u/ArtistChemical4791

I’ve been running a custom web development and digital marketing agency for many years, and I’m starting to think seriously about stepping away.

Here’s the situation:

• We generate about $500k/year in recurring revenue
• The business is very stable and largely runs without my day-to-day involvement
• Recurring revenue covers my salary + all employee salaries
• We have excess team capacity, so most new project work is high-margin profit

The challenge:

• EBITDA is relatively low
• I’m ready to retire now
• I’d need roughly $800k–$1M from an exit to feel comfortable in retirement
• I don’t want to spend another 5–10 years optimizing the business just to get there

I’m trying to figure out what realistic exit options look like given this setup.

Questions:

• Is this the kind of business that can actually sell, or is it more of a “lifestyle business” that doesn’t translate well to a buyer?
• How much does low EBITDA hurt valuation if revenue is stable and mostly recurring?
• Are there creative exit paths I might not be considering?

I’d really appreciate insight from anyone who’s sold a similar agency or evaluated one. What would you do in my position?