BUSINESS BROKERAGE SERVICES
BUSINESS VALUATION
A business valuation is a professional assessment of what your company is worth in today's market. Whether you are preparing to sell, planning your exit, or evaluating your options, an accurate valuation is the foundation of every sound business decision. The East Coast Advisory Team provides comprehensive valuation services for businesses valued between $1M and $65M across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington DC, and Delaware.
WHAT IS A BUSINESS VALUATION?
A business valuation determines the fair market value of a company by analyzing its financial performance, assets, market position, and growth potential. For businesses in the $1M–$10M range, valuations are typically based on Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE), a metric that captures the total financial benefit of ownership. Larger businesses above $5M generally use EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) as the primary benchmark.
The valuation is then expressed as a multiple of SDE or EBITDA, with that multiple varying significantly by industry, growth trajectory, customer concentration, recurring revenue, and owner dependence. A service business may trade at 1.5–3.0x SDE, while a manufacturing operation with strong contracts and minimal owner involvement could command 3.5–5.0x EBITDA. Understanding these multiples and what drives them is the difference between leaving money on the table and maximizing your return.
Our team goes beyond the balance sheet. We analyze your normalized financials, assess the transferability of your operations, evaluate your competitive position in the market, and benchmark your business against recent comparable transactions. The result is a valuation you can trust, one that reflects what a qualified buyer will actually pay, not a theoretical number disconnected from the marketplace.
WHAT OUR VALUATION COVERS
When you engage the East Coast Advisory Team to sell your business, a comprehensive valuation is built into the process. Every valuation we produce rests on six pillars of analysis, each designed to give you, and any future buyer, a complete picture of what your business is worth and why.
Financial Normalization
We recast your financial statements to reflect true owner earnings. This includes identifying and documenting add-backs, owner salary, personal expenses, one-time costs, and non-cash charges, to produce an accurate SDE or EBITDA figure.
Transferability Assessment
A business that runs without the owner commands a higher multiple. We evaluate your management team, systems, customer relationships, and operational processes to assess how transferable your business truly is.
Industry Multiples Analysis
We benchmark your business against current transaction data from your specific industry and size bracket. A construction company trades differently than a healthcare practice, and we apply the right multiples to your situation.
Risk & Growth Evaluation
Buyers discount risk and pay premiums for growth. We assess customer concentration, contract stability, recurring revenue, competitive threats, and market trends to determine where your business falls on the risk-return spectrum.
Market Comparable Review
Using proprietary databases and our network of closed transactions, we compare your business to recently sold companies of similar size, industry, and geography across the East Coast corridor.
Valuation Report & Consultation
You receive a detailed written assessment with a defensible value range, supporting analysis, and a confidential consultation to discuss strategy, whether that means selling now or planning your exit to build additional value.
WHY BUSINESS OWNERS TRUST OUR VALUATIONS
A valuation is only as credible as the team behind it. Ours is backed by real transaction experience, not academic models, and refined by decades of closing deals in the markets we serve.
25+
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Mike Morris brings over two decades of deal-making that informs every valuation with real-world market intelligence.
50,000+
QUALIFIED BUYERS
Our valuations are grounded in what actual buyers are willing to pay, because we know exactly who they are.
150+
YEAR COMBINED
The HedgeStone brain trust brings over a century of collective knowledge and connections.
8
STATES SERVED
Deep market knowledge across NY, NJ, PA, VA, NC, MA, DC, and DE, not generic national averages.
WHO NEEDS A BUSINESS VALUATION?
Business valuations are not only for owners who are ready to sell today. They are essential at multiple inflection points in a company's lifecycle, and the owners who understand their number early are consistently the ones who exit on the strongest terms.
If you are considering selling within the next one to five years, a valuation reveals the gap between where your business is and where it could be. That gap is where preparation creates value. Owners in Charlotte, Philadelphia, the NYC metro, and Richmond who begin this process early consistently achieve 10–25% higher sale prices than those who rush to market.
