profitable business doesn't get the same multiple as a large corporation. Size adds security for the buyer.

A business growing 20% year-over-year gets a higher multiple than one growing 5%. Why? Because buyers see in growth that the best years are still to come.

Rule of thumb: For every percentage point of additional growth you can demand 0.3-0.5x EBITDA extra.

So: If you grow 10% instead of 5%, that's 1.5-2.5x EBITDA more value. It's worth investing in – just before the sale.

A business with 25% EBITDA margin gets a higher multiple than one with 10% margin. Why? Because higher margins show: The business is more efficient, it has pricing power, it's more stable.

Rule of thumb: Margins under 5%: 3-4x. 5-15% margins: 4-5x. 15-25% margins: 5-7x. 25%+ margins: 7-10x.

This is a big lever. A founder who manages to increase the EBITDA margin by 5 points (from 15% to 20%) increases the business value by 1-2 million EUR (at 10M revenue).

There are external factors you can't control: Is it a buyer's market or a seller's market? Is the industry booming or shrinking? Are there strategic buyers with lots of capital or only financial buyers?

In a buyer's market (like 2024-2025 with high interest rates) multiples fall by 15-30%. In a seller's market (like 2019-2021) they rise by 20-40%.

With VALENTYR Benchmarking you see: "This industry currently has 5.2x average multiple. My business is 5% better than average, so 5.5x. That's fair."

Traditional valuation: A broker looks at 2-3 comparable transactions and says: "That's 5x." Possibly that's the only transaction he knows.

VALENTYR Approach: Data-driven valuation based on thousands of anonymized transactions. We know: At this size, in this industry, with this profitability and this growth – that's the fair market multiple.

With VALENTYR VOS Assessment you don't just get a valuation. You also get: "This is the market multiple for your category. Your business is 20% better than average, so you deserve a 20% premium." Data-driven, transparent, understandable.