What is my Utah business worth? A local guide to valuation

Every Utah owner who's thought about selling has typed some version of this question into Google. The honest answer is "it depends," but it depends on a short list of things that you can actually understand and, in most cases, influence. This guide explains how buyers and lenders price small businesses in Utah, gives you realistic ranges by industry, and walks through what moves your number up or down.

If you want a rough range right now, the estimator on this site takes thirty seconds. Then come back and read why the range is what it is.

The number buyers actually use: SDE

For businesses under a few million dollars in value, buyers don't price on revenue and they don't price on the net profit line of your tax return. They price on seller's discretionary earnings, or SDE. It's the total financial benefit one full-time owner-operator gets from the business:

• Net profit on the tax return
• plus your salary and payroll taxes
• plus your health insurance, vehicle, phone, travel, and any other personal expenses the business pays
• plus interest, depreciation, and amortization
• plus one-time expenses that won't recur (a lawsuit, a flood, a move)
• minus any income that won't continue under a new owner

A Utah landscaping company that shows $60,000 of net profit on its return but pays the owner $110,000 in salary, covers her truck and phone, and took a $20,000 one-time hit for a new website has SDE closer to $200,000. That difference is the whole ballgame, and it's why "my business barely makes money on paper" often turns out to be worth more than the owner thinks.

The multiple

SDE gets multiplied by a number that reflects how safe, transferable, and attractive that income is. Nationally, the average cash-flow multiple across BizBuySell sales was 2.7x in 2025. In practice, Utah Main Street businesses land somewhere in these ranges:

• Home services and trades (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, cleaning): 2.5x to 3.5x. Strong along the Wasatch Front because demand is visible and recurring.
• Manufacturing and fabrication: 2.5x to 4x, higher with contracts and specialized equipment.
• Medical, dental, and wellness practices: 2x to 3.5x, depending heavily on whether patients follow the provider.
• Professional services (agencies, consulting, insurance books): 2x to 3x.
• Construction and specialty contractors: 2x to 3x; project-based revenue keeps it from going higher.
• Franchise resales: 2x to 3x; the brand helps, the royalty and franchisor approval process hurt a little.
• E-commerce and online: 2x to 3.5x, more for subscription models.
• Restaurants and retail: 1.5x to 2.5x. Thin margins, high owner involvement, and lease risk.
• Software and subscription businesses: 3x to 5x or more, priced closer to revenue as they grow.

These are starting points, not promises. The same landscaping company can be a 2x business or a 3.5x business depending on the factors below.

What pushes a Utah business toward the top of its range

Revenue that comes back on its own

Maintenance contracts, subscriptions, recurring service routes, retainer clients. A pest control company in Lehi with 1,800 customers on quarterly service is worth more than a remodeling contractor with the same profit, because the buyer can see next year's income.

A business that runs without you

This is the biggest single factor and the one owners underestimate. If you have a manager, documented processes, and a team that stays, a buyer is purchasing a system. If you're the one bidding every job, managing every crew, and holding every relationship, they're purchasing a job, and they'll discount accordingly.

Clean, consistent, growing financials

Three years of returns that match the P&L, revenue that's flat or up, margins that make sense for the industry. Utah buyers are increasingly sophisticated (many are moving in from California or Washington with a previous exit behind them) and they will find inconsistencies.

No customer concentration

If one customer is more than 10 to 15 percent of revenue, buyers see a risk. If that customer is a single general contractor or a single property manager, which is common in Utah trades, they see a big risk.

A transferable lease with years left

Along the Wasatch Front, a below-market lease with a decade of options can itself be worth real money. Conversely, a lease that expires in eighteen months in a building the landlord wants to redevelop can kill a deal, because the buyer's lender won't finance ten years of loan against two years of location.

Location-specific demand

Utah's growth is uneven. A business serving Utah County, the southwest Salt Lake valley, Washington County, or Cache Valley is riding demographic growth that buyers price in. A business in a flat or shrinking rural market has to make its case on cash flow alone.

What pushes it toward the bottom

• Declining revenue or profit. Buyers price the trend, not the average.
• Books that don't match the tax returns, or cash income you can't prove. If it's not on the return, it's not in the price.
• The owner is the business. Personal relationships, licenses in the owner's name, skills nobody else on staff has.
• Deferred maintenance on vehicles, equipment, or the space.
• Licenses that don't transfer. If the buyer has to qualify for a Utah contractor's license from scratch, that's months of delay and a smaller buyer pool.
• A short or non-assignable lease.
• Litigation, liens, or unpaid taxes. Utah buyers will ask for tax clearance during due diligence.

Three Utah examples

These are simplified composites, not real listings, but the math is how it actually works.

An HVAC company in Utah County. $2.1 million revenue, $380,000 SDE, six technicians, a service manager, 900 maintenance agreements, owner handles sales and finance. Strong industry, recurring revenue, some owner dependence in sales. Realistic range: 3x to 3.4x, or roughly $1.15 million to $1.3 million, plus vehicles and inventory depending on structure.

A dental practice in Davis County. $1.4 million collections, $310,000 SDE, three hygienists, owner is the only dentist. Patients follow the doctor to a point, and a buyer must be a licensed dentist, which narrows the pool. Realistic range: 2.2x to 2.8x, or about $680,000 to $870,000, often structured with a transition period where the seller stays part-time.

A neighborhood restaurant in Salt Lake City. $950,000 revenue, $140,000 SDE, owner is the chef and works 65 hours a week, lease has three years left with no options. Thin margin, total owner dependence, lease risk. Realistic range: 1.5x to 2x, or about $210,000 to $280,000, and the lease problem needs solving before it's financeable at all.

Same state, same year, three very different multiples. That's why an online calculator is a starting point and not an answer.

Why the online number is just the beginning

The estimator on this site, and every other one you'll find, applies an industry multiple to whatever SDE you type in. It can't see whether your SDE is really your SDE, whether you have a manager, whether your biggest customer is 40 percent of revenue, or what your lease says. A real valuation looks at all of that plus what comparable Utah businesses actually sold for. Sold, not listed. The asking prices you see on BizBuySell are hopes; the sale prices in the transaction databases brokers use are facts.

We do that valuation for free for Utah owners, whether or not they end up listing with us, because an owner who knows their real number makes better decisions about everything else. Sometimes the right answer is "sell now." Often it's "here are the three things that would add $200,000 to your price in the next eighteen months."

What to do with your number

If the range is where you need it to be, read how to sell a business in Utah for what happens next. If it isn't, the fixes are usually the same: get the books clean, build a manager, lock in recurring revenue, extend the lease, and diversify the customer base. Then check the number again in a year. We've also written about what selling actually costs so you can work backward from the number you need to walk away with.