Business ideas with real earnings data
See what 75,000+ businesses for sale earn, cost and why owners sell, before you start or buy one.
Included with every paid plan
BusinessesForSale
Capterra
G2
Stripe Index
Upwork- 🇺🇸United States48,000+
- 🇬🇧United Kingdom11,000+
- 🇦🇺Australia10,000+
- 🇨🇦Canada1,800+
- 🇫🇷France900+
- 🇪🇸Spain700+
- 🇿🇦South Africa600+
- 🇦🇪UAE500+
- 🇹🇭Thailand200+
- 🇮🇪Ireland200+
- 🇳🇿New Zealand200+
- 🇮🇳India200+
- 🇨🇷Costa Rica100+
- 🇵🇹Portugal100+
100+ countries in all, across 29 marketplace sites.
Where the numbers come from
Two marketplaces stream in. Six layers turn listings into earnings, prices and a score per industry.
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- United States
- 15,000+
- United Kingdom
- 11,000+
- Australia
- 10,000+
Sites ordered by listings, largest first.
- 1Listings captured84,000+ listings
BizBuySell and 28 BusinessesForSale country sites are read for asking price, revenue, owner earnings and the stated reason for selling. A business cross-posted on two sites is counted once: 75,000+ businesses.
- 2Industry classification138 industries, 13 sectors
Each business is classified into one of 138 industries in 13 sectors, then spot-checked per country site. Sites that fail the accuracy check, or are too small to test, are flagged as indicative.
- 3Earnings and prices13 currency and basis pairs
What each industry asks and earns, split by currency and earnings basis. SDE and net profit are never pooled. Of 15,000+ cells, only the 500+ with 30 or more listings get percentiles.
- 4Software supply cross-walk4 corpora joined
Each industry is mapped to its categories in Capterra, G2, the Stripe Index and Upwork. Software scarcity is read from the first three. Where a corpus cannot see an industry, it says so rather than reading as zero.
- 5Software Gap Score130+ industries scored
Operator density against software scarcity, equally weighted, 0 to 100. Industries whose software side cannot be read get no score rather than a flattering one.
- 6Build theses700+ drafted, 30+ survived
Product theses are drafted for the open industries, then a second pass tries to kill each one: commodity, owned by a competitor, or next on an incumbent's roadmap. 30+ survived.
- Operator density
- 100
- Software scarcity
- 94
- 1,100+
- For sale
- 70+
- Software products
- 3.0x
- Median ask / SDE
USD asking price over owner earnings (SDE). Asking, not closed.
What a business earns, costs and takes to run
A business listing says what it asks, what it earns, who runs it and why the owner is leaving. Read 75,000+ of them and a business idea stops being a guess. Browse business ideas with real numbers, or work through what business should I start.
- 120+industries with a median price and owner earnings
- Each is built from at least 30 US-dollar listings that disclose both the asking price and the owner earnings (SDE: profit before the owner pays themselves). A hair salon asks a median $120K (n=700+) and earns its owner $80K (n=400+). An HVAC business asks $498K (n=500+) and earns $230K (n=500+). Asking figures from listings, not closed deals.
- 56%are run by the owner day to day
- Of the 24,000+ listings that say how involved the owner is, 56% are owner-operated, about 28% are absentee or semi-absentee and the rest have a manager in place. If you want a business you can run alongside a job, that is the share to beat. It is what the seller states, not a verified timesheet.
- 40.8%of owners say they are retiring
- Among the 34,000+ listings that state a reason for selling, retirement leads by a wide margin. Burnout is 1.5% and financial distress 0.2%. For a buyer, the reason is a story to check against the numbers. For a starter, it shows which businesses people stay in for decades.
- 4,000+brokerage firms behind the listings
- Listings come from businesses-for-sale marketplaces and the brokers who post on them, across the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe, South Africa and beyond. Brokers are recorded at firm level only. Never a person, never a contact.
Which business fits your budget?
Median asking prices run from $120K for a hair salon and $180K for a cafe to $498K for an HVAC business (US listings, n=500+ each). Set your budget, then see what it buys and what those businesses earn. Start with the best business to start or buy for your budget.
Start or buy a business
- Filter 75,000+ listings by asking price, owner earnings (SDE), industry and country
- Narrow to owner-operated or absentee, home based, seller financing or training offered
- Rank industries for your budget on the Best businesses to buy page
- Check an asking multiple against its industry median, then run the SBA loan math
- Read the full listing: financials, lease, support and the stated reason for selling
Build software for owners
- Pick an industry that scores wide open, not one that merely sounds boring
- See the size bands it trades in, so you price for what owners actually earn
- Read the stated reasons in that industry to know who your customer is
- Start from a thesis that already survived an attack, not a blank page
Small business valuation multiples by industry
Is it a good deal? Divide the asking price by the owner earnings (SDE, profit before the owner’s own pay) and compare it to the industry median here, with the middle half of the range and n on every row. Want to know which ones earn the most? See the most profitable small businesses.
