Valuation Guides
Master every step of valuing and selling your European business: the methods, the paperwork, the deal timeline, and the jargon decoded.
- What would you like to learn?
- Jump straight to the guide you need, or read through them all in order.
- The Process
- Six simple steps from sign-up to a complete valuation report.
- The four methods in common use, and which one sets our headline.
- Exactly what to prepare, and what's optional.
- Deal Timeline
- What to expect from valuation all the way to closing.
- Long reads for business owners
- Written for the person making the decision rather than for their advisors. Each one answers the question in full, then ends with your own number instead of a form.
- Business succession
- Four ways out of the business you built. What each one does to your money, and what each one does to the people who work there.
- What is my business worth
- How a private business is actually priced, and why two companies earning the same profit can sell for very different amounts.
- Valuation methods
- What each method is good at, what each one is bad at, and what to do when they disagree with each other.
- EBITDA and normalisation
- What the measure is, why every buyer uses it, and how normalising it changes what your business is worth.
- Cash flow and working capital
- How profit and cash come apart, what working capital does to the money you receive at completion, and why growth is so often the thing that empties the bank account.
- Discounted cash flow
- The method that intimidates people. What it does, how it is built, and exactly how much the answer moves when the assumptions move.
- Due diligence, from the seller's side
- The stage where deals collapse. What they will ask for, where things actually go wrong, and what to fix now rather than in month four.
- Can your buyer actually pay
- Where the money for your price comes from, how to tell early whether an approach is funded, and what the deferred part of an offer really costs you.
- Closing your business down
- When winding down is the better answer, what it actually involves, and what the money looks like when you do it properly.
- Restarting after insolvency
- What happens, what your duties are, what it means for you personally, and how people actually rebuild afterwards.
- How the valuation process works
- A simple six-step journey to your comprehensive business valuation.
- Initial Information
- Provide basic details about your business including industry, location, and size
- Financial Data
- Enter your key financial metrics for accurate valuation calculations
- Document Upload
- Upload supporting documents so the software can read and check them
- AI Analysis
- Our AI analyses your data against European M&A benchmarks and market multiples
- Valuation Report
- Receive a comprehensive valuation report with multiple methodologies
- Next Steps
- Explore options for selling, fundraising, or improving your business value
- Key valuation terms
- The vocabulary of M&A, explained in plain language. Nothing in your report should come as a surprise.
- Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation & Amortisation
- A proxy for operating cash flow used to compare profitability across companies, regardless of how they are financed or taxed.
- Enterprise Value (EV)
- The value of the whole business
- Equity value plus net debt: what a buyer effectively pays to own the entire operation, debt and all.
- Equity Value
- What owners actually receive: enterprise value minus net debt. This is the headline 'price' in a share sale.
- EV / EBITDA Multiple
- How many times its annual EBITDA a business is worth. A company at €2M EBITDA on an 8x multiple is worth ~€16M.
- A valuation that projects future cash flows and discounts them back to today's value using a required rate of return.
- The blended cost of a company's debt and equity, used as the discount rate in a DCF valuation.
- Net Debt
- Total interest-bearing debt less cash and equivalents. It bridges enterprise value and equity value.
- Working Capital
- Current assets minus current liabilities. Buyers expect a 'normal' level to be delivered with the business at closing.
- The most recent 12 months of financials, used for the freshest possible view of performance, not just the last year-end.
- Predictable, contracted subscription revenue. The key driver when valuing SaaS and other recurring-revenue businesses.
- The detailed sales document shared with qualified, NDA-bound buyers to present the business and its opportunity.
- Part of the price paid later, contingent on the business hitting agreed targets after the sale completes.
- What moves your valuation
- Multiples aren't fixed. These are the factors buyers reward, and the ones that hold your price back.
- Lifts your multiple
- Holds it back
- Frequently asked questions
- Common questions about our valuation process.
- How accurate is the valuation?
- How long does the valuation process take?
- Is my data secure and confidential?
- What if I don't have all the required documents?
- How is my valuation multiple determined?
- Can I update my valuation later?
- What happens after I receive my valuation?
- Do you charge upfront fees?
- Ready to value your business?
- Put these guides into practice. Our valuation engine gives you a range in minutes, free of charge.
- Built for European businesses
- Free to start. No account needed for the instant benchmark.
- The one success fee we intend to charge, only when a deal closes.
- The instant benchmark takes under 60 seconds.
- Owners across the EU, EEA, UK and wider Europe can use the valuation form.
- Export or permanently delete everything we hold, any time.
- Manufacturing & industry
- Technology & telecoms
- Consumer, retail & media
- Healthcare & education
- Professional & financial services
- Energy, transport & agriculture
- FOR BUYERS
- FOR SELLERS
- Ready to know your number?
- The instant benchmark gives you an indicative value range in under 60 seconds, measured against completed sales of medium sized European businesses. The full valuation takes about 5 minutes, uses your own financials and shows up to four methods. Both are free. Both are indicative estimates, not a formal appraisal.
- The one success fee we intend to charge applies only when a deal closes. Provisional. No engagement letter has been drafted yet, so this is how we intend to charge rather than terms you can hold us to.
See what it's worth