Private and confidential, prepared by hand
Example Fire & Compliance Limited
Valuation and optimisation report
A fire and life safety contractor with a maintenance and inspection base across the north west, roughly 4.2 million in revenue, and a management team that already runs most of the delivery day to day.
Prepared 17 August 2026 for Sarah.
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for using the valuation tool. This is our own first analysis of what we have seen so far: your answers in the questionnaire, what we could read on your website, and wider research around your sector and your area.
It should give you an indicative range, a clear view of what is holding the top of that range down, and a set of practical moves that we would expect to shift the number materially over the next twelve to eighteen months.
A document like this one is written by hand and reaches you within 24 to 48 hours of you finishing the questionnaire. It is not generated automatically. More than thirty separate factors move a final valuation, and they have to be weighed against each other by someone who prices these businesses every week.
The next step is a discovery call. The draft is ready by the time we speak, we take you through the range and the reasoning, and the questions we ask you on that call go straight back into the document. That is what turns an indicative range into something accurate enough to plan around.
The final figure is decided by the quality and the number of offers on the table, and by how the process is run. Nothing here is a formal valuation, and we would expect parts of it to change once we have your accounts and your own commentary in front of us.
This is our own analysis, written from your answers, your documents, what we could read on your website and our research into your sector. It is indicative rather than a formal valuation, and where anything reads wrong to you, tell us and we will correct it.
Joe Lewin
DealFlowAgent
What this report was written from
- Your questionnaire answers, submitted 17 August 2026
- Your conversation with our valuation desk analyst, 14 exchanges
- example-fire-compliance.invalid, read on 17 August 2026
- Public review record and answer engine responses for your service area
- Our own transaction data for fire and life safety, 2024 to 2026
What we understand about the business
From what we can see, the example business sits on the better side of the fire and life safety market: a contracted inspection base underneath the project work, rather than the other way round. It appears that around two thirds of revenue repeats each year through maintenance and statutory inspection agreements, which is the single most important thing a buyer will look at.
The project side is lumpier and lower margin, which is normal. It is not a problem in itself, but it does mean the earnings a buyer will price are not the same as the earnings your accounts show, and the difference is worth understanding before anyone else points it out.
Contracted revenue
65 per cent
Typical term
Mostly three year agreements with annual indexation
Team
38 full time equivalent
Accreditations you told us you hold
Indicative valuation
The range below is built on adjusted earnings weighted towards the current year, at a multiple drawn from the fire and life safety band. It assumes the contracted base holds and that the add-backs stand up to diligence. Treat it as a starting point for a conversation, not a number to plan around.
Reference point, valuation as at the date of this report
£3,150,000 to £4,130,000
Midpoint £3,640,000, at 6.50 times adjusted earnings of £560,000.
Read this as a preliminary range, not a valuation. No business completes a sale on the day it is valued. The three dated windows below are what this number becomes on realistic timings. It is built from the figures you gave us and the public record, priced on the last twelve months to the date above. It is not an opinion on price for a transaction, it has not been through diligence, and it will move once the financial pack is in and we have talked the numbers through with you.
The calculation, line by line
| Ref | Line | Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Reported profit before tax, FY2027 forecast | £560,000 | The figure you gave us, or the figure read from your accounts where those differ. |
| B | Normalised cost of replacing the owner | £0 | Owner remuneration normalised to the market cost of employing a manager to do the job. |
| C | Add back: personal and one-off costs | £74,000 | Costs a buyer would not inherit. Each one has to be evidenced in diligence to survive. |
| D | Adjusted earnings, FY2027 forecast (A + B + C) | £634,000 | Owner-normalised earnings. This is not statutory EBITDA and is not presented as such. |
| E | Basis of the earnings figure | Last twelve months | 2025 actual 30 per cent, 2026 forecast 50 per cent, 2027 forecast 20 per cent |
| F | Adjusted earnings, last twelve months | £560,000 | The earnings base the multiple is applied to. An owner-normalised proxy, not a diligence grade EBITDA. |
| G | Multiple applied | 6.50x | Set from the band buyers pay in your sector, adjusted for how this business scores on the thirty factors. |
| H | Indicative enterprise value at the midpoint (F x G) | £3,640,000 | The business on a cash free, debt free basis, before any adjustment for what sits on the balance sheet. |
| I | Range applied (minus 13 per cent to plus 13 per cent) | £3,150,000 to £4,130,000 | Where the price lands inside the range is decided by process and by the evidence behind the figures. |
| J | Less debt, plus surplus cash | £-160,000 | Borrowings repaid at completion, cash above what the business needs to trade released to you. |
| K | Indicative equity value to shareholders | £2,990,000 to £3,970,000 | Before transaction costs and before tax. Midpoint £3,480,000. |
What is holding the top of the range down. A single housing association accounts for roughly a third of contracted revenue, and the framework is up for retender in 2027.
