What ownership of the SKU actually means
It means the shop can still invoice if that customer leaves, because the design is theirs. A job shop loses the job when the print moves. Machinery and equipment OEMs are a common product home. Selling a job shop versus a product company is the seller-side map. Valuation still starts from the cell.
Stanford’s 2024–25 median purchase near $16 million at about 6.2x EBITDA (Source: Stanford) is one buyer room for durable-margin product files. It is not a law. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median (Source: BizBuySell) is the other room.
Tooling title, channel contracts, and SKU margins are the pull. A catalog the founder still has to sell personally is owner-dependent. Hybrids must split contribution. If the job-shop half is the real book, say so. Strategics pay for a specified product they cannot staff. Search funds sometimes fit when margin and team look durable. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median is the other room.
How it works still wants the SKU file. The compare owner is the process home. Machinery OEMs are a common product home. This page stays on the owned-SKU noun. Jason Taken will not relabel a capacity shop because the homepage looks branded.
How should a hybrid be labeled?
Split twenty-four months of billings. ISM’s August 2026 PMI printed 54.6 (Source: Industry Today / ISM). A rising PMI does not turn a sidecar SKU into a product company.
Tooling title, channel contracts, and SKU margins are the pull. A catalog the founder still has to sell personally is owner-dependent. Hybrids must split contribution. If the job-shop half is the real book, say so. Strategics pay for a specified product they cannot staff. Search funds sometimes fit when margin and team look durable. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median is the other room. A trademark is not a product company.
How it works still wants the SKU file. FAQ owns the questions. The compare owner is the process home. Jason Taken will not relabel a capacity shop because the homepage looks branded.
What a buyer should pull
The SKU margin file, tooling title, and whether the channel is the founder. A catalog that only the owner can sell is still owner-dependent.
| Test | Product company | Job shop |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the spec? | Seller | Customer |
| If the account leaves | SKU can still sell | Job leaves |
| Typical earnings base | Often EBITDA | Often SDE |
A catalog that only the founder can sell is still owner-dependent. Tooling title, channel contracts, and SKU margin files are the pull. If most billings are still customer prints, you are still a job shop with a logo. Hybrids must split contribution. Search funds sometimes fit when margin and team look durable. Strategics pay for a specified product they cannot staff. BizBuySell’s 2.75x SDE median is the other room.
How it works still wants the SKU file before a tour. FAQ owns the questions. The glossary hands you to the compare owner, then to a confidential intro call. Jason Taken is a business broker. He will not relabel a capacity shop because the homepage looks branded.
If the SKU margin file cannot be produced by item, you do not yet have a product-company diligence pack. You have a story about owning a catalog. Produce the file. Then decide whether the buyer set is strategic, search, or still Main Street SDE.
A product company whose channel is three reps the founder golfed with is still a product company, and it is also owner-dependent. Price both facts. A product company whose tooling is customer-owned is a hybrid wearing a catalog. Split the invoices. Stanford’s study median is one buyer room. BizBuySell’s 2.75x is the other. The compare owner keeps the split. This page stays on the owned-SKU noun.
If the founder still has to take every channel call, you have an owned SKU and an owner-dependence chip. Price both. Do not let the catalog hide the person who still has to sell that SKU every single week.
What this page will not do
It will not relabel a capacity shop because the homepage looks branded. Jason Taken is a business broker. The glossary sends you to the owner. After the noun is straight, book a confidential intro call.