The question "what is EBITDA in finance" links directly to M&A valuations. In 2024, private equity deals in healthcare averaged 12x EBITDA, indicating strong investor appetite despite higher borrowing costs. On the finance side, a big part was cost discipline. Not slash-and-burn, but looking carefully at redundancies. There were people doing work that processes or tools could handle more efficiently. We also asked whether we were over-servicing clients. In agencies, it’s easy to fall into the habit of saying yes to everything a client asks for, but we had never really looked at profitability by client. This year we instituted time tracking, which isn’t everyone’s favorite, candidly, but it showed us where hours were being spent unnecessarily. If a client only brings in a certain level of margin, you shouldn’t be spending double the hours on them — it drags down the business overall. Forecast your business’s cash inflows and outflows by downloading BDC’s free cash flow calculator . For emerging market investors, "what is EBITDA in finance" is vital. Brazil’s Bovespa-listed infrastructure firms in mid-2024 averaged 15% EBITDA margins, benefiting from stable FX rates and government infrastructure incentives.