If you're building a real cleaning business, not just a job you do yourself, its resale value is worth understanding well before you're actually ready to sell. The math is more approachable than it sounds, and it's the same math a serious buyer will use whether you like it or not — better to know it in advance.
The formula buyers actually use
Most business buyers price a cleaning company at roughly 3-4x its owner's profit. Not revenue — profit, and specifically a version of profit called owner's profit (sometimes called seller's discretionary earnings). Revenue tells a buyer how big you are; owner's profit tells them how much money the business actually generates for whoever owns it.
What counts as "owner's profit"
Owner's profit isn't just what's left on your P&L at the end of the year. It includes your own salary, any dividends or bonuses you've paid yourself, and personal expenses that run through the business — a vehicle, a phone plan, a portion of home internet, anything a new owner wouldn't actually need to keep paying for.
Adding all of that back on top of your bottom-line profit is called building an add-back schedule. It's standard practice in small business sales, and it's what turns your actual tax-return profit (often modest, on purpose) into the real number a buyer uses to value the business.
Putting it together
Say your business shows $120,000 in profit on paper. You also pay yourself a $60,000 salary and run about $15,000 a year in vehicle and phone costs through the company. Your add-back schedule brings owner's profit to $195,000. At a 3-4x multiple, that's a business worth somewhere between roughly $585,000 and $780,000.
Why a range, not a single number
- How much of your revenue is recurring vs. one-time — recurring is worth more, since it's predictable
- Whether the business runs without you personally on every job — buyers pay less for a business that's really just your own labor
- How documented your systems are (scheduling, pricing, onboarding) — the easier it is to hand off, the more it's worth
- Crew stability — a team that stays is worth more than one a new owner would have to rebuild
- How concentrated your revenue is — a handful of large accounts is riskier than a broad customer base
How HCTAC fits in
Everything HCTAC helps you do — get found by more customers, build a real review history, keep a consistent crew customers ask for by name — moves the same numbers a buyer will eventually look at. Growing your business isn't just about this year's income; it's what determines what you can sell it for.