For electrical contractors 1–3 years from selling

See what a buyer would really pay for your electrical business.

Connect QuickBooks, answer 7 questions, and get a buyer's-eye valuation built from your actual books — what your business is worth, what a buyer would argue down, and what to fix first. The free preview takes minutes; the full memo is $499.

Read-only access to your books. We never share with anyone.

2.5–8.0×
What electrical contractors typically sell for
× normalized EBITDA · blended LMM, marketplace & Pepperdine data (2026-Q1)
15%
Recurring-revenue benchmark buyers reward
The single biggest multiple lever in the trade — most owners sit below it
$499
vs. $25K–$75K for a formal CPA Quality of Earnings
One-time. The owner-facing version of the same workup — delivered in 24–48 hrs
What a buyer would negotiate down

The questions a buyer asks to pay you less.

A buyer's diligence team runs this analysis on every deal. Here's what they look for in a electrical business — and the diagnostic tells you exactly where you stand on each, from your own books.

The license and the relationships walk out with you

Electrical is more owner- and license-dependent than most trades. If the master electrician's license, the estimating, and the key commercial relationships are all you, a buyer sees a business that may not survive your exit — and a search-funder or SBA-backed individual buyer discounts hard for it. PE platforms with their own license-holders worry less, but they pay less for the privilege.

Project-led revenue with little that recurs

Electrical work skews toward projects and new construction, so recurring revenue tends to run lower than in HVAC or plumbing. That's not fatal — but a buyer prices a book that's all project work below one with service contracts, preventive-maintenance agreements, or monitoring revenue that repeats year to year.

Concentration in a few GCs or commercial accounts

If a handful of general contractors or commercial accounts drive most of your revenue, a buyer prices the risk of losing one — and project pipelines can be lumpy and relationship-bound. Demonstrating a diversified, repeatable source of work directly de-risks the deal.

Margins left on the table in estimating

On project-led electrical work, estimating discipline and change-order management drive the result. Margins below the benchmark signal pricing or job-costing leakage — buyers see both a risk and an opportunity, and the opportunity accrues to them unless you capture it before the sale.

What raises your price

The levers that move the multiple — and how much they're worth for you.

Add revenue that repeats

Service contracts, preventive-maintenance agreements, and monitoring turn one-time project relationships into renewable revenue. Because electrical starts from a lower recurring base, even a modest service book stands out to a buyer and lifts the multiple.

De-risk the license and the key people

A second license-holder, documented estimating processes, and retention plans for your key field leaders convert 'key-man risk' into a manageable transition — exactly what search funds and individual buyers, who can't backfill from a bench, need to see.

Tighten estimating and job-costing

Standardized pricing, disciplined change-orders, and tighter material/labor tracking lift gross margin, and every sustainable point of margin flows to EBITDA — then gets multiplied at exit. On project work this is often the fastest dollar of value to capture.

Where you'll be measured against the Electrical benchmark.

The KPIs that move buyer multiples the most. The diagnostic scores your business against each, computed from your actual books.

Recurring / contracted revenue
Higher is better — the top multiple lever
15% of revenue
Gross margin
Pricing and job-costing discipline
~28%
EBITDA margin
What flows to the bottom line
~10%
Healthy customer-concentration ceiling
Above it, buyers price the risk
top customer under 30%
Typical industry growth
Beating it can add to your multiple
~5.2% / yr

Benchmarks are blended industry composites (lower-middle-market transaction data, trade-association reports, main-street marketplace insights), service businesses $1M–$10M revenue, 2026-Q1. Directional, not a precise bar — your memo measures you against your own books.

What $499 gets you

A real work product, in three formats — not a chat reply.

The full memo is delivered as three files, so you can read it, edit it, and model with it.

PDF memo

A polished, forwardable 5–10 page memo you can hand to a buyer, a lender, or your accountant the same day.

Editable Word doc

The same memo as an editable working copy, so you can adapt the story as your business changes.

Live Excel model

A working model — EBITDA bridge, add-back schedule, working capital, financeability — with real formulas you can flex.

