Valuation Gap Calculator | What You Keep After a Sale
CT Acquisitions

Valuation gap calculator

What your business is worth, and what you would actually keep.

This valuation gap calculator takes six numbers off your P&L and gives you a value range for a business your size, what is left after debt, fees and tax, and the gap between that and the number you actually need to walk away with. Nothing is stored unless you ask us to send it.

Your numbers
Most recent full year. $
The bottom line on your P&L, before any adjustments. $
Straight off the P&L. $
Also straight off the P&L. $
Roughly. It changes what can realistically be fixed first.
What comes off at closing
Loans, equipment finance, lines of credit. $
After tax. The number that makes the rest of your life work. $

Every figure updates as you type.

Nothing here is sent anywhere, saved, or seen by us. The numbers stay in your browser until you choose to email yourself the breakdown.

Your numbers, run through

Based on the figures you entered
Earnings, as reported
Net profit before tax—
Interest—
Depreciation and amortization—
EBITDA—
Margin on revenue—
Value range
Multiple for a business this size—
Enterprise value—
What reaches you
Enterprise value, carried down—
Less debt repaid at closing—
Less transaction costs, 6%—
Less tax, at 20%—
Net to you—
Your gap
—

What this can't see

Everything above is arithmetic. It uses one multiple range based on size alone, and it assumes your reported earnings are the earnings a buyer would pay for. Neither holds in a real transaction.

On top of that, these move the multiple further than anything on this page:

  • Your industry, and what acquirers are actually paying in it this quarter
  • Where you are, and which buyers are active in that market
  • Whether your revenue is contracted, or won again on every bid
  • How much of it sits with your largest one or two customers
  • Whether your customer contracts survive a change of control
  • Whether your key people are under agreement, or free to leave the week after closing
  • Whether anyone on the team holds equity, options, or a promise of either
  • How much of the business still runs through you personally
  • How the sale is structured for tax, which has to be set up years ahead and cannot be fixed at the letter of intent

What a valuation gap call does

Thirty minutes, no charge, and no obligation to do anything afterwards. Three things come out of it.

  1. Which end of that range you are actually at. We go through the nine points above against your business and tell you where you sit on each. That alone usually moves the number more than anything you could change this year.
  2. What buyers are paying in your vertical right now. We hold recorded buy boxes for around 400 registered acquirers. We will tell you how many have a live mandate for a business like yours, what they have paid recently, and what they walk away from.
  3. Which fixes are worth doing, and which are not. Some of what is dragging your multiple takes three years to change. Some of it takes a quarter. Against your timeline, most owners are surprised by which is which, and by how much of the list is not worth touching at all.

If the honest answer is that your number already works and there is nothing worth fixing, we will tell you that too. That is a useful thing to know before you spend two years on it.

Book a 30 minute valuation gap call

This is an estimate produced from figures you entered, not a valuation, an appraisal, or tax advice. Multiples reflect general ranges for privately held businesses by size of earnings, and are applied here to EBITDA as reported rather than to a rebuilt figure, which will differ. Tax is shown at a flat 20% for illustration only; your actual liability depends on deal structure, entity type, basis and jurisdiction, and should be confirmed with your own advisor.