Answer three blocks of ordinary questions and see what your business could sell for, with the full calculation broken down so you understand every number.
Works for restaurants, stores, salons, repair shops, clinics, schools, agencies and online stores. No finance background needed: every piece of jargon is explained right below it.
Pick the closest match. Each sector trades at a different multiple because the risk and the ease of handing it over are not the same.
neighborhood bar, restaurant, coffee shop, food truck
Is your business digital (SaaS, app, newsletter, content site)? Then our other calculator fits better, it uses real multiples from documented sales. Go to the digital business calculator
Your last full year is fine. If you do not have exact figures at hand, use your best estimate: a few hundred either way barely moves the result.
What the business keeps after paying every expense (rent, payroll, suppliers, utilities), but before paying tax.
Your own salary as the owner, including self-employment contributions. It gets added back because the buyer stops paying you: that money becomes theirs.
The personal car, the home phone, meals, a trip that was not really business. Costs that disappear when you leave, so they add value. Only include what you can document.
Two bars with identical profit sell for very different prices. This is what makes the difference.
Enter the yearly profit
As soon as you type how much the business makes per year, you will see the price range and the full breakdown of how it is calculated.
Nothing you type leaves your browser. We never store or send your business figures.
This is an indicative estimate based on public market ranges for small business sales, not a formal appraisal or financial advice. It excludes the value of the premises if you own them (real estate is valued separately). The real price is whatever a specific buyer is willing to pay after reviewing your books.
Almost everyone gets this wrong because they use the wrong number. These four ideas are 90% of what you need to understand.
A restaurant doing 300,000 a year and keeping 10,000 is worth far less than one doing 90,000 and keeping 40,000. Nobody buys sales, they buy what is left at the end of the year. If someone values your business off revenue, be suspicious.
The industry calls it SDE. It is the business profit plus your salary plus the personal expenses you run through the company. Your salary is added back because the buyer stops paying it to you: that money becomes theirs. This total is what the whole negotiation runs on.
That number is the multiple. In small businesses it usually runs from 1.5 to 4 times owner earnings. The less the business depends on you, and the more predictable the income, the higher it goes. It is almost the entire difference between being paid 60,000 and 120,000 for the same thing.
If you own the building, that is real estate and it is valued and sold as such, outside the multiple. Inventory is paid separately at cost. And any debt left inside the company is deducted from the price, because the buyer inherits it.
Typical multiple ranges on owner earnings in small business sales. They are starting points: within any sector, what moves your number is the five questions in the calculator.
| Type of business | Typical multiple | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Bar, restaurant or cafe | 1.5x to 2.5x | neighborhood bar, restaurant, coffee shop, food truck |
| Retail store | 1.8x to 3.0x | stationery, clothing store, hardware store, corner shop |
| Salon, barbershop or beauty | 1.5x to 2.5x | hair salon, beauty center, barbershop, nail bar |
| Professional services firm | 2.0x to 3.5x | accounting, tax advisory, law practice, consulting |
| Agency or digital services | 2.0x to 3.5x | marketing agency, design studio, web dev, SEO |
| Repair shop | 2.0x to 3.0x | auto repair, body shop, phone repair |
| Construction, remodeling or trades | 1.8x to 3.0x | remodeling, plumbing, electrical, HVAC |
| Clinic or healthcare practice | 2.5x to 4.5x | dental clinic, physiotherapy, podiatry, veterinary |
| Online store or ecommerce | 2.5x to 4.0x | Shopify store, own brand, dropshipping, Amazon FBA |
| Manufacturing or industrial | 2.8x to 4.5x | carpentry, metalwork, food production, packaging |
| Transport or logistics | 2.3x to 3.5x | courier, freight, last mile delivery, moving company |
| Gym, sports or wellness | 1.5x to 3.0x | gym, crossfit box, yoga studio, spa |
| Education or training | 2.0x to 3.5x | language school, driving school, daycare, tutoring |
| Real estate agency or B2B services | 1.8x to 3.2x | real estate agency, cleaning, security, catering |
| Other type of business | 1.8x to 3.2x | any small profitable business |
Indicative ranges based on public market reports on small business transactions. These are not FounderSold proprietary data and do not replace a formal appraisal.
