The most profitable small businesses in 2026, ranked by what owners actually earn

The short answer

Most “most profitable business” pages are opinion lists with a recycled margin table from 2016 or a startup-cost guess. This one is built from the Main Street Index, BigIdeasDB’s census of 84,900+ businesses-for-sale listings from 29 marketplace sources in 115 countries. We ranked the 49,900+ listings quoted in US dollars on an SDE basis (98% of them in the US), after removing 6,400+ cross-site duplicates, and withheld any industry figure built on fewer than 30 businesses.

Every number is a median asking figure stated by the seller, not a closed deal and not our estimate. That is the honest benchmark next to a startup-cost guess: it is what a working business of each type says it earns, and what its owner wants for it today. If you are still choosing a direction, start with our business ideas with real earnings data or the decision table for what business to start.

“I’m researching industries to buy a small business... The idea is to build a real, data-driven picture of each industry so I can compare them side by side.”r/buyingabusiness

Sort by owner earnings, margin, payback or asking price, and filter by sector. Each row is one industry with at least 30 US-dollar listings that state earnings. Margin shows “n<30” where fewer than 30 listings state both revenue and earnings.

The 25 most profitable small businesses by owner earnings

Owner earnings here means seller’s discretionary earnings (SDE): profit before tax plus the owner’s own salary and perks. It is the closest thing a listing gives to “what would I take home?”. The middle half column shows the 25th to 75th percentile, so you can see how wide each industry runs.

Three patterns jump out. First, the top of this list is volume businesses: engineering firms, construction suppliers, trucking and courier routes, roofing and contracting. They run on thin to middling margins (14.8% to 26.6%) but move enough revenue that the owner’s share is large. Second, the licensed practices (dental, legal, medical, veterinary) earn big dollars on fat margins. Third, almost nothing on this list is cheap. Sixteen of the 25 ask $700K or more.

Courier and delivery deserves a flag. With 550+ listings stating earnings it is the best-measured industry in the top ten, and in the US it is mostly contract delivery routes sold as a package of trucks, drivers and a service area. Only 5% of listings that describe the owner’s role call it owner-operated, and 98% of listings that describe revenue say it is contract or route income. It earns like a trucking company because it is one.

“They said they had ~250 customers. I digitized 18 months of his invoices and there’s closer to 550.”r/smallbusiness

The 25 businesses with the highest profit margin

Owner margin is SDE divided by revenue, computed per listing and then taken as a median across listings that state both. This is the “business with high profit margin” list, and it reads very differently.

Pool service routes top the margin list at 75.4% across 340+ listings, but read the spread before you get excited: the middle half runs from about 27% to 78%. Many pool listings sell a route of weekly accounts where the seller states revenue and earnings that are close to the same number, because the buyer supplies the labour. The median route earns about $102K and asks about $128K.

The rest of the top ten is advice and access businesses: insurance agencies (54.7%), accounting firms (50.1%), finance and lending (50.0%), dental practices (47.7%), chiropractic clinics (42.8%) and legal practices (42.0%). They sell expertise or a licence, not goods, so there is little cost of sales. Food trucks and vending sit at 50.0% because vending machines, once placed, have almost no labour. Hotels hit 50.0% too, but you pay 9.4 years of earnings to own one.

Why the highest-margin and highest-earning lists barely overlap

This is the finding the opinion lists miss. Across the 118 industries with enough data for both, the Spearman rank correlation between median margin and median owner earnings is -0.05. In plain terms: knowing an industry’s margin tells you nothing about how much its owners take home.

Only six industries make both top-25 lists: management consulting, dental practices, oil and gas services, legal services, medical practices and hotels. Everything else trades one for the other. Roofing earns $377K on an 18.2% margin. Pool routes earn $102K on 75.4%. If you need to replace a $150K salary, the margin list will mislead you.

The reason is simple arithmetic. Owner earnings equal revenue times margin, and revenue varies far more across industries than margin does. A 20% margin on $2M of revenue is $400K; a 60% margin on $150K is $90K. When a list ranks on margin alone, it rewards small businesses with little cost of sales, which tend to be small.

