Cleaning Business Valuation, Janitorial Company Valuation and What Commercial Cleaning Businesses Sell For
Enter the company's revenue and owner earnings and read a range benchmarked to what cleaning and janitorial companies actually closed at, whether you are setting an asking price or checking a listing before you make an offer.
Estimated business value
Method breakdown
What moves this number
Estimate, not a certified appraisal. Your figures are not stored.
US cleaning and janitorial businesses sold across the five years 2021 to 2025 went for a median of 2.07x seller discretionary earnings, or 0.63x annual revenue, with a lower quartile of 1.57x and an upper quartile of 2.66x. The median cleaning business sold for $260,000, on median revenue of $433,327 and median owner earnings of $136,326, after a median 165 days on the market, across 797 sales.
The typical cleaning company finances comfortably: an SBA buyer who draws $80,000 a year can borrow against about $309,208, $49,208 above the median price. What decides the value is who does the cleaning and who owns the contracts. Hire a supervisor to replace the owner and the same $260,000 price becomes 3.11x earnings. This is a benchmark and an estimator, not a certified appraisal.
The median cleaning company, three prices
Sale price and listing multiple published by BizBuySell. The listing value (2.22x times median SDE) and the SBA figure (10 years, 10.5 percent, 1.25x coverage, 10 percent down) are computed here.
Closed transactions
01What cleaning and janitorial companies actually sold for
These are sale prices, not asking prices, from 797 cleaning businesses sold across the five years 2021 to 2025. The source describes them as mostly locally owned residential cleaning services, commercial and office janitorial companies, and specialty cleaners such as window, gutter and solar panel cleaning. Cleaning is heavily franchised, so franchise units are in the set too. Most cleaning valuation guides quote a broker's band. This is the closed record those bands are argued from. If you have been pricing from a listing site's instant estimate, our comparison of BizBuySell valuation alternatives explains what those tools leave out.
Median sale price
$260,000
What the middle cleaning business actually closed at, 797 sales 2021 to 2025
Median asking price
$295,000
What the same sold businesses were listed at
Median revenue
$433,327
Annual billings of the middle cleaning business sold
Median owner earnings (SDE)
$136,326
Seller discretionary earnings, a 31.5 percent owner margin
| Cleaning businesses sold, 2021 to 2025 | Lower quartile | Median | Average | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seller discretionary earnings multiple | 1.57x | 2.07x | 2.19x | 2.66x |
| Revenue multiple (multiple of annual sales) | 0.45x | 0.63x | 0.70x | 0.92x |
| Revenue | $232,178 | $433,327 | $760,281 | $874,153 |
| Owner earnings (SDE) | $81,740 | $136,326 | $199,000 | $232,721 |
Source: BizBuySell cleaning and janitorial business valuation benchmarks, 797 cleaning businesses sold on the platform 2021 to 2025, read September 2026. Benchmarks, not quotes.
The size thresholds BizBuySell publishes sit on these quartiles. It states that a janitorial company generating $900,000 a year may sell for 2.7 times earnings or higher, and a cleaning business with sales below $250,000 closer to 1.6x. The upper quartile of sold revenue was $874,153 and the lower quartile $232,178. So the practical reading: a company in the top quarter by billings, with a normal margin, sells near 2.66x; a one-van operator near 1.57x; and the rest is argued out between them. If you are working out how to calculate SDE for the company in front of you, do that first, then find its row in section 10.
Our calculation
02An SBA buyer can pay $49,208 more than the median cleaning company sold for
Most cleaning companies at this size are bought by an owner-operator with an SBA 7(a) loan, so what that buyer can borrow sets the practical ceiling. The table runs a loan at 10 years, 10.5 percent, 1.25x debt service coverage and a 10 percent injection against the median $136,326 of owner earnings, at each level of salary the buyer takes out. Everything in it is computed here, not quoted.
SBA-supportable price at an $80,000 draw, against the median sale
Scale $0 to $350,000
$260,000
What the median cleaning company sold for.
$309,208
What $136,326 of earnings supports once the buyer takes $80,000 a year.
| Owner draw the buyer takes | Left for debt service | Supportable purchase price | As a multiple of $136,326 SDE |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 (buyer takes no salary) | $136,326 | $748,377 | 5.49x |
| $60,000 | $76,326 | $419,000 | 3.07x |
| $70,000 | $66,326 | $364,104 | 2.67x |
| $80,000 | $56,326 | $309,208 | 2.27x |
| $100,000 | $36,326 | $199,416 | 1.46x |
Computed here. Annual loan constant 0.16192 for a 10 year loan at 10.5 percent, so the supportable price is (SDE minus draw) divided by 1.25, divided by 0.16192, divided by 0.90. Illustrative arithmetic, not a loan offer or a credit decision.
Work it backwards and a financed buyer can take $88,964 a year and still pay exactly the median price, or needs only $127,362 of earnings to pay $260,000 and draw $80,000. The median company earns $136,326, $8,964 more than it needs. Compare pest control, where the median company sits $6,447 above what the same buyer can borrow, or laundromats, where median earnings are below an $80,000 salary. In cleaning, the money is there, and the price is held down by something else: how much of the earnings is the owner's own labor, and how many of the accounts are actually under contract.
Cash to close on the median company
$31,265
A $260,000 purchase at 10 percent down is a $26,000 injection and a $234,000 loan, with a 3 percent SBA guaranty fee of $5,265 on the $175,500 guaranteed portion. Annual debt service is about $37,890, covered 3.60 times by $136,326 of earnings before the owner is paid. Legal fees, payroll float and working capital come on top.
The 2025 company
$302,022
The median company sold in 2025 went for $325,000 on $135,017 of earnings, at 2.41x, above the five-year median multiple. At an $80,000 draw those earnings support $302,022, so the 2025 price ran $22,978 past the loan. Buyers who closed there took less pay, brought more cash or had the seller carry a note.
For a seller, that headroom is the argument for pricing at the median multiple or a little above it, as long as the earnings hold up in the bank deposits. For a buyer, it means the loan is rarely what stops the deal, so diligence should go into the contracts and the payroll. Our guide to using an SBA loan to buy a business walks through the lender side, and buying a cleaning business, cost and cash to close runs the full purchase at three price points.
What you are actually buying
03Who owns the contracts decides whether the business can be financed
A cleaning company owns almost nothing a lender can repossess. What a buyer pays for is the right to keep billing the same customers. So the first question is not the multiple, it is whose name is on the customer agreements. The three kinds of cleaning business for sale answer it differently.
Independent commercial janitorial
The company signs its own contracts
Office, medical, school and industrial accounts billed monthly under contracts signed in the company name. This is what buyers pay the upper quartile for, as long as the contracts can be assigned and no single account dominates.
Residential and maid service
The customer list is the asset
Recurring weekly and biweekly home cleaning, usually without written contracts. Revenue is recurring in practice but not on paper, so buyers lean on retention history and the reviews that bring new customers in.
Janitorial unit franchise
A master franchise may hold the contracts
In some janitorial franchise systems the regional office signs the customer agreements and assigns accounts to unit owners. If the business you are buying does not own the contracts it services, it may not qualify for an SBA loan at all.
The SBA names cleaning service models by name
SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026, lists among ineligible passive businesses those that "provide a leveled model where the small business owner relies on the services of a middle level operator (e.g., cleaning service models) and do not have ownership of the contracts that support the business operation." Our reading: a cleaning business whose customer agreements are signed by a master franchise or another operator, not by the business itself, will not qualify for a 7(a) loan. Ask the seller for the signed contracts and check the party name before you ask a lender.
The valuation line moved to $350,000
Under the same SOP, the lender may value a business itself when the purchase price is $350,000 or less and buyer and seller are not closely related. Above that, it must order an independent valuation from a credentialed appraiser, and any price above the appraised value must be paid with equity. The median $260,000 cleaning company falls under the line. At the median multiple, a company earning more than about $169,082 crosses it; an upper quartile company at 2.07x prices at $481,732.
Source: SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, Section A, Chapter 1, page 20 (ineligible passive businesses), and Appendix 15 for the valuation rule. Cleaning services are not on the SBA list of environmentally sensitive industries in Appendix 6, so a cleaning company without real estate avoids the environmental work that dry cleaners and pest control face.
Our calculation
04What the business is worth once the owner stops cleaning
Seller discretionary earnings include the owner's pay, and in a company billing $433,327 a year the owner is usually on a crew some nights, covering call-outs and managing the rest. An investor buyer has to pay someone to do that. The rows below replace that work at the Bureau of Labor Statistics national median wages for May 2025, plus employer FICA.
Owner earnings left on the median company, by who does the work
| Who does the work | Earnings left for the owner | $260,000 price as a multiple of that | SBA-supportable price, no owner draw | SBA-supportable price, $80,000 draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner cleans and manages, no hires | $136,326 | 1.91x | $748,377 | $309,208 |
| One janitor hired to replace the owner on site ($39,658) | $96,668 | 2.69x | $530,668 | $91,499 |
| A supervisor hired to run the crews ($52,856) | $83,470 | 3.11x | $458,217 | $19,048 |
| Both hired, owner fully off the floor ($92,514) | $43,812 | 5.93x | $240,509 | Not financeable |
Computed here. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, national estimates for May 2025: janitors and cleaners, median $36,840 a year (2,209,760 jobs); first-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers, median $49,100 (178,760 jobs); maids and housekeeping cleaners, median $35,510. Each plus 7.65 percent employer FICA. Workers compensation and payroll taxes beyond FICA cost more on top. The hires are illustrative inputs.
To a buyer who will work the business the way the seller did, $260,000 is 1.91x earnings, below the median multiple, with room to borrow. To an investor who hires a supervisor, it is 3.11x, above the upper quartile, and the loan no longer leaves a salary. That is why the median company sells to an operator. A company that already carries a supervisor on payroll shows smaller SDE for its revenue, but those are earnings a buyer does not have to work for, and investors pay for that. For a seller two years from a sale, the most valuable change is usually to hire the supervisor now, so the buyer sees the business run without you.
Listings against reality
05Cleaning listings are priced close to where they sell
If you are browsing cleaning businesses for sale, the listings are priced closer to the sold record than in most sectors: a median listing asks 2.22x earnings against 2.07x for companies that sold, a 6.8 percent gap. At the low end the relation flips. Lower quartile listings ask 1.47x, below the 1.57x lower quartile of sold companies, because the smallest businesses on the market today are smaller than the ones that sold: listed lower quartile earnings are $66,000 against $81,740 sold.
| Quartile | Listed SDE multiple | Sold SDE multiple | Difference | Listed revenue multiple | Sold revenue multiple | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 1.47x | 1.57x | +6.8% | 0.41x | 0.45x | +9.8% |
| Median | 2.22x | 2.07x | -6.8% | 0.70x | 0.63x | -10.0% |
| Average | 2.38x | 2.19x | -8.0% | 0.82x | 0.70x | -14.6% |
| Upper quartile | 3.00x | 2.66x | -11.3% | 1.04x | 0.92x | -11.5% |
| Financials | Cleaning businesses listed now | Cleaning businesses that sold | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile owner earnings | $66,000 | $81,740 | -19.3% |
| Median owner earnings (SDE) | $125,000 | $136,326 | -8.3% |
| Upper quartile owner earnings | $241,640 | $232,721 | +3.8% |
| Lower quartile revenue | $166,509 | $232,178 | -28.3% |
| Median revenue | $374,250 | $433,327 | -13.6% |
| Implied owner margin (computed here) | 33.4% | 31.5% | +1.9 points |
Listed and sold figures are published. Difference columns and the margin row are computed here.
Split the median gap into its two parts and cleaning looks different again. In most sectors, the listings that sold had asked less than the market, because the overpriced ones never sold. Here, dividing the 2.07x sold median by the 0.92 sale to ask ratio gives 2.25x, slightly above the 2.22x all listings ask. The sellers who closed did not price lower than everyone else. They gave up about 8 percent in negotiation, which is the whole gap.
| Sector | All listings ask | Closers asked | Selection | Sold at | Negotiation | Total gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning and janitorial | 2.22x | 2.25x | +1.4% | 2.07x | -8.0% | -6.8% |
| Liquor stores | 3.18x | 2.94x | -7.6% | 2.85x | -3.0% | -10.4% |
| Dry cleaners | 2.19x | 2.05x | -6.2% | 1.91x | -7.0% | -12.8% |
| Grocery stores | 2.88x | 2.30x | -20.3% | 2.25x | -2.0% | -21.9% |
| Restaurants | 2.50x | 2.06x | -17.8% | 1.85x | -10.0% | -26.0% |
| Laundromats | 4.80x | 3.80x | -20.7% | 3.50x | -8.0% | -27.1% |
| Pest control | 2.92x | 2.24x | -23.2% | 2.04x | -9.0% | -30.1% |
Computed here from published median listed and sold SDE multiples and the published average sale to ask ratio of each sector. Closers asked = sold median divided by the sale to ask ratio. Using the ratio of the cleaning five-year medians instead, $260,000 over $295,000 or 0.88, gives 2.35x, a selection effect of +5.8 percent and negotiation of 11.9 percent.
