Orange · Seminole · Osceola County · I-4 Corridor
Sell My Business in Orlando
Most Orlando owners sell once. The buyer across the table has done it dozens of times, with an analyst and a quality-of-earnings team behind them. Closing that experience gap is the entire job.
CBH Business Group runs confidential sell-side processes for Central Florida companies valued roughly $3M to $50M. Nothing with your name on it leaves this office without your approval.
Request a Confidential ValuationWhat Actually Sets the Price
Four things move your multiple more than your industry does
Owners usually ask what multiple their industry trades at. It is the wrong first question. Two Orlando businesses in the same sector with the same earnings regularly sell for very different numbers, and the gap comes down to four things a buyer underwrites before they underwrite anything else.
Customer concentration
One client above roughly 25% of revenue and the buyer is underwriting that relationship, not your business. It is the single most common reason a good business gets a mediocre multiple.
Owner dependence
If the relationships, the pricing and the estimating all live with you, the buyer is purchasing a job. A second tier of management is usually worth more than a year of revenue growth.
Financial quality
Clean, timely, reconciled statements and a finance seat that is not you. Weak records do not just lower the price — they extend diligence, and long diligence is where deals die.
Recurring revenue
Contracted or repeat revenue is underwritten at a different multiple than project work. Service agreements and maintenance contracts are usually the cheapest multiple expansion available.
Every one of those is fixable, and the work pays whether you sell or not — which is why the honest answer to “should I sell or grow?” is sometimes to fix these first and decide afterward.
Indicative Ranges
What Central Florida businesses trade for
Indicative adjusted-EBITDA bands for lower middle-market transactions. These are benchmarks for framing a conversation, not a valuation — where a specific business lands inside its band is decided by the four factors above.
HVAC & Mechanical
4.0x – 6.5x
Service agreements and recurring maintenance drive the top of the band.
Construction & Trades
3.5x – 5.5x
Backlog quality and a licensed workforce matter more than revenue size.
Healthcare Services
5.0x – 9.0x
Multi-site practices and payor mix reach the upper end.
Manufacturing
4.0x – 7.0x
Customer concentration above 25% draws a discount.
Professional Services
3.0x – 5.0x
Owner dependency compresses multiples across the sector.
Landscaping & Lawncare
3.5x – 6.0x
Recurring commercial contracts attract consolidators.
Ranges reflect CBH Business Group's transaction experience together with published industry sources including IBBA Market Pulse. Indicative benchmarks only — not a valuation and not a guarantee of price.
How the Process Runs
Nine steps from first conversation to closing
You approve everything that leaves this office — the teaser, who signs an NDA, and which offer you take.
Red Team Audit
Before a single buyer hears about you, we attack the business the way a buyer’s analyst and quality-of-earnings team will. What would make someone hesitate, or argue the price down? We find it first and get ahead of it. This is where most of the price protection happens, and it happens before your name is anywhere.
Valuation and normalization
We rebuild earnings on a defensible basis — adjusting owner compensation to market, removing one-time items, and separating genuine add-backs from wishful ones. A number you can defend in diligence is worth more than a number that looks good in a pitch.
Blind teaser
A one-page summary vague enough that nobody can identify you, specific enough that the right buyer raises a hand — typically industry, region and revenue band. You approve it before it goes anywhere.
Buyer targeting
Strategic acquirers, private equity platforms, independent sponsors, family offices and search funds are all different buyers with different reasons to pay. We run them in parallel so more than one type is competing.
NDA and screening
Only buyers who sign and clear our screen learn the company name. We check them against your customer and competitor lists first.
Confidential information memorandum
The full picture — operations, financials, customers, staff, growth — released only to qualified buyers who have cleared screening.
Offers and negotiation
Price is one term among many. Structure, escrow, working capital pegs, earn-outs and rollover equity often move net proceeds more than headline price does.
Due diligence
Where prepared sellers hold their price and unprepared ones renegotiate. The red team audit in step one is what makes this survivable.
