Free tool · Valuation
Business valuation calculator
Estimate what your business is worth using the SDE/EBITDA multiple method, the standard way small businesses are valued. Adjust the multiple to match your situation.
Multiples vary a lot by industry. Across 84 car wash listings on the platform, asking prices ran about 4.4x to 10.6x cash flow, with a median near 6.7x. Those are asking prices, not what a business finally sold for. Recurring revenue, growth, and clean books push a multiple higher; customer concentration and owner dependence push it lower. This is an estimate, not a formal valuation.
How small businesses are valued
The dominant method for valuing a small business is a multiple of earnings. You start with annual profit (SDE for owner-operated businesses, EBITDA for larger ones) and apply a multiple that reflects how risky and how transferable that profit is. A business with steady, recurring revenue and a manager in place earns a higher multiple than one that depends entirely on the owner.
How to use this calculator
Enter your annual revenue and profit, then set a multiple. The calculator shows an estimated value, a range one half-turn either side of your multiple, and the implied revenue multiple as a sanity check. To go deeper, read our guides on how to value a business, EBITDA multiples by industry, and what your business is worth. Or see real median prices and multiples by sector from our live listing pool.
Frequently asked questions
Most small and lower-middle-market businesses are valued as a multiple of profit, specifically SDE (seller's discretionary earnings) or EBITDA. You take the annual profit and multiply it by a market multiple that reflects the business's size, growth, and risk.
It depends on the industry and on how much of the profit survives the owner leaving. Across 84 car wash listings on the platform, asking prices ran about 4.4x to 10.6x cash flow, with a median near 6.7x. Those are asking prices, not what a business finally sold for, and plenty of sectors sit lower. Recurring revenue, consistent growth, low owner dependence, and clean financials push a multiple toward the high end; customer concentration, declining revenue, or heavy owner involvement push it lower.
It's a directional estimate, not a formal valuation. A real valuation normalizes your earnings (add-backs), compares recent sales of similar businesses, and accounts for deal structure. Use this to get in the ballpark, then get a professional opinion.
SDE adds the owner's salary and benefits back to profit and is used for owner-operated businesses. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is used for larger businesses run by a management team. Smaller deals are usually quoted on SDE.
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