For a seller, the practical point is that a listing near 2.2x earnings is a realistic ask, and the negotiation will come off it. For a buyer, a cleaning listing is rarely a wild overprice, so the leverage is in the diligence: which accounts are under contract, what the crews are paid and how, and how much of the earnings walks out with the seller.
Value drivers
06What moves a cleaning company between the quartiles
The distance between the lower and upper quartile multiple is 1.57x to 2.66x, which on $136,326 of earnings is the difference between $214,032 and $362,627. For larger companies, advisers switch from SDE to EBITDA and sort by size and by how much revenue sits under commercial contracts.
Quoted multiple bands by type and size of cleaning company
Small residential, $300K to $1M revenue
Franchise residential brands
Mid-size commercial and janitorial, $1M to $5M
Established commercial with contracts, $5M to $15M
Platform-ready companies
Quoted from Breakwater M&A, cleaning and janitorial company valuation multiples 2026. Bar length shows the order of the bands, not a common scale; SDE and EBITDA bands measure different earnings. The closed record for owner-run companies is the 1.57x to 2.66x range above.
Contracts in the company name, and what they say
A commercial contract is only worth a premium if it transfers. Read every agreement for the termination clause, the notice period and any consent needed to assign it. A month-to-month account and a three-year contract bill the same and are not worth the same.
Sales volume
BizBuySell states that a janitorial company generating $900,000 a year may sell for 2.7 times earnings or higher, while a cleaning business below $250,000 in sales may trade closer to 1.6x. The sold revenue quartiles were $232,178 and $874,153, so those thresholds sit right on the quartile edges.
Customer concentration
Breakwater M&A lists a diverse contract base with no single customer above 15 percent of revenue as what buyers want. On the median $433,327 of billings, 15 percent is $64,999 a year. A company that loses its largest building loses the margin on that account and the crew cost does not fall on the same day.
Retention and churn
The same source puts contract retention above 85 percent a year as the buyer benchmark. Ask for revenue by account for three years and count how many accounts from the first year are still billing in the third.
Labor turnover and classification
Breakwater puts average cleaning staff turnover above 100 percent a year and calls companies below 75 percent operationally excellent. It also calls employee classification one of the most common deal killers. A crew paid as 1099 contractors who work set schedules under your supervision is a liability you would be buying.
How much of the cleaning the owner does
The median owner margin is 31.5 percent, and a large part of it is the owner cleaning or supervising in person. Section 04 prices what the business is worth once that work is paid for, which is the number an investor buyer cares about.
Five-year record
07Cleaning business prices by year, 2021 to 2025
The median sale price reached $325,000 in 2025, 62.5 percent above 2021, while median earnings rose 17.4 percent and revenue 24.7 percent over the same span. BizBuySell puts the jump down to higher earnings and higher multiples together. The owner margin barely moved, 28.5 to 33.8 percent in every year, which makes cleaning one of the steadier records we track.
| Year | Median revenue | Median SDE | Owner margin | Average SDE multiple | Average revenue multiple | Median sale | Median ask | Sale to ask | Median sale over median SDE | Median sale over median revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $340,000 | $115,000 | 33.8% | 2.01x | 0.62x | $200,000 | $235,000 | 0.91 | 1.74x | 0.59x |
| 2022 | $509,500 | $145,000 | 28.5% | 2.16x | 0.69x | $288,000 | $299,500 | 0.93 | 1.99x | 0.57x |
| 2023 | $446,972 | $143,531 | 32.1% | 2.28x | 0.71x | $268,750 | $292,648 | 0.92 | 1.87x | 0.60x |
| 2024 | $401,086 | $132,256 | 33.0% | 2.18x | 0.71x | $247,000 | $255,000 | 0.91 | 1.87x | 0.62x |
| 2025 | $424,088 | $135,017 | 31.8% | 2.30x | 0.78x | $325,000 | $334,000 | 0.91 | 2.41x | 0.77x |
Published by BizBuySell except the last two columns, which divide each year's median sale by its median SDE and median revenue, computed here. Five-year published averages: 2.19x SDE and 0.70x revenue.