You should get a valuation if you are:
Preparing to sell a business generating $500K–$50M+ in annual revenue. Planning your exit strategy 1–5 years out and need a baseline. Going through a partnership dissolution or ownership transition. Seeking SBA financing or investor capital that requires a third-party assessment. Evaluating whether now is the right time to sell or whether building additional value makes more sense.
We serve business owners across every major industry, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, technology, home services, distribution, and food and beverage, throughout the East Coast corridor from Boston to Charlotte and every market in between.
HOW OUR VALUATION PROCESS WORKS
When you engage the East Coast Advisory Team to sell your business, the valuation is the first and most critical step. It is not a separate standalone service, it is the foundation of our entire sell-side strategy. We begin by collecting your financial documents: three years of tax returns, profit and loss statements, a current balance sheet, and any supporting schedules. From there, our team normalizes your earnings, benchmarks your business against comparable transactions, and produces a defensible market value range.
This valuation then drives every subsequent decision, your asking price, the marketing strategy, the buyer profile we target, and the negotiation framework. Owners who work with a broker without this step are negotiating blind. Owners who work with us enter every conversation armed with data.
If you are not ready to sell but want to understand your number, we recommend starting with a conversation. Contact us to discuss your timeline, and we will advise you on the best path forward, whether that is an immediate engagement or a longer-term exit planning strategy to build value before going to market.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How is a small business valued for sale?
Small businesses are most commonly valued using a multiple of Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) or EBITDA. SDE is typically used for owner-operated businesses under $5M in revenue, while EBITDA is standard for larger or manager-run companies. The multiple applied depends on your industry, growth rate, customer concentration, recurring revenue, and how dependent the business is on you as the owner. For example, a service business might trade at 2.0–3.0x SDE, while a manufacturing company with strong contracts could command 3.5–5.0x EBITDA.
What is the difference between SDE and EBITDA?
SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) includes the owner's salary and personal benefits on top of standard business earnings, it represents the total cash flow available to a single owner-operator. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) does not include owner compensation and is used when the business has professional management in place. The crossover point is typically $1M–$5M in revenue. Below that range, buyers expect to step into the owner role and evaluate based on SDE. Above it, buyers often install or retain management and evaluate based on EBITDA.
How long does a business valuation take?
As part of our sell-side engagement, the valuation is typically completed within 2–3 weeks once we have your financial documents. The timeline depends largely on how quickly you can provide clean financial records, three years of tax returns, profit and loss statements, and a current balance sheet. Owners who have their documents organized in advance move through this phase significantly faster.
Do I need a business valuation before selling?
Yes. Going to market without a professional valuation is one of the most common and costly mistakes business owners make. Overpricing drives away qualified buyers and causes your listing to go stale. Underpricing leaves money on the table. A proper valuation ensures you enter the market at a price that is defensible, competitive, and aligned with what buyers in your industry and geography are actually paying.
What factors increase a business's valuation?
The factors that drive higher multiples include:
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Recurring or contracted revenue streams
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Diversified customer base with no single client exceeding 15% of revenue
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Low owner dependence — the business runs without you
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Strong management team that will stay post-sale
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Consistent revenue growth over 3+ years
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Clean, well-documented financial records
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Defensible market position or competitive advantages
Conversely, high owner dependence, customer concentration, declining revenue, and messy financials will compress your multiple. The good news is that most of these factors can be improved with 12–24 months of focused exit planning.
What are typical business valuation multiples by industry?
Multiples vary significantly by industry. General ranges for SDE-based valuations include: service businesses at 1.5–3.0x, construction and trades at 2.0–3.5x, healthcare practices at 2.5–4.0x, manufacturing at 3.0–5.0x (often EBITDA-based), and technology/SaaS companies at 3.0–8.0x (often based on recurring revenue). These are broad ranges, your specific multiple depends on your financial performance, growth trajectory, and risk profile.
How do I get started with a business valuation?
Our business valuation is part of the sell-side advisory engagement. To get started, fill out the Sell Your Business form on our website. Our team will reach out to schedule a confidential consultation, learn about your business, and discuss your goals. From there, we guide you through the valuation process and every step that follows, from marketing to negotiation to closing.