You built the crews, the backlog, and the reputation over decades. See what it's worth, privately, before you talk to a single buyer. We run a confidential, competitive process, so your crews, your customers, and your competitors never know unless you decide to move forward.
For most owners this is the biggest and most personal decision of their lives. We treat it that way.
Tell us about your company and a senior construction advisor will reach out personally to discuss what your business is worth.
What a construction company sells for comes down to its service mix, the quality of its backlog and bonding headroom, and how much runs through the owner. We've closed 45 construction transactions as part of more than $1B in deals; these are the ranges we see.
Service and maintenance revenue is the biggest lever. A contractor with real contracted service work can be worth a turn or two more than a comparable company living on one-off, plan-and-spec projects. We document your service mix, backlog quality, and job-level margins so a buyer pays for them.
For smaller, owner-run businesses, buyers price on SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings), which is your profit plus your owner salary, benefits, and one-time costs added back. Once a business earns more than about $1M and runs on a management team, buyers switch to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). In construction, buyers also verify earnings against your WIP schedule (the job-by-job report of costs, billings, and margin on work in progress), so clean job accounting protects your number. The multiple is applied to that earnings figure.
An example. Take a specialty contractor with $12M in revenue and about $1.8M in adjusted earnings. A plan-and-spec shop that lives on one-off projects, with thin service work and the owner still running jobs, might sell around 4x, roughly $7.2M. The same earnings from a service-heavy company with clean WIP reporting, low customer concentration, and field leadership beyond the owner can command 6.5x or more, roughly $11.7M and up. Same earnings, very different outcome, driven by mix, documentation, and transferability.
What you keep. The number you retire on is what lands in your account after taxes and fees, and that depends on how the deal is structured: asset versus stock sale, earnout, rollover equity, your tax basis, and depreciation recapture on your equipment and fleet. In construction, part of the price is often tied to backlog through an earnout, so how those terms are written matters as much as the multiple. Structuring the deal to maximize your net proceeds is a core part of what we do. Talk to a tax professional for your situation.
See the exact number your multiple gets applied to.
For most contractors, the hardest part of selling is not the number, it is the people. You want your crews to keep their jobs, your relationships to hold, and your name to mean something after you leave. We make that part of the deal, not an afterthought.
In most construction sales the crews and field leadership are retained. In a trade where 80% of contractors struggle to hire, your superintendents, foremen, and crews are much of what a buyer is paying for, and how they are treated is something we negotiate.
Many buyers keep your name, brand, and local relationships and run the company as a platform. If your name matters to you, we find a buyer whose plans fit that.
You decide how involved you stay after closing. Because many construction companies run the contractor license and bonding through the owner, buyers want a defined transition so the license, bond, and relationships transfer cleanly. The terms are negotiable and built around your goals.
Not all private equity is what you fear. Many PE-backed buyers keep the team and brand, invest, and give owners a second payout when the larger company sells again. We steer you toward the buyer whose plans match what you want, not the highest bidder.
Successful contractors get unsolicited calls, often from a larger regional player, a public consolidator, or a private-equity platform building in your trade. One buyer, negotiating alone, has every reason to pay as little as possible. A competitive process changes the math.
The buyer who called you is welcome to bid. In our process, they just have to bid against everyone else.
Know your number before any buyer names theirs.
BizDepot is a national M&A advisory that sells profitable construction businesses. We've closed 45 construction transactions as part of more than $1B in total deal volume. Here's what that gets you.
We bring your business to a national universe of vetted, financially qualified buyers, the strategic consolidators and private-equity platforms actively acquiring contractors, not just whoever happened to call you.
Your business is marketed as a blind profile. Your crews, your customers, and your competitors don't learn it is for sale until a vetted buyer signs an NDA.
We know how contractors are valued, how buyers underwrite backlog, WIP, bonding, safety records, and license transfer, and where value is won or lost, because we've done it 45 times.
Our fee is success-based. You pay nothing up front, and we're paid only when your business sells. If it doesn't sell, you owe us nothing.
You don't have to be ready to sell to find out what your business is worth. Get a free, confidential valuation, keep the number, and decide in your own time. No pressure, no obligation.
Construction companies are valued on a multiple of recast earnings, but the multiple is set by factors buyers underwrite closely, most of which you can influence.
Revenue from contracted service, maintenance agreements, and repeat master-service-agreement accounts. Recurring, relationship-based work is valued well above one-off, plan-and-spec projects.
A backlog of signed, funded contracts is real value; verbal awards are not. A backlog that maxes out your bonding capacity signals overextension, so backlog quality and room to grow support your multiple.
Clean job-costing and a current WIP schedule let a buyer trust your margins. Sloppy WIP and profit fade lose value fastest in diligence.
