Issue 001 — SBA-range SMB Market, Week of April 13

Twenty-five listings in the $1M–$5M cash flow range were reviewed from BizBuySell for the week of April 13–19, 2026. The sample median asking multiple was 4.64x, with a range from 2.36x to 9.06x across operating businesses. Healthcare services showed the widest within-category dispersion (2.92x to 8.33x), driven by the premium attached to specialty aesthetics practices. Manufacturing listings priced at a consistent premium to the sample median.

One route-purchase listing (Flowers Bread Route, $339,000 asking on $1.49M cash flow) was excluded from median calculations. Route acquisitions are priced against territory fees and inventory, not operating earnings, and do not belong in the same comparison set. The listing is discussed in the anomalies section.

We track weekly BizBuySell listings in the $1M–$5M cash flow range and compute sample medians for the week. "Sample median" refers to this week's listings only, not a category benchmark. As weekly samples accumulate, the methodology will transition to rolling 90-day medians, expected by Issue 010. Until then, week-over-week directional change is the more reliable signal; absolute levels should be read with the current sample size in mind.

Methodology: asking multiples computed as asking price ÷ disclosed cash flow (SDE or EBITDA as stated by broker). Sample of 25 listings reviewed for the week, 23 included in median calculations after excluding route-purchase and listings without disclosed financials.

Ranked by asking multiple, ascending. Sample median 4.64x.

Asking $2.95M on $1.25M SDE. Implied multiple 2.36x, 49% below the sample median.

The listing describes a licensing model rather than an owner-operated services business. The seller grants franchisees or licensees the right to use an established brand within the home services industry. Cash flow at this implied valuation typically reflects royalty or licensing fee income rather than operational earnings.

Diligence priority: the structural distinction between licensing revenue and operating revenue. Licensing cash flow is usually less capital-intensive but also carries concentration risk (few licensees = fragile income). Licensee count, average licensee tenure, and the breakdown of fixed versus variable royalty terms are the first items to request.

Asking $3.5M on $1.2M SDE. Implied multiple 2.92x, 37% below the sample median.

Multi-specialty practice covering internal medicine, pain medicine, and cardiology, reporting $8.3M in annual revenue. A 2.92x multiple for a profitable multi-specialty practice in a major metro is unusually low for the category.

Diligence priority: the composition of SDE relative to owner compensation. Physician practices frequently have one or more owner-physicians whose clinical production accounts for a substantial portion of patient revenue. If the selling physician represents more than 30–40% of patient visits, replacement hiring becomes the central deal question and the effective multiple on a post-transition basis is meaningfully higher.

Asking $4.5M on $1.3M SDE. Implied multiple 3.46x, 25% below the sample median.

RN, LPN, and CNA staffing with 60-plus staff and $5M-plus revenue. Staffing multiples in this range are consistent with category norms and the pricing is not obviously distressed; the position relative to the sample median reflects the absence of proprietary tech, long-term contracts, or exclusive client relationships that would drive a premium.

Diligence priority: contract composition and payer mix. Healthcare staffing valuations compress substantially if revenue is concentrated in one or two large facility clients. Number of active client contracts, average contract tenure, and the percentage of revenue under master service agreements warrant early review.

Asking $12.0M on $3.4M SDE. Implied multiple 3.53x, 24% below the sample median.

Package deal comprising one adult club, three bikini country bars, three speakeasies, one pool and day club, and two additional venues. Listed as highly confidential.

Diligence priority: licensing and regulatory exposure. Multi-venue hospitality with adult entertainment components carries concentrated regulatory risk at the municipal and state level. License transferability, municipality-specific renewal schedules, and the status of any pending complaints or inspections are the foundational diligence items. Real estate ownership versus leases should be clarified per venue.

Asking $5.7M on $1.5M SDE. Implied multiple 3.80x, 18% below the sample median.

Century-old business that pivoted to non-emergency medical transport approximately 20 years ago, described as the dominant provider in its service area. NEMT businesses typically derive substantial revenue from Medicaid reimbursement and broker contracts.

Diligence priority: payer concentration and Medicaid reimbursement rate exposure. Ohio Medicaid NEMT underwent substantial rate changes in recent years under the state's managed transportation broker model. A revenue breakdown by payer and broker, and a sensitivity analysis to reimbursement rate changes, are essential. Fleet age and driver retention are secondary but material.

Custom Cabinet Manufacturer with Real Estate. Asking $11.2M on $1.24M EBITDA. Implied multiple 9.06x, the highest operating-business multiple in the sample. The listing discloses that real estate is included in the asking price. Without broker-provided allocation between the operating business and the real estate, the operating-business multiple cannot be isolated. A commercial real estate asset of meaningful size would materially change the implied operating multiple. This is the first question to resolve before any deeper work.

Med Spa, Gilbert, AZ. Asking $25M on $3M EBITDA. Implied multiple 8.33x. The listing describes a top-grossing non-surgical aesthetics practice offering weight loss, body contouring, and related services. Premium multiples in medical aesthetics are supported by GLP-1 tailwinds and strong per-patient economics, though 8.33x sits at the upper boundary of the category even in the current environment. The listing title references "9x EBITDA B/O" (buyout), suggesting the asking price is an opening position rather than a firm number.

Diagnostic Testing Centre, Somerset County, NJ. Asking $9M on $1.25M SDE. Implied multiple 7.20x, with stated annual revenue of $12.5M. The multiple is defensible if the revenue figure reflects recurring diagnostic services under payer contracts rather than one-time volume. SDE of $1.25M against $12.5M revenue implies a 10% SDE margin, which is low for a specialty diagnostic practice and warrants scrutiny of operating expense structure.

Preowned Car Dealership with Real Estate, King County, WA. Asking $11.45M on $2.2M SDE, with real estate included. Implied blended multiple 5.20x. Comparable auto retail businesses without real estate typically trade in the 3.0x–4.5x range; the listing's implied operating multiple net of real estate is likely in that band depending on the broker's property valuation assumption. King County commercial land values are a meaningful contributor to the headline price. An independent real estate appraisal should be the first order of diligence.

Electrical Contractors with Real Estate, Georgia. Asking $5.85M on $1.1M SDE (5.32x), real estate included. The operating business multiple net of real estate is likely in the 3.5x–4.5x range, consistent with category norms for a 40-year-established electrical contractor north of Atlanta.

Flowers Bread Route, Eden, NC. Asking $339,000 on $1.49M cash flow, implied multiple 0.23x. This is a distribution route purchase, not an operating business acquisition. Bread route valuations reflect the buy-in for a territorial distributorship, not a multiple of earnings. Including the listing in the sample would distort the median materially and the multiple is not interpretable under the same framework. Route purchases warrant a separate analytical treatment, which this publication may develop in a future issue.

Manufacturing multiples in the current week sample (6.28x and 9.06x) ran notably above other operating categories. A wider sample in the next issue will test whether this represents category-level pricing or a small-sample artifact.

Healthcare services dispersion (2.92x to 8.33x) is the widest of any category in the current sample. Segmenting healthcare into primary care, specialty clinical, aesthetics, and ancillary services is likely required to produce meaningful medians, and will be introduced in Issue 002.

Three listings in this week's sample include real estate in the asking price (Custom Cabinet, Preowned Car, Electrical Contractors). Real-estate-inclusive listings systematically understate the operating-business multiple. A separate reporting column for RE-included deals is under consideration.

SDE refers to Seller's Discretionary Earnings. Most listings in this cash flow range are priced against SDE rather than EBITDA. The broker's stated metric is used; SDE is typical below $2M, EBITDA above.

Sample median is computed from the set of listings reviewed for the week with disclosed financials. This publication is in its first issue; categories with n=1 are reported for transparency but not used for outlier identification. As sample sizes accumulate over subsequent weeks, rolling 90-day category medians will replace the current-week sample baseline.

Diligence priority denotes the first question to pursue in commercial review based on the listing as disclosed. It is not a valuation judgment.

Real estate included designates listings where the broker states the asking price includes ownership of the operating property. The implied operating-business multiple cannot be isolated from these listings without broker-provided allocation.

The EBITDA Report compiles public listing data. Not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Independent verification and professional diligence are required before any acquisition decision.

Published Tuesdays.