Local transaction data
The highest multiples in the state, and the hardest bargaining
We looked at over 800 closed business sales in Miami-Dade County recorded over the past decade.
| Annual revenue | Median multiple |
|---|---|
| Under $500,000 | 1.95× SDE |
| $500,000 – $1M | 2.03× SDE |
| $1M – $2M | 2.24× SDE |
| $2M – $5M | 2.79× SDE |
| Above $5M | 3.10× SDE |
At $2M of revenue and above the median reached 2.91×, on a median sale price of $1.6 million. That is the highest figure in our analysis—ahead of Duval, Broward, Palm Beach, and every Gulf Coast county.
Look at the bottom of the table too. Miami’s under-$500,000 band recorded 1.95×, where most Florida counties sit between 1.47× and 1.69×. Even small businesses transact higher here, which reflects how much capital is competing for them.
The counterweight is the buyer. Miami buyers are experienced, well advised, and unsentimental. A business priced on hope sits; a business priced defensibly sells well.
By category, manufacturing recorded 2.59× across a solid sample and insurance agencies 2.55×—the trade and financial-services economy showing up directly in the sale record.
Miami-Dade
A gateway economy, not a Florida one
Miami-Dade is the most internationally connected economy in the state and functions as the gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, driving outsized activity in trade, finance, tourism, and real estate. The county holds over 126,000 businesses—more than Broward and Palm Beach combined—and professional, scientific and technical services was its fastest-growing sector in recent years.
Trade, transportation and utilities alongside education and health services are the two largest employment sectors. The financial and technology influx that followed 2020 has moved from arrival to entrenchment: firms that opened here are now hiring for retention rather than headcount, and the county’s economic development agency recorded a year in which relocating and expanding companies committed to over a million square feet and thousands of jobs at an average salary near $97,000, with technology, life sciences, financial services and logistics leading.
For a business owner the practical read is this: the customer base, the labour pool, and the buyer pool are all more international than anywhere else in Florida, and all three affect how a sale runs.
The local deal problem
When the buyer is not American
Cross-border buyers are ordinary in Miami in a way they are not elsewhere in the state. That is generally good news—it deepens the buyer pool and often brings cash rather than SBA financing, which removes a financing contingency and can shorten the path to closing.
It does change the process. Three things reliably come up:
- Structure and entity questions. A foreign acquirer’s tax position shapes whether they want assets or equity, and which entity acquires. That interacts directly with your own tax outcome, so it needs to be on the table before a letter of intent rather than after.
- Timeline. Cross-border diligence, funds movement, and approvals can run longer than a domestic process. Sellers who plan for a domestic timetable and get an international buyer often feel the deal is drifting when it is simply following a different clock.
- Proof of funds, early. With international buyers, verifying capacity at the outset matters more than usual. It is the single most effective filter for keeping a confidential process tight.
None of this is a reason to prefer a domestic buyer. It is a reason to run the process with advisors who expect the question rather than meet it for the first time at diligence.
Buyers and process
Who is competing for Miami businesses
International and Latin American acquirers, often family offices or operating groups seeking a US foothold. Private equity, now present in strength across services, healthcare, and logistics. National strategics in distribution and manufacturing buying access to the trade corridor. And a deep bench of individual buyers, many of them recent arrivals with capital.
That density is why Miami multiples run high and why asking prices get tested. It is a market where a competitive process genuinely produces competition—and where going to market unprepared is punished quickly.
We work Miami engagements remotely for the analytical and negotiation stages, travelling for site visits and management meetings, which is standard at this deal size regardless of advisor.
What we sell in Miami
FAQ
Selling a business in Miami: common questions
Why do Miami businesses sell for higher multiples but closer to a discount on asking?
Because the buyer pool is deep and sophisticated. More capital chasing established businesses lifts the multiple; more experienced buyers also run longer diligence and test terms harder. Miami recorded the strongest multiple at $2M of revenue and above of any Florida county we analyse, at 2.88×, and Southeast Florida as a region leads the state above $1M of owner earnings at 3.12×.
Can a foreign buyer acquire my business?
Usually yes, and in Miami it is common. What changes is the process: financing is more often cash or offshore-backed rather than SBA, the diligence timetable can run longer, and the deal structure needs to account for cross-border tax and entity questions on both sides. It is worth establishing a buyer’s structure early, because it affects timeline more than price.
Does my business need Spanish-language operations to be attractive here?
Not as a requirement, but a bilingual workforce and a customer base that reflects the market are genuine assets to a buyer planning to keep the business running as it is. Where an owner personally handles all Spanish-language client relationships, that is a transferability question like any other key-person issue.
Is Miami a hard market to sell in?
It is a demanding one rather than a difficult one. Diligence runs longer here and terms are tested harder than almost anywhere in Florida, which means pricing has to be defensible from the outset. In exchange, established businesses reach multiples the rest of the state does not.
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