Business Worth Calculator
An instant, honest value range from your owner profit and typical industry transaction multiples. Free, private, no signup - the math runs entirely in your browser.
Your business
Pick the closest match - the typical multiple band depends on it.
Total sales over the last 12 months, before any expenses.
Private by design: the math runs entirely in your browser. We never store what you type.
Estimated value range
Midpoint $713,000 · based on 2.4x to 3.3x owner profit (SDE)
An educated starting point, not an appraisal. The market sets the real price.
Why this range
- Accounting & tax practice businesses like yours typically sell for 2.3x to 3.2x owner profit in small-business transactions.
- A 10+ year track record earns a small premium of 0.1x - longevity is proof the earnings are real.
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Talk to us about sellingHow small businesses are actually priced
Main Street businesses don't sell on revenue, projections, or what a similar company raised - they sell on a multiple of owner profit. The near-universal formula in small-business transactions is simple: SDE times an industry multiple.
Start with SDE, not net profit
Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) is net profit with the owner added back in: your salary, your benefits, and the one-time or personal expenses that ran through the business. It answers the buyer's real question - “how much does this business earn for the person who runs it?” A business showing $80k of net profit might have $250k of SDE once a $150k owner salary and $20k of discretionary spending are added back.
The multiple is where the negotiation lives
Typical US small-business transactions land between roughly 1.5x and 3.5x SDE, and each industry clusters in its own band - service trades around 2.0x-3.0x, recurring-revenue and licensed businesses higher, asset-heavy or thin-margin businesses lower. Within the band, the same factors decide the price everywhere: how much revenue repeats automatically, how well the business runs without the owner, how clean the books are, and whether any single customer dominates.
The financeability check
Most small-business purchases are financed, commonly with SBA 7(a) loans. That puts a practical ceiling on price: the earnings need to cover the buyer's loan payments with comfortable room to spare. A price the bank won't finance isn't really a price - which is one more reason overpriced listings sit unsold while defensibly priced ones attract real offers.
What this calculator can and can't tell you
- It can: give you an honest, typical range to anchor your thinking, show which of your drivers move the number, and stop you from anchoring on a fantasy price or underselling badly.
- It can't: read your books, weigh your lease or customer concentration, or predict what a specific buyer will pay. Only the market does that - and the cleanest way to ask the market is a confidential listing in front of verified buyers.
Frequently asked questions
- What is SDE (seller's discretionary earnings)?
- SDE is what the business puts in one working owner's pocket in a year: net profit, plus the owner's salary and benefits, plus one-time or personal expenses run through the business. Small businesses are priced on SDE - not on revenue, and not on net profit alone - because it shows a buyer what the business actually earns for whoever runs it.
- How accurate is this estimate?
- It is an educated starting point, not an appraisal. The calculator applies typical small-business transaction multiples for your industry to your owner profit, with small adjustments for growth and track record. Real prices depend on your specific books, customer base, lease, staff, and - most of all - what a real buyer offers. The market sets the actual price.
- Why a range instead of one number?
- Because identical-looking businesses sell at different prices. Recurring revenue, customer concentration, owner dependence, and deal terms all move the multiple within the industry band. A single number would be false precision; an honest range tells you where negotiations typically start and end.
- Do you store what I type?
- No. The math runs entirely in your browser - nothing you enter is sent to our servers, stored, or used for anything. Refresh the page and it's gone.
- Why are multiples based on owner profit instead of revenue?
- Two businesses with the same revenue can earn wildly different profits. Buyers pay for earnings they can take home or use to service a loan, so the standard small-business pricing lens is SDE times an industry multiple. Revenue-based shorthand exists in a few industries, but it usually lands in the same place as the SDE math.
- What moves a business toward the top of its multiple band?
- The same things in nearly every industry: revenue that repeats without re-selling it (contracts, memberships, maintenance agreements), a business that runs without the owner doing the work personally, clean books that tie to tax returns, and a diversified customer base. The calculator's industry band reflects typical transactions - those factors decide where in the band a specific business lands.
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