Dog Daycare · Free Valuation Calculator
How much is your dog daycare worth?
Daycare is the most sellable business in the pet industry: a facility, recurring clients, and revenue that does not depend on one person’s hands. That is why buyers actually compete for good ones. This free calculator prices your daycare or boarding business the way those buyers do. We watch these businesses through our dog daycare marketing work; enter your numbers, then read what moves the price.
Tell us about your facility
We loaded typical numbers. Swap in your real ones and everything updates live.
Here’s what your facility is worth
The headline number uses the multiple you set on the left. The methods list below shows the full range buyers work from.
Your estimated facility value
The number that should change your plans
Deal math
What each method says it is worth
Rule of thumb: a typical daycare sells for 2x to 3x SDE, and facilities clearing $250,000 of earnings with a manager in place get priced like small companies at 3.5x to 5x. Occupancy is the number buyers ask about first, and weekday occupancy is the number they trust.
Occupancy is the multiple. Weekday dogs are marketing.
Every recurring weekday regular your marketing adds is $2,000 to $5,000 a year of revenue a buyer can count on, and it lands straight in the earnings that get multiplied. TailWerks fills daycares, and pet businesses are all we work with.
How this calculator gets your number
Businesses this size sell on SDE, seller’s discretionary earnings: profit plus everything one working owner takes in pay, draws, and perks. Value equals SDE times a market multiple. Typical daycares trade at 2x to 3x, and the multiple climbs toward 3.5x to 5x as the facility gets bigger, the earnings pass $250,000, and a manager rather than the owner runs the floor, because at that point the buyer is purchasing a company instead of a job.
The cross checks are a revenue multiple, roughly 0.8x to 1.25x gross for daycare and boarding, and a capacity rule of thumb built from what each licensed spot produces. A facility running healthy occupancy generates $6,000 to $9,000 of revenue per spot per year, which is why the buyer’s first question is always the same: what is your weekday occupancy?
Expect diligence on tax returns, your booking software exports, occupancy history, and payroll, because labor is the margin killer in this industry. Facilities with clean numbers and a manager in place attract multiple bidders; facilities that are really the owner working sixty hour weeks price like the grooming shop down the street.
Worked example at the loaded defaults
| Annual gross revenue | $500,000 |
| Profit at a 12% margin | $60,000 |
| Owner pay, added back in full | +$70,000 |
| SDE | $130,000 |
| Multiple | 3x |
| Business value | $390,000 |
| Value per dog of capacity (60) | $6,500 |
| Value added by 25% revenue growth | $45,000 |
What drives dog daycare and boarding valuations
Occupancy first. A facility at 75% weekday occupancy with a waitlist is a machine printing recurring revenue; the same building at 40% is a lease with a logo. Because most costs are fixed, every point of occupancy above break even falls almost straight to earnings, which is why buyers pay premium multiples for full buildings and steep discounts for empty ones.
Then the labor line and the leadership question. Payroll is the biggest expense in the building, so buyers study revenue per staffer and labor as a percent of revenue before anything else. And a facility that runs under a manager while the owner checks in weekly sells like an investment; one that needs the owner at 6 a.m. every day sells like a job. Recurring memberships, a boarding or grooming stream, and a secure lease or purchasable real estate round out the premium list.
Daycare and boarding valuation benchmarks
| Metric | Typical range |
|---|---|
| SDE multiple, typical sale | 2x to 3x |
| SDE multiple, large facility | 3.5x to 5x |
| Revenue multiple | 0.8x to 1.25x |
| Profit margin after owner pay | 10% to 18% |
| Revenue per licensed spot | $6,000 to $9,000 / yr |
| Healthy weekday occupancy | 65% to 80% |
| Revenue per full time staffer | $70,000 to $110,000 |
| 12 month value of a regular | $2,000 to $5,000 |
Who buys daycares, and why the big ones sell differently
At the small end, individual buyers: career changers and operators buying a lifestyle business with an SBA loan, paying 2x to 3x SDE for the same reason grooming buyers do, because the earnings must cover their living and the loan. At the large end the buyer pool changes completely: multi site operators, franchise systems, and pet resort groups have been rolling up daycare and boarding for years, and they price bigger facilities on EBITDA like small companies, which is what pushes multiples to 3.5x to 5x and occasionally beyond.
Crossing from the first market to the second is worth more than any renovation. The bar is roughly $250,000 of earnings, a manager running operations, occupancy history you can print, and a building the buyer can keep, whether through a long transferable lease or a real estate purchase alongside the business. A daycare that clears that bar does not just get a higher multiple; it gets competing offers.
The three levers that grow your sale price
Weekday occupancy
Weekends fill themselves; weekdays are won with marketing. Every new regular on a 2 or 3 day weekly schedule adds $2,000 to $5,000 of annual recurring revenue that falls mostly to earnings, because your building and staff are already paid for. This is the purest exit value lever in the industry.
A manager in place
The jump from owner run to manager run is the jump from 2x to 3x pricing toward 3.5x and up, because it converts a job into an investment. Promote or hire a manager at least a year before selling so the trailing financials prove the model works with their salary in the numbers.
Recurring revenue streams
Memberships and prepaid daycare packages smooth revenue and prove retention; boarding and grooming raise revenue per client and fill the calendar year. Buyers pay for revenue they can forecast, and a daycare with three streams and a membership base is the easiest forecast in the pet industry.
