Most owners arrive at a number before they arrive at an advisor. They search their industry, add "EBITDA multiple," and the first credible figure becomes the anchor for every conversation that follows.

If you are reading this before that anchor has set, you have an advantage most sellers give away. If you already have a letter of intent on your desk, the anchor is set, but the price in it is not the price you will receive, and most of what decides the difference is still ahead of you.

Either way, that anchor was almost certainly drawn from businesses nothing like the one you own.

Small business sales tracked by BizBuySell closed at 2.7x cash flow in the second quarter of 2026. Private equity deals between $10 million and $500 million, tracked by GF Data, averaged 7.2x earnings across 2025. Both numbers are correct. They measure different worlds. Anchor to the wrong one and you spend the next year either insulted by every offer you get or disappointed when the real ones arrive.

This paper covers what a multiple is, what moves it, and what you can still change before you go to market.