Take your total assets and subtract your total liabilities. This approach makes it easy to trace to the valuation because it's coming directly from your accounting/record keeping. However, because it works like a snapshot of current value it may not take into consideration future revenue or earnings.
For example, a business that is doing $300,000 in profit per year sold for at 2.44X would have a sale price of $732,000 ($300,000*2.44=$732,000). This works in reverse as well — if a business sold for $732,000 at 2.44X, then ($732,000/2.44) means the profit was $300,000.
To find the fair market value, it is then necessary to divide that figure by the capitalization rate. Therefore, the income approach would reveal the following calculations. Projected sales are $500,000, and the capitalization rate is 25%, so the fair market value is $125,000.
The Revenue Multiple (times revenue) Method
A venture that earns $1 million per year in revenue, for example, could have a multiple of 2 or 3 applied to it, resulting in a $2 or $3 million valuation. Another business might earn just $500,000 per year and earn a multiple of 0.5, yielding a valuation of $250,000.
The EBITDA Multiple Rule
The specific multiple used often ranges from 2 to 6 times EBITDA depending on the size, industry, profit margins, and growth prospects. For example, a retail store doing $100,000 in annual EBITDA could be valued roughly at $200,000 to $600,000 based on a 2X – 6X EBITDA rule of thumb.
As mentioned, the most typical rules of thumb are based on a multiple of sales or earnings that other similar businesses have sold for. For example, an accounting firm generating $200,000 in revenues that should sell at 1.25 times (125% of) annual sales would have an asking price of $250,000.
Companies with under $3m in sales will typically sell for 2.5 – 3.5 X their discretionary earnings (total cash the owner could take out of the company). Smaller companies that are even more owner-reliant will even be lower than that.
The times-revenue method determines the maximum value of a company as a multiple of its revenue for a set period of time. The multiple varies by industry and other factors but is typically one or two. In some industries, the multiple might be less than one.
A business will likely sell for two to four times seller's discretionary earnings (SDE)range –the majority selling within the 2 to 3 range. In essence, if the annual cash flow is $200,000, the selling price will likely be between $400,000 and $600,000.
In general, the average revenue is around $44,000 per year for a company with a single owner/employee. Two-thirds of these small businesses make less than $25,000 per year.
The Net Book Value (NBV) of your business is calculated by deducting the costs of your business liabilities, including debt and outstanding credit, from the total value of your tangible and intangible assets.
Current Value = (Asset Value) / (1 – Debt Ratio)
When it comes to determining the worth of a business, business owners often struggle with undervaluing or overvaluing their company.
So as an example, a company doing $2 million in real revenue (I'll explain below) should target a profit of 10 percent of that $2 million, owner's pay of 10 percent, taxes of 15 percent and operating expenses of 65 percent. Take a couple of seconds to study the chart.
Using findings from a private company's closest public competitors, you would determine its value by using the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), also known as enterprise value multiple.
A business in California might sell 2 to 3 times the seller's discretionary earnings. The fair market value is what the business would sell for on the free market.
In short, this method is all about calculating the multiples of net income. To calculate multiple net income, multiply your net operating income (NOI) by the net income multiplier (NIM) to calculate multiple net income. You'll arrive at your business's market value at which you'll sell. = NIM X NOI.
Valuation specialists commonly assess a small business based on their price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), or multiples of profit. The P/E ratio is best suited to companies with an established track record of annual earnings.
The 1% Rule is simply this - focus on growing your business by 1% every day, and compounded, means your business gets 3,800% better each year. Sir Dave Brailsford, former performance director of British Cycling, revolutionized cycling using this theory.
Multiply the SDE or EBITDA of the business by a multiple. Common multiples for most small businesses are two to four times SDE. Common multiples for mid-sized businesses are three to six times EBITDA.
A $100,000 salary is considered good in most parts of the country, and can cover typical expenses, pay down debt, build savings, and allow for entertainment and hobbies. According to the U.S. Census, only 15.3% of American households make more than $100,000 annually.
One way to assess the value of a business name is to consider the cost of acquiring it through a domain name purchase, trademark registration, or any other legal fees. This can provide a tangible benchmark for the value of the name in the marketplace.
Car Dealerships – dealers often cite 'Blue-Sky' multiples, being the amount of goodwill value of the dealership. 'Blue-Sky' value is calculated as pre-tax income multiplied by the 'Blue-Sky' multiple which is typically derived from industry publications and informed by precedent transactions.