What It Helps Clarify
- The earnings measure most relevant to the business
- Value drivers and risks a buyer may examine
- Information needed to support key assumptions
- Issues worth addressing before a sale process
Understand the earnings, value drivers, and risks that may shape how buyers view your privately held business—before you decide whether to sell.
Share the information you have available. SeaRidge Advisory will use it to begin an initial sale-planning conversation and identify what may be useful to review next.
Submitting this form does not market your business, contact prospective buyers, or commit you to sell.
Prefer to talk? Call (619) 786-7378.
An initial estimate can create a practical starting point for sale planning, but it cannot determine the exact price or terms a buyer will offer.
A useful estimate considers the economic performance of the business, relevant market context, operating requirements, and the risks that affect transferability.
Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE) may be relevant for an owner-operated business. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) may better reflect a business with a broader management structure. Any adjustment must be relevant and supported by the records.
Relevant transaction evidence can help frame how similar businesses have been evaluated, while accounting for differences in scale, performance, risk, and deal structure.
Assets and the working capital needed to operate the business matter to transaction structure and operating continuity. They are considered in context and are not simply added to an earnings-based estimate.
Customer concentration, owner dependence, management depth, revenue durability, and documented obligations can influence buyer confidence and the assumptions applied to value.
No single method or earnings figure is a shortcut to value. The appropriate analysis depends on how the business operates and what the available information supports.
IRS valuation guidelines and SBA guidance for sellers both describe three approaches: income, market and asset. For most owner-led sales, our estimate works through four steps:
For the full method, two worked examples and current multiples by deal size, read our SDE vs. EBITDA business valuation guide.
Buyers test the quality, durability, and transferability of the earnings—not just the number shown on a financial statement.
You do not need every document before submitting a request. The initial conversation can clarify what is useful now and what may be needed later.
Profit and loss statements, balance sheets, tax returns, year-to-date results, owner compensation, and support for proposed adjustments.
Budgets, forecasts, systems, processes, facilities, key obligations, and how the business performs day to day.
Revenue mix, customer concentration, recurring or repeat demand, contracts, retention, and sources of growth.
Ownership structure, key employees, management responsibilities, material agreements, and the owner's continuing role.
Clear answers before you begin a valuation conversation.
No. The initial valuation is a confidential sale-planning estimate. It is not a formal appraisal, fairness opinion, certified valuation, or guaranteed market or sale price.
No. Submit the request with the information you have available. Additional documents may be useful as the discussion develops, but they are not all required to start.
No. A request starts an initial valuation conversation. It does not market the business, contact prospective buyers, or commit you to sell.
A buyer may apply different assumptions, focus on different risks, or evaluate the business through its own transaction structure and strategy. Diligence may also uncover information that changes the picture.
Request an initial business valuation, or review how SeaRidge Advisory guides owners through a confidential sale process.