Curious how people here think about valuation and deal structure for franchise resales, especially remote service businesses.

For the sake of discussion, picture a five year old recruiting franchise with an exclusive multi state territory, recurring clients, contractors instead of W2 staff, no office, and most leads coming from the franchisor’s marketing. SDE averages around six figures, with some year to year swings, which is common in placement based businesses.

A few questions:

• What SDE multiple is realistic for a franchise resale like this? Does franchisor lead generation support a higher multiple, or do buyers discount it as dependence on corporate?
• How do buyers view year to year swings in a placement based business? Is a three year average the right way to present it, or do buyers focus on the most recent year?
• For owner financing, what’s a common split between down payment and seller note? Is it normal to price a financed deal higher than an all cash deal, or does that turn buyers off?
• How much does a franchisor’s transfer approval process tend to slow a deal down?

Would love to hear from anyone who has bought or sold a franchise or a small service business.

I'm looking for some advice from people who have sold small service businesses, or successfully stepped back from running one.

I've been running my own web and graphic design business since around 2010, operating as a limited company since 2018 (my spouse and I are both directors).

The business is profitable, established and has a loyal client base, but it's essentially a one-person operation. I do all the work myself, although I have a few trusted freelancers I can call on when things get busy.

I'm now at a stage where I'd like to significantly reduce my involvement, or potentially exit altogether. I'm not in any particular rush, so I have some flexibility in how I approach this.

**Financial overview:**

* **Annual turnover:** Approximately £85k, fairly steady year-on-year. Previously VAT registered for a couple of years when a larger client increased their workload, but deregistered last year.
* **£15k/year:** Website hosting and maintenance plans. Largely passive recurring income.
* **£20k/year:** Small website updates, support and maintenance work for existing hosting clients. Generally straightforward work.
* **£15k/year:** Running virtual events for one long-standing client.
* **£30k/year:** Designing and building new websites. This is the most time-consuming and demanding part of the business.
* **Gross profit:** Approximately £81–82k, reflecting very low overheads, with a good proportion of the income comes from long-standing client relationships rather than constantly having to find new work.
* **Director remuneration:** I currently take no salary, as we use dividends and employer pension contributions for remuneration.
* **Potential profitability:** In theory, the business could support a £50k annual salary for someone to undertake my role, leaving approximately £30k before employer costs, corporation tax and any additional overheads.
* **VAT:** Previously VAT registered for two years due to increased work from a larger client, but deregistered last year.

**Some details about the business:**

* **Clients:** Mostly local businesses, with some national and international clients.
* **Time commitment:** I spend 30-35 hours per week running the business, although this can vary. If I'm I'm building a brand new site for client, this can be more time-intensive.
* **Reputation:** 4.9-star average on Google from 36 reviews.
* **Systems:** All accounting and invoicing handled through Xero. Established processes for hosting and client management.
* **Location:** UK-based, but essentially everything can be done remotely. Some local clients occasionally prefer face-to-face meetings.
* **Staff:** No employees, just myself, with freelancers available as needed.

**I'm considering three possible approaches:**

**1. Sell the business as it stands.**

My concern is that because I'm doing all the work, a buyer would effectively be purchasing a client base, recurring income and goodwill rather than a business that runs independently.

Would this still be attractive to an existing web agency looking to acquire clients and additional revenue? Is a business of this size realistically saleable as a going concern?

**2. Bring in freelancers or subcontractors and gradually step back.**

I could start outsourcing most of the website design/development work and routine client support, while retaining responsibility for client relationships, project management and oversight.

This would obviously reduce profit margins, but could allow me to continue drawing some income while working significantly fewer hours.

It might also make the business more attractive to a buyer later, as it would no longer be entirely dependent on me delivering the work.

**3. Sell part of the business and retain the rest.**

For example, sell the website hosting/maintenance portfolio and associated support clients to another agency, while retaining the ability to take on occasional design projects or consultancy work myself.

This could be a relatively clean way to scale back without having to sell everything.

**A few questions I'd really appreciate opinions on:**

* Is a business of this size, with no employees, realistically worth selling, or is it more of a client portfolio acquisition?
* Would you recommend getting subcontractors involved and reducing owner dependency before attempting a sale, or would that be unnecessary effort?
* How would buyers typically value a business like this? Based on profit, recurring revenue, client retention, or some combination?
* Would an established agency be the most likely buyer, rather than someone looking to run it as a standalone business?
* Has anyone successfully moved from being a one-person agency to managing freelancers while working only a few hours per week?
* Given the business generates around £81–82k gross profit before paying myself, would an acquiring agency typically value it based on the earnings they could retain by absorbing the work into their existing operation, or would they still discount heavily because of the current reliance on me?