Asking multiples from listings, not closed deals. 25,000+ US-dollar listings disclose both price and SDE. In the app every industry also splits by region and by asking-price band. UK and Australian listings quote net profit, so they are benchmarked separately and never mixed in.
| Industry | Median multiple | Middle half | Owner earnings (SDE) | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 2.4x | 1.7x to 3.3x | $150K | n=2,000+ |
| Auto repair | 2.8x | 1.9x to 3.9x | $173K | n=800+ |
| Laundry & dry cleaning | 3.0x | 2.0x to 4.7x | $123K | n=500+ |
| Landscaping & lawn care | 2.5x | 1.6x to 3.3x | $204K | n=500+ |
| Courier & delivery | 3.1x | 2.5x to 3.7x | $420K | n=500+ |
| HVAC | 2.4x | 1.3x to 3.6x | $230K | n=400+ |
| Hair salons & barbers | 2.0x | 1.4x to 2.9x | $80K | n=400+ |
| Liquor stores | 3.1x | 2.2x to 4.3x | $150K | n=400+ |
Medians, not averages. Cells with fewer than 30 listings are shown as indicative in the app, with no percentiles.
For software builders: the Software Gap Score
One number per industry, answering one question: is this a market full of owners and empty of software? Two inputs, equally weighted, and a refusal to score when the data cannot back it. For a builder, a high score is an open market. For a buyer, it is upside: a business still run on paper that better tools could improve.
- 50%
- Operator densityHow many of these businesses are up for sale right now, counted once each. Saturates at the 75th percentile so restaurants do not set the scale for everyone.
- 50%
- Software scarcityHow few software products serve the industry, matched from the G2, Capterra and Stripe Index corpora. If we cannot see the software side, the industry gets no score rather than a flattering one.
Lots of operators, little built for them. The first good vertical tool defines the category.
Software exists but is thin for the number of businesses. Wedge in on one workflow.
Crowded. Competition validates the market, but you need a sharper angle than the incumbents.
- Laundry & dry cleaning n=1,100+
- 97 Wide open
- Car washes n=500+
- 91 Wide open
- Childcare & nurseries n=800+
- 89 Wide open
- Auto repair n=1,800+
- 86 Wide open
- Pet services n=500+
- 82 Wide open
- Printing & signage n=700+
- 82 Wide open
- Cafes & coffee shops n=3,200+
- 78 Wide open
- Restaurants n=7,000+
- 50 Underserved
- Hair salons & barbers n=1,500+
- 50 Underserved
- Medical practices n=600+
- 48 Served
- Swimming pool services n=400+
- 35 Served
Why owners sell: the stated reasons
Every listing that gives a reason is classified, then counted. Retirement is the norm and distress is rare. It is what the seller chose to write, not a verified motive, so test it against the numbers. Read why owners sell their businesses for the reasons by industry.
Share of 34,000+ listings that state a reason. Non-answers and listings that are not an owner exit are excluded.
- Retirement
- 40.8%
- Other business interests
- 23.9%
- Relocation
- 10.9%
- Other
- 8.8%
- Health
- 3.6%
- Partnership or family
- 3.3%
- Career change
- 3.2%
- Portfolio rationalisation
- 3.1%
- Burnout or workload
- 1.5%
- Undercapitalised
- 0.7%
- Financial distress
- 0.2%
Product theses that survived an attack
Each thesis names an industry, the system it replaces, the buyer and the wedge. Then a second pass tries to kill it: is it a commodity, does a competitor already own it, would an incumbent ship it next quarter. 30+ survived. A few of their titles:
- Gift-card and package liability closeBeauty services · replaces billing
- Sale-ready rent and receivables reconciliationCommercial property · replaces billing
- Station sale handover fileFuel stations · replaces compliance
- Recurring route book for a courier business saleCourier & delivery · replaces scheduling
- Payroll burden diligence packRestaurants · replaces payroll
- The liquor-license transfer binderLiquor stores · replaces compliance
Notice the pattern: the handover is where main street software breaks. Every sale is a moment when a buyer needs clean books and nobody has them.
