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Multiples across 14 sectorsWhat multiple applies to you?
Indicative EBITDA bands by sector, and the five factors that move a business within its band.See the multiplesTransactions
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All twelve reasonsThe purpose changes the answer
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All twelve answersEstimate your value range
A sector multiple applied to your normalised earnings, in about a minute. No email required.Open the calculatorAustralian SMEs typically transact between 1.8 and 7.5 times normalised EBITDA, and the sector sets the band. Recurring revenue, transferable customer relationships and low capital intensity push a business to the top of its range; lease dependence, licensed-individual earnings and cyclical demand pull it to the bottom.
Below are the ranges we see across fourteen sectors, what moves a business within its band, and the issue buyers discount hardest in each.
The numbers
Indicative ranges for Australian small and medium businesses on normalised EBITDA. These are orientation, not a valuation — the drivers in the next column decide where inside the band a specific business lands.
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| Sector | EBITDA multiple | What lifts it | What buyers discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services | 2.5×–4.0× | Fee-earner depth below the principal, contracted retainers, documented client files | Revenue that walks out with the principal; unbilled WIP |
| Healthcare & medical | 3.0×–5.0× | Multi-practitioner rosters, long leases in the right catchment, service agreements | Goodwill tied to one practitioner; short lease at a good address |
| IT, SaaS & digital | 4.0×–7.5× | Annual recurring revenue, low churn, gross margin above 70 per cent | Customer concentration; product knowledge locked in the founder’s head |
| eCommerce | 2.5×–4.5× | Repeat purchase rate, owned email and subscriber lists, brand-led demand | Paid-ad dependence, single-platform risk, inventory obsolescence |
| Manufacturing | 3.0×–4.5× | Capacity headroom, supply agreements, modern well-maintained plant | Deferred capex, single-customer supply, obsolete equipment |
| Construction | 2.0×–3.5× | Forward order book, licences and QBCC financial capacity, repeat clients | WIP and retention accounting, project concentration, defect liabilities |
| Transport & logistics | 2.5×–4.0× | Contracted lanes, modern fleet, blue-chip customers with term | Aged fleet with finance attached; spot-market exposure |
| Trades & services | 2.0×–3.5× | Recurring maintenance contracts, licensed staff, booked forward work | The owner still on the tools; licences held personally |
| Hospitality & retail | 1.8×–3.0× | Long lease with options, prime site, systemised operations | Lease expiry inside three years; wage cost creep; owner behind the counter |
| Mining services | 2.5×–4.5× | Multi-year contracts with tier-one miners, prequalification, specialised fleet | Single-client concentration and commodity cycle exposure |
| Agribusiness | 2.5×–4.0× | Water entitlements, supply contracts, diversified crop or livestock mix | Seasonality, biological asset valuation, weather and price exposure |
| Education & training | 2.5×–4.5× | Enrolment pipeline, RTO or CRICOS registration with term, government funding contracts | Regulatory renewal risk, cohort concentration, refund liabilities |
| Real estate & property | 2.5×–4.5× | Rent roll size, management fee percentage, low landlord churn | Sales-dependent earnings; rent roll concentrated with few landlords |
| Financial services | 3.0×–5.0× | Recurring revenue book, high client retention, transferable licensing | AFSL or credit licence that does not transfer; adviser-tied relationships |
Ranges reflect transactions we observe in the Australian SME market for businesses with normalised EBITDA between roughly $250,000 and $5 million. Larger businesses generally attract higher multiples than the band shown; very small owner-operated businesses generally attract lower.
Sector by sector
The whole valuation turns on how much of the fee base belongs to the firm rather than to a named individual. A practice with three fee earners, documented processes and retainer clients values at a materially higher multiple than one where the founder personally holds every relationship — even at identical profit.
Practices sell on the durability of patient flow, not on the clinician. Signed service agreements with associate practitioners, a lease with real term remaining, and accreditation in place are the three things that separate the top of this band from the bottom.
The highest band in the Australian SME market, and the widest. Recurring contracted revenue with measurable net retention supports the top of the range; project-based agency revenue with three clients making up half the book sits closer to a professional services multiple than a software one.
Buyers separate demand you own from demand you rent. A brand with repeat customers and organic traffic values well above a store of identical profit whose orders stop the day the ad account is paused — and stock is scrutinised line by line for age and saleability.
A dual-method sector. Earnings set the value and the plant sets the floor, so the asset schedule has to be right — which is where an in-house plant and equipment valuation matters far more than a depreciation register that has not reflected market value for a decade.
Profit in construction is an accounting position as much as a cash one, so the valuation lives or dies on work-in-progress treatment, retentions and provisions. A signed forward order book is the single most valuable thing you can show a buyer.
Fleet is both an asset and a liability. The valuation nets equipment value against chattel mortgages and hire purchase, and buyers look hard at average vehicle age — a fleet due for replacement is a capital call disguised as an asset.
The defining question is whether the business is a job or an asset. Maintenance agreements, a foreman running the crews, and licences held by employed staff rather than the owner are what push a trades business from the bottom of this band to the top.
The lease is the asset. A venue with eight years of term and options is a different proposition from an identical business with two years remaining, because the buyer is really buying the right to trade from that address for a known period.
Earnings are cyclical, so the choice of maintainable earnings period matters more here than anywhere else. A three-year weighted average taken at the top of a cycle overstates value; buyers and courts both test the period chosen, so the report has to justify it explicitly.
Land, water and the operating business are three different assets and must be valued as three. Blending them produces a number no bank or court will accept — and understates the entitlement value that is often the largest single item on the balance sheet.
Registration is the licence to earn, so remaining registration term and audit history are valued as directly as revenue. Prepaid fees and refund obligations also sit on the balance sheet in a way buyers frequently discover late and reprice around.
The rent roll is valued on its own basis — typically as a multiple of annual management income — and the sales business is valued separately on earnings. Treating an agency as a single blended multiple almost always misprices the recurring half of it.
Books of recurring revenue are often valued on a multiple of recurring income rather than EBITDA, then cross-checked on earnings. Licensing is the transaction risk: a book that cannot move without a licence transfer is worth less than one that can.
Full sector guides
Fourteen guides, each with the factors that set the multiple, the add-backs specific to that sector, a worked example and the questions a buyer or an opposing expert asks first.
The mechanics
A multiple is a price for risk and durability, not a sector badge. A SaaS business trades at 6× and a café at 2× because one has contracted revenue that survives the owner leaving and the other has a lease, a wage bill and a queue that turns up for a person.
Which is why a well-run business in a low-multiple sector routinely beats a fragile one in a high-multiple sector. The five factors below explain most of the spread we see within any single industry.
Tell us your sector and your normalised earnings on a free 15-minute call, and we will tell you where in the band you sit and why.
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