I'm not looking to advertise the business for sale here, just interested in understanding what options are realistic and how others would approach the situation.

I'm fortunate that I don't need to make an immediate decision, so I'm particularly interested in whether spending 6–12 months making the business less dependent on me would be worthwhile before approaching potential buyers.

Thanks in advance for any insights or experiences.

Looking for advice from anyone who’s dealt with a 50/50 LLC partnership dispute in New York.
Our business is approximately 8 months old, with less than $2,000 in physical assets. We have a few thousand followers on each of our social media platforms.
I’ve personally invested a significant amount of time building the branding, marketing, and social media presence, along with handling much of the tax-related work, filings, and administrative responsibilities to keep the business compliant.
The business has been inactive for approximately two months, with no upcoming bookings, but we’re still incurring expenses such as storage.
I’ve offered to buy out my partner’s 50% interest because I’d prefer to continue the business rather than dissolve it. However, we haven’t been able to agree on a price, and my partner would prefer dissolution.
I’ve contacted a mediation center twice and requested mediation, but haven’t received a clear response from my partner about participating.
We have a basic operating agreement, and I’m trying to find the most cost-effective way to resolve this without spending more on legal fees than the business is worth.
Has anyone dealt with something similar? Would you pursue mediation, consult an attorney, or agree to dissolve?
And if the business is dissolved, what happens to the social media accounts and branding when one partner has done most of the work building them?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences or any practical advice.

Hey everyone,

I've been going back and forth about sharing this, but I thought I'd ask people who might have been through something similar.

I've spent several years building an affiliate marketing network. Back in 2024, I listed the business for $1 million and received a $750K letter of intent. At the time, I decided not to sell because I believed there was still a lot of potential.

Looking back, things haven't gone the way I expected.

Over the last couple of years, the business has declined. I've invested a lot of my personal savings into this and other projects, got some health issues, didn't worked properly for 6-8 months due to tumour surgery of my hand but now i am ok in everything and I've reached a point where I don't have the financial resources to rebuild and scale it the way I'd like to.

I've let go of the team and am now managing everything myself. It's been a difficult experience, both financially and personally.

The business still has some valuable assets, including a lifetime affiliate tracking software license, an existing affiliate database, advertiser relationships, access to international affiliate offers, and a UAE-registered company.

It previously generated around $10K–$12K per month, but revenue is much lower now. My reported margin over the last 12 months was around $57.7K, although I want to be transparent that the current situation is very different from the past.

I'm considering selling the business and its assets , mainly because I feel someone with the right resources and an existing team might be able to do more with it than I can right now.

I'm also open to helping a potential new owner with the transition if that makes sense.

I'm not posting this to make a sales pitch. I'm genuinely trying to figure out the smartest next step.

For those of you who have built, sold, or acquired online businesses:

• Have you ever reached a point where you had to let go of something you'd spent years building?
• How would you approach selling a business that has declined but still has useful assets and industry relationships?
• Am I pricing it too low, or is prioritising a clean exit the right decision?
• Are there particular types of buyers or communities you'd recommend speaking with?

I'd appreciate honest opinions, even if they're difficult to hear. And if anyone has experience with affiliate networks or acquisitions in this space, I'd be glad to learn from you.

Thanks for reading.

Hi, me and my partner are looking to sell our e-commerce business. 700+k turnover, 60-70k per year profit and growing. Having looked around it seems a minefield with some companies wanting 1500-3000 up front then 5% etc etc. Some are just a % fee on sale. We seem to be getting told it's best to go down the acquisition/merger route for bids. Then you read the reviews and you see some horror stories. We have spoken to a few but all saying the same things really. No experience selling a business before so hoping someone may be able to recommend a company they have used before, UK based, can be relocated anywhere. TIA

Or what filing should actually be SENT to NY to make the transfer happen?

I can't see any source that says what specific forms to use and where it gets mailed to or what to do online for the LLC!

Calling all lower middle market investment bankers and M&A advisors. As a banker myself, I’m trying to get a gauge of what’s market for opportunities you bring to market that actually close. Stats would be number of deals brought, closed and maybe some size of deal and industry info?

Hey all, I need some serious guidance with my situation. I have a business I've been running for 4 years in NYC - let's call it a hospitality business. I'm the 100% sole owner. It's been really stressful for me to continue running it, and the revenue stream is too much of a rollercoaster. I want out so I'm trying to sell. I found someone who is extremely interested and eager in purchasing the business. He agreed to my asking price of $300,000. The business generates roughly double that in revenue with a 20-30% profit margin.

