What a reading above 50 actually says
It says more panelists reported expansion than contraction that month. It does not say your backlog is firm. It does not say your margin held. County Business Patterns counts establishments. Capacity utilization measures hours. PMI measures survey direction. Keep the three instruments apart.
The same ISM release printed Prices at 71.1. That is a price-pressure reading, not a permission slip to raise your CIM multiple. Valuation still starts from the cell.
Cite the month. Cite the source. Put utilization and CBP in the same paragraph only if you label each instrument. A CIM that says “manufacturing is hot, so this shop is a 54.6” has lied twice. Valuation still starts from the file. A 223-day median close will outlive the print you quoted in the teaser.
How it works still starts with tax returns, not with a press release. The M&A outlook can use PMI as weather. This glossary page defines the index. Jason Taken will not time your sale to a survey tick.
Should a seller time the market to PMI?
M&A outlook can use PMI as weather. A process still starts from tax returns and a machine list. BizBuySell’s manufacturing median close was 223 days (Source: BizBuySell). Last month’s print will be two prints ago before you close.
New orders, production, and employment sub-indexes, when you cite them, still need a date and a source. Do not write that the shop printed 54.6. Do not time a sale to a single month. The 223-day manufacturing median close means last month’s print will be two prints ago before you wire. County Business Patterns counts establishments. Fed G.17 measures national capacity. PMI measures survey direction. Valuation cells do not move because PMI ticked up.
How it works still starts with tax returns. FAQ owns the questions. The market-report owner is the process home. Jason Taken will not time your sale to a survey tick.
How to cite PMI without lying
Date it. Source it. Do not write “the shop is at 54.6.” Fed G.17’s 76.0% July 2026 utilization (Source: Fed G.17) can sit in the same paragraph as context. Neither number is your spindle log.
| August / July 2026 | Use | |
|---|---|---|
| ISM PMI | 54.6 | Direction |
| ISM Prices | 71.1 | Price pressure |
| Fed utilization | 76.0% | National capacity |
Prices at 71.1 in the same August 2026 release is a price-pressure reading. It is not a permission slip to raise a CIM multiple. New orders, production, and employment sub-indexes, when you cite them, still need a date and a source. Do not write that the shop printed 54.6. Do not time a sale to a single month. The 223-day manufacturing median close means last month’s print will be two prints ago before you wire.
County Business Patterns counts establishments. Fed G.17 measures national capacity. PMI measures survey direction. Valuation cells do not move because PMI ticked up. How it works still starts with tax returns, not with a press release. FAQ owns the questions. The glossary hands you to the market-report owner, then to a confidential intro call. Jason Taken is a business broker.
If a banker forwards last month’s ISM release into the data room, label it weather and leave it there. Do not let it migrate into the earnings base or the multiple sentence. The file still has to stand on its own tax returns and its own backlog.
A Prices print of 71.1 is useful only if the shop’s own surcharge file shows whether those prices landed in invoices. Many shops ate the input and never recovered it. That is a margin file, not an ISM file. Put the release in the market-report folder. Put the surcharge file in diligence. Do not let a banker blend them into one sentence that raises the multiple. Valuation still starts from the cell.
Date the print. Source the print. Then return to the tax returns. A survey tick is weather. It is not the underwrite.
What this page will not do
It will not turn a survey tick into a turn. Jason Taken is a business broker. The glossary sends you to the owner. After the noun is straight, book a confidential intro call.