“Today we are doing about $16M in revenue, but only around ~$200k in net profit (~1–1.5% margins).”r/smallbusiness

The 11 small businesses that win on earnings, margin and payback

We screened every industry for three bars at once: median SDE of at least $200K, a median margin of 30% or more, and a median asking price under three years of earnings. Eleven pass.

Look at what they have in common. Eight of the 11 are professional practices that normally need a licensed professional to run or sign off the work: dental, legal, medical, chiropractic, accounting, insurance, engineering, and surveying and architecture. The barrier that keeps margins high is the same barrier that keeps you out unless you hold the credential or hire someone who does.

They are also heavy with retirement exits. Legal (76%), accounting (74%), engineering services (69%), medical (68%) and dental (66%) all sit well above the 40.6% average for stated retirement. That is the “silver tsunami” in one table: profitable practices whose owners are ageing out, many of them open to staying on through a transition. Builders take note too: our micro SaaS ideas for accountants starts from the same practices.

“Sellers wish to retire from public accounting after a thorough transition to a buyer that could include remaining on staff for a period of time beyond the transition.”business-for-sale listing, accounting practice

“Plumbing, HVAC, and electrical businesses require a master license. The SBA will require you to have an equity partner with the license.”r/buyingabusiness

Fastest payback: where the asking price is lowest per dollar of earnings

Payback is the median asking price divided by median SDE: how many years of stated earnings it takes to recover the price, before loan payments, tax and reinvestment. The US median is 2.6 years across 27,300+ listings that state both.

Short payback is not free money. It usually means the buyer is paying for a job: pool routes, building maintenance, commercial cleaning and nail salons all depend on the owner or a small crew showing up, and the price reflects the risk that customers leave with the seller. Aviation’s 1.1-year figure rests on just 35+ listings, the thinnest sample in this table, so treat it as indicative. Run your own numbers with the free ROI calculator and the guide to calculating ROI.

“A 2.4x multiple on a moving company is a massive red flag... If they’re tossing it to you for 2.4x, it’s because you’re buying a chaotic 80-hour-a-week job, not a passive investment.”r/buyingabusiness

Slowest payback: where you pay the most per dollar of earnings

The slow end is dominated by assets. Hotels (9.4 years), commercial property (7.6) and car washes (5.6) usually include land and buildings in the asking price, so you are buying real estate with a business attached. Software and SaaS (4.4) is the exception: there is no property, but buyers pay for recurring revenue and growth. If a car wash or laundromat looks cheap on paper, check what the equipment will cost to replace. The break-even guide shows how to fold capex into the math.

“The multiples on laundromats and car washes are in the 7+ multiple range and generally don’t include any type of allocation for CAPEX which means the true multiple is in the 10x range.”r/buyingabusiness

High earnings cost money: the price trade-off

The rank correlation between median SDE and median asking price across industries is 0.77. Sellers price on earnings, so the businesses that make the most money are, almost by definition, the ones you need the most capital to buy. The 12 industries that combine $150K+ median earnings with a median ask of $300K or less are the closest thing to an exception:

• Management consulting: $436K SDE, $275K ask
• Recruitment and staffing: $274K SDE, $217K ask
• Care homes and home care: $224K SDE, $275K ask
• Painting and decorating: $220K SDE, $299K ask
• Building and property maintenance: $208K SDE, $253K ask
• Chiropractic clinics: $200K SDE, $250K ask
• Pest control: $182K SDE, $244K ask
• Other business services: $169K SDE, $274K ask
• Commercial and industrial cleaning: $160K SDE, $255K ask
• Jewellery retail: $157K SDE, $299K ask
• Seafood and sushi restaurants: $154K SDE, $250K ask
• Restaurants: $150K SDE, $300K ask

Most of these are people businesses where the client relationship walks out with the owner, which is why buyers will not pay more. Our guide to the best business to start or buy by budget maps every price band to what it buys. If you plan to borrow, the SBA’s 7(a) loan program covers changes of ownership up to $5 million, and lenders will test the business’s cash flow against the payment.

