Portfolio/Tools to try
What could your business be worth to a buyer, and how much of it could reach you?
Three questions could decide how much of what you've built you keep: what the business could be worth, what may be holding that value back, and what could reach you after tax. Enter a year's figures and answer six questions about the business, and the model works through all three together, as an indicative range for education rather than a valuation. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
How this was built
I first built this for the members of a financial education platform I run, as one of its 25+ tools, then rebuilt it here in this site's design. It normalises a year's EBITDA for the owner's pay, personal costs and one-off items, sets a starting multiple from the size of those earnings and the sector, then moves it up or down for six value drivers. It then compares what could reach the seller after Capital Gains Tax on a standard share sale, with Business Asset Disposal Relief and on a sale to an Employee Ownership Trust, at 2026/27 rates, with an illustration of the extra tax on an asset sale.
Based on what you've entered
What the business could be worth, and what could reach you
Multiples are broad market guides that vary widely by deal, condition and timing. This is an indicative range for education, not a valuation: a real one depends on diligence no calculator can perform.
How the earnings were normalised
The starting point for the multiple: the profit a buyer might see once the owner is paid at market rate and personal and one-off costs are taken out.
The value gap
The solid bar is the indicative value on your answers today. The hatched part is what the model treats as within reach over a 2 to 3 year runway, if every driver below the fourth answer were lifted to it.
- Today:
- Within reach over a 2 to 3 year runway:
What could move the value most
The drivers below the fourth answer, ranked by the value that lifting each one to the fourth answer could add on its own.
Your drivers are already strong. Holding them, and documenting them for diligence, may matter most from here.
Your answers, and what each one does to the value
The middle answer is the baseline. Each step above or below it moves the multiple by that driver's weight.
What could reach you, by route
This is an indicative range for education, not a valuation. It is not corporate finance, tax or investment advice, or a financial promotion, and it doesn't recommend any buyer, adviser, deal structure or product. Valuation multiples are broad market guides that vary widely by deal, condition and timing; a real valuation depends on diligence no calculator can perform. Tax outcomes depend on your circumstances and on rules that change: the figures here use 2026/27 UK rates for a share sale by a higher-rate taxpayer and ignore the annual exempt amount and reliefs not modelled.
Key rules used: a starting multiple by normalised EBITDA of 3× under £500,000 (range 2× to 4×), 4.5× from £500,000 to £2m (3× to 6×), 6.5× from £2m to £10m (5× to 8×) and 9× from £10m (6× to 12×); sector moves it from +2× for technology or SaaS to −0.9× for hospitality and leisure, within limits for each size band. Each step above or below the middle answer moves the multiple by the driver's weight: owner independence 0.42×, recurring revenue 0.35×, growth trajectory and management team 0.3×, customer spread 0.25×, market position 0.2×. Capital Gains Tax at 24%, or 18% on the first £1m of gains with Business Asset Disposal Relief; a sale to an Employee Ownership Trust taxed on half the gain at 24%, the other half deferred. The asset sale illustration applies Corporation Tax at 25% to the company's gain, then BADR when the money is taken out.
Before acting on any figure, you could take advice from a qualified corporate finance adviser, accountant and tax specialist. The model runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.