Read 2025 with care. Median sale over median SDE was 2.41x that year, against 1.74x to 1.99x in the four years before, while the average multiple only moved from 2.18x to 2.30x. Part of the jump is the mix of companies that sold that year. A seller should not price a 2026 listing at 2.4x because 2025 did. A buyer should expect a seller to have read the 2025 headline.
Cross-check
08Four routes to the median, and all four read high
Multiply the median earnings or revenue by a median or average multiple and you get four readings of what the typical company is worth. In cleaning all four land above the $260,000 median sale, by 5.0 to 16.7 percent. The revenue route with the median multiple lands closest.
| Route | Calculation | Result | Against the $260,000 median sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median earnings x median earnings multiple | $136,326 x 2.07 | $282,195 | +8.5% |
| Median earnings x average earnings multiple | $136,326 x 2.19 | $298,554 | +14.8% |
| Median revenue x median revenue multiple | $433,327 x 0.63 | $272,996 | +5.0% |
| Median revenue x average revenue multiple | $433,327 x 0.70 | $303,329 | +16.7% |
| Observed median sale price | reported directly | $260,000 | n/a |
Computed here from published medians and multiples. Averages of ratios sit above ratios of medians because a minority of large companies sell above the upper quartile, which is why the average-multiple rows read highest. The median sale divided by the median SDE, 1.91x, is below the median multiple because the medians of price and earnings come from different companies.
Sector comparison
09Cleaning against sixteen other service businesses
Cleaning sits in the lower third of the service set on its earnings multiple and right on the all-service average for margin, 31.5 percent against 32.3. About the same money, $260,000 against $250,000, buys $136,326 of cleaning earnings but $76,560 at a laundromat, because a laundromat runs largely without its owner and a cleaning company does not.
| Service category | Median revenue | Average revenue multiple | Median SDE | Average SDE multiple | Owner margin | Median sale | Median ask | Sale to ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funeral homes | $750,000 | 1.67x | $318,000 | 4.28x | 42.4% | $1,500,000 | $1,800,000 | 0.85 |
| Laundromats and coin laundries | $219,878 | 1.33x | $76,560 | 3.65x | 34.8% | $250,000 | $275,000 | 0.92 |
| Medical billing businesses | $614,000 | 1.24x | $180,000 | 3.63x | 29.3% | $500,000 | $599,000 | 1.01 |
| Waste management and recycling | $710,000 | 0.95x | $176,635 | 3.31x | 24.9% | $525,000 | $625,000 | 0.91 |
| Commercial laundry businesses | $198,000 | 1.25x | $112,000 | 2.83x | 56.6% | $250,000 | $269,000 | 0.92 |
| Staffing agencies | $1,306,129 | 0.65x | $301,147 | 2.74x | 23.1% | $670,000 | $725,000 | 0.90 |
| Security businesses | $862,943 | 0.85x | $241,687 | 2.73x | 28.0% | $750,000 | $750,000 | 0.89 |
| Property management businesses | $565,658 | 0.93x | $167,000 | 2.70x | 29.5% | $397,500 | $425,000 | 0.94 |
| All service businesses | $455,000 | 0.86x | $146,927 | 2.62x | 32.3% | $325,000 | $350,000 | 0.92 |
| Architecture and engineering firms | $1,090,000 | 0.74x | $332,171 | 2.59x | 30.5% | $742,000 | $800,000 | 0.90 |
| Landscaping and yard service | $708,412 | 0.70x | $187,761 | 2.46x | 26.5% | $425,000 | $450,000 | 0.93 |
| Pest control businesses | $263,597 | 0.99x | $124,184 | 2.40x | 47.1% | $249,000 | $277,000 | 0.91 |
| Locksmith businesses | $550,776 | 0.70x | $166,567 | 2.36x | 30.2% | $300,000 | $300,000 | 0.94 |
| Cleaning and janitorial businesses | $433,327 | 0.70x | $136,326 | 2.19x | 31.5% | $260,000 | $295,000 | 0.92 |
| Dry cleaners | $360,000 | 0.76x | $132,513 | 2.09x | 36.8% | $250,000 | $275,000 | 0.93 |
| Catering companies | $931,891 | 0.44x | $212,204 | 2.00x | 22.8% | $332,500 | $442,500 | 0.87 |
| Legal services and law firms | $921,000 | 0.72x | $281,411 | 1.96x | 30.6% | $500,000 | $575,000 | 0.90 |
Source: BizBuySell service business valuation benchmark comparison, 2021 to 2025, as published on the cleaning and janitorial page. Owner margin (median SDE over median revenue) computed here. Ordered by average SDE multiple.