A strong safety record widens your buyer pool and supports premium pricing; in a labor-short market, your experienced crews and field leaders carry value on their own.
A diversified customer base lowers a buyer's risk; exposure to high-demand end markets (data centers, power, water, industrial) is rewarded. Heavy reliance on one GC or account is a discount you can work down.
Owner dependence is the most common discount here, and it is fixable. We show a buyer the business runs on its field leadership and systems, then structure a transition that protects your value.
These are the levers that move your multiple. You do not need them all in place before you talk to us. If you have 12 to 24 months, working on them can add a full turn or more to your multiple. If you're ready to sell now, we position the strengths you already have.
Grow your contracted service and MSA revenue, so your book reads as recurring relationships, not one-off projects.
Get your WIP schedule and job-costing clean and current, so a buyer can verify your margins job by job.
Develop field leadership and a license succession plan, so the business does not depend on you as its qualifier.
Talk to your surety early about a future ownership change, so bonding continuity is a plan, not a surprise.
Diversify your customer base so no single GC or account is too large a share of revenue.
Protect your safety record and retain your key superintendents and crews with the right agreements.
Not sure which of these matters most for your business? A free, confidential valuation shows you exactly where your value is today and which levers move it most.
Get a free valuationFour kinds of buyers are acquiring construction companies today. Many of them keep the team and the brand and grow the business. We help you find one whose plans fit yours.
PE-backed platforms are consolidating the trades and specialty contracting, and paying premium multiples for service-heavy, well-documented companies. Buyer demand is the strongest it has been in years. Markets change, which is why many owners get a valuation now, while they have time to act on it.
Public and national contractors expanding into your market, your trade, or end markets like data centers and power.
Patient, long-hold buyers acquiring quality contractors, often with less debt than a typical buyout.
Multi-market players adding crews, capabilities, backlog, and customer relationships.
We work with established contractors, from owner-led companies with real earnings to larger specialty and commercial operators. If you're above $2M in revenue and thinking about an exit in the next few years, you're worth a conversation.
BizDepot's job is to bring that buyer universe to your door, confidentially, and make them compete for your business.
Your sale is run end to end by a senior advisor, confidentially, from the first valuation to the wire at closing.
4–7 months
first call to wired funds
We do everything else
You do three things
Straight answers to the questions construction owners ask us most. Pick a topic.
Most construction businesses sell for about 2.5x to 4x SDE at the smaller, owner-operated end, and about 4x to 8x EBITDA once earnings pass roughly $1M, with service-heavy specialty contractors at the top of that range. Mission-critical operators with data-center, power, or water credentials reach 8x and up. Your exact number depends most on your service mix, backlog quality, and owner dependence, and a free, confidential BizDepot valuation gives you a specific range.
Established specialty contractors generally sell for about 4x to 6x EBITDA, and larger service-heavy companies with clean job accounting reach 6x to 8x. Specialty trades command a premium over commodity general contracting because licensing, skilled labor, and recurring service work reduce a buyer's risk. BizDepot gives you the specific multiple for your business in a free valuation.
SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) adds the owner's salary and perks back to profit and is used for smaller, owner-run businesses. EBITDA is used for larger companies with a management team. Construction businesses shift from SDE-based to EBITDA-based pricing as they grow past about $1M in earnings.
Not automatically. Buyers value qualified backlog, meaning signed, funded contracts with near-term start dates, and they discount verbal commitments and unsigned awards heavily. A backlog that fills your entire bonding capacity can actually read as overextension rather than strength. Presenting your backlog with the contracts, margins, and bonding headroom to back it up is part of how BizDepot defends your price.
Yes, materially. Contracted service, maintenance, and master-service-agreement revenue is the construction equivalent of recurring revenue, and buyers pay a premium of a turn or more for a service-heavy book versus a plan-and-spec-only contractor, because it survives the cycle. Positioning that mix correctly is part of how BizDepot lifts your price.
Grow your contracted service and MSA revenue, get your WIP schedule and job-costing clean, build field leadership and a license succession plan, brief your surety early, diversify your customer base, and protect your safety record. Starting 12 to 24 months out has the biggest impact, but even a few months of cleanup helps, and a free BizDepot valuation shows you which levers matter most for your business.
Owner dependence lowers the price, because a buyer weighs the risk of the business walking out the door with you. The discount is steepest when you personally hold the relationships, run the jobs, and qualify the license. It is normal and fixable. We help show a buyer the business runs on its field leadership and systems, and we structure a transition that protects your value.
Start with a valuation and exit strategy, then a financial recast and CIM verified against your WIP, confidential introductions to vetted buyers, a private buyer auction, diligence, and a funded close. BizDepot runs all of it for you, confidentially.