“Other businesses look affordable until you account for working capital, equipment, employees, debt service, repairs, insurance, and the cash reserve you really should have after closing.”r/BizBuySell

Profiles: professional practices

Each profile carries the same ten fields so you can compare like for like. “Software gap” is the Main Street Index verdict on whether the industry is thick with operators but thin on software built for it.

Profiles: home and trade services

Trades sit in the upper middle on earnings and the lower middle on margin, with the deepest samples in the data. They are also where private equity is buying hardest.

“HVAC and other essential service businesses are HOT! Plan on competing hard with well-funded buyers and private equity.”r/BizBuySell

Profiles: routes and recurring-revenue businesses

Routes sell a set of recurring customers with the equipment to serve them. They post the highest margins and shortest paybacks, because what you buy is a schedule of accounts and the willingness to work it.

Profiles: storefront businesses everyone asks about

Small business profit margin by sector

Rolling up to the 13 sectors in our taxonomy shows the same split BizBuySell reports for sold deals: services lead on margin, food and beverage trails.

Home and trade services is the quiet winner at sector level: $211K median earnings, a 25.0% margin and the shortest sector payback at 2.2 years, with the second-deepest sample (4,500+ listings stating earnings). That is why our service business ideas and boring business ideas lists lean so heavily on trades. For a bigger-picture view of which business types scale past one owner, see scalable business ideas and B2B business ideas.

Bigger businesses earn better margins but pay back slower

The sweet spot for an individual buyer is the $50K to $250K band: the quickest payback (2.4 years) on margins in the low twenties. Below $50K, sellers ask more relative to earnings because the business is often a lifestyle or start-up stage. Above $500K, payback stretches past three years as private equity and search funds compete for the same deals. The same size premium shows up in software, as our state of SaaS acquisitions report found.

“You need $500k+ EBITDA minimum to cover debt service and replace a salary. Any more than $1mm and you’re competing with lower middle market PE.”r/Entrepreneur

Recurring revenue lifts margins and earnings

Our buyer layer reads each listing’s description and records how the business earns: walk-in sales, repeat customers, project work, recurring contracts, memberships or routes. Grouping industries by how often listings describe recurring revenue gives a clean split.

• 20 industries where 50%+ of listings describe recurring revenue: median margin 28.2%, median owner earnings $208K, payback 2.4 years.
• 48 industries where under 10% do: median margin 20.9%, median owner earnings $161K, payback 2.7 years.

The most recurring industries are courier routes (98%), food and beverage wholesale (95%), property management (90%), software and SaaS (88%), gyms (87%) and pool service (85%). The least are restaurants (0.6%), cafes (1.4%), pizzerias (1.4%) and bars (1.6%). If you want a profitable business that is also sellable later, recurring revenue is the single most useful trait to look for. Our subscription business ideas list covers the online side of the same idea.

“The margin is in the service, not the product.”r/sweatystartup

Owner-operated or hands-off: who does the work

Fewer than a third of listings describe the owner’s role at all, so we report shares only among those that do, and only where 30+ listings in the industry state it. Industries where 70%+ of those listings are owner-operated earn a median $221K; industries under 45% earn $134K. Margin is the same in both groups (about 27% to 28%).

In other words, the high-earning businesses are the ones where the owner is the engine: insurance (92% owner-operated), veterinary (91%), recruitment (88%), flooring (85%) and accounting (82%). The hands-off end is car washes (23%), e-commerce (25%), amusements (26%) and vending (30%), which earn less and are often sold as semi-absentee.

“Stop trying to buy an absentee business. It is never actually absentee, the seller is always spending more time there than they are telling you.”r/buyingabusiness

“Anyone who uses the words ‘passive income’ with regards to small business ownership is either a moron, a con man, or someone who operates at a sufficiently large scale.”r/buyingabusiness

“I look at google reviews. If the owner is mentioned by name frequently, it’s not going to work out.”r/buyingabusiness

The most profitable home-based businesses

27 industries are flagged home-based in a quarter or more of their listings. As a group they earn more than storefront industries (median $182K vs $154K), on fatter margins (29.5% vs 22.7%), at lower asking prices ($299K vs $350K). No rent is the obvious reason.

