Exit Planning for Trades Business Owners:
What Roofing, HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical Companies Need to Know Before They Sell

If you built your business with a truck, a crew, and a relentless work ethic, there’s a good chance no financial advisor has ever spoken to you in language that actually fits your business.

Most advisory firms are built around professional services clients — attorneys, doctors, tech founders. The trades get overlooked, not because there isn’t enormous value in a well-run roofing, HVAC, plumbing, or electrical company, but because most advisors simply don’t understand the business model well enough to have the conversation.

That’s a significant mistake, because right now, the trades are commanding more buyer interest, more capital, and more aggressive multiples than almost any other category of mid-market business in the country.

Private Equity Has Discovered the Trades, and the Numbers Are Striking

Here’s what’s actually happening in the market right now. in 2025, Blackstone paid approximately $2.5 billion for a residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical platform, a deal valued at roughly 18.5 times EBITDA.

The same year, Goldman Sachs Alternatives acquired a majority stake in another major home services platform at an implied multiple in the 17 to 20 times range.

These are not isolated outliers. Private equity add-on activity in HVAC services rose 88 percent year-over-year through mid-2025, and financial buyers now account for roughly half of all HVAC service transactions, up from about a third just a year earlier.

Roofing has seen a similar surge. The number of active private equity roofing platforms tripled from 17 at the start of 2023 to 56 by the end of 2024, and platform add-on deal counts climbed from 106 in 2023 to 134 in 2024. Construction services M&A overall hit 562 transactions in 2025, up over 18 percent year over year.

If you own a roofing, HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business generating between $5M and $50M in revenue, you are sitting in the middle of one of the most active acquisition markets in the country. The question is whether your business is actually positioned to capture the kind of premium multiple that this buyer interest can produce, or whether it’s positioned to sell at the bottom of the range.

Why the Multiple You Get Can Vary So Dramatically

This is the part most trades business owners haven’t fully internalized: the spread between a poorly prepared business and a well-prepared one, in the exact same industry, doing the exact same revenue, can be enormous.

Generic small business multiples sit in the 2x to 4x EBITDA range. Well-run roofing companies above $5M in revenue often land in the 6x to 8x range. HVAC companies, particularly those with strong recurring maintenance revenue and low owner dependency, have sold north of 10 times EBITDA, and the largest platform deals in the space have closed in the high teens. The difference between those numbers, on the exact same underlying revenue, can mean millions of dollars at the closing table.

One sell-side advisory firm that works specifically with roofing owners put it this way: on a business with $1.64 million in adjusted EBITDA, the difference between proper preparation and none at all was the difference between a $6.6 million sale and an $11.5 million sale. That’s a delta of nearly $5 million, produced by roughly $150,000 of preparation spend over 18 months.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s the entire difference between a good outcome and a life-changing one.

What Buyers in the Trades Are Actually Looking For

The specifics vary somewhat by trade, but the underlying factors that drive valuation across roofing, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical businesses are remarkably consistent.

Customer concentration

If any single customer, including insurance adjusters, property management companies, or general contractors, represents more than 15 to 20 percent of your revenue, buyers see risk. For commercial-heavy operations, the threshold is similar: no single customer above 10 percent, with the top five customers ideally below 30 percent combined. Cross that line and you’re looking at a real valuation discount, sometimes 15 to 30 percent or more.

Recurring revenue

Maintenance agreements, service contracts, and commercial maintenance arrangements are some of the most powerful value drivers in the trades right now. In HVAC, maintenance agreement customers convert to replacement sales at three to four times the rate of customers without an agreement. In commercial roofing, maintenance contract penetration in the 15 to 25 percent range is often the line that reclassifies a contractor from a storm-chasing operation into a true commercial service business, and that distinction alone can move the multiple into a meaningfully higher band.

Owner dependency

This is the factor that trips up more trades owners than any other. If you are still the one running every commercial estimate, leading install crews personally, or the only person clients trust to call, a buyer isn’t acquiring a scalable business. They’re acquiring a job with your name on it. Buyers want to see an owner who is in management, with a team handling estimating, operations, and client relationships independently.

