How Much Can I Sell My Business For?

Most small businesses sell for 2x to 3.5x their annual SDE (seller's discretionary earnings, the real profit that lands in the owner's pocket), with a national median sale price around $350,000 and median cash flow around $159,000 in recent BizBuySell data. Your actual number depends on your specific profit, industry, and how much the business depends on you, but that range is a realistic starting point before you get a real valuation.

What is the realistic starting formula?

Value = SDE x multiple. SDE is your net profit plus the owner's salary, plus one-time and personal expenses run through the business, plus non-cash items like depreciation. The multiple is typically 2x to 3.5x for a small, owner-run Main Street business, higher for larger and less owner-dependent operations, lower for small or fragile ones. Our companion guide on what your business is worth walks through the full SDE calculation; this guide focuses on setting realistic expectations for the resulting number.

Why is my expectation probably too high?

Because most owners anchor on revenue, or on what a friend claims their business sold for, rather than on their own verified profit and market multiple. A few reality checks:

• Revenue is not the number. A $1,000,000-revenue business with thin margins can be worth less than a $400,000-revenue business with strong margins. See how many times revenue is my business worth for the revenue-side math.
• Most businesses do not sell at the asking price. Only an estimated 20% of listed small businesses actually sell, and the ones that do typically close below the original ask.
• 58% of owners have never had their business appraised, per UBS Investor Watch, so most sellers are negotiating against a number they made up rather than one a buyer's lender will actually accept.

The business didn't earn a dollar more. It just became a safer, easier business to hand over.

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What actually moves my number up or down?

Two businesses with identical revenue, even identical profit, can sell for very different amounts because the multiple reacts to risk:

• Higher, safer multiple: recurring or contracted revenue, a diversified customer base, the business runs without the owner, clean and reviewed financials, a credible growth story.
• Lower, discounted multiple: heavy owner dependence, one client representing a large share of revenue, messy or unverifiable books, declining or lumpy revenue.

For the specific moves that shift you from the low end to the high end of the range, see how to increase business value before selling.

A worked example

Say your business shows $70,000 of net profit on the tax return. You pay yourself a $75,000 salary, run about $15,000 of personal expenses through the business, and had a one-time $8,000 repair bill that will not recur. Your SDE is roughly $70,000 + $75,000 + $15,000 + $8,000 = $168,000.

At a conservative 2.2x multiple (reflecting real owner dependence and a concentrated customer base), that is about $370,000. At a stronger 3.2x multiple (recurring contracts, a trained manager, clean books), the same profit is worth about $538,000. The business did not earn a dollar more, it just became a safer, easier business to hand over.

What should I actually expect to walk away with?

Do not confuse sale price with take-home cash. Before you set expectations around a headline number, budget for:

• Broker or advisor fees, commonly a percentage of the sale price on deals that use a broker.
• Deal structure. Many small business sales include seller financing or an earn-out, meaning you do not receive the full price at closing.
• Taxes on the sale, which vary significantly based on how the deal is structured (asset sale versus stock sale) and should be modeled with a tax advisor before you negotiate.
• Time. With 70% of sellers spending under two years preparing and roughly 20% of listings actually closing, the real number often takes longer, and more work, to reach than owners expect going in.

Getting a real, sourced answer to "how much can I sell my business for" beats guessing from a headline multiple you saw online. SharePop Studio gives owners and their advisors that number, grounded in their actual SDE and industry, plus the specific moves that would raise it before they go to market.