The years behind the basis
| Year | Revenue | Profit before tax | Add-backs | Adjusted earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 actual | £3,800,000 | £452,000 | not given | £526,000 |
| 2026 forecast | £4,200,000 | £505,000 | not given | £579,000 |
| 2027 forecast | £4,600,000 | £560,000 | not given | £634,000 |
What a buyer will test on each line
- Line A against your filed accounts and your year to date management figures, on the same basis.
- Line B against a real market salary for the job you do, evidenced by a job specification, not an assertion.
- Line C item by item. Every add-back needs an invoice or a ledger line behind it, or it comes out.
- Line F against the quality of earnings work their accountant runs, which normally starts with revenue recognition and working capital.
- Line G against the comparable transactions they have seen in your niche in the last eighteen months.
- Line J against your last balance sheet, your debt facilities, and a normal level of working capital for the business.
How this range gets tightened
The spread above is wide because the earnings base is a proxy. Three things close it: a completed financial pack, the remaining core questions answered in full, and sixty minutes on the phone with Joe or Duncan going through the numbers line by line. After that the earnings figure is a real adjusted EBITDA and the range narrows to something you could take into a negotiation.
Points to confirm before this range is relied on
These are the places where our reading of your inputs could be wrong. None of them are criticisms. They are the questions a buyer would ask in the first hour of diligence, so it is better that we ask them first.
One or more of these changes the range materially
The 2026 forecast implies a margin roughly a point ahead of 2025, on higher revenue.
Is that improvement already visible in the year to date, or does it depend on work that has not yet been won?
Add-backs of 74,000 have been treated as genuinely non-recurring.
Can each item be evidenced in the ledger, and would each of them genuinely disappear under new ownership?
The stated recurring share of 65 per cent includes reactive call-outs from contracted sites.
Should those call-outs be counted as contracted revenue, or shown separately? Buyers usually want them separated.
What we would do about it
Sequenced so the cheap, fast work happens first. Everything here is intended to be actionable without outside help, other than where it says otherwise.
Phase one, first 90 days
| Where it sits | What we observed | Why it matters | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnings qualityFactor group: Earnings qualityOwned by finance lead with your accountant | Separate contracted revenue from project and reactive work in the management accountsContracted, reactive and project revenue currently sit together in one line, so the recurring base has to be argued for rather than shown. | A demonstrable contracted base is the difference between the middle and the top of the range in this sector. | Split the three streams in the monthly management pack and restate the last twenty four months on the same basis. |
| ConcentrationFactor group: ConcentrationOwned by managing director | Open the retender conversation early on the largest frameworkOne housing association appears to represent around a third of contracted revenue, with a 2027 retender. | Concentration is the most common reason a buyer holds back consideration in an earn-out. | Secure an extension, or a written indication of intent, well ahead of a sale process rather than during one. |
Phase two, months three to eighteen
| Where it sits | What we observed | Why it matters | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key personFactor group: Key personOwned by technical director | Move technical sign-off away from the ownerIt appears that final technical sign-off on larger installations still sits with you personally. | Reduces the discount a buyer applies for dependency, and shortens the handover they will ask you to commit to. | Name and document a second qualified signatory, and evidence three months of them operating alone. |
| PricingFactor group: PricingOwned by commercial lead | Apply indexation consistently across the inspection baseAnnual uplifts appear to be applied on some agreements and waived on others. | On this revenue base, a consistent three per cent uplift carries straight to earnings and is worth roughly six times that at exit. | Apply the contractual uplift across the base at the next renewal cycle, with a short note to each client. |
| VisibilityFactor group: VisibilityOwned by marketing, with our team | Fix how the business appears to answer engines and to buyers researching the sectorThe business was not named in most of the buyer style questions we put to an answer engine for your service area. | Affects inbound work today and how a buyer perceives market position tomorrow. | Publish accreditation, coverage and service detail in a form machines can read, and build the public review record. |
How the market sees you
A snapshot rather than a full audit. We put the questions a facilities manager or a buyer would realistically type, and recorded who came back.
