How to Value a WordPress Agency With No Recurring Revenue
This is part of our WordPress Agency Acquisition Series. Be sure to view more insights we’ve shared on selling your WordPress agency.
The standard WordPress agency valuation framework — applying a multiple to monthly net recurring revenue — doesn’t work for agencies that run entirely on project work. If your agency has never built a recurring revenue base, or if your recurring revenue is minimal, the question of what you’re worth to a buyer requires a different framework entirely.
This post is specifically for project-based agency owners who are thinking about selling — and for buyers evaluating agencies that don’t fit the standard MRR model.
Why Project Revenue Doesn’t Get Multiplied
The multiple framework exists because recurring revenue is predictable. A buyer paying 30x monthly MRR is essentially paying for 30 months of future revenue — and they can make that investment with reasonable confidence because the revenue is contractual, relationship-based, and historically stable.
Project revenue is different. A client who paid $10,000 for a website two years ago might not need another website for five years — or ever. There’s no predictable future income attached to that relationship, no ongoing service commitment, and no reliable economic value a buyer can count on continuing.
This doesn’t mean project revenue has zero acquisition value. It means the value is speculative rather than contractual — and buyers price speculative value very conservatively.
What Project-Based Agencies Do Have That’s Valuable
Even without recurring revenue, a project-based agency may have assets worth acquiring:
A Warm Client Relationship List
Clients who paid you for a website build have a relationship with you — and those clients will eventually need another site, a redesign, hosting, maintenance, or related services. A buyer who acquires that relationship list and introduces recurring services to those clients is acquiring a warm lead pipeline, not just a contact list.
The value here depends heavily on the quality and recency of the relationships. A client who worked with you two years ago and had a great experience is a better asset than one who worked with you five years ago and hasn’t heard from you since.
Brand and Reputation
A well-established agency brand with strong Google reviews, a portfolio of recognizable clients, and a solid SEO presence has transferable value — particularly if the buyer is acquiring in the same market. The brand equity can accelerate new client development in ways that starting from scratch can’t.
Team and Technical Capability
In an acqui-hire scenario, the seller’s technical skills and team capabilities are the primary acquisition asset. If the agency has a talented development team or a specialist skill set the buyer wants, that capability has value independent of the revenue it has generated.
How to Structure the Deal for a Project-Based Agency
Given the speculative nature of project revenue value, most deals involving project-based agencies should be structured differently than recurring revenue acquisitions:
Referral or Commission Arrangement
Rather than a purchase price, the seller receives a commission on projects that come through their former client base over a defined period — typically 10–20% of project revenue for 12–24 months. This compensates the seller for the warm relationship handoff without requiring the buyer to pay upfront for revenue that may never materialize.
Partial Acquisition Plus Commission
If the agency has some recurring revenue alongside project work, a hybrid structure often makes sense: a modest lump sum or earn-out for the recurring component, plus a commission on project work that comes through during the transition period.
Acqui-Hire
If the seller’s personal skills and relationships are the primary value, an acqui-hire — where the seller joins the buying agency — can be the right structure. The seller gets employment stability and a transition out of running their own business. The buyer gets capabilities and client relationships. The “acquisition price” is implicit in the employment terms rather than explicit in a transaction payment.
What You Can Do to Create Acquisition Value
If you’re running a project-based agency and you want to maximize your exit value, the single highest-leverage action is introducing recurring services to your existing client base — before you approach buyers.
Every project client whose site you built is a candidate for hosting. Every client whose site is live and active is a candidate for a care plan. Even converting 20–30% of your client base to a modest recurring service creates a MRR foundation that transforms your acquisition from a speculative relationship transfer to a genuine recurring revenue deal.
Our post on how to grow your MRR before you sell covers exactly this — and it’s the most impactful thing a project-based agency owner can do in the 12–24 months before a sale.
Even $2,000–$3,000 in monthly recurring revenue, built from your existing client base, creates a foundation that a buyer can apply a multiple to. That foundation, combined with the warm project client list, is a materially more valuable acquisition than the project work alone.
If you’re not sure whether your agency has acquisition value — talk to us. We’ll give you an honest answer, and if the timing isn’t right yet, we’ll tell you exactly what would make it stronger.