Mistakes daycare owners make when selling
Letting the lease decide the price
A buyer cannot pay six figures for a business the landlord can evict in a year. Short or non transferable leases kill more facility sales than anything else. Negotiate term and assignment rights well before listing, or be ready to sell the real estate alongside the business.
Being the manager
If the seller opens, closes, schedules, and handles every incident, the buyer prices in a manager’s salary they will have to pay, and worse, they price in the risk the place wobbles without you. A year of manager run financials pays for itself several times over at closing.
Selling on sliding occupancy
Buyers pull monthly occupancy for the trailing two years, and a downward slope costs you both the earnings and the multiple. Keep marketing running hard through the sale process; the months before listing are the most expensive possible time to save on advertising.
Fuzzy package and credit liabilities
Prepaid daycare packages and unused credits are services you owe after the buyer takes over, and they come off the price at closing. Track sold versus redeemed precisely; walking into diligence without that number costs credibility and cash.
Frequently asked questions
How much is a dog daycare business worth in 2026?
Typical daycares sell for 2x to 3x SDE, meaning profit plus everything the owner pays themselves. A facility generating $130,000 of SDE prices around $260,000 to $390,000. Larger facilities clearing $250,000 of earnings with a manager in place sell to multi site operators and groups at 3.5x to 5x, and strong ones attract competing offers.
What is SDE and how is it different from EBITDA?
SDE, seller’s discretionary earnings, is profit plus one working owner’s full compensation and perks, and it is how small businesses are priced because the buyer is buying an income. EBITDA assumes a hired manager is already paid for in the numbers. Daycare is the pet business where the distinction matters most: small facilities trade on SDE, big manager run ones start trading on EBITDA.
What is the formula to value a dog daycare?
Value equals SDE times a market multiple. Take profit after all expenses, add back your total owner pay and perks, then multiply by 2x to 3x for a typical facility. A daycare with $60,000 of profit and a $70,000 owner salary has $130,000 of SDE, which prices around $260,000 to $390,000 before the quality factors move it up or down.
How much is my daycare worth per dog of capacity?
Roughly $6,000 to $10,000 of business value per licensed spot, derived from what a spot produces: at healthy occupancy each spot generates $6,000 to $9,000 of revenue a year and facilities trade near 1x revenue. The rule only holds for capacity you actually fill; licensed spots with no dogs in them are drywall, not value.
How does occupancy affect what my daycare is worth?
More than any other number. Costs in a daycare are mostly fixed, so occupancy above break even falls nearly straight to earnings, and buyers read weekday occupancy as the proof of demand. The difference between 50% and 75% weekday occupancy is routinely the difference between a discounted sale and competing offers at a premium multiple.
I own the building. Is it included in the price?
No, and in daycare this question is bigger than anywhere else in the pet industry. The business and the real estate are valued separately: a buyer either purchases the property at its appraised value or signs a market rate lease, and your business earnings get restated at fair rent for the valuation. Owning the building often means you have two valuable assets to sell, not one bigger one.
Does adding boarding or grooming increase my daycare’s value?
Yes, on both sides of the multiplication. Boarding raises revenue per client and fills nights and holidays your daycare capacity already paid for, and grooming captures spend that was leaving the building. Buyers also pay a better multiple for diversified revenue because it survives a bad season. A daycare plus boarding plus grooming facility is the standard consolidator target.
What revenue multiple do daycares sell for?
Roughly 0.8x to 1.25x annual revenue for daycare and boarding businesses, the highest revenue multiples among main street pet businesses, which reflects their recurring revenue and facility assets. Use it as a cross check on the SDE method: if your revenue multiple implies far more than your SDE multiple does, your labor line is where the value is leaking.
How do I increase the value of my daycare before selling?
Fill weekdays, install a manager, and lock the building down. Marketing that adds recurring weekday regulars raises the earnings that get multiplied; a manager running operations for at least a year moves you toward the premium multiple bracket; a long transferable lease or purchasable real estate removes the deal killer. Start two to three years out and each lever has time to show in the trailing financials.
Who buys dog daycare businesses?
Small facilities go to individual buyers, usually SBA financed, buying an owner operator business. Larger manager run facilities attract multi site operators, franchise systems, and pet resort groups that have been consolidating the industry for years and pay company style multiples. Which buyer pool you sell into is decided by your earnings size, your occupancy proof, and whether the place runs without you.
What happens to prepaid packages and credits when I sell?
They transfer as a liability, because the buyer must honor services already paid for. The unredeemed balance is deducted from the price or escrowed at closing. Track packages sold versus redeemed precisely for at least a year before selling; it is a small bookkeeping habit that protects real money in diligence.
How accurate is this dog daycare valuation calculator?
It puts you in the right range, not at the closing table. Real prices move with your lease or real estate situation, occupancy history, labor costs, and how many buyers your size bracket attracts, and deal structure can shift the effective price meaningfully. Use it to understand your levers, then get a broker or valuation professional who knows facility businesses before you act.
Thinking about selling your facility in the next few years? Request a free growth plan and we will show you what higher weekday occupancy does to your price. TailWerks is a pet industry marketing agency; growing pet businesses is all we do.
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How TailWerks grows facility value
Estimates only, not a formal business valuation, and not financial, legal, or tax advice. Multiples move with the market, your region, and your books. Talk to a valuation professional or broker before you make decisions. Built by TailWerks, the pet industry growth partner.