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Guides

The tools compute a number; these guides walk the reasoning around it — what the IBBA add-back method actually means for your P&L, what published sold-business multiples do and don’t tell you, and what no calculator can know in advance. Same standard as the tools: every claim traced to a source, every judgment call labeled as one, and a free tool paired with each guide so you can run your own numbers.

JUL 2026What Is My Business Actually Worth? (and Why Every Valuation Disagrees)There is no true price for a business — only a range built from SDE times a sourced industry multiple. The formula unpacked, what moves the multiple, what every estimate leaves out, and how to sanity-check any valuation you're handed, including ours.Read guide →JUL 2026How to Calculate SDE Add-Backs (The IBBA Method, Line by Line)Seller's Discretionary Earnings, the IBBA's way: the five add-back categories, the one-owner rule most worksheets get wrong, why normalization cuts both directions, and the provability test buyers and lenders actually apply.Read guide →JUL 2026How to Read a Business Valuation Multiple by IndustryA multiple is a summary statistic from real sales, not a formula: why they vary so widely by industry, what the reporting window and main-street segment note actually mean, and why the published average is a starting point, not your business's price.Read guide →JUL 2026Can You Afford to Buy This Business? SBA 7(a) DSCR ExplainedA fairly priced business can still fail to cash-flow its own purchase. What DSCR actually measures, why the SBA's minimum is size-dependent (most calculators miss this), how a seller note changes the math, and why your own draw counts against cash flow.Read guide →JUL 2026Is the Asking Price Fair? A Buyer's Guide to Checking a ListingFlip the valuation formula backward to find the multiple a listing's asking price actually implies, compare it to the published industry average, and read what it means when a listing runs well above or below that line — in either direction.Read guide →JUL 2026SDE vs. EBITDA: Which One Actually Prices Your Business SaleThe gap between SDE and EBITDA comes down to one line item — owner compensation. Why Main Street deals price on SDE and larger deals price on EBITDA, where the size convention draws the line, and why using the wrong figure moves your price the wrong way.Read guide →JUL 2026What You Actually Keep When You Sell Your BusinessSale price and cash at closing are rarely the same number. The closing-statement waterfall — commission, fees, debt payoff, a carried seller note — and why the math stops honestly before taxes, which depend on your specific allocation, entity, and state.Read guide →