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Two restoration companies with the same earnings can sell for very different numbers. The gap is usually about the quality of the earnings rather than the size of them: how much of the work is commercial, how much of it recurs, and how much of it walks out the door with the owner. This calculator models one of those drivers, your commercial mix, and shows what shifting it could add.
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Commercial mix and concentration are not the same thing, and this tool only models the first. Commercial mix is how much of your revenue is commercial rather than residential. Concentration is how much of it comes from one customer, carrier, third-party administrator (TPA), or program. A shop can be 90% commercial and still have 60% of its revenue riding on a single property management group, and a buyer will discount that hard. Run the Concentration Risk Self-Audit: How Exposed Are You? separately, because a strong commercial mix does not offset heavy concentration.
The bands below are RocketLevel working figures, and so is the 50% cut-off between them. Roughly 4.5 to 5.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for a TPA or carrier-dependent book, and 6.5 to 7 for a diversified, owner-independent one. Under 50% commercial share uses the lower band; 50% or more uses the higher band. Exactly 50% reads diversified. A mixed book really lands somewhere between the two bands, so if you sit just under the cut-off, read the lower band as a floor. The sheet always compares you against the diversified band as the target.
We went looking for something to cite here and there is nothing. Public commentary on restoration multiples comes from broker and advisory marketing pages rather than from a transaction dataset, in our own review of those pages the quoted range runs from about 3 times to 11 times depending on size, and no public source names a threshold where program dependence moves a company from one band to another. Two further cautions on our own bands. The 7 ceiling is set for shops below the size where institutional buyers engage, and a larger, cleaner business can price above it. And what the public record actually supports is that concentration drags a multiple down, which is not the same claim as program work dragging it down. A book spread across six carriers is a different risk from the same revenue riding on one program.
Two bands of sale multiple on EBITDA: under 50% commercial share, a TPA and carrier-dependent book at 4.5x to 5.5x; 50% or more commercial share, a diversified, owner-independent book at 6.5x to 7x. A mixed book lands between them. On $4M of EBITDA that is about $18M to $22M against $26M to $28M. RocketLevel working bands, not a published finding.
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Three ways to use this calculator
How to use it: in your Google Sheets or Excel copy, edit only the two highlighted input cells (your annual EBITDA and the share of your revenue that is commercial). The estimated value range and the value gap update automatically. Run it when your books close for the year, and again before any conversation with a broker, a lender, or a partner who will ask what the business is worth.
Record four things in the sheet, dated: the adjusted EBITDA you used, your current commercial share, the estimated value at that share, and the gap to your target share. Three annual readings give you a trend, and that trend tells you whether the work you are doing on the mix is actually moving the value.
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The method. The arithmetic itself is simple, and worth knowing before you read anything into the output.
Read the sheet's spread with that definition in hand. The sheet does not return the like-for-like gap above. It returns a spread built by crossing the ends of the two ranges: the low figure is your target band's floor minus your current band's ceiling, and the high figure is your target band's ceiling minus your current band's floor. That is wider on both sides than the like-for-like gap, which holds floor against floor and ceiling against ceiling. On $4M of EBITDA moving from 4.5 to 5.5 times up to 6.5 to 7 times, the like-for-like gap is $8,000,000 floor to floor (6.5 minus 4.5, times $4M) and $6,000,000 ceiling to ceiling (7 minus 5.5, times $4M), while the sheet shows $4,000,000 low (6.5 minus 5.5) and $10,000,000 high (7 minus 4.5). Where this page and the sheet or the calculator above disagree, this page governs. Read the sheet's high figure as the widest arithmetic those two ranges allow, not as the gain to plan on.
So the output is only ever as good as the multiple, and the multiple is an assumption. The ranges the sheet applies are RocketLevel's working assumptions for lower-middle-market restoration companies, not a valuation opinion. Two real buyers looking at the same company will not agree on a multiple either. Before you make a decision on a number this produces, have a transaction advisor or a certified public accountant (CPA) who does deals in this trade put a real range on your business.
EBITDA has to be the adjusted figure. If your books carry personal vehicles, above-market owner compensation, or family on payroll who do not work there, a buyer strips those out and so should you before you type a number in. Running this on unadjusted book EBITDA usually understates the business, and running it on optimistically adjusted EBITDA sets you up for a repricing during diligence.
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Even if you never sell, the same levers that raise your multiple make the business steadier and more profitable to run today.
Next: a dollar figure means little if the business cannot change hands. Exit-Readiness Scorecard scores whether the business would actually transfer to someone else, which is what decides whether you get offered a multiple at all.
Important: please read. This tool is provided free of charge by RocketLevel as a general, educational estimate and starting point only. The results are illustrative estimates based solely on the figures you enter; they are not a guarantee of any outcome, value, cost, or result, and they are not legal, financial, tax, accounting, insurance, or other professional advice. Using this tool does not create an attorney-client, advisory, or other professional relationship with RocketLevel. RocketLevel makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of this tool for your situation, and provides it "as is." You are solely responsible for verifying any figures and for consulting your own attorney, accountant, financial professional, or other qualified advisor before making any decision. To the fullest extent permitted by law, RocketLevel and its affiliates, officers, and employees disclaim all liability for any loss, damage, or claim arising from its use.
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Tools for this play
Keep going: What Actually Drives Your Multiple explains why buyers pay more for some books, The Exit and Enterprise Value Playbook lays out the build year by year, and Checklist: Pre-Exit Quality of Earnings Clean-Up gets your EBITDA ready for diligence.
Do it yourself or have it done. Running this calculator takes your adjusted EBITDA and your commercial share, and the real valuation stays with your CPA or transaction advisor. The lever this tool models, a bigger share of direct commercial work, is built one property manager and facility director at a time, and that outreach is the part that takes dedicated people to staff. RocketLevel's inside sales team books those first meetings, and your people turn them into accounts.
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Part of the free GEM Resource Hub by RocketLevel Commercial. Playbooks and tools for running the whole restoration business, A to Z, while specializing in building commercial revenue you own. RocketLevel is a bolt-on inside sales team that strengthens your commercial pipeline. Explore more in the GEM Resource Hub. New here? About RocketLevel and what the system has produced. When you're ready, see what your market is worth or book a Commercial Growth Call.
How we source figures: every number in this library names its source or is labeled as RocketLevel's own working figure. Read the sourcing standard.
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