What you can check in the app
- Search every listing
- Filter by industry, sector, country, state, asking price, owner earnings, multiple and stated reason, plus buyer filters like owner-operated, home based and seller financing. Keyword or plain-English search across 75,000+ businesses, each counted once.
- Best businesses to buy
- Industries ranked for buyers by Buyer Fit within your budget, every input with its sample size. Asking figures, not investment advice.
- Multiples by industry
- Median asking price, owner earnings (SDE) and multiple with the 25th to 75th percentile, split by currency, earnings basis, region and asking-price band. Medians, not averages, and never pooled.
- Every listing in full
- Asking price, revenue and earnings with what was and was not disclosed, premises, lease, support and training, the broker firm and the asking-price history.
- Stated reasons
- The reason for selling as the listing states it, per industry and per listing, with non-answers excluded.
- Software Gap Score
- Operator density against software supply for 130+ industries, with a verdict and the reasons behind it.
- Theses with a kill pass
- For software builders: 30+ product theses that survived an adversarial review, each with buyer, wedge and competitor check.
- Broker firms
- 4,000+ brokerage firms and how many listings each posts, at firm level only.
- Coverage you can check
- Per-site coverage, disclosure rates and accuracy gates, so you know which numbers to lean on.
Available over MCPQuery it from your own agent
The whole Main Street Index is on the BigIdeasDB MCP server as eight tools, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client can pull it mid-conversation. Ask “what does a laundromat sell for, and is anyone building software for them?” and the answer comes from this dataset, not the model’s memory.
Server URL
https://bigideasdb.com/api/mcp/bigideasdb-mcpGenerate a client ID and secret in the dashboard, add the URL to your client, and the Main Street tools appear alongside the other 42. MCP access is part of Pro.
- search_mainstreet_listings
- Search the businesses for sale by keyword, industry, country, state, currency, asking price, earnings and stated reason, plus buyer filters: seller financing, real estate, owner operated or absentee, training offered, franchise, home based, price reduced, earnings yield and deal vs industry. Paged, each business counted once, with n and disclosure rates on every answer.
- semantic_search_mainstreet
- Describe the business you are looking for in plain English and get the closest listings by meaning, with the same filters.
- get_mainstreet_listing
- One business in full: every financial with its disclosed flag, premises, lease, support, the broker firm, the classified industry, software exposure, the stated reason, the asking-price history, and for buyers the multiple vs its industry median, yield, payback and the AI-read fields with their quotes.
- get_mainstreet_industry
- One industry in full: asking price, earnings and multiple benchmarks split by currency and earnings basis, the Software Gap Score, and the stated reasons for selling.
- search_mainstreet_theses
- The build theses that survived the adversarial kill pass, strongest first, filtered by industry or keyword.
- get_mainstreet_brokers
- The brokerage firms listing in an industry or country, at firm level only. No people, no contact details.
- get_mainstreet_coverage
- How complete each listing site is: advertised versus scraped, disclosure rates, duplicates counted once, and which sites passed their accuracy gate.
- rank_mainstreet_industries_for_buyers
- Industries ranked for buyers by Buyer Fit, within one currency and earnings basis, every input with its n. Filter by budget and sector. Asking figures, not investment advice.
Same data as the app, same rounding and the same caveats: SDE and net profit are never pooled, no percentile is shown below n=30, and reasons for selling are the reasons sellers state.
Questions before you start or buy
- Main Street Index is a census of businesses for sale: 75,000+ businesses across 100+ countries, classified into 130+ industries, with asking price, revenue and owner earnings where the listing discloses them. It is built for anyone choosing a business to start or buy: what a type of business earns, what an established one asks, how involved the owner is and why owners say they sell. For software builders it adds a Software Gap Score for every industry and product theses that survived an adversarial review.
- Start from what real businesses earn, not from a list of ideas. Pick a budget and the hours you can give, then compare industries on median owner earnings, what an established one asks and how many are owner-operated. A hair salon asks a median $120K and earns its owner about $80K on US listings. A landscaping business asks about $405K and earns about $204K. The BigIdeasDB guide "What business should I start?" turns this into a decision table.
- Measured by what the owner takes home, larger service businesses lead. On US listings, median owner earnings (SDE) are about $420K for courier and delivery, $230K for HVAC, $204K for landscaping, $173K for auto repair and $150K for restaurants, against $80K for hair salons. Each median comes from 400 or more listings. Bigger earnings come with bigger asking prices, so compare earnings to the price, not on their own.
- It depends on the industry. Median asking prices on US listings run from about $120K for a hair salon and $180K for a cafe or coffee shop, to $300K for a restaurant, $350K for a laundromat or dry cleaner, $460K for an auto repair shop, $498K for an HVAC business and $1.25M for a courier business. Each median comes from 500 or more listings that disclose a price. These are asking prices, and you also need cash for working capital, equipment repairs and closing costs.
