Architecture & Engineering Business Valuation Benchmarks

Business owners, prospective buyers, and industry investors rely on a diverse set of financial benchmarks to assess the value of a business. We have compiled data from current BizBuySell listings and sold businesses to provide insight into the business for sale market and important benchmarks for pricing and evaluating architecture and engineering companies relative to industry standards.

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Highlights of Architecture & Engineering Firms Sold on BizBuySell

Architecture and engineering firms listed and sold on BizBuySell are private service businesses engaging in professional design, planning, and technical services tailored to the construction and development sectors. These companies operate by offering services that may include architectural design, structural engineering, HVAC and plumbing systems engineering, mechanical and electrical systems planning, environmental consulting, and construction oversight.

Architecture & Engineering Business Transaction Trends

The median sale price of engineering and architecture firms sold on BizBuySell peaked in 2022, then fell through 2024, bringing the trailing five-year growth to just under 9% - less than half the market average of 23%

Architecture & Engineering Firm Valuation Multiples

Valuation, or pricing, multiples are financial tools that allow for comparisons between businesses that have different levels of sales and financial performance. They represent the sales price of a business relative to its revenue or earnings, and given enough individual business sales data, they represent what the market is willing to pay for a business given its revenue and earnings.

Valuation Trends

Business values and associated multiples fluctuate over time, influenced by a variety of macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, consumer spending, and overall economic growth. Valuation multiples of architecture and engineering firms are much more consistent year-to-year compared to most other service or construction businesses. Average revenue and earnings multiples of these businesses followed the broader market trends, rising in 2021 as cheap money entered the economy, then fell slightly as interest rates rose to combat inflation, coming back up above average in 2024.

Earnings Multiples

Earnings multiples represent the value of a business relative to its owner’s discretionary earnings or "cash flow". Arguably the most important valuation metric - as seller's discretionary earnings will often dictate how much a buyer is able to borrow to finance the business acquisition - business valuations often hinge on the earnings multiple.

Revenue Multiples

Revenue multiples represent the value of a business relative to its overall sales or revenue. In conjunction with an earnings analysis, revenue multiples are commonly used to value a business based on its overall sales.

How to Interpret These Multiples

Recent Listings vs. Sold Businesses

We calculate and provide valuation multiples from two sources: Current and recent listings of architecture and engineering firms for sale, and our database of "comparable" businesses sold on BizBuySell. Multiples based on listing data are always higher due to owners setting asking prices above what their businesses might typically sell for. This occurs either intentionally as a negotiation strategy, or incidentally due to business owners’ common tendency to overvalue their own businesses.

Multiples based on comparable businesses - "comps" in business broker parlance - are much more useful as they represent the prices at which businesses ultimately get sold. Business brokers and valuation professionals will always turn to local comps when pricing businesses for sale or evaluating businesses for acquisition. We provide both sets of data at the national level to offer general context.

Quartiles, Median, and Average

No two businesses are identical, and as such, valuation multiples exist in a range. We have carved out four common values within this range: Lower quartile represents the value under which the lowest 25% of valuation multiples fell. Upper quartile represents the value above which the highest 25% of multiples fell. Median is the middle of the range, and average is the mean of the set. Mean is almost always higher than the median, driven by a minority of high volume, high value businesses sold at multiples above the upper quartile.

Businesses with consistent financial performance, above average revenue and earnings, demonstrable growth potential, low owner involvement, unique competitive advantages, and a seller willing to finance will command a multiple at or above the upper quartile. Lower volume businesses with thin profit margins, full-time owner involvement, and many direct competitors will trade at or below the lower quartile. Most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle.

Based on this data, half of architecture and engineering firms are valued and sold between 1.61 and 3.01 times their annual seller discretionary earnings, with 25% of exceptional, higher volume companies trading above this range, and 25% of the smaller, less desirable firms trading below.

Financial Benchmarks

To determine how a business compares in terms of sales volume and financial performance relative to industry peers, it’s necessary to have some insight into industry standards. "Benchmarking" describes the practice of comparing a business’s financial performance to typical industry standards to determine where a business falls relative to other businesses in the same industry. These benchmarks can help guide business owners and investors towards appropriate valuation multiples from the range above.

To that end, we have aggregated architecture and engineering business financial ranges useful for comparing a given firm to the broader market.

Architecture and Engineering Business Revenue and Earnings Trends

Median reported revenue of architecture and engineering companies sold on BizBuySell has been consistently growing since the pre-pandemic years. More recently, median revenue surged in 2022, before retreating in 2023 and levelling off in 2024, for a five-year improvement of 18%.

Median discretionary earnings, on the other hand, has been much more consistent, growing only 5% over the five-year period analyzed.

Earnings Ranges

Discretionary earnings (used interchangeably with the terms "cash flow" and seller's discretionary earnings or SDE) is often the crux of business valuations, so it is important to benchmark it relative to other similar businesses traded on the business for sale market. Below you will find discretionary earnings ranges of architecture and engineering companies sold over the past five years, as well as recent business for sale listings.

Revenue Ranges

Revenue volume plays a large role in business valuation, as it measures the size of the potential income opportunity for new ownership. It's not uncommon for buyers to select an earnings multiple range based on overall revenue volume. The table below includes revenue ranges of architecture and engineering firms sold over the past five years as well as recent companies listed for sale.

How Revenue and Earnings Level Affects Business Values

Obviously, higher levels of earnings lead to higher valuations, even given the same multiple. However, valuation multiples also tend to rise with business sales volume. Architecture and engineering firms that generate higher sales (and maintain reasonable profit margins) tend to sell for earnings multiples on the higher end. So, an engineering firm generating over $2MM in revenue may command an earnings multiple above 3, while a smaller business with sales below $700k may trade below 1.6 times its discretionary earnings.

This tendency for higher sales volumes to fetch higher valuation multiples is largely driven by the economics of business acquisition financing. Businesses with greater revenue and earnings give buyers more cushion to cover debt service obligations and still have enough left over to pay the new owner a reasonable income.

Service Sector Comparisons

For a more complete understanding of the market and valuation standards, consider comparisons within the broader service sector when benchmarking architecture and engineering companies for sale. The chart and table below include key metrics from sales of common service businesses sold on BizBuySell.

Among service businesses, architecture and engineering firms tend to get discounted relative to their earning potential. This is likely due to the expertise required to operate them. Often times, a successful acquisition can only be made by an experience engineer or architect, thereby limiting the pool of potential suitors.

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