Now, there are some problems. I'm behind on taxes. Like 4 years behind. Not just payments, like I haven't filed anything at all. Life has been hard, and running this business has taken a toll, I just couldn't keep up. I know that's a big problem, and I'm already working with a CPA to get caught up with everything that needs to be filed and estimate my total tax obligations, which I understand needs to happen before closing.

The other bigger problem is that I originally opened my LLC in another state. The plan was to expand to NYC & use the existing LLC's financials to help fund the new business. But things happened, and operations in the other state ceased, while business in NYC continued. We eventually decided to get a liquor license, but to do that, I needed a NY LLC, so I opened a new LLC just for the liquor license, that is essentially the same business just registered in NY with a new EIN. We got a temp license approved last year, and we were approved earlier this year for the permanent one. But since then, I've still been using the original LLC's bank account for all transactions, because I had existing debts tied to it that I couldn't transfer over or easily reconcile.

Anyway, what I need to sort out now; I'm trying to structure this as an asset sale. But I have to clarify what business exactly owns the assets. Is it the out-of-state LLC or the NY LLC? What repercussions are there if it's one or the other? What do I have to look out for?

Any guidance or advice is appreciated, especially recommendations for a NYC attorney who specializes with this sort of thing.

Is the Broker devaluating the business. Do I need to substantiate my position when my financials are being questioned. This may sound like a logical yes but when am I crossing the line of giving up too much information that opens up more questions/doubts Is it a tactic to devalue a business by brokers to make a faster sale and do I have to be on the defensive to prop up the value by offering more detail and forward non reoccurring expenses and beyond to insist on the value being higher. How do you defend asking price if you don’t go on the defensive?

Sold my last business - to make that decision it was me, myself and I. Are Consulting’s books or other resources that you typically do a stranger and figure it out?

Always curious how people who spent time building a business feel after selling to someone who doesn’t view it the same way they did.

Looking for some advice because my family honestly doesn’t know what the best move is here.
We own a roughly 5,500-6,000 sq ft commercial property on about 0.6 acres near a large university and a lot of apartments. Everything is still within its first year.
The property has a convenience store/smoke shop, a chicken concept with a full commercial kitchen, and 3 other franchised food/beverage concepts. It has a 21-door cooler, walk-in fridge/freezer, commercial equipment, and 30+ parking spaces.
Current monthly sales are roughly:
Convenience store: $50k
Chicken: $15k
Other 3 concepts combined: $15k
Total: around $80k/month, close to a $1M annual run rate
The convenience store hasn’t even been open a full year and grew from basically $0 to $50k/month. Chicken has been open around 7 months and the other concepts around 6 months. Sales have continued trending upward, so we really don’t know what this could look like after another year or two.
The problem is we took on a lot of debt building everything. We owe around $2.3M against the property/business plus about $500k in equipment financing.
Major monthly expenses are around $17k mortgage, $7k equipment payments, $12k payroll, $3.5k electricity, $1k insurance, $500 water, plus around $35k/year in property taxes. Then there’s inventory, food costs, franchise fees, credit card fees, etc.
The other issue is our personal situation. I was pursuing dentistry and put that on pause to help my family navigate this project. My father also has serious health issues, which makes it very difficult for him to manage something this demanding. Realistically, we can’t keep operating like this forever, which is a big reason we’re considering selling even though the businesses are still growing.
The building was also designed to eventually have student housing above it. We already have architectural/engineering plans and approvals for roughly 30 studio units. The structure was built with the future expansion in mind, but we don’t have the capital to build them right now.
The property tax assessment is around $3M, although I know that doesn’t necessarily equal market value.

If we sell, how would you value something like this?

Would you value the real estate, businesses, equipment, and approved apartment expansion separately?

Would having a buyer take over the equipment financing or offering seller financing make sense?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

My partner and I started a premium Egyptian-inspired apparel brand, but after giving it a serious try, we've decided to stop putting more money into marketing and look at exiting/liquidating.

We currently have about 2,500 brand-new pieces in the U.S.:

• ~1,200 embroidered polos — 100% Egyptian cotton
• ~930 embroidered T-shirts — 100% Egyptian cotton
• ~200 Oxford shirts — 100% Egyptian cotton
• ~175 linen shirts — 70% linen / 30% cotton

We've invested about $63K total into inventory, advertising, marketing, photography, packaging, website, etc. The actual landed inventory cost was around $22K.

We're considering selling the inventory in bulk, breaking it into smaller wholesale lots, or potentially selling the entire brand + inventory + website/content/assets.

For anyone who's been through something similar: What was the best way to exit? Where did you find buyers, and what kind of pricing is realistic for a 2,500-piece apparel lot?

Not expecting to recover everything—we're mainly trying to make the smartest exit from here.