Comps: asking multiples
What sellers are asking for small businesses, as a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE). Each cell shows the median ask, the middle half of asks (25th–75th percentile), and how many listings it’s based on. These are asking prices, not closing prices.
| Sector | SDE$50K–$250K | SDE$250K–$500K | SDE$500K–$1M | SDE$1M–$2M | SDE$2M+ | All sizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction & Trades | 2.6x2.0x–3.2xn=92 | 3.2x2.7x–3.7xn=67 | 2.8x2.2x–3.8xn=59 | 4.1x2.8x–5.0xn=24 | 4.0x2.6x–4.5xn=33 | 3.0x2.2x–3.9xn=275 |
| Restaurants & Food | 2.6x1.8x–3.6xn=146 | 3.0x2.5x–5.2xn=39 | 3.6x2.4x–4.2xn=12 | 3.3x2.1x–4.7xn=9 | 1.2x1.1x–4.0xn=5 | 2.8x1.9x–4.0xn=211 |
| Retail | 3.0x2.1x–4.9xn=64 | 2.7x2.1x–5.2xn=20 | 3.8x2.8x–5.4xn=12 | 4.6x2.6x–4.9xn=6 | n=3 | 3.0x2.1x–5.0xn=105 |
| Manufacturing | 3.2x2.4x–6.1xn=30 | 4.3x3.0x–6.0xn=30 | 3.6x2.3x–5.0xn=20 | 3.7x2.2x–5.6xn=9 | 2.3x1.1x–3.8xn=15 | 3.5x2.3x–5.8xn=104 |
| Personal Services | 2.6x1.8x–3.3xn=63 | 3.1x2.6x–4.6xn=13 | 3.6x2.0x–4.8xn=5 | n=2 | n=1 | 2.7x1.8x–3.5xn=84 |
| Health Care & Practices | 2.5x2.0x–3.5xn=37 | 3.2x2.4x–4.0xn=16 | 4.0x3.2x–5.0xn=11 | 4.2x1.5x–4.3xn=5 | 3.2x2.6x–4.9xn=7 | 3.0x2.2x–4.2xn=76 |
| Automotive | 3.4x2.6x–5.7xn=35 | 3.1x2.3x–5.2xn=19 | 4.3x3.3x–8.9xn=6 | n=2 | n=3 | 3.3x2.5x–5.4xn=65 |
| Wholesale & Distribution | 3.7x2.9x–4.7xn=19 | 4.5x3.4x–5.4xn=13 | 4.3x3.0x–5.7xn=17 | 4.0x2.9x–6.2xn=9 | 1.5x1.1x–4.2xn=6 | 3.9x2.9x–5.4xn=64 |
| Professional & Business Services | 2.5x2.1x–3.0xn=21 | 2.4x1.7x–2.9xn=17 | 2.5x1.9x–4.0xn=17 | n=2 | n=2 | 2.5x1.9x–3.4xn=59 |
| Education & Childcare | 5.1x3.0x–7.2xn=23 | 6.8x3.7x–9.0xn=7 | 7.0x3.6x–7.5xn=5 | n=3 | n=3 | 4.4x2.9x–7.5xn=41 |
| Transportation & Logistics | 2.7x1.5x–3.5xn=10 | 3.8x3.1x–4.0xn=8 | 3.2x2.6x–4.5xn=7 | — | n=2 | 3.4x2.5x–4.0xn=27 |
| Fitness, Recreation & Hospitality | 3.5x2.4x–5.2xn=17 | n=3 | n=1 | n=2 | — | 3.8x2.6x–5.4xn=23 |
| E-commerce & Online | 3.0x2.1x–3.2xn=10 | n=2 | n=1 | — | n=1 | 3.1x2.1x–3.6xn=14 |
| Software & IT | n=2 | — | n=2 | — | n=3 | 1.9x1.2x–2.0xn=7 |
| All sectors | 2.8x2.0x–3.9xn=638 | 3.3x2.6x–4.5xn=301 | 3.4x2.4x–4.8xn=200 | 4.0x2.1x–5.2xn=93 | 2.2x1.0x–4.2xn=100 | 3.0x2.1x–4.4xn=1332 |
Based on 1,332 listings currently for sale, as of October 22, 2026. Cells with fewer than 5 listings show only their count.
Which listings. Every business in the numanknows catalog that is currently listed for sale and discloses both an asking price and SDE. Listings a buyer added privately to their own inbox are never included.
The multiple. Asking price divided by the SDE the listing reports. We don’t adjust either figure: if the ask includes real estate or inventory, the multiple will read high.
What’s left out. Listings reporting under $50,000 of SDE, and multiples below 0.5x or above 15.0x, which in our catalog almost always mean a mis-read price or SDE rather than a real ask (135 left out this way). The same business listed on several broker sites is counted once, matched on identical asking price and SDE (83 duplicates removed).
Sectors. Source sites each use their own categories, and they’re often wrong or vague, so we assign each listing one of the sectors above ourselves. When a listing comes in, the AI model that already reads the page to pull out its facts also picks the sector, judging from what the business actually does rather than the site’s label. Listings the model hasn’t read yet are sorted by keyword rules over the site’s category and the listing title instead. Right now 270 listings were sorted by the model and 1,062 by keyword. 177 listings didn’t fit any sector; they count toward “All sectors” but no sector row.
Size bands. By reported annual SDE. The percentiles are linearly interpolated. Figures refresh every few hours as the catalog changes.
How to use it. Asking multiples run above what deals close at, and a sector median hides real differences in growth, customer concentration, and owner dependence. Treat these as a starting point for whether an ask is in the normal range, not as a valuation.