💬 “I heard these sell for 3x.”

That’s what the broker said when the buyer offered $1.5M for a small commercial cleaning company.

But they didn’t:

• Normalize free cash flow
• Adjust for customer concentration
• Account for the aging fleet

Our valuation? $975K.

The deal almost blew up—but the buyer got a safer price, and the lender avoided overexposure.

📉 Rules of thumb ignore reality. Valuation should reflect actual risk.