Business Valuation Guide
Most cleaning businesses sell for 2.0x to 3.4x Seller's Discretionary Earnings, with the midpoint near 2.7x. A cleaning business with $250,000 of SDE would typically fall between $500,000 and $850,000.
Cleaning businesses are valued on the contract book. Commercial and janitorial accounts with written agreements are durable and transfer well. Residential rounds built on personal relationships with the owner are the opposite, and buyers price that difference sharply.
Start with Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE): net profit plus the owner's pay and perks, interest, depreciation and one-time costs.
Then apply the industry multiple. For cleaning businesses that band runs 2.0x to 3.4x, and where a specific business lands inside it is decided by the factors below. Typical SDE margin for this category runs around 15% of revenue, which is a useful sanity check: if your margin is far off that, the multiple moves with it.
Above roughly $1M to $2M of EBITDA the buyer pool changes. Individual buyers give way to private equity platforms and strategic acquirers, and pricing restates onto an EBITDA multiple of 4x to 6.5x rather than a multiple of SDE.
Larger commercial cleaning firms buying contract books, regional facilities services groups, and individual operators buying their first route.
A typical sale runs 4 to 8 months from going to market to closing, assuming your financials are ready when you start. Commercial contracts sell far better than residential rounds. A book of signed janitorial agreements with facilities managers is a genuine asset; a list of houses cleaned on handshake terms is much closer to a job.
Most cleaning businesses sell for roughly 2.0x to 3.4x Seller's Discretionary Earnings. A business with $150,000 of SDE would typically land between $300,000 and $510,000. Commercial contracts push you toward the top of the range; residential handshake work toward the bottom.
Usually yes, and often materially. Commercial accounts come with written agreements, larger tickets and notice periods, all of which a buyer can underwrite. Residential rounds frequently depend on the owner's personal relationships and can evaporate on handover.
On the same earnings method, though equipment weighs more heavily in carpet and dry cleaning because the machines are expensive and have finite life. Dry cleaning also carries environmental considerations around solvents, which show up in diligence.
There is no single average, because price tracks earnings rather than revenue. At the midpoint multiple of 2.7x SDE, cleaning businesses at $500,000 of SDE sell around $1,350,000, and at $1,000,000 of SDE around $2,700,000. Typical SDE margin in this category runs near 15% of revenue, so a cleaning business doing $1,000,000 in revenue would often carry about $150,000 of SDE and land near $405,000.
SDE multiples of 2.0x to 3.4x apply to owner-operated cleaning businesses. Once earnings pass roughly $1M to $2M of EBITDA the buyer pool shifts to private equity and strategic acquirers, and pricing restates onto an EBITDA multiple of 4x to 6.5x. The two are not comparable: SDE includes the owner's compensation and EBITDA does not, so the same business shows a higher SDE multiple than EBITDA multiple.
Typically 4 to 8 months from going to market to closing, assuming financials are ready. Commercial contracts sell far better than residential rounds. A book of signed janitorial agreements with facilities managers is a genuine asset; a list of houses cleaned on handshake terms is much closer to a job.
SDE times the industry multiple. For cleaning businesses that multiple is 2.0x to 3.4x, so $250,000 of SDE points to $500,000 to $850,000. Recorded sales of similar businesses serve as a cross-check, and the equipment and inventory value usually sets the floor.
Yes, at the top of this page. It applies the 2.0x to 3.4x band for cleaning businesses, adjusted for owner hours, margin and years in business, and returns a range rather than one number.
To decide whether to sell a cleaning business, a market valuation: what a buyer would likely pay. A certified appraisal is usually needed only for divorce, estate, tax, litigation or a buyer's SBA loan, and costs far more.
Multiples reflect broker transaction data including the BizBuySell Insight Report and aggregated 2024-2025 USA small business sales, and mirror the bands used by the Exit Ready valuation calculator. They are planning estimates, not a formal appraisal, and not investment advice. Market multiples move; this page was last updated 2026-08-19.