A well-prepared sale typically runs about 4 to 7 months from first call to wired funds, depending on your financials, your WIP and bonding picture, and buyer diligence. BizDepot manages every stage so it stays on track.
A recast rebuilds your profit-and-loss to show a buyer the true earnings power of the business by adding back owner-specific and one-time expenses. In construction it is verified against your job-level numbers, and it is what your valuation multiple is applied to.
A Confidential Information Memorandum is the blind marketing document that presents your business to qualified buyers without revealing its identity until they sign an NDA.
An Indication of Interest is a non-binding early signal of a buyer's price range. A Letter of Intent is a more detailed offer that sets price and terms and moves the deal into diligence.
You need one, and it matters more than almost any other document. Buyers verify your earnings against your work-in-progress schedule job by job, and messy WIP or a history of profit fade leads them to reprice the deal on lower, normalized earnings. Clean, current job accounting protects your number, and preparing it for diligence is something BizDepot manages in every construction deal.
For a business with meaningful earnings and multiple potential buyers, an M&A advisor that runs a competitive process usually nets a higher price and better terms than a single-buyer sale. BizDepot is a national M&A advisory built for exactly this.
Construction businesses are bought by private-equity platforms consolidating the specialty trades, public and national strategic contractors, family offices and search funds, and larger regional companies. PE became the most active buyer class in construction in 2025, and BizDepot brings that whole buyer universe to you.
Yes, more than ever. Private-equity buyers led construction M&A for the first time in 2025, concentrating on specialty trades and on contractors exposed to data centers, power, and water infrastructure. Many keep your team and brand in place, and BizDepot helps you find the buyer whose plans fit what you want.
The best time is when buyer demand is high and your numbers are clean. Buyer demand for well-run specialty contractors is the strongest in years, driven by consolidation and infrastructure spending, and disciplined buyers are rewarding service mix and clean WIP. A free BizDepot valuation tells you what your business would attract in this market.
No. We market your business as a blind profile and reveal its identity only to vetted buyers who have signed an NDA. Your crews, your customers, and your competitors never know unless and until a deal closes, and confidentiality is the number one guarantee of how BizDepot works. In this trade, where a leak can unsettle active jobs and send crews looking elsewhere, we treat secrecy as the deal's first asset.
In most construction sales the crews and field leadership are retained, because buyers are buying the company's ability to keep building. In a market this short on skilled labor, your superintendents, foremen, and crews are a large part of what a buyer is paying for. How your people are treated is something we negotiate for you and weigh when choosing a buyer.
Not necessarily. Some owners leave after a short transition, others stay for a defined period, and because many construction companies run their license and bonding through the owner, buyers usually want a planned handover. The length and terms are negotiable, and we work them around your goals.
Often, yes. Many buyers keep your name, brand, and relationships in place and run the company as a platform in your market. We help you find a buyer whose plans fit what matters to you.
Many deals let you roll over a portion of equity and take a second payout when the larger company sells again. In construction platform deals rollover stakes are common, and we structure the deal around your goals.
Yes, with a plan. A contractor license is held by the company but qualified by a person, and it does not transfer to a new individual automatically; rules vary by state. A buyer needs a replacement qualifier, one of your people stepping up, or you staying on through a defined transition, and your surety will also re-underwrite bonding under the new ownership. BizDepot addresses license, qualifier, and bonding transition as first-order items in every construction deal, and with 45 construction transactions closed we know how to structure them so they do not stall the sale.
The fee for selling a construction business through an M&A advisor is typically success-based, a percentage of the final sale price paid only at closing, with no upfront costs. Your BizDepot advisor confirms the exact terms before you engage.
How much you keep depends mostly on how the deal is structured, not on the headline price, and it is what you actually retire on. The biggest savings come from planning before you sell: asset versus stock sale, how the price is allocated across equipment and goodwill, depreciation recapture on your fleet, your tax basis, state taxes, and whether you roll over equity all change what you owe. Structuring the deal to maximize your net proceeds is a core part of what BizDepot does, and starting 12 to 24 months out gives you the most room. Talk to a tax professional for your situation.
In an asset sale the buyer purchases the assets of the business; in a stock sale they buy the company entity, which in construction can also be the cleaner path for keeping the license and contracts in place. The choice affects taxes and liability for both sides, and it is a key negotiation point we manage.
BizDepot is a national M&A advisory that has sold businesses since 2003, with more than $1B in transactions, 530+ successful exits firm-wide, and 45 construction businesses among them. We work sell-side only, on success fees only, so we're paid when you are. Meet the advisory team that runs these deals.
Yes. BizDepot is a national M&A advisory and represents construction owners across the United States. Wherever your business is, you get the same confidential, competitive process and the same national buyer network.
Buyer demand for well-run contractors is the strongest in years. See your number before you decide anything. No one finds out you're exploring a sale.
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