Did you know that there are about a zillion smaller construction firms for sale around the country? I've never enjoyed shopping, even if I was at Academy growing up or at Home Depot now that I am adulting full time. I do like window shopping small construction businesses though.
Revenue is usually in the $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 range. Profit (owner cash flow) is usually between 5% and 20%. As a construction nerd, seeing how small businesses are run is very interesting. I like to compare see how the compare the mostly large builders I've worked for. Some companies are hyper focused and make really good owner cash flow. A better small business might do $3,000,000 or so a year in revenue and provide the owner with close to $800,000 in cash flow at the end of the year. I also find the valuation of these businesses interesting. They are usually a multiple (3x to 5X) of the average of the last few years of owner cash flow. This can go up or down depending on how much backlog and equipment/assets come with the sale of a business. One thing that is pretty common with these smaller businesses is shaky construction and accounting processes. They can be down right terrifying to a guy with over a decade of experience working within structured project and corporate business requirements and practices.
If you're bored or curious about how some of the smaller subs and vendors in your supply chain might work, you can find construction related businesses for sale on several websites. One that is pretty good is BizBuySell.
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