BizBuySell stated that “Small business transactions in the first quarter of 2019 experienced a modest year-over-year decline but remain at historically high levels, according to the latest BizBuySell Insight Report, a nationally recognized economic indicator that aggregates statistics from business-for-sale transactions reported by participating business brokers nationwide.”

Some key findings:

• A total of 2,504 sold businesses were reported in the first three months of 2019, a 6.5% decline from the same period last year.
• Both 2017 and 2018 set new records for the most annual small business transactions since BizBuySell started reporting the data in 2007.
• Q1 2019 represents the second highest first quarter on record, trailing only 2018.
• Median revenue of sold businesses grew 6.5% from the same time last year to $540,000. Median cash flow was $116,830, a 2.6% dip from Q1 of 2018.
• The average Cash Flow Multiple remained essentially unchanged at 2.33 (up 0.1%)
• Deals over $1,000,000 that sold in Q1 took an average of 194 days to sell, only nine days longer than deals of all sizes.
• Sellers of $1 Million plus were rewarded with higher valuations with an average revenue multiple of .93 (compared to 0.58 for all deals) and an average cash flow multiple of 3.83 (compared to 2.33 for all deals).

Click here to read the entire BizBuysSell Insight Report