TreasuryClear
Which financing fits?

What is your business worth?

A small business sells for a multiple of its earnings, once those earnings are recast the way a buyer sees them. Put your numbers in for a range. It's a starting point for a conversation, not a number to put in a contract.

Which earnings base fits?

Salary, distributions, health, auto, anything the business pays you. Added back only for SDE.

Owner's truck, a one-off legal bill, anything a buyer won't repeat. SDE only.

Estimated value

SDE or EBITDA, and why it matters

Both start from profit and add back costs a new owner wouldn't carry the same way. The difference is one line, and it moves the answer a lot. SDE adds your entire pay back in, because a buyer of a small, owner-run business is buying your seat and your salary with it. EBITDA does not, because a bigger business runs on a hired manager the buyer still has to pay. Use SDE for an owner-operated shop, EBITDA once the business runs without you.

The multiple is where the real range lives. It rises with size, growth, recurring revenue, and a low dependence on you, and it falls without them. The defaults here are a broad market band, not your number: a specialized, fast-growing business earns more, a fragile or owner-dependent one earns less.

Default multiples reflect long-running small-business sale data (BizBuySell Insight Report; IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse), reviewed July 2026. This is an estimate, not a valuation or advice. A sale, a raise, or a dispute needs a professional appraisal or a quality-of-earnings review. If you're buying rather than selling, the financing router and the SBA payment calculator price the acquisition debt, and the valuation section covers the deal work.

Diagram showing seller's discretionary earnings times a 2 to 3 multiple equals an estimated value range.
The whole method in one line: earnings times a multiple. The tool applies a typical small-business range, so the output is a bracket to argue inside, not a single number. Editorial illustration, TreasuryClear.

Get the earnings right first

The multiple gets the attention, but the earnings figure is where most of the error lives. SDE adds the owner's pay and perks back to profit; EBITDA doesn't. Feeding the wrong one into a multiple is the fastest way to a wrong number.

Diagram building SDE by adding owner pay and other add-backs to profit, versus EBITDA which omits owner pay.
SDE versus EBITDA. A small owner-operated business is usually valued on SDE; a larger one on EBITDA. Use the wrong base and the multiple lands on the wrong earnings. Editorial illustration, TreasuryClear.
A small business owner in an apron standing with arms folded inside their cafe.
For an owner-operated business, SDE reflects everything the business supports one working owner with. That's what a buyer is really pricing. Photo: Vitaly Gariev via Pexels. Pexels License.

What moves the multiple

Two businesses with the same earnings sell for different multiples. Recurring revenue, customer concentration, growth, and how dependent the business is on the owner all push it up or down. The range here is a starting point, not an appraisal.

A shop owner in an apron standing among the shelves of their store.
A business that runs without the owner in the building earns a higher multiple than one that doesn't. Transferability is worth real money at sale. Photo: Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels. Pexels License.
The columned facade of the New York Stock Exchange building with a large American flag.
The same earnings-times-multiple logic runs from a corner store to a public company; only the multiples and the scrutiny change. A real sale gets a professional appraisal or a quality-of-earnings review. Photo: Arild Vagen via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.