Find your row
10What a cleaning company at your earnings is worth
Each row takes an earnings level from the sold record and prices it at the lower quartile, median and upper quartile multiple, next to what an SBA buyer drawing $80,000 a year could finance.
| Owner earnings (SDE) | At 1.57x | At 2.07x | At 2.66x | SBA-supportable, $80,000 draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $81,740 (lower quartile sold) | $128,332 | $169,202 | $217,428 | $9,552 |
| $135,017 (2025 median sold) | $211,977 | $279,485 | $359,145 | $302,022 |
| $136,326 (median sold) | $214,032 | $282,195 | $362,627 | $309,208 |
| $199,000 (average sold) | $312,430 | $411,930 | $529,340 | $653,264 |
| $232,721 (upper quartile sold) | $365,372 | $481,732 | $619,038 | $838,379 |
Computed here. Business value before any real estate. SBA column on the same terms as section 02. Illustrative arithmetic, not a loan offer.
The bottom row of the market is where financing breaks. A company earning $81,740 leaves almost nothing after an $80,000 salary, so it sells to a buyer who keeps a day job, already owns a cleaning company and wants the accounts, or pays mostly cash. From the median up, the loan supports more than the upper quartile price. If your numbers sit between rows, the estimator at the top of the page will place them, and our SDE multiples by industry page shows where cleaning sits across the whole market.
Methods
11The five ways a cleaning company gets valued
You will meet all five in a cleaning sale. A competitor buying accounts counts months of billing, a lender counts earnings, and a private equity backed consolidator counts EBITDA. Knowing which one the other side is using is most of the negotiation.
Seller discretionary earnings multiple
The primary method for an owner-run cleaning company. Normalized SDE times a multiple between about 1.57x and 2.66x, where half of all 797 sales landed. It is what a lender underwrites, because SDE is what pays the acquisition loan.
Revenue multiple
Cleaning companies sold at a median 0.63x revenue and an average of 0.70x. Use it as a cross-check only: margins in this trade run from under 20 percent for a labor-heavy janitorial book to over 40 percent for a small owner-cleaned route, so the same revenue can be worth twice as much.
Multiple of monthly contract billing
Janitorial buyers often talk in months of billing for a book of accounts. It is the revenue multiple split by account, and it only means something once you know which accounts are under a signed, assignable contract and how many cancelled last year.
EBITDA multiple
Once a company has supervisors and an office manager and the owner no longer cleans, buyers switch to EBITDA. Breakwater M&A quotes 4x to 6x EBITDA for established commercial companies with contracts at $5 million to $15 million of revenue.
Asset value
The floor. Vans, floor machines, carpet extractors, supplies and software at depreciated value. In a business this light on equipment, the floor sits far below the earnings value and rarely matters to the price.
Questions
Cleaning business valuation questions, answered against the sold record
How much is my cleaning business worth?
The median US cleaning and janitorial business sold between 2021 and 2025 went for $260,000, on median revenue of $433,327 and median owner earnings of $136,326, across 797 sales. That is about 1.9 times owner earnings and 0.60 times revenue on the reported medians. Half of all sales landed between 1.57x and 2.66x owner earnings.
How do you value a cleaning business?
Start from normalized seller discretionary earnings: net profit plus owner salary, owner benefits, interest, depreciation and one-time costs. Apply a multiple between about 1.57x and 2.66x, higher for larger companies with signed, assignable commercial contracts. Cross-check against revenue, where the median was 0.63x, and against what a financed buyer can borrow.
What is the average multiple for a cleaning business?
Cleaning and janitorial businesses sold at an average of 2.19 times seller discretionary earnings and a median of 2.07 times, with a lower quartile of 1.57x and an upper quartile of 2.66x. On revenue the average was 0.70x and the median 0.63x. The yearly average earnings multiple rose from 2.01x in 2021 to 2.30x in 2025.
Is a janitorial business profitable?
Yes, at owner-operator scale. The median cleaning business sold on BizBuySell kept $136,326 of owner earnings on $433,327 of revenue, a 31.5 percent owner margin, close to the 32.3 percent for all service businesses. That margin includes the owner working in the business; hire a supervisor at the national median wage and it falls to about 19 percent.
What is the profit margin of a cleaning business?
The five-year median owner margin, meaning seller discretionary earnings over revenue, was 31.5 percent. Yearly medians stayed between 28.5 percent in 2022 and 33.8 percent in 2021, one of the steadiest margins among the service businesses we track. Margin after paying a manager is lower; see the labor table on this page.
How long does it take to sell a cleaning business?
The median cleaning business that sold spent 165 days on the market, faster than dry cleaners at 190 and landscaping companies at 182, slower than pest control at 109. That counts only businesses that sold. Contract assignments and customer consents can push the closing date after the price is agreed.
Do cleaning businesses sell for the asking price?
Closer than most. The average sale to ask ratio was 0.92, and the median listed earnings multiple of 2.22x sits only 6.8 percent above the 2.07x median sold multiple, the narrowest gap of the seven sectors compared on this page. Most of it is negotiation, about 8 percent off the asking price.
Can you get an SBA loan to buy a cleaning business?
Usually, yes. At 10 years, 10.5 percent, 1.25x coverage and 10 percent down, the median $136,326 of owner earnings supports about $309,208 if the buyer draws $80,000 a year, above the $260,000 median price. The exception is a cleaning business that does not own the contracts it services, which the SBA rules call ineligible.
Are commercial cleaning contracts transferable?
It depends on the contract. In a stock purchase the contracts stay with the company, although some have change-of-control clauses. In an asset purchase each contract must be assigned, and many require the customer to consent. Many cleaning agreements can also be cancelled on short notice, so read the termination clause before you price the account.
How much does a cleaning business valuation cost?
A formal business valuation commonly runs $1,500 to $8,000 for a calculation engagement and $5,000 to $15,000 for a full conclusion of value. On a $260,000 cleaning company that is 0.58 to 3.08 percent of the sale price for a calculation and 1.92 to 5.77 percent for a full report.
Asked another way
What cleaning company owners and buyers ask when they are deciding
These come up once the numbers are understood and the decision is the real problem, whether that is making an offer, reading a listing or choosing when to sell. Answered against the same sold record.
Is a cleaning company listed at 2.2 times earnings a fair price?
Usually close to fair. Sold cleaning businesses traded at a median 2.07x and an upper quartile of 2.66x, and the median listing asks 2.22x. The multiple matters less than the earnings under it: confirm the owner earnings in the bank deposits and tax returns, and check how much of them is the owner cleaning.
Should I buy a janitorial franchise or an independent cleaning company?
Start with who owns the customer contracts. In an independent company they sit in the company name and transfer with it. In some janitorial franchise systems the regional master franchise holds them, and the SBA treats that model as ineligible. Breakwater quotes 2x to 3.5x SDE for residential franchise brands.
Are commercial cleaning accounts worth more than residential?
Usually, when they are under signed contracts that can be assigned. Buyers pay for predictable monthly billing, and Breakwater puts companies with 80 percent or more of revenue from recurring commercial contracts at premium multiples. A residential book with strong retention can be worth as much per dollar of earnings, but it is harder to prove.
What happens to the value if the largest client leaves after the sale?
The price is usually set before you find out, so protect it in the contract. Buyers use an earnout tied to retention, a seller note that the seller forgives or reduces if named accounts leave, or a holdback. Breakwater flags any single customer above 15 percent of revenue as a concentration risk.
Do I need a formal appraisal or is an estimate enough?
An estimate is enough to set an asking range or decide whether a listing deserves an offer. A formal appraisal is needed for a partner buyout, estate or gift tax filings, litigation, and an SBA loan on a purchase above $350,000 under the rules effective October 1, 2026. At the $260,000 median, the lender may value the company itself.
Benchmarks behind the estimate
Buying or selling a cleaning company
Find out where in the range a cleaning company sits
Enter revenue and owner earnings, for your own company or for a listing you are considering, and read a value range against real cleaning and janitorial sales. An educational estimate in a few minutes, before you pay a broker or an appraiser.