Inside the memo:
  • A documented add-back defense — every personal expense, family wage, and one-time item, each traceable to the actual QuickBooks transaction behind it
  • Every red flag a buyer would raise, ranked by severity with an estimated dollar impact on your price
  • A prioritized 3–12 month plan to raise the price, each move sized against your real numbers
  • A buyer landscape — which platforms, search funds, and strategics would actually buy a business your size, and how each tends to structure the deal

Who actually buys electrical contractors.

Electrical consolidation is active but more selective than HVAC, with strong interest in shops that have recurring service revenue, data/low-voltage or commercial-maintenance lines, and licensed bench depth. PE-backed platforms buy professionalized add-ons; independent sponsors and search funds buy operator-led shops with a transferable license picture; strategics buy for crews and capabilities. The memo maps which buyer types fit a business your size and how each tends to structure the deal.

How it works

1
Connect QuickBooks

Sign in through Intuit. Read-only — every call we make is a read, never a write. About 5 minutes.

2
Answer 7 questions

Quick context a buyer would ask about that your books don't show. About 3 minutes.

3
See your free preview

Your buyer-readiness score, normalized EBITDA, value range, and top red flags — instantly, no signup.

4
Unlock the $499 memo

The full memo and all three deliverables, delivered within 24–48 hours.

One-time · $499

Honest about what it is.

The $499 memo bundles a documented add-back defense, a quality-of-earnings-style workup of the issues a buyer's team raises, and three deliverables (PDF, Word, Excel).

A formal Quality of Earnings from a CPA firm runs $25,000–$75,000 and adds proof-of-cash testing we don't do. This is the owner-facing version — the same questions, answered from your own books, at a price that makes sense before you've sold. We won't pretend it's more than that; the honesty is the point.

Start your diagnosticSee a sample memo

Free preview first. Pay only when you want the full memo.

Electrical sale questions, answered

What multiple of earnings do electrical contractors sell for?

Most Electrical businesses in the $1M–$10M revenue range trade at roughly 2.5× to 8.0× normalized EBITDA, with a typical deal near 5.0×. Smaller, owner-dependent shops sit at the low end; larger, manager-run businesses with recurring revenue reach the top. Your actual number depends on your books — that's what the diagnostic computes. The range blends recent lower-middle-market closings, main-street marketplace sales, and the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report.

How do you value an electrical contracting business?

The way a buyer's diligence team does: we normalize your real earnings for owner add-backs and one-time items, then apply a defensible EBITDA multiple grounded in recent lower-middle-market and main-street electrical transactions. Every figure ties back to your QuickBooks data — no revenue rule-of-thumb guessing.

What raises the multiple a buyer will pay for an electrical company?

Recurring service or maintenance revenue, a transferable license picture and reduced owner dependence, a diversified customer base, and disciplined estimating that holds margin. The diagnostic scores each and shows what moving up is worth.

Do I need QuickBooks Online to use this?

Yes, at launch. We connect to QuickBooks Online read-only to build the analysis from your actual transactions — that's what makes it buyer-grade. QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, and FreshBooks are on the post-launch roadmap.

Is this a Quality of Earnings report?

No, and we won't pretend it is. A formal QoE from a CPA firm costs tens of thousands and includes proof-of-cash testing we don't do. This is the owner-facing version: a defensible valuation, a documented add-back defense, and a quality-of-earnings-style workup of the same issues a buyer raises — so nothing in diligence catches you off guard.

How long does it take?

The free preview is instant once QuickBooks is connected. The full $499 memo is delivered within 24–48 hours.

I'm not planning to sell for a few years. Should I still run it?

Yes — earlier is better. The issues buyers discount in electrical, especially license/owner dependence and thin recurring revenue, take 6 to 24 months to address. Seeing them now is what lets you go to market prepared instead of discovering them mid-diligence.

Is my financial data safe?

Yes. We connect to QuickBooks read-only — every call is a read, never a write. Your data is encrypted, never used to train AI, and never shared with brokers or buyers. You can disconnect and delete everything at any time.

A different trade?

See what your electrical business is worth.

Connect QuickBooks, answer 7 questions, and see your buyer's-eye preview — no signup, no email.

Start your diagnostic