The leaders: courier routes (63% home-based, $420K), roofing (31%, $377K), painting and decorating (39%, $220K), landscaping (28%, $205K), building maintenance (38%, $208K), commercial cleaning (40%, $160K), pool service (67%, $102K) and property management (53%, $144K). If you want to start from home and keep your costs low, our one-person business ideas and part-time business ideas go deeper on the starting side, and how to start a business while working full time covers the hours.

“as of today we just broke 30k in revenue with 70-80% profit margins and 50 google reviews.”r/smallbusiness

Owner earnings per employee

Dividing median SDE by median headcount gives a rough measure of how much owner profit each staff member supports. It is a ratio of medians, not a per-listing figure, and it only covers industries where 30+ listings state headcount.

• Highest: recruitment and staffing ($91K of owner earnings per employee), legal ($88K), management consulting ($87K), finance and lending ($84K), dental ($83K), jewellery retail ($78K).
• Lowest: schools and tutoring ($11K), toy shops ($12K), ice cream shops ($13K), bars and gyms ($14K each), fast food and cafes ($15K each).

Low owner earnings per head means every hire is a big bet and every resignation hurts. That is the hidden cost of hospitality: the Federal Reserve’s 2026 Small Business Credit Survey lists hiring or retaining qualified staff as the second most common operational challenge for employer firms, behind reaching customers.

“Doing this for 10 years, hard to find good workers. Burned out.”business-for-sale listing, equipment rental

“Can’t stress the 79% turnover more. I run a similar business and it takes more time and mind space than you can imagine.”r/Entrepreneur

Why restaurants rank low but dominate the market

Restaurants, pizzerias, fast food, bars and cafes together account for 9,500+ of the 49,900+ USD listings. None of them makes the top 25 on earnings or margin. Food and beverage has the lowest sector margin (18.4%), and its owners earn about $14K to $15K per employee.

So why are there so many? Low barriers to entry, a dream many people share, and a steady flow of owners leaving: cafes show 31% of stated exits as other business interests and only 19% as retirement. The restaurant market is liquid, which helps a buyer, but the economics punish mistakes. If food is your plan, read our lessons from failed business ideas before you sign a lease, and check the startup failure statistics for the base rates.

“The lease is crucial. How long does it go for and what are the annual increases. All of this goes up in smoke if the lease ends in 18 months and market rent is 40% higher.”r/smallbusiness

What owners of profitable businesses say when they sell

64% of USD listings state a reason for selling. Excluding non-answers and listings that are not an owner exit, 31,000+ remain. Retirement leads at 40.6%, then other business interests (24.3%) and relocation (10.9%). Health is 3.5%. Burnout or workload is 1.4%. Financial distress and undercapitalization together are under 1%.

These are stated reasons, which sellers write to attract buyers, so they lean toward the flattering. The full breakdown by industry, and what each reason means for a buyer, is in our report on why owners sell their businesses.

“Retirement is the single most overused reason in business brokerage.”r/buyingabusiness

“If it’s truly so low-maintenance, why would they sell? Just keep collecting the money once a week. Smells fishy.”r/smallbusiness

Which profitable businesses burn owners out

Stated burnout is rare everywhere, which is itself a finding: sellers rarely admit it. But the industries where it shows up most are telling. Pool service (6.4% of stated reasons), schools and tutoring (5.9%), pest control (5.2%), gyms (5.0%), marketing agencies (4.5%) and garden centres (4.5%) lead. Most are service businesses with evening, weekend or seasonal peaks.

