How much is a business worth? Asking prices by sales, profit and industry from 33,300+ real listings

The short answer

Owner earnings (SDE) means seller’s discretionary earnings: profit before the owner’s own pay, perks and one-off costs. It is the number buyers of small businesses price on. The Main Street Index is BigIdeasDB’s census of 84,900+ businesses-for-sale listings from 29 marketplaces. For this page we used the 49,900+ listings quoted in US dollars on an SDE basis, after removing cross-site duplicates. 98% are in the US.

Every figure is an asking price and a stated earnings number. Nobody publishes closing prices at this scale, so asking prices are the honest benchmark of the market you will shop in. For the valuation method itself (add-backs, SDE vs EBITDA, how appraisers pick a multiple) read our companion guide on how to value a small business. This page answers the lookup question: what do businesses like this one ask?

“Strange, but not uncommon is what you’ve done here to quote the revenue and gross profit.”r/smallbusiness

That reply went to an owner asking what a $15K to $20K a month business was worth. Revenue is how most people ask the question. It is not how buyers answer it. The tables below translate one into the other.

Across 33,300+ US listings with a price and revenue (Main Street Index, October 2026), the median asking price rises from $75K under $75K of sales to $7M above $7.5M, while the asking price as a share of revenue falls from 1.66x to about 0.55x and then flattens. Find the listing’s sales in the first column. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile asking price, which is where most fair deals start.

Three things jump out of this table.

• Margins shrink as sales grow. The median owner margin falls from 50% at about $100K of sales to 25.0% at $500K, 21.0% at $1M and 12.4% above $7.5M. Small businesses look profitable because the owner’s labor is inside SDE.
• The SDE multiple climbs. From 2.14x at $100K to 2.67x at $1M and 4.24x above $7.5M. Bigger businesses are less dependent on one person, so buyers pay more per dollar of earnings.
• The two cancel out. From $350K of sales upward, asking price divided by revenue stays between 0.51x and 0.57x. That is why “about half of sales” is a usable first guess, and why it breaks down for tiny businesses.

How much is a business worth with $100,000 in sales?

A business with about $100,000 in sales asks a median $100K, roughly 1.00x its revenue, across 1,700+ US listings with $75K to $150K of revenue (Main Street Index, October 2026). The middle half ask $73K to $168K. Median owner earnings are $55K on a 50% margin, so the typical one asks 2.14x SDE.

That margin is mostly the owner’s wage. Take out a market salary and there is little profit left to buy. Reddit says it bluntly about a frozen yogurt shop with $200K of sales and $50K of take-home:

“If they both work there and only have 50k profit the business isn’t worth anything.”r/smallbusiness

“You’re buying a job….right. $50k wouldn’t even pay a manager’s salary.”r/smallbusiness

The data backs the skeptics. At 10% down and a 10.5% ten-year loan, only 4.3% of $100K-revenue listings can pay the owner $80K and still cover the debt 1.25 times. Most buyers at this size pay cash, use a seller note, or buy the business as a job and price it against what they would earn elsewhere. They are also the listings most often cut in price: 13.3% show a reduction. If you are shopping at this level, our guide to the best business to start or buy at each budget shows which industries still earn a living under $100K.

At $150K to $350K of sales (the “$250K” business) the median ask is $175K at 0.72x revenue, on $84K of SDE and a 34.7% margin. Only 21.1% clear the same loan test.

How much is a business worth with $500,000 in sales?

A business with about $500,000 in sales asks a median $279K, or 0.54x revenue, across 9,200+ US listings with $350K to $750K of revenue (Main Street Index, October 2026). The middle half ask $175K to $465K. Median SDE is $130K on a 25% margin, an 2.38x multiple.

