What is Business Valuation Calculator?
When someone says “two times SDE,” they are compressing a mountain of diligence into one headline. For Main Street deals, multiples are still a useful shorthand—as long as nobody confuses shorthand for an appraisal. This tool multiplies your SDE input by a band around a middle multiple so you can see how sensitive value is to small changes in buyer appetite.
It does not model balance sheet items, working capital needs, or earnouts. It is a napkin, not a fairness opinion.
How It Works
Type an annual SDE figure you and your advisor believe is defensible. Slide a multiple typical for your rough industry bucket—often discussed between about 2× and 4× for many small services businesses, higher for some software-like recurring models, lower for heavy-owner-dependent shops. We show low, mid, and high around your midpoint multiple.
Formula
Indicative value ≈ SDE × Multiple Range shown ≈ SDE × (Multiple ± 0.5) — illustrative
Formula Explained
The ±0.5 band is only to visualize sensitivity, not a statistical confidence interval. Real buyers discount for customer concentration, legal risk, and capex needs.
Example
SDE $185,000 at a 3.0× mid implies about $555,000 at the midpoint, with a wider band around that if you nudge the multiple slider.
Tips & Best Practices
- ✓Normalize financials for three years when possible—buyers hate surprises in year two.
- ✓Document processes so the business is not “only you.”
Common Use Cases
- •Owners wondering whether a broker’s range passes the smell test