“I want more time to spend with my family in the evenings.”business-for-sale listing, tutoring

“Does not want to work weekends anymore”business-for-sale listing, events venue

“Feeling the burn out been doing this trade for 12 years want to explore other opportunities”business-for-sale listing, electrical contractor

“Current owner has been in the service industry for over 20 years and is ready to reduce working hours and responsibility”business-for-sale listing, environmental services

“I was effectively making about $14/hour. For work that requires real expertise.”r/smallbusiness

Where sellers will finance part of the price

Seller financing lowers the cash you need at close and keeps the seller invested in a smooth handover. The share of listings that say financing is offered or considered varies widely:

• Highest: insurance agencies (53%), courier routes (51%), legal (48%), chiropractic (47%), nightclubs (46%).
• Lowest: fuel stations (10%), pool service (14%), liquor stores (14%), care homes (11%), dental practices (13%).

Silence is not a no. Most listings never mention financing, so these are floors. Our guide to buying a business with the Main Street Index shows how to filter to listings that state it.

“Sellers don’t accept financing because they want to, but because they have to as a concession to closing a deal.”r/buyingabusiness

“Put 500k down, the rest was financed by the owner. He’s been paying himself a lot. He just sold to a national company for 7.5mil.”r/smallbusiness

Start a profitable business or buy one?

The median US business for sale earns $173K and asks $350K. That price is what it costs to skip the years of building, and the risk that you never reach that level. Starting is cheaper in cash and dearer in time. The data suggests a practical middle path: the businesses that are cheapest to start (cleaning, painting, pool and lawn routes, bookkeeping) are also the ones that sell at the shortest paybacks, so you can start one, learn the trade, and buy a competitor’s route or client book later.

For the start side, use our startup cost breakdown, the free startup cost calculator and the break-even calculator. For the buy side, check any listing against its industry median in the Main Street Index buyer view. There are about 36.2 million small businesses in the US according to the SBA Office of Advocacy, and the Census Bureau counts 29.8 million with no paid employees, so most owners started rather than bought. If you are still deciding whether this is a side project or a full business, read side hustle vs business.

“You need to budget for 3-6 months of working capital on top of your down payment, not just enough to close.”r/buyingabusiness

How online businesses compare

Main street businesses and online businesses are priced differently, so we keep them apart. From 820+ startup acquisition listings in SellSide, BigIdeasDB’s acquire.com tracker:

Software runs on margins main street cannot touch (68%), but the median SaaS for sale earns about a third of the median main street business and asks 4.0 years of profit. And most software never gets there: in TrustMRR, of 8,600+ tracked startups, 3,700+ report revenue, the median earns $145 a month, and only 6.1% of those reach $10K MRR. A profitable main street business is a far more common outcome than a profitable app. For the software side, see our most profitable SaaS niches, how to value a SaaS company and buying vs building a SaaS, plus the SellSide getting-started guide and the TrustMRR guide to pull these numbers yourself. More ideas on the digital side live in online business ideas.

Outside the US: why we count but do not rank

The Main Street Index holds 78,500+ de-duplicated businesses in 115 countries, and we can tell you what is for sale where. Restaurants lead worldwide (7,000+ listings, 2,400+ outside the US), then cafes (3,200+, two-thirds outside the US), bars (2,400+), commercial property (2,000+) and auto repair (1,800+). Hotels are mostly a non-US listing type: 1,200+ of 1,500+.

What we will not do is rank non-US industries on earnings. UK and Australian listings report net profit rather than SDE, a different quantity, and only 6.6% of UK and 3.3% of Australian listings state both a price and an earnings figure. Just 7 non-US industry cells clear 30 disclosures. Publishing a “most profitable in the UK” list from that would be noise dressed up as data. See the coverage page for the per-country picture.

How this compares with BizBuySell’s most profitable businesses

The best-known data source for this question is BizBuySell’s “Most Profitable Businesses” report, published April 2025. It is a good report, and it answers a different question. Here is the method side by side.

Where both sources cover the same industry, the margins mostly line up: insurance agencies 50.2% (BizBuySell, sold) vs 54.7% (asking), accounting 49.5% vs 50.1%, car washes 37.3% vs 35.7%, landscaping 28.4% vs 27.6%. Two diverge sharply. Pest control is 46.9% in BizBuySell’s sold data and 27.8% in our listings, and dental practices are 28.0% sold vs 47.7% asking. Sample sizes, how sellers state revenue, and the gap between asking and closing all play a part, which is exactly why the n matters. On owner dollars, our asking medians run higher than their sold medians for restaurants ($150K vs $120.6K), coffee shops ($89K vs $78K) and hair salons ($80K vs $69.9K), consistent with asking prices and stated earnings sitting at the top of a negotiation.