Competing answers to this question assume a 15% margin and land on $150K to $225K. Real $500K listings report a median margin of 25%, which is why the median ask is higher. But the margin varies so much that the median alone misleads. Here is the same revenue band split by margin:

Same sales, prices from $169K to $600K. The SDE multiple barely moves (2.22x to 2.44x) once margin is above 12%. Buyers are paying a steady multiple of owner earnings, and revenue only matters because it carries the earnings. The one outlier is the thin-margin row: listings earning under 12% ask 3.72x their SDE, because sellers price on sales the business does not convert into profit.

“if revenue is big but margins thin walk away.”r/buyingabusiness

Is $500K of revenue good? It sits just under the market middle: the median US listing does $728K in sales. A $500K business pays one owner a living ($130K median SDE) but is thin for a loan, which we test below.

How much is a business worth with $1,000,000 in sales?

A business with about $1,000,000 in sales asks a median $525K, or 0.51x revenue, across 8,300+ US listings with $750K to $1.5M of revenue (Main Street Index, October 2026). The middle half ask $300K to $900K. Median SDE is $220K on a 21% margin, a 2.67x multiple. This is the most-searched version of the question and the band with the most comparable data.

A $1M business on a 45%+ margin asks 4.8 times what a $1M business on a 12% margin asks ($1.45M vs $300K), while the SDE multiples sit within 2.46x to 3.22x. One buyer on Reddit shared a real closed deal in this band:

“In my specific situation revenue was 1M net was 150k no real estate and inventory/FF&E was 40k. The asking price was 350k we paid 325k for it.”r/smallbusiness

That is 2.17x the stated $150K and 0.33x revenue. Against our 12% to 20% margin row, where the median asks $430K for $172K of SDE (2.64x), the buyer paid below the asking norm and negotiated 7% off the ask. Treat it as one data point, but it shows the gap between asking and closing that every number on this page carries.

At this size the business usually carries a real loan. 63.5% of $1M-revenue listings pass a 1.25x debt-service test at asking price after an $80K salary, against 41.8% at $500K. That jump is the main reason first-time SBA buyers cluster around $1M to $2M in sales. Our best businesses to buy ranking shows which industries in this range pay back fastest.

How much is a business worth with $2 million or $5 million in sales?

A business with about $2 million in sales asks a median $1.2M (0.56x revenue) across 5,300+ US listings with $1.5M to $3.5M of revenue, and one with about $5 million asks $2.7M (0.57x) across 1,400+ listings with $3.5M to $7.5M (Main Street Index, October 2026). The middle halves are $599K to $2M and $1.5M to $4.5M.

Two things change at this size. First, the multiple: median SDE multiples are 3.12x at $2M and 3.84x at $5M, and 27.8% of $5M listings ask 3x SDE or less, against 61.4% at $1M. Second, the building: 13% of $2M listings and 12.1% of $5M listings include real estate, against 6.1% at $500K. Above $7.5M of sales the median ask is $7M at 4.24x SDE, and many of those deals exceed the $5 million cap on a standard SBA 7(a) loan.

Margins keep falling: 18.5% at $2M, 15.2% at $5M, 12.4% above $7.5M. At these sizes the owner rarely does the work alone, so SDE starts to overstate what a buyer can take home. Lenders and larger buyers switch to EBITDA, which subtracts a manager’s salary. If a $5M listing quotes only SDE, ask what it pays the general manager. This is also the size where $1,000 a day of owner earnings lives: our study of what business makes $1,000 a day finds those listings run on a median $2.3M of revenue and ask a median $1.99M.

How many times revenue is a business worth?

A typical small business asks about 0.5 to 0.6 times one year’s revenue: the median US listing asks 0.60x across 33,300+ listings that state both (Main Street Index, October 2026). The ratio is above 1x only for very small businesses (1.00x at $100K of sales, 1.66x under $75K) and for high-margin or property-heavy industries.

