{"id":51,"date":"2025-09-30T20:15:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/?p=51"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:39:06","slug":"post-4-how-agencies-are-valued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/","title":{"rendered":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ever wonder why one agency sells for 2\u00d7 EBITDA while another gets 8\u00d7?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s why: buyers don\u2019t just look at your revenue. They look at the quality of that revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Factors that influence valuation include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Profitability<\/strong> \u2013 healthy margins matter more than top-line revenue.<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Retention<\/strong> \u2013 do clients stay year after year, or churn quickly?<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Growth<\/strong> \u2013 is your revenue trending upward consistently?<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Niche<\/strong> \u2013 are you specialized in a valuable segment, or a generalist?<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Team &amp; Systems<\/strong> \u2013 can the business run without you?<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen two agencies, both doing $5M in revenue, sell for wildly different prices. One had sticky clients, strong margins, and a leadership team. The other had flat growth, founder dependency, and shaky books. The result? A 3\u00d7 multiple vs. a 7\u00d7 multiple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Valuation is math, but it\u2019s also storytelling. The story you can tell about your revenue, your clients, and your future potential matters just as much as the spreadsheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Which of these factors do you think your agency is strongest in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/contact.html\">Contact us <\/a>if you\u2019re and agency owner and have considered selling or joining something bigger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wonder why one agency sells for 2\u00d7 EBITDA while another gets 8\u00d7? Here\u2019s why: buyers don\u2019t just look at your revenue. They look at the quality of that revenue. Factors that influence valuation include: I\u2019ve seen two agencies, both doing $5M in revenue, sell for wildly different prices. One had sticky clients, strong margins, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued - Herringbone Digital Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued - Herringbone Digital Blog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Ever wonder why one agency sells for 2\u00d7 EBITDA while another gets 8\u00d7? Here\u2019s why: buyers don\u2019t just look at your revenue. They look at the quality of that revenue. Factors that influence valuation include: I\u2019ve seen two agencies, both doing $5M in revenue, sell for wildly different prices. One had sticky clients, strong margins, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued - Herringbone Digital Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued - Herringbone Digital Blog","twitter_description":"Ever wonder why one agency sells for 2\u00d7 EBITDA while another gets 8\u00d7? Here\u2019s why: buyers don\u2019t just look at your revenue. They look at the quality of that revenue. Factors that influence valuation include: I\u2019ve seen two agencies, both doing $5M in revenue, sell for wildly different prices. One had sticky clients, strong margins, [&hellip;]","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/"},"author":{"name":"herringbone","@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7316fda9199bd356f7e1c4d9685a87b5"},"headline":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued","datePublished":"2025-09-30T20:15:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-14T15:39:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/"},"wordCount":185,"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/","url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/","name":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued - Herringbone Digital Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-30T20:15:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-14T15:39:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7316fda9199bd356f7e1c4d9685a87b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/30\/post-4-how-agencies-are-valued\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Post #4 of 24 \u2013 How Agencies Are Valued"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/","name":"Herringbone Digital Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7316fda9199bd356f7e1c4d9685a87b5","name":"herringbone"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonedigital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}