Financial statement quality

Buyers will adjust your EBITDA for owner compensation above market rate, one-time expenses, and any personal expenses run through the business. Clean, professionally prepared financials, with three to five years of consistent, defensible numbers, are what allow a buyer to trust the adjusted EBITDA figure your multiple gets applied to.

Crew depth and retention

With over 92 percent of construction companies reporting difficulty finding qualified workers, a stable, tenured crew is increasingly viewed as a defensible asset in its own right. Foreman tenure, safety record, and low turnover all factor into how a sophisticated buyer evaluates risk in your operation.

This Is Exactly the Work We Do at Portus

Every one of those factors (owner dependency, customer concentration, financial statement quality, recurring revenue) is the same work we help business owners address well before they ever go to market, regardless of industry. The trades aren’t a special exception to good exit planning. They’re simply an industry where the gap between unprepared and prepared owners shows up in the numbers more dramatically than almost anywhere else, because buyer interest is so intense right now.

Our Founder’s Final Act framework covers the full process of preparing a business and an owner for a successful transition, from the financial audit through deal structure. Our work in business succession planning addresses owner dependency directly, building the management depth that buyers in this market are actively paying a premium for.

Why the Right Advisor Combination Matters for Trades Business Owners

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve probably never had a financial advisor talk to you about EBITDA multiples, customer concentration thresholds, or commercial maintenance contract penetration. That’s not an accident. Most advisors aren’t equipped to have this conversation, because most advisors are generalists, often working on a commission structure that has nothing to do with whether your business sells for 4x or 8x EBITDA.

At Portus, the team you’d work with brings a combination of credentials specifically built for this conversation. William Bissett, founder of Portus, holds both a CFP, the foundational credential for comprehensive financial planning, and a CEPA, the Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation focused specifically on the mechanics of a successful business transition: valuation, deal structure, succession, and the personal transition that comes with stepping away from a business you built. John Sanders hold the CFP and a CVGA, Certified Value Growth Advisor, and focuses on the work that happens before the transaction conversation even starts, systematically growing what your business is worth in the years leading up to a sale.

And every recommendation made at Portus comes from a fee-only fiduciary standard. We don’t earn commissions on products. We don’t have an incentive to steer you toward a particular investment or insurance product because it pays us more. The only thing driving our recommendations is what’s actually best for you and your business.

That combination (comprehensive financial planning, specialized exit planning expertise, dedicated value growth methodology, and a fee-only fiduciary standard) is rare for a business owner to find in one firm. It’s a very different conversation than the one you’ll have with a generalist advisor trying to get you into a Roth IRA without ever asking what your roofing or HVAC business is actually worth, or what it could be worth with the right preparation.

A Practical Starting Point

If you’re a trades business owner generating between $5M and $50M in revenue and thinking about a transition in the next three to seven years, here’s where to start.

Get an honest, third-party valuation of your business as it stands today, not based on industry rumors or what a competitor reportedly sold for, but a real assessment based on your actual financials, customer concentration, and recurring revenue. Identify your specific owner dependency gaps and build a realistic timeline to close them. Review your risk management picture, since key person coverage and proper buy-sell agreements become critical the moment you’re in active deal discussions. And start the conversation about exit planning well before you intend to sell, since most of the value-building work described above takes two to four years to show up convincingly in your numbers.

The trades businesses capturing the premium multiples in today’s market are not the ones that decided to sell and then started preparing. They’re the ones that were already prepared when the right buyer showed up.

Ready to Start the Conversation?

Portus Wealth Advisors works with business owners throughout the Southeast and eastern seaboard, including roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other trades-based businesses generating between $5M and $50M in revenue who are beginning to think seriously about their financial future and what a transition might look like. Contact us today if any of this has raised any questions.

You can also download our free e-book below, Charting Your Exit, which features in-depth interviews with M&A specialists, attorneys, and successful founders who have navigated exactly this process.

Portus Wealth Advisors is a Charlotte, NC-based wealth management firm serving business owners throughout the Southeast and eastern seaboard. We specialize in integrated financial planning for business owners/founders, executives, and retirees navigating growth, transition, and legacy.