Premier Commercial Painting Company, 44-Year Atlanta Contractor

$1.8M

Revenue

$611K

SDE

1.6x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 44-year-old commercial painting contractor based in Metro Atlanta that provides interior and exterior painting for commercial properties, multi-family communities, office spaces, and residential clients. Commercial work drives 95% of revenue, and the business has built durable referral and repeat relationships across four decades in a growing Sun Belt market. Beyond painting, the roughly ten subcontractor crews perform complementary trades including sheetrock repair, resurfacing, concrete work, and hardwood floor refinishing, which broadens the revenue base and stickiness with property managers and general contractors.

The operating model is genuinely asset-light and home-based, with only two full-time staff (an Administrative Assistant and a Superintendent, both expected to stay post-close) plus a network of long-tenured subcontractor crews who report directly to job sites. That structure is why the business converts $1.77M of revenue into $610,934 of cash flow, roughly a 35% margin, without carrying real estate, a fleet, or heavy equipment.

At $975,000 against $610,934 of SDE, the deal is priced at about 1.6x, which is cheap for a cash-flowing, decades-old services business. The low multiple almost certainly reflects the fact that the business runs on referrals with no website, no digital marketing, and no formal sales function, which is both the risk and the obvious upside for a new owner.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong on paper: $610,934 of cash flow on $1.77M of revenue is a ~35% margin, and the asset-light, home-based model means almost no capex to sustain it. The margin durability comes from a subcontractor labor model where crews are variable cost, not fixed overhead.
Durability and moat rest on 44 years of operating history and long-tenured relationships with both commercial clients and subcontractor crews who have stayed for decades. Commercial and multi-family repaint work is recurring by nature, and 95% commercial concentration means less exposure to fickle residential homeowners.
Market tailwinds are real: Metro Atlanta continues to add commercial and multi-family inventory, and repaint cycles plus renovation activity create baseline demand regardless of the economic cycle. The market is fragmented, so an established contractor with reputation and crews is well positioned to consolidate small jobs.
The operator advantage is glaring. This business has grown to nearly $2M with no website, no digital marketing, and no online reviews, which means a buyer who installs basic demand-gen infrastructure inherits an underexploited brand and can grow without reinventing operations.

How to improve it

Launch a professional website and claim/optimize Google Business Profile within the first 60 days, then start actively soliciting reviews from recent commercial and property-management clients. A business this old with zero online presence is leaving inbound leads on the table, and reviews compound over time.
Build a simple outbound sales motion targeting property managers, HOAs, and general contractors, since these accounts drive repeat repaint and light-construction work. Even one dedicated estimator/salesperson could meaningfully lift revenue given the fragmented market.
Formalize and document the subcontractor crew relationships with written agreements and a clear scheduling/dispatch system. The crews are the production engine, so reducing key-person and handshake risk protects margin and makes the business more transferable.
Cross-sell the complementary trades (sheetrock, resurfacing, concrete, hardwood refinishing) more deliberately into existing commercial accounts. These services already contribute meaningfully, so packaging them as a facilities-maintenance offering raises revenue per client.
Implement job-costing and CRM software to track bid win rates, gross margin by job type, and customer retention. Better data lets a new owner price more aggressively on high-margin work and identify which client segments deserve more attention.
Retain and incentivize the Superintendent and Administrative Assistant with clear roles and retention terms at close, since they carry the operational knowledge. Their continuity is what lets an absentee-leaning or first-time owner step in without disrupting production.
Negotiate volume pricing with paint and materials suppliers to protect margin as revenue scales. As a fragmented-market consolidator, purchasing leverage becomes a real edge that competitors cannot easily match.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the $610,934 cash flow figure and confirm what add-backs are included, since the owners run it from home and one is retiring. Verify owner compensation, any personal expenses run through the business, and whether the departing owner performed sales or estimating work that must now be replaced.
Assess subcontractor concentration and stability closely, because the entire production model depends on ~10 crews being available and reliable. Confirm they are genuine independent contractors (not misclassified employees), check exclusivity, and understand what happens if key crews follow the retiring owner out.
Review customer concentration within the 95% commercial revenue base. Long-standing relationships are great, but if a handful of property managers or general contractors drive most of the work, the loss of one or two could materially impair cash flow.
Examine the sales pipeline and backlog to distinguish recurring/repeat revenue from one-time project work. Painting and light-construction jobs can be lumpy, so understand seasonality and how much of the $1.77M is contractually committed versus reactive bidding.
Confirm SBA eligibility mechanics and the realistic financing structure at 1.6x, including seller note and transition terms. Also verify licensing, insurance, workers comp, and bonding requirements transfer cleanly given the subcontractor-heavy model.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →