REVENUE → EBITDA → VALUE
How much is a business with $5 million in revenue worth?
Revenue alone cannot answer it. At a 20% normalized EBITDA margin, the company produces $1,000,000 of EBITDA. Current source-consistent size references imply $4M or $5.8M of enterprise value.
Change the marginCHANGE THE ECONOMICS
Make the revenue useful.
We record use—not the margin or EBITDA amount.
$1,000,000 normalized EBITDA
$1,000,000 × 4.0× EBITDA
$2M–$5M reported value bandIBBA / M&A Source Market Pulse · Q2 2026
$1,000,000 × 5.8× EBITDA
$5M–$50M reported value bandIBBA / M&A Source Market Pulse · Q2 2026
Each multiple appears only when its calculated enterprise value fits the source tier it came from. Multiple results describe separate buyer markets—not a confidence interval.
SAME REVENUE · DIFFERENT EARNINGS
What the margin changes before the multiple.
Each row calculates normalized EBITDA first, then keeps only the reported size tiers whose own enterprise-value bands fit the result.
$2M
Source-consistent enterprise-value references
$4M · $5.8M
Source-consistent enterprise-value references
$8.7M
Source-consistent enterprise-value references
WHAT CHANGES HERE
$5M of revenue can still describe very different businesses.
At a 10% EBITDA margin, the company generates $500,000 of EBITDA; at 30%, it generates $1.5 million. Buyers underwrite that earnings difference, plus recurring revenue, concentration, management depth, capital needs, and transferability—not the revenue milestone by itself.
MAKE THE ANSWER COMPANY-SPECIFIC
Three checks before treating the result as yours.
Normalize EBITDA
Reconcile reported operating income to defensible EBITDA and keep market-rate management compensation in the earnings.
Reconcile adjustmentsMatch the buyer market
Broader lower-middle-market and PE-backed platform transactions are distinct sources with different deal sizes and buyer universes.
Compare all size tiersBridge EV to proceeds
Debt, cash, working capital, fees, rollover, financing, earnouts, and taxes determine what a seller may receive.
Model proceedsCOMPARE THE REVENUE LADDER
What another revenue milestone maps to.
SOURCE CONTRACT
Current public market tiers. No private transaction exposed.
The broader lower-middle-market references come from the IBBA/M&A Source Market Pulse Q2 2026. PE-backed size and industry references come from GF Data’s report through Q3 2025. We preserve EBITDA, value band, period, and buyer universe; we do not apply a universal revenue multiple, blend sources into a midpoint, or expose individual transactions.
COMMON QUESTIONS
$5M revenue valuation, without the shortcut.
How much is a business with $5 million in revenue worth?
Revenue alone cannot determine value. At a 20% normalized EBITDA margin, $5 million of revenue produces $1,000,000 of EBITDA; current source-consistent company-size references imply $4,000,000 or $5,800,000 of enterprise value. The answer changes when normalized EBITDA margin, industry, buyer universe, growth, recurrence, concentration, management, and capital needs change.
Why not apply a revenue multiple?
Revenue does not show how much operating earnings the company produces. Two companies with identical sales but very different margins, capital needs, or customer risk are not economically equivalent. This page converts revenue and margin into normalized EBITDA before testing market references.
Are the displayed values a valuation range?
No. Each value is a separate calculation from a reported market tier or industry universe. The page includes a result only when it fits that source’s own reported enterprise-value band.
Is enterprise value what the seller receives?
No. Seller equity value and closing proceeds require adjustments for debt, cash, normalized working capital, transaction costs, rollover, seller financing, earnouts, and taxes.