Sell my restaurant

What restaurants sell for

Most independent restaurants get valued the same way other small businesses do: a measure of profit times a multiple. For owner-run spots, that profit figure is usually Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE): net profit plus your salary and personal add-backs. Larger groups with managers in place are sometimes valued on EBITDA instead, but for a single independent restaurant, SDE is the number that matters.

As an indicative range, restaurants tend to trade around 2.0–4.0x SDE. That spread is wide, and where you land depends a lot on the kind of business you've built. A single owner-operated location, where you're the one opening the door and running the line, sits toward the bottom. A multi-unit group or a recognized brand with managers who keep it running sits toward the top. One important note: if you own the building, the real estate is almost always valued separately from the business itself, on its own terms.

Business profile	Indicative multiple	Basis
Single owner-operated location, short lease or thin margins	~2.0x	SDE
Established single location, solid lease, manager-run	~2.5–3.0x	SDE
Multi-unit group or recognized brand, runs without owner	~3.0–4.0x	SDE

Indicative ranges for the business, not a valuation, and the real estate is valued separately. See our EBITDA & SDE multiples by industry report for the full breakdown, or run your numbers through the valuation calculator.

Who buys restaurants

The buyer pool for restaurants is wider than people expect, and the different buyers don't value your place the same way.

• Individual owner-operators. Plenty of buyers want to own and run a single restaurant, often a first-time owner or someone leaving a corporate kitchen. Many of them buy with SBA financing, which can open the door to a higher price but adds time and paperwork to the close.
• Existing operators adding a location. Someone already running one or two spots nearby will often buy to add capacity, a second concept, or a better location. They know the trade, so they can move fast, and they value a clean lease and a kitchen they can keep running.
• Small groups and franchisees. Regional restaurant groups and multi-unit franchisees buy to add density or pick up a proven concept. If your place fits their footprint or brand, they can be motivated.
• Multi-unit platforms. For larger or branded businesses, you'll see platforms and investor-backed groups acquiring whole brands or filling out a region. They pay for scale and for a concept that travels.

The practical takeaway: don't sell to the first person who walks in with cash. The only way to find out who values your restaurant most is to put it in front of several qualified buyers at once.

What drives a restaurant's price

Where you land in that 2.0–4.0x range comes down to a handful of things buyers look at hard.

• Location and lease. This is the big one for restaurants. A great location with a long, transferable lease at a sensible rent is worth real money. A short lease, a landlord who can block the transfer, or rent that's eating your margins will pull your price down fast, sometimes more than the food does.
• Multi-unit footprint. Two or three locations running on the same systems are worth more per dollar of earnings than a single spot, because the buyer sees a model that can repeat, not a one-off.
• Brand and reputation. A recognizable name, a loyal following, and strong reviews give a buyer something to build on. A concept that lives and dies on the current owner's personality is harder to sell.
• Margins and verifiable books. Food and labor costs that are under control, and financials a buyer can actually verify, hold their value through diligence. Cash that never made it onto the books can't be paid for, no matter how real it was.
• Owner dependence. If the restaurant runs on managers and documented systems, a buyer is purchasing a business. If you are the chef, the host, and the bookkeeper, they're buying a job, and they'll pay accordingly.
• Equipment and the liquor license. A well-maintained kitchen the buyer doesn't have to replace adds value. So does a liquor license, which in many areas is hard to get and transfers with real value attached. Both can swing a deal.

You can move several of these before you ever go to market. That's the idea behind building value before you sell. Locking in a longer lease, tightening your margins, and getting managers running shifts can shift your price meaningfully.

The lease and real-estate angle

For most restaurants, the lease is the deal. If you rent your space, the buyer is really buying your right to keep operating there, so the remaining term, the rent, the renewal options, and whether the landlord will approve an assignment all matter enormously. Sort this out early. A buyer who falls in love with your restaurant and then learns the lease has eighteen months left and no renewal will walk, or cut their offer.

If you own the building, you have a choice. You can sell the business and keep the real estate, then lease it back to the buyer for ongoing income, or you can sell both together. Either way, the property is valued on its own as real estate, separate from the 2.0–4.0x you'd apply to the business earnings. Many sellers come out ahead keeping the building and collecting rent, but it depends on your situation. This is exactly the kind of thing an advisor helps you structure.

The selling process and timeline

Selling a restaurant isn't one event. It's a process that, done right, takes most owners somewhere between four and nine months, sometimes longer if the buyer needs SBA financing. Here's the shape of it:

• Get a real valuation. Start with an honest number based on your actual financials and local comps, not a hopeful figure or what the place down the street supposedly sold for.
• Prepare. Clean up the books, confirm exactly where your lease stands and whether it can transfer, get your equipment and license paperwork in order, and document how the place runs.
• Go to market. An advisor packages the business, reaches out to qualified buyers confidentially so your staff and regulars don't catch wind of it, and runs a process so you're comparing offers rather than taking the only one.
• Negotiate and sign a letter of intent. You pick a buyer, agree on price and structure, and move into exclusivity.
• Diligence, lease transfer, and close. The buyer verifies the numbers, the landlord approves the assignment, the liquor license transfers, and any SBA financing clears. Then you close and get paid.

The single biggest thing that speeds all of this up is preparation, and for restaurants that means the lease and the books above all. A confirmed, transferable lease and financials a buyer can verify keep deals from stalling or dying in diligence.

You don't need to pay a big retainer to find out

A lot of owners assume hiring an M&A advisor means writing a fat retainer check before anyone's even valued the business. That's the old model, and it's not your only option. Plenty of capable advisory firms work on a success basis. They get paid when your deal closes, not before. That structure keeps everyone pointed at the same goal: closing your sale at a good price.

The hard part has always been figuring out which firms actually know food service, which ones close restaurant deals at your size, and which will take you on without a big upfront fee. That's the gap we built ProCloser to fill.

How ProCloser matches restaurant owners to vetted advisors

Tell us about your business: type of concept, single location or a group, whether you own or lease the space, roughly where your earnings land. We match you with vetted M&A advisory firms that close deals in restaurants and food service, including no-retainer, success-only options. You get an introduction and a free, confidential indicative valuation as part of the process. From there you decide who, if anyone, to work with. The booked call is your M&A Matching Sync.

It's free to sellers and it's confidential. No obligation, no retainer to find out what your restaurant could be worth and who'd want it.

New to all of this? Start with the broader guide to selling your business, learn the difference between a business broker and an M&A advisor, then come back and get matched when you're ready.