I bought a service business. 100% referral network dependent. No contracts as the business, creating parity or referral-based contracts is illegal effectively. So when I bought the company, no tangible assets whatsoever. Just a phone essentially, and the former owner introduced us to some people. As such, the multiple was lower; it was a sub-$ 500k EBITDA company anyway. But if you can pull off the relationship transfer and foster it, it can be a game-changer. I was able to pay off the company by the 14th month of operation (we had seller financing on the second half of the business). And beyond complete ownership, we were able to increase revenue by 50%, and profit margin from a company high of 31% to 42%. While reducing the final cost to the private customers. It still hasn’t broken 1mm EBITDA. So multiple expansion has not been realized. But I merged it with my previous endeavor and got closer, plus expanded income verticals and geographic reach, as well as developing into an organization that can scale more efficiently. But I have been talking to brokers( the worst, smh),about buying a new company, that’s also service, private practice psychology practice, which I have a rule against key man organizations. Anyway, I think in order to buy referral-dependent, service businesses, you should be an adept operator in that business yourself. That’s the only way it worked for me; otherwise, I think I would’ve fallen very quickly.

DealStats redacted will show you the actual multiples for 100% sold private businesses. You can get very granular in what you search and see individual deal data. Industry, size, deal terms, and more are all viewable.