Free Agency Valuation
Fifteen questions on revenue, profit, operations, and risk. You get a personalised valuation range, a read on the 8 levers buyers actually pay for, and a PDF report inside 24 hours.
Your AI-powered report includes strategic recommendations specific to your numbers. Where your multiple is being held back. Which lever moves it furthest, fastest. Worth doing whether you ever sell or not.
Total founder or director compensation including salary, dividends, and benefits.
Net profit after salaries, overheads, and your compensation.
Revenue minus direct costs (contractors, freelancers, software).
Could someone new follow your systems without guidance?
If you completely disconnected, would things continue?
Client concentration is a key risk factor for buyers.
Growth trajectory is a top-three factor for acquirers.
You'll receive a personalised Agency Valuation Report with AI-powered strategic insights within 24 hours.
We'll email your personalised Agency Valuation Report to within 24 hours.
The report covers your valuation range, your score across the 8 value levers, your risk profile, and AI-generated strategic moves specific to your numbers.
How it works
Most UK agencies sell on adjusted EBITDA, not revenue. A buyer wants to know what profit your agency generates after paying a market-rate replacement for the founder, and after stripping out owner perks, one-off costs, and accounting choices that flatter the bottom line. That number, multiplied by a sector-appropriate multiple, is what you can expect to be offered.
Three valuation methods a buyer might apply. In the UK SME agency market, only one of them matters in practice.
3x to 6x
The dominant method for agencies between £300K and £5M revenue. Net profit, plus founder compensation above market rate, plus exceptional one-offs, minus the cost of replacing your operational role with an MD on market salary. Multiplied by a sector multiple. Specialists land at the top end of the range.
0.7x to 1.2x
Sometimes used as a cross-check, or when EBITDA is thin or volatile. Buyers fall back on this when adjusted EBITDA does not yet support a strong multiple.
Bespoke
Used by sophisticated buyers (private equity, family offices) for larger deals. Rare below £2M revenue. Requires forecasts the buyer trusts, which an agency without monthly management accounts cannot defend.
The calculator above uses the adjusted EBITDA methodology because that is what most actual UK agency deals settle on. The valuation range it returns reflects the multiple buyers tend to apply based on the business health questions you answered.
The 8 levers
Two agencies with identical revenue and identical net profit can sell for double or half of each other. The difference is operational quality. Buyers price the risk of your earnings as much as the size of them. These are the eight levers. The calculator scores most of them directly.
If the business cannot run for 30 days without you, the multiple drops. Buyers price founder dependency as a key-person risk.
Stable EBITDA margins above 15% across a three-year track record support stronger multiples than a lumpy 35-then-5 pattern.
The single biggest multiple-mover. An agency at 60% retainers is valued like a small consultancy. An agency at 10% is valued like a project shop.
If your largest client is more than 25% of revenue, buyers discount the multiple. Above 40%, many buyers walk.
Documented processes, SOPs, project templates and quality controls turn delivery into an asset the buyer can replicate.
A real management layer able to make decisions without the founder is one of the strongest multiple drivers, and the lever most founders ignore until late.
A clear ICP, a defined sales process and predictable conversion rates make pipeline a forecastable asset. Referral-only is valued lower.
Monthly management accounts, accurate WIP, clean payables and receivables. Reliable numbers. Without them, diligence drives down-revisions.
You'll score well on two or three of these and weakly on the rest. The work of becoming Exit Ready is closing your weakest three over 12 to 36 months.
UK 2026 benchmarks
Headline ranges from completed UK deals. Your multiple lands inside the relevant range based on how the 8 levers above score.
3-4x
Under £1.5M revenue. Often with an earnout component.
4-6x
£1.5M to £5M revenue with a real management team.
5-7x
Niche, vertical, or capability specialism premium.
6-8x+
Productised technology lifts the agency into asset territory.
Most UK creative and digital agencies complete deals between 3.5x and 5x adjusted EBITDA. The ones hitting 6x and above have something exceptional: a dominant niche, recurring revenue above 60%, or proprietary technology.
For sector-by-sector multiples across professional services, SaaS, healthcare and manufacturing, read the full breakdown: EBITDA Multiples by Industry UK (2026).
