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A founder assumed the firm was too small to even discuss an exit. Then the buyers said firms this size are trading at 7 to 10 times.
A boutique advisory firm doing around two million in EBITDA had quietly written off the idea of selling. The number felt too small to take seriously, so the founder had never really tested it. On one exploratory conversation, the founder decided to pull the curtain back and share the real growth rate and margin.
The response reframed everything. Firms not too different in size were reportedly clearing seven to ten times EBITDA, especially in hot, specialized niches where acquirers are actively rolling up.
“2 million EBITDA, I’m like, to me, that feels too small to even be thinking about having the conversation. Now, they are saying they’re working with some folks not too dissimilar from us, who are getting 7 to 10 multiples at that EBITDA.”
The lesson was not that the firm was suddenly for sale. It was that the founder had been pricing the business on a private assumption instead of a real market read, and that assumption was costing years of clarity.
Why it matters to you
“We’re too small to sell” is one of the most expensive beliefs a founder can hold, because it stops you from ever getting a real valuation and quietly shapes every decision underneath it. Multiples are set by scarcity and fit, not just size. A focused firm in a niche buyers want can command a premium a generalist twice its size cannot. You do not have to sell to find out what you are worth. But you do have to ask, because the number in your head is almost never the number in the market.
Your one thing
What multiple are you privately assuming your firm would fetch, and when did you last pressure-test that assumption against someone who actually buys firms like yours?
Collective 54 is where boutique service firm founders go to make more money, scale with less friction, and build a firm worth buying.
See if it’s a fit →