- It depends on the industry, which is why we never quote one blended number. On US listings, median asking multiples of SDE run from about 2.0x for hair salons and barbers to 2.4x for restaurants and HVAC, 2.8x for auto repair and 3.0x for laundry and dry cleaning. Main Street Index shows the median and the middle half of the range for 120+ industries, each with its sample size, and splits them by region and asking-price band. These are asking multiples from listings, so a fair closing multiple usually sits at or below the median.
- Divide the asking price by the SDE the listing discloses, then compare it to the median for the same industry, currency and earnings basis. Well above the middle half of the range means the seller needs a reason you can verify, such as recurring contracts or real estate in the price. Then check what the multiple leaves out: equipment age, the lease and working capital are not in the headline number. A multiple from a listing is the opening position, not a valuation.
- Among 34,000+ listings that state a reason, retirement leads at roughly 41%, then other business interests at about 24% and relocation at about 11%. Health is under 4%, burnout under 2% and financial distress under 1%. This is the stated reason, what the seller chose to write, not a verified motive, and it excludes listings that give no real answer. Every listing page shows the seller's own words next to how we classified them, so you can test the story against the numbers.
- SDE, or seller's discretionary earnings, is owner earnings: profit before the owner's own salary and perks, so it is what one owner-operator takes out of the business. Net profit is what is left after paying for the owner's work, so the same business has a higher SDE than net profit. US and Canadian listings usually quote SDE, while UK and Australian listings usually quote net profit. That is why we benchmark each basis separately and never pool them.
- Usually a job, at least at first. Of the 24,000+ listings that say how involved the owner is, 56% are owner-operated, about 28% are absentee or semi-absentee and about 16% have a manager in place. That is what the seller states, and buyers often find the owner works more than the listing says. If you need a business you can run alongside a job, filter for absentee or manager-run listings and check the claim before you make an offer.
- No. They are asking prices and asking multiples from listings: asking prices divided by the earnings the listing discloses. Asking prices usually sit above what a business closes at, so treat a median multiple as the top of a negotiation, not the result of one. Benchmarks are always split by currency and earnings basis, and any cell with fewer than 30 listings is shown as indicative with no percentiles.
- Because a listing is a measurement of a real, paying operator. Count them per industry and you know how many owners exist; compare that to how much software serves them and you know where vertical SaaS is missing. The same listings show what those owners earn, which tells you what they can pay for a tool.
- Two inputs, equally weighted. Operator density is how many businesses in the industry are for sale, each counted once, capped at the 75th percentile so restaurants do not set the scale. Software scarcity is how few software products serve the industry, matched from the G2, Capterra and Stripe Index corpora. 70 and above is wide open, 50 to 69 underserved, below 50 served. If the software side of an industry cannot be read, it gets no score rather than a flattering one.
- A few, and the app shows them. One country site failed its classification accuracy check and a set of small sites are below the size where accuracy can be tested, so their per-industry figures are indicative. A business cross-posted on two marketplaces is counted once. Some listings may still read as active after they were sold or withdrawn, because delistings are not tracked yet. The docs page lists every caveat.
- Every paid plan: Lite, Basic and Pro, monthly or lifetime. CSV export of listings is part of Pro Lifetime, or available on any plan with the $200 export add-on.
- The Main Street data is available in the BigIdeasDB home chat, so you can ask what a type of business earns, what it asks or why owners sell in plain English. It is also on the BigIdeasDB MCP server as eight tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients: search_mainstreet_listings and semantic_search_mainstreet find businesses, get_mainstreet_listing returns one business in full, get_mainstreet_industry returns an industry's benchmarks, Software Gap Score and stated reasons, search_mainstreet_theses returns the surviving build theses, get_mainstreet_brokers lists brokerage firms at firm level, get_mainstreet_coverage shows how complete each listing site is, and rank_mainstreet_industries_for_buyers ranks industries for buyers by Buyer Fit. MCP access is part of Pro.
- Main Street Index tells you what main street businesses ask and earn, and which industries have the operators. The rest of BigIdeasDB tells you what those operators complain about, from a corpus of 1M+ data points, and how many companies already sell software to them, via the Stripe Index. Together that is demand, supply and willingness to pay for the same market.
Start or buy a business with real numbers
What 75,000+ businesses for sale earn, what they ask and why owners sell, with a median multiple for 120+ industries. Medians, not averages, with n on every number.