Moving Company Valuation Template

Work through the Operations Profile sheet carefully before applying any multiple. Crew utilization, claims ratio, and customer concentration are the three metrics that will most directly affect where your operation falls in the multiple range — a claims ratio above 3% of revenue or a single corporate account representing more than 25% of total annual revenue will trigger hard questions from any experienced buyer and will compress the multiple they're willing to pay. Calculate your referral and repeat business percentage by reviewing the last two to three years of new customer sources: a business where 40–50% of new jobs come from past customer referrals and repeat relocations is significantly more defensible than one where most new business comes from paid lead generation, because the referral channel transfers with the business and the paid leads require ongoing marketing spend to sustain.

The factors that move a moving company to the top of its multiple range are consistent across company sizes. Owner independence is the primary driver: a moving company where the owner handles daily dispatch, writes every estimate, and maintains all key commercial relationships personally is worth meaningfully less than one where trained office staff and a lead dispatcher handle daily operations under documented procedures. Buyers are acquiring a business, not hiring themselves into a job, and the cost of the owner's absence — whether from retirement, relocation, or simply stepping back — is the central risk they're pricing. Claims ratio is the second major driver: a clean safety and claims record reflects crew training quality, equipment maintenance discipline, and job selection practices, and it translates directly into lower insurance costs that a buyer will benefit from going forward. Revenue diversification matters at every scale — a company generating revenue across local residential, long-distance, and commercial moves with no single customer exceeding 15% of annual revenue is a substantially safer acquisition than one heavily dependent on a single corporate relocation contract.