What's your business actually worth?
A CFO-grade estimate using real transaction data — Damodaran industry multiples for public comps, BizBuySell reports for private-market multiples, and standard size-discount methodology. Every number on the results page cites its source. No email required.
Methodology
Where the multiples come from
01
Damodaran (NYU Stern)
Free public dataset of EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue medians for public companies, grouped by industry. Updated every January. Cited in every serious business-valuation textbook.
02
BizBuySell Insight Reports
Quarterly report of actual small-business sales — median asking price, cash-flow multiple, and revenue multiple by category. The most representative source for main-street private transactions.
03
Duff & Phelps size discount
Publicly-listed companies enjoy a size premium; private and small businesses do not. We haircut public-comp multiples by 10–65% based on your revenue bucket per the standard Duff & Phelps methodology.
04
Peer submissions
As anonymous CFO Grade submissions accumulate, we cross-check the baseline multiples against implied medians from real businesses in your industry and size band.
Dataset version 2026.01. Multiples are refreshed each January (Damodaran) and quarterly (BizBuySell). This estimate is educational — a real transaction depends on buyer demand, deal terms, seller financing, and diligence findings. Not a formal appraisal.
Common questions
How accurate is a free business valuation calculator?+
This calculator gets you within roughly ±20% of a formal broker or CPA appraisal for most healthy small businesses. It uses the same underlying methodology (public-comp multiples adjusted for size, and private-transaction multiples from actual sales) that a $2,000–$5,000 valuation report uses. It won't capture qualitative factors like customer concentration, key-person risk, or lease/contract terms — a formal appraisal will.
Why does the estimate span such a wide range?+
A real business doesn't sell for one number — it sells within a band. Different methods (SDE multiple, EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, DCF) each capture different aspects of value. Showing the range is more honest than picking a single number. Where in the range you actually land depends on the buyer, deal structure, and diligence.
What's the difference between EBITDA and SDE?+
SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings) is EBITDA plus the owner's compensation and discretionary personal expenses run through the business. For most small owner-operated businesses, buyers underwrite on SDE. For larger businesses with professional management, buyers use EBITDA. This calculator approximates SDE ≈ EBITDA — a formal appraisal would adjust further.
Why apply a size discount to the Damodaran multiples?+
Damodaran's dataset is drawn from publicly-listed companies, which enjoy liquidity, scale, brand, and management depth that small private businesses don't. Duff & Phelps (and every serious appraiser) apply a size premium/discount to correct for this. A single-location restaurant simply does not trade at the same multiple as Chipotle.
Does the CFO Grade affect the valuation?+
Not directly in this calculator — we keep valuation and financial-health scoring separate so each number is defensible on its own. In practice, though, buyers pay more for well-run businesses. An A-graded business typically sells at the top of its industry range (or above it); a D-graded one at a discount. Running your CFO Grade after this tells you which end of the range you're anchored to.
How often are the multiples updated?+
Damodaran publishes his industry dataset each January; BizBuySell publishes quarterly. We refresh this calculator on the same cadence. You're currently viewing dataset 2026.01.