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

Five surprises in the data

1. Margin does not predict earnings. The rank correlation is -0.05 across 118 industries.
2. Dental practices beat almost everything. Top five on earnings, top ten on margin, 2.0-year payback.
3. Home-based industries out-earn storefronts. $182K vs $154K median, at a lower asking price.
4. Hands-off businesses earn less. Industries mostly sold as semi-absentee earn $134K against $221K for owner-operated ones.
5. Sellers almost never say burnout. 1.4% of stated reasons, against 40.6% retirement.

“He ran it on instinct for 50 years and had no idea what he actually had.”r/smallbusiness

What SDE means, and why margin misleads

Seller’s discretionary earnings is net profit before tax, plus the owner’s salary, owner perks run through the business, interest, depreciation and one-off costs. It answers “what would one owner-operator take home before paying any loan?”. Brokers and buyers of businesses under a few million dollars price on SDE, which is why it is the right basis for this ranking.

Two warnings. SDE assumes you do the owner’s job: if you hire a manager, subtract their salary. And SDE is stated by the seller, so add-backs can inflate it. Our due diligence checklist and the due diligence help guide cover how to rebuild the number from tax returns.

“Common fake add-backs are the owner car the route still needs, one-time costs that show up every year, and family payroll that is really labor.”r/buyingabusiness

“Take the asking price and immediately add back the true working capital requirements plus any deferred CapEx... That bargain 3.0x asset is actually a 4.0x multiple.”r/buyingabusiness

Which profitable business fits your goal

For a structured way to weigh capital, hours and skills, use our decision table for what business to start or the step-by-step guide to deciding what business to start. The free business idea evaluator scores a specific idea, and the business idea generator suggests ones that fit your skills. See the idea evaluator guide and generator guide for tips. To narrow to a niche inside an industry, try the free niche finder and our guide on how to find a profitable niche.

Traps in “most profitable business” lists

• Margin without dollars. A 60% margin on a tiny business pays less than a 20% margin on a big one.
• Averages without sample sizes. A median from 12 businesses can swing 20 points. Ask for the n.
• Startup cost as the only price. The real price of a profitable business is either years of building or a 2.6-year payback.
• Net profit dressed as owner pay. Net profit subtracts the owner’s salary; SDE adds it back. Mixing them doubles or halves a multiple.
• Stale data. Many lists still quote margin tables from 2016 to 2019. Costs have moved: rising costs of goods, services and wages were the most common financial challenge in the Fed’s 2026 survey, and 77% of firms reported rising costs, tariff costs or both.
• Passive income claims. The owner-operated businesses earn the most.

“$195k / $36k (after labor cash flows) is about 5.4x. That crazy for a laundromat with 20 old equipment.”r/Laundromats

Where profitable industries still run on thin software

For builders, the profitable industries are also the buyers. The Main Street Index scores each industry on operator density against software supply. Several high-earning or high-margin industries are rated wide open or underserved: laundromats, car washes, auto repair, childcare and pet services (wide open), and dental, veterinary, chiropractic, accounting, HVAC and landscaping (underserved).

Our Agent Index agrees from a different angle: dental practices, veterinary clinics and law firms score as wide open for AI agents, while pest control, insurance agencies and landscaping are one piece short. Owners in these trades say the same thing in reviews. Construction firms alone account for 9,500+ Capterra reviews in BigIdeasDB, and small business software pain points covers the patterns. The build angle is in boring industries begging for micro SaaS, vertical AI SaaS ideas and the vertical SaaS help guide. The surviving build theses for each industry are in the Main Street theses view, and the Capterra analysis guide shows how to read the complaints behind them. To see how owners already use AI, read how small business owners use AI.