Reddit’s rules of thumb overshoot for most trades:

“For service business 0.75-1.5x of yearly revenue, expect earn out though.”r/Entrepreneur

At $1M of sales, plumbing asks 0.50x revenue, HVAC 0.49x, landscaping 0.53x and commercial cleaning 0.34x. Only higher-margin professional services fall inside that range: accounting and bookkeeping at 1.20x, medical practices at 0.86x. Google’s AI answer quotes “0.3 to 3 times revenue”, which is true and useless: the real industry spread at $1M of sales is 0.26x to 2.48x. Property management is the industry where the forum rule is quoted most: our property management company buying guide tests “1x gross” and finds real firms ask 0.80x revenue, with only fee-only firms near 1.02x.

Software is the exception that confuses people. SaaS and other recurring-revenue software sell on revenue because their margins are high and predictable. That is a different market with different multiples; see our SaaS valuation guide if that is what you are pricing.

Why revenue multiples mislead

Two US businesses with the same $1M of sales ask $399K (a restaurant) and $1.2M (an accounting practice), because the restaurant keeps a median 17.1% as owner earnings and the accounting firm keeps 41.1% (Main Street Index, October 2026, 660+ and 40+ listings). On earnings, the gap nearly closes: 2.40x vs 2.90x SDE.

Revenue misleads in four specific ways:

• Cost of goods. A liquor store or fuel station passes most of its revenue to suppliers. At $1M of sales, fuel stations keep a 12.4% margin and ask 0.26x revenue.
• Owner labor. Under $150K of sales, half of revenue is SDE because the owner is the labor. A buyer who hires that role inherits a far thinner business.
• Property. Car washes ask 2.48x revenue at $1M of sales and 6.67x SDE, because the land is usually in the price.
• Templates. Some brokers post near-identical listings across many states. In HVAC at $1M of sales, 29 look-alikes asking low multiples pulled the industry median from 1.96x down to 1.66x until we removed them.

“That 2.7x number is a complete mathematical illusion... a market split so wide that a single average multiple is almost meaningless.”r/buyingabusiness

The fix is to pair revenue with margin and industry, which is what the next five sections do. The most profitable small businesses study ranks 120+ industries by margin if you want the full list.

A business that makes $100K a year for its owner asks a median $250K, one that makes $300K asks $807K, and one that makes $500K asks $1.62M, across 27,500+ US listings that state a price and SDE (Main Street Index, October 2026). “Makes” here means owner earnings (SDE), the number on most listings.

Makes $100K a year: median ask $250K (2.33x), middle half $170K to $360K, on a median $475K of sales (7,300+ listings). Makes $300K a year: $807K (2.70x), middle half $502K to $1.2M, on $1.26M of sales (4,300+). Makes $500K a year: $1.62M (3.19x), middle half $1.15M to $2.34M, on $2M of sales (2,900+). Makes $1M a year: $3.5M (3.62x) across 1,200+ listings.

Here is what Reddit guessed for a business clearing $100K:

“Yearly profit X 5”r/Entrepreneur

“If your net profit before taxes (EBITDA) is 100k/yr then you could probably get up to 800k from the right buyer.”r/Entrepreneur

Neither matches the market. At $75K to $150K of SDE, the upper quartile asks 3.22x. A 5x or 8x price is far outside the middle half, and a business at that size rarely has a buyer who can finance it. The one exception in this table is the bottom row: businesses earning under $50K ask 3.48x, because sellers anchor on revenue or equipment when earnings are thin.

Is a business worth 3 times profit?

Most small businesses ask a little under 3 times their owner earnings: 60.4% of the 24,800+ US listings that state price, revenue and SDE ask 3x or less, and the median is 2.63x (Main Street Index, October 2026). 31.7% ask under 2x and 21.4% ask over 4x.

The 3x rule works best around $100K to $1M of sales. It fails at both ends:

Above $3.5M of sales, most listings ask more than 3x. Below $75K, 34.7% ask over 4x because the earnings are too small to anchor the price. A buyer-side rule from r/buyingabusiness lines up with the middle of the market:

“For small businesses, asking price should typically fall between 2x-3x the SDE. If financial records have a lot of questionable adjustments or things that aren’t provable, then the multiple of SDE should be lower or just take into account the provable data.”r/buyingabusiness

The second half of that comment matters more than the first. A 2.5x multiple on inflated SDE is an expensive deal. Our due diligence guide covers how to check stated earnings against tax returns, and the IRS Form 8594 allocation you sign at closing is where the price gets split between equipment, inventory and goodwill.

