04年12月 倍数,
Multiples are tricky things to figure out when you’re valuing a 业务出售. Lots of opinions are floating around, most stemming from imperfect information. Uncle Bob’s golf buddy sold his widget store for a million bucks based on a 多个 of five! Such “buddy wisdom” can lead you astray. Unrealistic expectations can result in a price point that the market simply won’t support. Your business languishes with little to no buyer activity.
先做重要的事
So, what is a 多个 to begin with? 基本上, a 多个 is a number by which you multiply the economic benefit enjoyed by the owner of a business. 与大型企业, this benefit is frequently expressed as EBITDA, an acronym for Earnings Before Interest, 税, 折旧及摊销. 虽然EBITDA在M中是合理的&一个王国, where businesses generating $10 million or more in annual sales are exchanging hands, EBITDA isn’t always the best fit with for small businesses. Besides the difference in sheer 大小, the owners’ group frequently doesn’t play an active, hands-on role in the operation of these larger businesses. 认为被动投资者.
In contrast, Main Street businesses are frequently helmed by an owner/operator. It’s also relatively common for the owner/operator to run some personal expenses through the business. These could include their personal health and life insurance, the lease expense for a personal vehicle, which they don’t plan to convey with the sale of their business, or the cell phone plan for their family. After all, such practices are one of the benefits of being a small business owner. 在本质上, 卖方自由支配收益, also known as Cash Flow) is EBITDA with a few adjustments, including owner’s compensation and personal, 可自由支配的开支.
There’s more to SDE than this, but that’s it in a nutshell. While 倍数 can also be applied to the business’ Gross Revenue, SDE shows how much income a new owner will have to live on and pay off pay debt service incurred by taking out a loan to secure the purchase. When done right, SDE is a buyer’s potential Return on Investment for a given business.
倍数在行动
How is the 多个 determined and used, besides Uncle Bob’s questionable tips? 让我们举一个简单的例子.
You would like to sell your small to medium-大小d business, Widgets R Us. 什么价格 你应该问?
Ideally, there’s a lot of market data to inform this decision. In the field of comparable widget stores that have sold (based on sector, 大小, 收入, 位置, 等.)平均售价是多少? 说它是300000美元.
Now, what’s the average SDE of those widget businesses that have sold? 假设这是10万美元.
The 多个 is the result of dividing the average price by the average SDE. 在本例中，$300,000/$100,000 = 3.
Let’s further say your business’ average SDE over the last three years comes out to $130,000 because your sales team is really good at selling widgets. 不错的! The price for your business would be $130,000 x 3 = $390,000.
泽图变稠
这是一个简化的例子. 在现实生活中, the process can be complicated by the quality (or lack thereof) of the financials, 市场趋势, 客户集中, how dependent the business is on you, and a host of other factors.
与上面相同的例子保持一致, let’s say that you’re the genius behind your business’ eye-popping widget sales. 在过去的几年里, you’ve cultivated relationships with key clients who refuse to deal with anyone else at your widget shop. 这是如何影响的 可转让的 企业价值? You’ll need to wrestle with such questions.
但是等等，还有更多…
Also keep in mind that 倍数, no matter how fact-based, are not the end-all, be-all. A sophisticated buyer will also take into consideration the income they’ll be earning, 债务服务后, 根据他们的首付. This is known on as the Internal Rate of Return. An experienced broker can work with you to understand and interpret all this information. You can drastically help this process by having well organized, professionally-prepared financial records. At a minimum, we like to analyze the most recent three years of P&Ls, tax returns and a current balance sheet to get a clear picture of the performance of your business. 买家希望深入研究这些, often bringing in their CPA or financial advisor, to understand what they’re potentially getting into!
If there isn’t a lot of useful data to go on, there are some tricks of the trade that are based on way more experience than Uncle Bob’s sample 大小 of one or two stories. Brokers have access to information that isn’t available to the general public. They frequently have experience selling businesses similar to yours. The best sales data aggregates the actual sales price of businesses provided by financial institutions and certified business appraisers. They check and double-check the information that goes into making up the SDE number.
起!
很值得你去看看 请教知识渊博的专家 to make sure you’re valuing your business at an optimal price to both sell the business and maximize your achievable profits.
