Every few weeks, a headline circulates through the accounting world.
A CPA firm sold for 10× EBITDA.
Another roll-up paid a premium multiple.
It’s easy to read those and wonder: What are they doing that I’m not?
Because behind the headlines is a quieter truth most firm owners don’t hear until it’s too late. Those multiples are real but they’re earned long before a sale is ever discussed.
Buyers Aren’t Buying Firms. They’re Buying Systems.
At RSSL Mergers, we spend a lot of time speaking with buyers, brokers and firm owners across Canada and the U.S.
A consistent pattern shows up in those conversations.
Buyers aren’t looking to step into someone else’s workload. They’re looking for firms that are built to operate without constant founder involvement.
The firms that earn higher multiples don’t rely on the founder being present every day to keep things moving. Work flows through the organization in a predictable way. Growth doesn’t depend on individual heroics and decisions don’t bottleneck with one partner.
From the outside, these firms look investable.
From the inside, they feel repeatable.
That difference matters far more to buyers than top-line revenue alone.
What 10x Multiple Firms Have in Common
The firms that command higher multiples don’t all look the same on the surface. Different sizes, different service mixes, different geographies.
What they do share is how they operate.
They tend to have a more predictable way of bringing in new clients, rather than relying heavily on referrals and personal relationships. Work is delivered through systems that the team understands and can execute without constant partner involvement. Key processes are documented and repeatable, which supports healthier margins and makes growth easier to absorb.
Importantly, the firm doesn’t rise or fall based on one person. The founder may still be involved but the business isn’t dependent on them for every decision, client or workflow.
Because of that, these firms can answer difficult questions clearly:
- How does your firm actually grow?
- What happens if the Founding Partner steps back?
- Where does risk sit and how is it managed?
Buyers pay a premium for firms that can continue to run and grow without the owner at the center of everything.
A concrete example from a firm owner
One of the highest-valued CPA firms we’ve spoken with recently didn’t point to a niche service line or aggressive growth story when asked why buyers paid a premium.
They pointed to a single operating benchmark.
The firm consistently generates at least $150,000 in revenue per employee not per CPA, but per employee across the entire organization.
That metric mattered more to buyers than headcount, branding or even top-line growth. It signaled that work is properly leveraged, teams are structured intentionally and partners aren’t carrying disproportionate load just to keep revenue moving.
From a buyer’s perspective, that level of revenue per employee isn’t about efficiency for efficiency’s sake. It’s proof that the firm’s systems work and that profitability isn’t dependent on squeezing more hours out of partners.
That’s what makes a business defensible at the highest valuation.
Why Most $1M CPA Firms Struggle to Break 2x
Most firms we see are just very founder-dependent.
That shows up as:
- Revenue that’s hard to forecast
- Marketing that’s reactive or inconsistent
- Client relationships tied to one person
- Processes that live in someone’s head
From a buyer’s perspective, these firms feel less like businesses and more like well-paid jobs.
And jobs don’t receive premium multiples.
A Common Assumption
Many firm owners assume valuation is something they’ll focus on once they decide to sell. What we see in practice is that buyers have already formed a view well before that point.
By the time someone says, “Maybe I’ll sell in three to five years,” buyers are already looking at things like how dependent the firm is on the founder, whether revenue is predictable, how new clients are won and whether work can be delivered without partner involvement in every decision.
Those patterns don’t change quickly. They’re built into how the firm operates day to day.
That’s why optionality usually isn’t created during a transaction. It’s created earlier through how the firm is structured, how consistently it runs and how much of it exists beyond any one person.
An Honest Closing Question
If you paused today and were really honest with yourself:
- Could your firm keep running if you stepped away for six months?
- Do you have a reliable way to attract the right clients who are not referrals?
- And if a buyer looked under the hood, would they see a scalable business or a job with a big title?
Those are the questions buyers naturally start asking as they get to know a firm.
Premium multiples rarely come from luck or perfect timing.
They come from structure.
And the good news is this: structure is something every owner can work on and improve, well before retirement and a sale is ever on the table.
When we reference “10×” or “premium multiples,” we’re referring to multiples of normalized EBITDA, not top-line revenue. In practice, EBITDA is adjusted for owner compensation, one-time items and market-level partner replacement costs.
Actual outcomes vary significantly based on firm structure, scale, buyer type, and deal terms.