At $350K to $750K of sales, the median ask ranges from 0.30x revenue (food and beverage wholesale routes, $152K) to 1.56x (insurance agencies, $750K) across 60 US industries with 30+ comparable listings (Main Street Index, October 2026). Sort by ask to revenue to see the spread, or by margin to see why.

Notice the restaurant cluster at the bottom: restaurants, fast food, pizzerias and sandwich shops all ask about 0.37x to 0.40x revenue on 17% to 21% margins. Read our restaurant buying guide before you price one. Laundromats and dry cleaners ask 1.09x on a 37.3% margin (see the laundromat guide), and landscaping asks 0.84x on 31.2%. The lowest SDE multiples at this size are in nail salons (1.32x), building maintenance (1.36x) and property management (1.44x, after removing 47 look-alike listings that made up nearly half the cell).

At $750K to $1.5M of sales, the median ask ranges from 0.26x revenue (care homes and fuel stations) to 2.48x (car washes) across 59 US industries with 30+ comparable listings (Main Street Index, October 2026). Excluding car washes, the top is accounting and bookkeeping at 1.20x, then metal fabrication at 1.12x.

The home trades sit in a tight band at $1M of sales: plumbing 0.50x revenue and 2.45x SDE, HVAC 0.49x and 1.96x, general contracting 0.50x and 2.41x, roofing 0.59x and 2.61x. Our HVAC buying guide and home service business ranking go deeper. The highest SDE multiples come with assets or licences: childcare at 4.20x, metal fabrication at 4.22x and car washes at 6.67x (our car wash guide explains the property in that price). The lowest are commercial cleaning (1.54x) and care homes (1.30x).

Auto repair has the deepest data in this band, 260+ listings, at a median $699K ask, 0.66x revenue and 3.06x SDE. If you are comparing two industries, the industry pages show full percentiles for every size band.

Does real estate or a franchise change what a business is worth?

Real estate roughly triples the asking price at the same sales: at $1M of revenue, the 500+ US listings that include the property ask a median $1.43M (1.35x revenue, 6.42x SDE), against $499K (0.49x, 2.54x) for the 6,000+ that do not (Main Street Index, October 2026). At $500K of revenue the gap is $895K vs $275K.

Owner margins are almost the same with or without the building (21.7% vs 21.0% at $1M), so the extra price is the property, not a better business. Ask for the business-only price and value the real estate separately at local property rates. Our gas station guide works through the same split, where the extra SDE from owning the land roughly equals the rent saved.

Franchise resales go the other way. At $1M of sales, 630+ franchise resales ask $480K (0.47x revenue) against $550K for independents, but on a 16.3% margin vs 21.6%, so the SDE multiple is higher (2.98x vs 2.61x). You pay more per dollar of earnings for the brand and lose part of each sale to royalties. Our franchise vs independent study matches the two within 21 industries.

Will the asking price carry an SBA loan?

Only 48.6% of US listings that state price, revenue and SDE pass a basic SBA-style test at the asking price, and the pass rate rises with size from 4.3% at $100K of sales to 71.4% at $2M (Main Street Index, October 2026). The test: 10% down, the rest financed at 10.5% over 10 years, an $80K salary for you, and SDE left over that covers the annual payment at least 1.25 times.

The $500K band is the tipping point. Its median listing covers debt only 1.02 times after your salary, below the 1.25x most lenders want, so a typical $500K business needs a lower price, a seller note on standby, or a bigger down payment. At $1M the median listing covers 1.55 times. This is the test brokers skip:

“A broker presents a listing with $275K in SDE, slaps a 3.6x multiple on it... You then hand the file to your lender and the deal dies in review because it fails the 1.25x DSCR requirement.”r/BizBuySell

Seller financing is offered on 19% to 25% of listings in every band, and most listings never mention it either way, so treat these as floors. The terms we used are illustrative; plug in your lender’s rate on the business price checker, which runs the same test on any listing.

