Free · no signup · SDE method
Price your business using the same SDE method franchise resale professionals use.
Enter three years of financials, pick your industry multiple, and see a defensible value range — in your browser, no signup, no email gate.
Perspective
Type
Most recent year
Year SDE
—
Year before
Year SDE
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Two years ago
Year SDE
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Enter a net profit value in all three years to see your estimated value range.
Reality check — across businesses sold Q3 2021–Q2 2026, the average cash-flow (SDE) multiple was 2.58× and the median sale price was $340,000. (BizBuySell closed-sale data.)
A real-pattern franchise resale — declining trend, signs & printing, fee included.
SDE Method · Reference
Before You Price Anything
What counts as an add-back — and what never does
Legitimate add-backs
- Owner salary and benefits
- Personal expenses run through the business
- Depreciation and amortization
- Interest
- Genuine one-time costs (legal settlement, one-off equipment repair)
Never legitimate
- Legitimate operating expenses that any buyer would also incur
- Projected or forward earnings
- "What the buyer could earn" — this is a valuation, not a projection
- Goodwill not supported by documented earnings
What moves you inside your band
Toward the high end
- Year-over-year growth trend
- Owner works part-time (easy transition for buyer)
- Long lease runway or owned real estate
- Transferable, tenured staff
- Current equipment with life remaining
Toward the low end
- Declining trend across the three years
- Full-time owner-operator — this is a job purchase, not a business purchase
- Aging equipment (watch for unusually low depreciation add-backs)
- Thin taxable income relative to claimed SDE
- Expiring lease with no renewal option
- Liens or encumbrances (must be paid off before transfer)
Priced separately from the multiple
These are priced on their own — not multiplied by SDE
- Equipment and FF&E at fair market value
- Saleable inventory (at cost or agreed value)
- Transferable contracts and recurring revenue streams
Educational estimate using the SDE method — not an appraisal or a broker opinion. Start with clean P&Ls: have your accountant clean three years of books before you price anything.
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Brett Payne writes every week on franchising a business, buying a franchise, multi-unit ownership, and building a company that runs without the owner in the middle.