Practical moves
Two agencies with the same adjusted EBITDA can sell at very different multiples depending on operational quality. Half a multiple of movement on a £400K EBITDA is £200K of enterprise value. A full multiple is £400K. These are the moves that shift it, ranked by how fast they pay back.
Faster wins
Convert your three best project clients to a monthly retainer with a 12-month term. Every percentage point of recurring revenue you add is a percentage point of stability the buyer prices in.
If your largest client is over 30% of revenue, deliberately decline the next scope expansion or backfill with new logos. Diversification protects the multiple even before you grow.
Replace year-end accounting with monthly P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow by the 15th of the following month. Reliable numbers shift you from "founder on instinct" to "business with reportable performance".
Onboarding, scoping, project kickoff, weekly delivery rhythm, invoicing. Even a Loom-and-Notion version moves you from key-person dependency toward a transferable system.
Longer plays
Hire or promote an account director, an ops lead, and a delivery lead. Buyers pay materially more for an agency where the founder is not in the decision chain on every account.
A defined deliverable, a fixed scope, a fixed price, repeatable delivery. Productisation lifts margins and makes pipeline forecastable.
Vertical or capability specialism (healthcare creative, fintech UX, eCommerce growth, B2B SaaS branding) supports premium pricing and premium multiples.
A content engine, a defined ICP, a sales process the founder is not in. Pipeline that does not depend on referrals is a transferable asset.
Pick the three weakest levers in your scorecard and close them over 12 months. That focused movement is what shifts a 3.5x agency into a 5x agency on the same EBITDA.
Worked example
A typical Exit Ready agency. Numbers rounded for readability.
Adjusted EBITDA = £320,000 + £200,000 − £120,000 = £400,000
Apply the multiple based on operational quality:
| Scenario | Multiple | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Weak on most value levers | 3x | £1,200,000 |
| Strong on 4 or 5 levers, recurring revenue and an actual management layer | 5x | £2,000,000 |
| Niche specialist, 60%+ retainer revenue, clean financials | 6x | £2,400,000 |
Three years of work moving from 3x to 5x is worth £800,000 of enterprise value on the same EBITDA. Most of that work is operational, not commercial. It is the boring stuff: hiring an MD, documenting processes, signing retainers, cleaning up the management accounts. Whether or not you ever sell.
FAQ
Most UK creative and digital agencies settle between 3x and 5x adjusted EBITDA. Below £1.5M revenue, expect 3x to 4x, often with an earnout component. Above £1.5M revenue with a real management team and recurring revenue, 4x to 6x is typical. Specialist or IP-led agencies can reach 6x to 8x. The multiple depends on the quality of your earnings, not just the size.
Because buyers pay for profit quality, not revenue. A £1M agency with thin margins, heavy founder dependency, and one dominant client can be worth less than a £600K agency with stable EBITDA, recurring revenue, and a real operations layer. The 8 value levers compound. Each weak lever is a discount on the multiple, not just a small adjustment.
Yes, partially. The fastest wins are recurring revenue (signing retainers), financial reporting (monthly management accounts) and client concentration (deliberately diversifying). Building a leadership layer or productising delivery takes longer. A focused 12-month push typically moves an agency up half a multiple. A 36-month push moves it a full multiple or more on the same EBITDA.
No. The same 8 value levers that make an agency valuable to a buyer are what make it profitable, less founder-dependent, and survivable for the founder. The calculator is as useful for benchmarking where you stand right now as it is for deciding when to sell. Whether you ever sell is a separate question.
The calculator uses a three-step adjusted EBITDA methodology. First, normalise EBITDA by adding founder compensation to net profit. Second, subtract the cost of replacing the founder's operational role. Third, apply a valuation multiple based on business health factors. The result is a valuation range reflecting how acquirers actually value creative agencies.
No. This is an indicative valuation based on self-reported data. It gives you a realistic estimate and highlights the key factors affecting your agency's value. For legal, financial, or transactional purposes, consult a professional business valuator or M&A adviser.
The calculator takes about 5 minutes to complete. Your personalised valuation report with AI-powered insights will be emailed to you within 24 hours.
Run the calculator
Fifteen questions. A valuation range, a read across the 8 levers, and a PDF report inside 24 hours.