“The price hike became 3x what I used to pay and they forced me to pay it for two months despite my never agreeing to this price adjustment.”Capterra review, construction

“If I can’t follow simple entries to get my invoicing accomplished I will do business elsewhere.”Capterra review, construction

“The system could not find or calculate spread of Hours.”Capterra review, restaurants

“Extremely expensive but need to have it to be able to work onsite, so forced to pay $6k per year. And the price goes up by 30% per year...”Capterra review, facilities services

How to check whether a specific business is profitable

1. Pick the earnings basis. Decide whether you care about owner take-home (SDE) or margin. Rank on SDE if you need to replace a salary, and on margin only to judge how much revenue you must win.
2. Check the sample size. Ignore any median built on fewer than 30 businesses. Every number on this page shows its n.
3. Read the price next to the earnings. Divide the median asking price by median SDE to get payback in years. Under 2.5 years is quick, over 4 usually means real estate or equipment is included.
4. Check who does the work. Look at staff counts and the share of listings that are owner-operated. High earnings with an owner-operator model means you are buying a job.
5. Read the stated exit reasons. A retirement-heavy industry often hides deferred upgrades; a burnout-heavy one tells you about the hours.
6. Pull live comparables. Filter the Main Street Index to the industry and your budget, then compare a specific listing to its industry median before you make an offer.

The Main Street Index does steps 2 to 6 for you: open an industry in the industry view, browse matching live listings, and see which firms list the most in the broker view. If you work in Claude or ChatGPT, the same data is reachable through the Main Street Index MCP tools. For the full field list see the Main Street Index docs, or open the Main Street Index dashboard directly if you are on Pro.

What this data cannot tell you

• Asking, not closing. Every price and multiple is what the seller asks. Deals usually close below asking, and some fall through in diligence.
• Stated, not verified. Earnings and revenue are the seller’s figures, often prepared by a broker. We do not audit them.
• Businesses for sale are not all businesses. The corpus is made entirely of businesses on the market, which skews toward owners ready to exit.
• Disclosure is partial. 58% of USD listings state earnings. Industries where sellers hide numbers more often may look different.
• Owner role, revenue model and licences are text-extracted. They come from listing descriptions, gated against a hand-checked sample, and reported only as shares of listings that state them.
• One snapshot. No time series yet, so we make no claim about trends.

Treat these medians as the starting benchmark for a decision, not a forecast for any one business. Our niche viability guide and guide to validating an idea in an unfamiliar industry cover what to check next.

Methodology

Corpus. 84,900+ businesses-for-sale listings captured from 29 marketplace sources in late September 2026, 78,500+ after removing 6,400+ listings that appear on two sites. Each listing is classified into one of 137 industries and 13 sectors; the industry classifier passed hand-adjudicated accuracy gates on 7 of 8 gated sources, at 90.7% to 96.7%; the one that failed (UAE) does not affect this US-dollar ranking.

Ranking set. 49,900+ listings quoted in US dollars on a seller’s-discretionary-earnings basis (98% in the US). We never pool currencies or mix SDE with net profit. An industry is ranked only when 30+ listings state SDE; margin is shown only when 30+ state both revenue and SDE.

Measures. Median and quartiles of stated SDE; owner margin as the median of per-listing SDE / revenue; payback as median asking price / median SDE (scoring version 1.2.0); median staff from stated headcounts; owner-operated, recurring revenue and seller financing as shares of listings that state them; stated exit reasons normalized into 13 categories, excluding non-answers and non-owner exits.

Correlations. Spearman rank correlations computed across industry medians, on the 118 industries with both a ranked SDE and a ranked margin.

Related research

This page is part of our business ideas cluster. Start at the pillar, business ideas backed by real earnings, then go deeper on what to start or buy at each budget, why owners sell and what business you should start. If you want low upfront cost, see low-cost business ideas with high profit and how to start a business with no money. If you want something new, see business ideas that solve real problems, drawn from 1M+ real complaints, or start from scratch with what to do when you want a business but have no ideas.

Frequently asked questions