Close
Legal, lender and escrow coordination through funding, plus the transition plan you agreed to — not one invented at the last minute.
The Central Florida Market
Why buyers look at Orlando
Orlando is no longer a tourism economy with other things attached. Lake Nona's medical cluster, the technology corridor running along I-4 toward Tampa, UCF as one of the largest universities in the country, and sustained population growth across Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties have produced something more useful to an acquirer than a single dominant industry: durable demand across several of them at once.
That matters when you sell because it widens the buyer set. A Central Florida services business can be interesting to a regional strategic consolidating the I-4 corridor, to a private equity platform building a statewide footprint, and to an independent sponsor or search fund buying its first company — three buyer types with three different reasons to pay, competing on the same asset. Markets with one buyer type produce one bid, and one bid is what costs sellers money.
It also shapes confidentiality. The community across Dr. Phillips, Winter Park, Maitland, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, Sanford, Kissimmee and St. Cloud is smaller than the metro population suggests — your competitors, customers and crews overlap more than you would like. That is why buyers see a blind profile first and screening happens before any name is disclosed.
By Industry
Selling a specific type of Orlando business
Common Questions
Selling a business in Orlando
How do I sell my business in Orlando?
Start with a confidential valuation built on normalized earnings, not a rule of thumb. From there the sequence is preparation, a blind marketing process under NDA, competitive offers, diligence and close. For a Central Florida business in the $3M–$50M range, expect six to nine months from engagement to funding when the business is properly prepared — and longer when it is not.
What is my Orlando business worth?
Most Central Florida lower middle-market businesses trade on a multiple of adjusted EBITDA, commonly between 3.0x and 9.0x depending on sector, size and risk. The multiple is set less by your industry than by four things: customer concentration, how dependent the business is on you personally, the quality of your financial records, and how much revenue is contracted or recurring. Two businesses with identical earnings routinely sell for very different numbers because of those four.
How do I sell my Orlando business confidentially?
Nothing identifying leaves this office without your approval. Buyers see a blind profile first — sector, region, revenue and earnings band — with no name. Only those who sign an NDA and clear screening against your customer and competitor lists learn who you are. Central Florida’s business community is small across Dr. Phillips, Winter Park, Lake Mary and Maitland, and confidentiality is managed deliberately, not assumed.
Do I need a business broker or an M&A advisor in Orlando?
They are different jobs. A broker lists a business and waits for a buyer, which suits smaller main-street transactions. An M&A advisor runs a competitive process: multiple buyer types approached in parallel, a managed timeline, and negotiation across all deal terms rather than price alone. Above roughly $3M in revenue, the difference in net proceeds usually exceeds the difference in fee — mainly because one bidder type instead of two is what costs sellers money.
How long does it take to sell a business in Orlando?
Six to nine months is typical. Preparation runs four to eight weeks, marketing and buyer outreach six to ten weeks, and diligence through funding another sixty to ninety days. Clean financials, a finance function that is not you, and documented processes are what shorten it. Missing records and an unfilled controller seat are what stretch it.
Should I sell now or grow first?
Sometimes the honest answer is grow first — and the work is the same either way. Fixing owner dependency, filling the finance seat, and getting records clean raises the multiple if you sell and raises the profitability if you stay. If someone tells you to list without asking that question, they are selling a listing, not advising you.
What does it cost to sell a business?
Sell-side advisory is normally a success fee on close, sometimes with a modest retainer against it. Separately, budget for transaction counsel and, on larger deals, a quality-of-earnings report. We set all of it out in writing before any engagement — there should be no surprises on a closing statement.
Which Orlando industries are buyers most active in?
Skilled trades and building services, healthcare services, distribution, manufacturing, and business services see the most consistent demand in Central Florida. Buyer interest tracks the region’s growth: Lake Nona’s medical cluster, the I-4 technology corridor, UCF, and sustained residential and commercial construction across Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.
Start with a conversation, not a listing
A confidential valuation and an honest read on whether now is the right time. No obligation, and no name leaves this office without your say-so.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation