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Over twenty years of covering exits, the question I hear most is not how to sell, it is a simpler one: what is my business actually worth? Online valuation tools mostly exist to harvest your email address, so I built my own instead. The calculator below uses real closed-transaction multiples from 2026 market data, the same BizBuySell and IBBA numbers professional brokers quote, and it will not ask you for an email. Fill in your numbers and you will get an honest range, plus the context to understand it.
Business Valuation Calculator
Based on real 2026 closed-deal multiples (BizBuySell, IBBA Market Pulse)
Want the real number, not a range?
A calculator cannot see your customer concentration, your lease, or your add-backs. Earned Exits, our #1 rated business broker, prepares a proper valuation for free.
How this calculator works
Small businesses trade on multiples of seller’s discretionary earnings, or SDE: your net profit plus your own salary, benefits, and legitimate personal expenses run through the business. The calculator multiplies your SDE by the range of multiples that businesses in your industry have actually sold for, then adjusts for the two factors buyers reprice hardest: revenue trend and owner dependence. A growing business that runs without its owner earns a premium. A declining business that needs its owner daily gets discounted, and often does not sell at all.
The multiples behind the math
These ranges come from thousands of real closed transactions between 2021 and 2026, where the median business sold for about $350,000 at 2.7x cash flow. Note that businesses priced above $2 million shift to EBITDA multiples, around 4x in recent quarters, and very large or fast-growing companies play by different rules entirely. I walk through the full framework, including broker fees, taxes, and timeline, in my guide to selling your business in 2026.
Why calculators get it wrong (including this one)
Any calculator, mine included, only knows what you type into it. The factors that move real offers by 20 to 40 percent are invisible to it: customer concentration above 20 percent, a lease the landlord will not transfer, undocumented add-backs, pending litigation, or three years of clean books versus a shoebox of receipts. That is why serious sellers get a broker’s opinion of value before setting expectations. My business broker rankings compare the firms that do this well, and Earned Exits, my top pick, does it free. For online businesses, marketplaces like Empire Flippers publish their own valuation tools tuned to digital assets.
How to increase the number
If the range disappointed you, that is useful information, because the levers are knowable. Document every add-back so your true SDE is provable. Reduce owner dependence by delegating and writing down processes; buyers pay real premiums for businesses that run themselves. Diversify any customer over 20 percent of revenue. And sell on an upward trend rather than after burnout; the difference between growing and declining in this calculator reflects what I have watched buyers actually do for two decades. Start these fixes 12 to 24 months before you plan to list, as I explain in my piece on exit strategy timing.
Business valuation: frequently asked questions
How do I calculate what my business is worth?
What is SDE in a business valuation?
What is the average multiple a small business sells for?
Is a free online business valuation accurate?
Does revenue or profit matter more when valuing a business?
Multiples sourced from BizBuySell closed-transaction data and the IBBA Market Pulse survey, current as of mid-2026.
Amine Rahal is an entrepreneur and investor. He is passionate about alternative investments, Bitcoin, precious metals and startups. He enjoys covering US politics, retirement investing, alternative investing and geopolitics.