Two businesses that look identical on paper sell for very different prices. Here is what actually makes the difference, ordered by how much it weighs.
Three years of tax filings, bank statements, lease and employment contracts, and a list of the personal expenses you run through the business. Without this, any serious buyer walks within two weeks.
This is what raises your price most and the one thing you cannot fix at the last minute. Write down how things are done, hand over supplier relationships, and try disappearing for a week.
With the calculator range you already know whether an offer is reasonable or an insult. Let the buyer open, and use your range to know how much room you have.
In small deals it is normal for a slice to be paid over one or two years, tied to the business continuing to perform. Negotiate how big that slice is and on what terms before agreeing the headline price.
A profitable small business is usually worth between 1.5 and 4 times annual owner earnings (business profit plus your salary plus the personal expenses you run through the company). The exact multiple depends on the sector and above all on how much the business depends on you. A business making 40,000 a year that runs without the owner typically sells between 100,000 and 140,000; the same business if it depends on the owner drops to the 60,000 to 90,000 range.
The standard method in small business sales is a multiple of owner earnings (SDE). You work out what the owner actually takes home, multiply it by the typical sector multiple, and adjust for owner dependency, sales trend, years in business, how recurring the customers are, and how clean the books are. Then you add inventory at cost and subtract any debt the buyer takes on.
SDE stands for seller's discretionary earnings and means what the owner really takes home each year. You get it by adding three things: declared pre-tax profit, the salary the owner pays themselves, and personal expenses charged to the business that will disappear on sale. This is the figure the price is negotiated on, not revenue.
Restaurants and bars usually sell for 1.5 to 2.5 times annual owner earnings, one of the lowest multiples, because they depend heavily on the owner and the location. A bar keeping 30,000 a year typically lands between 45,000 and 75,000 plus inventory. If you own the building it is valued separately as real estate and does not sit inside that multiple.
Between 1.5 and 2.5 times annual owner earnings. The deciding factor is whether customers come for the place and the team or for you personally: a salon where clients only want you cutting their hair is worth noticeably less, because the buyer knows part of that base leaves with you.
Between 1.8 and 3 times annual owner earnings, plus inventory at cost, which is paid separately. The lease matters a lot: a location with a long transferable lease can be worth considerably more than the same business with the lease expiring within a year.
No. If you own the premises, they are valued and sold separately as real estate at their own market price. The usual arrangement is to sell the business and lease the property to the buyer, or sell both together but with two separate prices. This calculator only estimates the business, never the property.
Inventory is paid separately at cost, because it does not generate profit by itself: it is not multiplied. Business debt (loans, leases, deferred payments) is deducted from the price if the buyer assumes it. The normal structure is a cash-free debt-free deal: you keep the cash in the bank and repay your loans out of the proceeds.
Six to twelve months is normal when the paperwork is in order and the price is realistic. A business with messy books or a price well above market can sit for years. The slowest part is almost never finding a buyer, it is the review of your accounts and the buyer's financing.
For selling a small business, usually not. A formal appraisal is needed when there is an inheritance, a divorce, a lawsuit or a partner exiting, that is, when a third party must certify the value. For a normal sale what rules is what a buyer will pay after reviewing your books, and a well-calculated range is enough as a starting point.
It is an honest starting point and far better than guessing, but it is not an appraisal. It uses published multiple ranges for small business transactions and adjusts them by the five factors that weigh most on the real price. The final price is set by a specific buyer after reviewing your accounts, your lease and your customer base. Use it to judge whether an offer is reasonable, not as a contract figure.
No. The entire calculation happens in your browser and the numbers you type are never sent to a server or saved in any database. Close the tab and nothing is left behind.