Free tool · Business valuation calculator
How to value a business: what it’s worth, and what it would be worth without you.
Work out what your business is worth the way a buyer does: adjusted profit times a multiple. Then see the part most owners never get told: how much the business needing you is costing you.
Strictly private. The figures you type stay on your device. They are never sent to us or kept on our servers. The only details we hold are your name and email.
1. What the business really earns
Last 12 months. Your accounts or your accountant will have every figure.
2. The multiple
Your own range. For an owner-managed business with under £500,000 of profit, 2.5 to 4 is realistic; the questions below explain where the market sits.
Adjusted EBITDA
£0
What a buyer sees it earning
Indicative value
£0
At your low to high multiple
Each 1× on the multiple
£0
What running without you is worth
After borrowing
£0
Before fees and tax
Fill in your numbers to see what the business is worth and what it would be worth without you.
Indicative only. A sale, a dispute or a tax question needs a formal valuation from an accountant or corporate finance adviser.
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How it works
How do you value a business?
A buyer is not buying your turnover and not buying your accountant’s profit figure. They are buying the profit that will still be there after you’ve gone, and paying a multiple of it that reflects how safe that profit is.
Adjusted EBITDA = profit before tax + interest, depreciation and amortisation + your pay − a market-rate MD + one-offsValue = adjusted EBITDA × multipleThe worked example in the calculator: £180,000 profit before tax, £30,000 of interest, depreciation and amortisation, an owner paid £60,000 who would cost £90,000 to replace, no one-offs. Adjusted EBITDA is £180,000. At 2.5 to 4 times, the business is worth £450,000 to £720,000 before the £50,000 of borrowing comes off.
How much is my business worth without me?
This is the part the multiple hides. In Dr Lewis Haydon’s words, from the Mentor Business Podcast:
“You can sell the business for a multiplier of that, but the multiplier also depends on whether that business needs you or not. If that business doesn’t work without you, you will be tied into it when you come to selling it for the next three, four, five years. If you can have the business working without you when it does come to sale, you’re going to get a lot more money for it, because you’re actually selling an asset, not just the job that you’ve built.”
Dr Lewis Haydon, Mentor Business Podcast
Every point on the multiple is worth one year’s adjusted EBITDA. In the example that is £180,000: the difference between a business a buyer can run from day one and one where the customers only know you. A management team that runs the business without you is not an overhead. It is the most valuable thing you can build.
How to build one: high-performing teams and business exit planning. If you are thinking about selling to your own people, see business succession planning.
What do UK businesses actually sell for?
Dealsuite’s M&A Monitor for the second half of 2025 put the average UK and Ireland deal at 5.4 times EBITDA. Size does most of the work: businesses with around £200,000 of normalised EBITDA averaged 3.3 times, those with £10 million averaged 8.4 times. Sector, recurring revenue and customer concentration move it from there. Test your own range in the calculator rather than taking an average that was built from much bigger deals.
Questions people ask
Do you keep my figures?
No. The sums run on your own device: the figures you type are never sent to us or kept on our servers, and they stay strictly private. To see your result you enter your name and email, and those are the only details we hold.
How do you value a small business in the UK?
Most owner-managed businesses are valued as a multiple of adjusted EBITDA: profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, with the owner’s own pay normalised to what a replacement managing director would cost, and one-off costs added back. The multiple reflects how safe and transferable the profit is: size, recurring revenue, customer spread, and whether the business grows without the owner. Asset-heavy or loss-making businesses are valued differently, usually on net assets.
What is adjusted EBITDA?
Your profit before tax, with interest, depreciation and amortisation added back, then adjusted for anything a buyer would not inherit: your own salary and pension (replaced by a market-rate salary for whoever runs it next), and genuine one-off costs. It is the buyer’s view of what the business earns, not the accountant’s.
What multiple do UK small businesses sell for?
Dealsuite’s M&A Monitor for the second half of 2025 put the average across UK and Irish deals at 5.4 times EBITDA, but that average hides the size effect: businesses with around £200,000 of normalised EBITDA averaged 3.3 times, and those with £10 million averaged 8.4 times. For an owner-managed business with under £500,000 of profit, 2.5 to 4 times is the realistic range to test, and the calculator lets you set your own low and high.
Why does the business needing me reduce the value?
Because a buyer is paying for profit that continues after you leave. If the customers, the know-how and the decisions sit with you, the profit is not transferable, so the buyer pays a lower multiple, defers part of the price, or ties you in for three to five years to prove the business works without you. A business that grows without its owner sells as an asset; one that doesn’t sells as a job.
Is this a formal valuation?
No. It is an indicative figure to start the conversation and to show what moves the number. A formal valuation for a sale, a shareholder dispute or tax needs an accountant or a corporate finance adviser who can see your accounts and your sector.
What is the difference between enterprise value and what I get?
The multiple gives enterprise value: the business as a whole. What lands with you is that figure plus surplus cash in the business, minus debt the buyer takes on, minus fees and tax. The calculator shows the first step of that: value less outstanding borrowing.
Built by Dr Lewis Haydon, a business coach and mentor in Birmingham, UK, who owns and invests in businesses and values them before he buys into them. Related: the profit margin calculator and the 13-week cash flow forecast.
Next step
Worth less than you hoped, or less without you?
Bring your numbers to a 30-minute virtual coffee and leave with a straight answer on what would add the most to the multiple.
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