Is the asking price what a business is worth?

No. An asking price is the seller’s opening number, and 11.2% of US listings with full financials already show a price reduction (Main Street Index, October 2026). Reductions are most common between $150K and $750K of sales (13.3% to 14.0%) and least common above $7.5M (6.1%).

“Almost 90/100 times - the business is overvalued - not just a little over but really overvalued - think $500k ask = $250k reality.”r/smallbusiness

“Most listings start way too high and need to linger for 3+ months before the sellers come to their senses on value.”r/BizBuySell

Three adjustments get you from asking to worth. First, verify SDE: listings give one earnings number and the add-backs behind it sit in the broker’s memo. Second, compare with the industry: a listing above its industry’s middle half needs a reason, and our buyer mistakes study found 36.1% of listings ask above their industry median multiple. Third, check why the owner is selling: our why owners sell analysis shows retirement leads at 40.8% of stated reasons, and retiring-owner deals ask a premium (2.92x vs 2.54x).

“Sounds like you created self employment for yourself, a job, not a business. Zero”r/smallbusiness

That reply was to a solo owner doing $15K to $20K a month. It is harsh but points at the right question: what is left after a buyer pays someone to do the owner’s job? If the answer is nothing, the business is worth its equipment and customer list, whatever the revenue.

How to check what one business is worth

Six checks turn a listing’s revenue and asking price into a fair range, using the benchmarks above (Main Street Index, 33,300+ US listings, October 2026). Run them before you sign an NDA.

1. Find the revenue band. Look up the listing's annual sales in the revenue table and note the median ask and the middle half for that band.
2. Divide price by SDE. Asking price divided by stated owner earnings is the multiple. Compare it with the band median (2.38x at $500K, 2.67x at $1M).
3. Check the margin. SDE divided by revenue. A margin far above the band median (25% at $500K, 21% at $1M) needs proof in tax returns.
4. Compare with the industry. Use the industry tables for $500K and $1M in sales. A restaurant and an accounting firm with the same sales ask very different prices.
5. Strip out real estate. If the building is included, ask for the business-only price. Property can triple the asking multiple.
6. Run the loan test. At 10% down, your rate and term, subtract a real salary from SDE and confirm it covers the payment 1.25 times.

The free business price checker does steps 2, 4 and 6 for you: enter the price and cash flow, pick the industry, and it compares the multiple with real US listings and runs the loan test. For a full search by industry, state and size, the Main Street Index buyer view lets you filter listings and compare any deal with its peers. The step-by-step help guide walks through it, and if you work in Claude or another AI assistant, the Main Street Index MCP tools answer the same questions in chat. Field definitions are in the Main Street Index docs.

Buying for the first time? Our step-by-step guide to how to buy a business covers the sequence from search to close, and the easiest small businesses to run study shows what “hands-off” really costs per dollar of earnings.

Thinking of starting one instead?

At $100K to $250K of sales, buying often costs as much as starting: the median ask is $100K to $175K, and most of those businesses earn the owner a wage, not a return. That is the size where starting can make more sense. Our guide to how much it costs to start a business and the what business should I start decision table compare the two paths with the same listing data. Above $1M of sales, buying wins on time: you skip the years it takes to reach $220K of owner earnings.

Methodology, data sources and limitations

Every number on this page comes from read-only queries run on October 5, 2026 against the Main Street Index, plus the third-party sources listed below. Medians, never averages. Cells under 30 listings are withheld.

What this cannot tell you. It cannot tell you what a specific business will close at. Closing prices run below asks, and the gap varies by broker and market. It cannot verify SDE. And it describes businesses that are for sale, which over-represents owners who want out. For the share of US firms at each revenue size (most are far smaller than the listings here), see the Census Bureau’s Statistics of U.S. Businesses.

Frequently asked questions