On 11 August 2026, we put 12 questions a buyer of your service would realistically ask to an answer engine. Your business was named in 2 of them and cited as a source in 0.
Who was named instead
| A regional fire and security group | named in 9 of 12 |
| A national compliance contractor | named in 7 of 12 |
| A Manchester based sprinkler specialist | named in 4 of 12 |
Public review record, from Google
| Example Fire & Compliance (you) | 18 reviews, 4.6 average |
| Regional competitor A | 141 reviews, 4.8 average |
| Regional competitor B | 96 reviews, 4.5 average |
If and when you decide to go to market
Nothing here commits you to anything. It sets out how a process would run, so the decision is made with the mechanics understood.
Acquirers for a business of this shape fall into three groups: national compliance groups buying density in the north west, private equity backed platforms consolidating fire and life safety, and larger regional contractors adding statutory inspection to a facilities offer. Each values the contracted base differently, which is why competitive tension matters more than any single multiple.
Your options from here
Specialists you should speak to separately
The questions below sit outside what we do, and outside what this report can answer. We raise them because they are usually raised too late.
Tax
How the proceeds are taxed depends on structure and timing, and some choices cannot be made once a process has started.
Wealth planning
What the proceeds are for, and how they are held, is worth deciding before a number is agreed rather than after.
Legal
Shareholder arrangements, warranties and any minority positions should be reviewed early.
We can introduce you to specialists in each of these areas. Nothing in this report is tax, legal or financial advice, and none of it should be acted on without your own advisers.
Book the conversation about this report
Thirty minutes, confidential, with the partner who prepared it. Free, and there is no obligation after it.
Book a confidential callIf you are not ready to sell
Test buyer interest before you commit to anything
Most owners we meet are still growing and have no intention of running a process this year. The Off-Market Register exists for exactly that position. We publish an anonymised profile of your business, an indicative range and a short summary. No name, no address, no client list, nothing that lets a reader identify you. Buyers who register their interest are qualified by us, taken through a call and put under an NDA before anything further is shared.
If genuine interest appears, we come back to you with the names, what they buy and why they are credible, and you decide whether to meet them. If it does not, you have lost nothing and you carry on running the business. Our aim is to earn an exclusive sell-side mandate, and we would rather prove there are buyers for your business first. We are paid on completion, so the incentive sits on the same side as yours. No other advisor works this way, and no other advisor produces a report of this depth for nothing.
See how it reads. Live mandates are published at dealflowagent.com/off-market. Read one and judge for yourself how little it gives away.
One ask
If this was useful, send it to one other owner
This report costs us real money and real hours. Joe, our head of M&A, and an associate work through the accounts, the market evidence and the presence audit before it reaches you. Between them it is usually four to five hours of partner and analyst time, on top of the research and modelling that runs underneath it. We charge nothing for it.
The reason we can do that is word of mouth. Almost every owner we work with arrived through another owner. If this gave you something you did not have this morning, the most useful thing you can do is pass it to one person in your position, a peer in your trade body, a contact in an adjacent trade, or someone you know is quietly thinking about the next few years.
You can also refer formally. Owners, advisers and accountants who introduce a business that goes on to transact are paid a share of our fee, and the terms are set out in full before anything is signed.