Answer a few quick questions and get a preliminary range in under two minutes — free, private, and no obligation. Then see exactly what’s driving your number.
Free · Private · No obligation
See your range — two minutes, no documents.
Get your Value Roadmap — the ranked levers that raise your number. Free.
When you’re ready — a full confidential valuation report, built from your actual financials.
Two HVAC businesses with the same revenue can be worth very different amounts. The earnings figure sets the baseline, but the multiple a buyer will pay depends on how transferable and predictable the business is once you step away. Four drivers do most of the work.
Maintenance plans and service agreements are the strongest lever. Predictable, repeat income that survives the ownership change pushes a business toward the top of its multiple band; a book of one-off jobs that walks out with you holds it toward the bottom.
If nothing happens without you, a buyer is buying a job, not a business — and discounts for that key-man risk. A business that runs day-to-day on a team and documented processes transfers cleanly, and commands more.
A real crew means the work, the relationships, and the know-how stay with the business. A solo operation concentrates risk in one person, which buyers price down.
A long, stable track record reassures buyers and lenders that the cash flow is durable. It’s a lighter factor than the others, but it steadily strengthens the range over time.
The instant estimate above moves your business within its trade’s published multiple band based on these answers — never above the published ceiling or below the floor. This valuation is a preliminary opinion of value, prepared from the information you provide and current market data and reviewed by a human advisor before delivery. It is not a certified appraisal and is not a guarantee of any sale price. Figures depend on the accuracy and completeness of the information provided. Lodestar provides advisory services only and does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Consult your own professional advisors before acting.
Most owner-operated trades businesses sell for a multiple of SDE (seller's discretionary earnings). The multiple isn't fixed — it moves with how much of your revenue is recurring, how dependent the business is on you, your team depth, and your operating history, and it varies by trade. This tool multiplies your self-reported earnings by a published per-trade multiple band and slides it based on those drivers.
Seller's discretionary earnings is roughly what the business earns the owner in a year — your salary, the business's profit, and personal expenses run through the business, before taxes. It's the standard earnings figure small businesses are valued on. For the instant range you give a rough proxy; the full report recasts it precisely from your statements.
Recurring revenue — maintenance plans and service contracts — is predictable income a buyer can count on after you leave. It's the single strongest lever on the multiple: a strong recurring base pushes a business toward the top of its band, while mostly one-off work holds it toward the bottom.
No. It's a preliminary, automated estimate from the rough figures you enter — not a certified appraisal and not our human-reviewed report. It can move in either direction once we recast your actual financial statements. Treat it as a starting point, not a final number.
Reported SDE multiples for small home-services businesses generally fall in roughly the 2x–4x range, varying by trade and quality of the business. We anchor each trade to a published band from secondary market sources and review it periodically. Your specific position within that band depends on your value drivers.
Yes. The estimator only asks for rough, off-the-top-of-your-head figures. Nothing is listed or shared, and before you share any actual financial statements for the full report, our one-way confidentiality agreement is in place — it binds us, not you.