Hudson Valley Electrical Contractor, Multi-County Licensed NY Trade

$2.0M

Revenue

$730K

SDE

4.5x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a full-service electrical contractor operating across New York's Hudson Valley, doing more than $2M in annual revenue and throwing off over $730K in adjusted SDE. That is a 36% SDE margin, which is exceptional for a trades business and signals a healthy mix of higher-margin service and troubleshooting work layered on top of project revenue. The customer base is diversified across residential, commercial, and light industrial, with revenue spread across multiple Hudson Valley counties and driven by repeat and referral relationships.

The work itself is the boring, durable stuff that keeps paying: new construction wiring, panel and service upgrades, commercial build-outs, hourly service calls, and materials markup on fixtures. The company runs on an experienced W-2 field crew led by long-tenured foremen who both manage and perform the work, which reduces the classic trades problem of every job depending on the owner's hands. The owner currently sits in estimating, project management, and customer relationships, and is offering a paid transition to hand those functions off.

What makes this notable is the multi-jurisdiction licensing across several Hudson Valley counties and into the NYC metro. Electrical is a licensed, bonded, insured trade with real barriers to entry, which protects pricing and keeps informal competitors out. The catch is that the licensing and credential transfer depends heavily on the buyer bringing or retaining a licensed electrician, so the moat is also the single biggest gating factor on who can actually own this.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong: $730K SDE on $2M revenue is a 36% margin, well above the typical 15-20% for an electrical contractor, which points to a favorable service-heavy work mix and disciplined estimating. The revenue is diversified across residential, commercial, and light industrial, so no single segment collapsing sinks the business.
The moat is a licensed, bonded trade with genuine barriers to entry, reinforced by multi-jurisdiction licensing across several Hudson Valley counties and into the NYC metro. That licensure supports pricing power and insulates the operator from the cash-only, unlicensed competition that pressures margins in home services.
Electrical work is recession-resistant demand: panel upgrades, service calls, troubleshooting, and code-required work get done in any economy because buildings still need power and inspectors still enforce code. The tailwind is real with EV charging, generator installs, and electrical modernization all pulling forward as the grid and housing stock age.
The business already runs on long-tenured foremen who manage and perform the work, so it is not a one-man show dependent on the seller swinging tools. A buyer who brings or retains a licensed electrician inherits a functioning crew, a regional reputation, and a referral pipeline rather than building from scratch.

How to improve it

Convert one-off project and service customers into recurring maintenance and inspection contracts with commercial and light industrial accounts. Recurring revenue smooths the seasonal and project lumpiness and would materially increase the multiple a future buyer pays.
Launch dedicated EV charging and residential/commercial generator service lines, both explicitly flagged as growth levers. These are high-ticket, high-margin installs with strong current demand, and the existing licensed crew can deliver them with minimal added overhead.
Add estimating and field capacity to pursue larger commercial jobs currently being turned away or not bid. The listing notes estimating sits with the owner, so building a second estimator both unblocks growth and de-risks the transition away from the seller.
Systematize the sales and referral engine by tracking lead sources, formalizing the referral relationships, and adding a light digital presence for the residential segment. Right now growth is passively referral-driven, and even modest lead-gen investment could expand share in a fragmented market.
Push geographically deeper into surrounding counties and the NYC metro, leveraging the multi-jurisdiction licensing that most local competitors do not hold. The licensing is a differentiator that is currently under-monetized outside the core Hudson Valley footprint.
Tighten materials procurement and job costing to protect the strong margin as volume grows. On a business that supplies fixtures and materials on jobs, small improvements in purchasing terms and markup discipline drop straight to SDE.

Diligence notes

Licensing transfer is the deal-breaker item: confirm exactly whose license the multi-jurisdiction credentials sit under and whether they transfer, or whether you must bring or retain a qualified licensed electrician. If the license is personal to the departing owner, the entire moat and revenue base is at risk day one.
Verify the $730K SDE with tax returns and a full add-back schedule, and stress-test the 36% margin against industry norms of 15-20%. A margin that high on a $2M electrical contractor deserves scrutiny on whether it reflects genuine service mix or aggressive owner add-backs.
Assess owner dependency in estimating, project management, and customer relationships, since the seller currently owns all three functions. Understand how much revenue flows through personal owner relationships versus the foremen, and price the paid transition period accordingly.
Examine revenue concentration and backlog: pull the customer list, confirm no single account dominates, and review current signed project backlog versus recurring service work. Project-heavy contractors can look great in a strong year and thin out fast when the pipeline empties.
Confirm the field crew tenure, compensation, and retention risk given the business hinges on long-tenured foremen. Understand whether key foremen have any equity expectations, non-competes, or flight risk once ownership changes hands.
Review the facility lease terms at $2,500/month, since the standalone shop, warehouse, and office is leased and available to the buyer. Confirm assignability, remaining term, and whether the rent is at market to avoid a post-close increase eroding the margin.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →