Guides for owners selling, buying or handing over a business

See inside the Business Sale Readiness Toolkit — every sheet, every row and the real formulas, with no email and no account. The guides below are free and complete on their own.

The sums a small business runs over and over, each worked through completely and for free: what a marketplace actually takes from a sale, whether next month's bank balance survives, what an hour of delivery time costs, what a business is worth and how that figure is built, what an enquiry is worth, and what a month of posting costs in hours.

• How much does Etsy take from a sale?

  Etsy's own fee list applied to a real order: 6.5% transaction, payment processing, listing and ads fees, with the arithmetic for a $100 US sale.

• How to build a cash flow forecast

  How to build a cash flow forecast in a spreadsheet, with a worked three-month example, the opening-plus-receipts-minus-payments formula and VAT timing.

• Agency utilisation rate: the formula, and the denominator that decides it

  Utilisation rate = billable hours ÷ available hours. The formula, an honest denominator, and what a ten-point drop costs an agency, with worked numbers.

• SDE vs EBITDA: which one values a small business?

  SDE adds back the owner's whole package; EBITDA does not. Both formulas on one set of accounts, and why a multiple means nothing without its metric.

• How to track leads in Excel

  The nine columns a lead tracker needs, the COUNTIFS behind stage conversion, and a worked example turning 120 enquiries into a value per enquiry.

• How to build a social media content calendar

  What a content calendar must contain, the hours a month of posting really costs, and a batching schedule that cuts it, with a worked month planned out.

• How to value a small business

  Valuation is earnings times a multiple, and both halves are arguments. The three methods buyers use, how earnings get normalised, and what moves a multiple.

• How to sell a business

  Preparation, valuation, market, offers, diligence, completion. What happens at each stage, where deals actually collapse, and when a broker earns their fee.

• Do you need a business broker?

  Brokers charge a retainer plus a percentage. Whether that is worth it turns on how ready the business is, not how big it is. Four situations, decided.

• How a management buyout actually works

  What a management buyout is, where the money comes from, and the arithmetic that decides whether the deal survives its first year. Worked in full.

• Due diligence checklist for buying a business

  What to check before you buy a business, grouped by what each finding actually does to the price. With the seven things that most often kill a deal.

• Selling your business to a competitor

  A competitor is often the buyer who pays most, and the one who can hurt you most if the deal fails. How to run it without handing over the business for free.

• How to sell a business without a broker

  Selling a business yourself: what a broker actually does, which parts you can do, which you cannot, and the sum that decides whether the fee is worth paying.

• What is my business worth based on revenue?

  Revenue multiples explained: what the multiple really prices, and why two businesses with the same turnover can be worth completely different amounts.

• How an earn-out works when you sell a business

  What an earn-out is, how the target gets defined, and the arithmetic that decides what you are actually paid. Worked in full, with the traps.

• Selling a business that has debt

  Yes, a business with debt can be sold. A multiple gives you enterprise value; you receive that minus debt plus surplus cash. Worked through in full.

• What a business valuation multiple is, and what moves it

  A multiple is a statement about risk, not an industry average. What it is applied to, what moves it up or down, and how to build your own range.

• Buying a business with little or no money of your own

  What no money down really means when buying a business: the price is repaid out of future profits. The year one sum, worked in full, twice.

• The exit options you actually have, compared

  The six exits an owner really has, compared on who pays, what they pay for, how long it takes and how much of the price is cash at completion.

• Selling a business quickly, and what speed actually costs

  Speed is paid for in price, and the exchange rate is knowable. A fast sale and a full process worked side by side, with the cash difference in full.

• What a heads of terms really decides in a business sale

  What a heads of terms settles in money terms: price structure, cash at completion, working capital, exclusivity and timetable. Worked in full.

• Selling a business to a private equity buyer

  What a private equity buyer is really paying for, why the headline price is not what you receive, and the arithmetic of a deal that is not all cash.

• Asset sale vs share sale, explained commercially

  What a share sale and an asset sale really transfer, why buyers want one and sellers the other, and the same deal worked through both ways in full.

• How long it takes to sell a business, and where the months go

  No honest average exists. Here are the seven stages a sale passes through, what sets the length of each, and how to build a timeline from your own facts.

• Selling a business to a family member

  Setting a defensible price, how a family buyer funds it out of future profits, keeping it fair between siblings, and the handover. Worked in full.

• What documents do you need to sell a business?

  The paperwork a buyer asks for, grouped by what each document proves and what the gap costs you in price, warranties or money held back.

• How much does eBay take from a sale?

  eBay's own published fee pages applied to real orders: final value fee by category, the per-order charge, postage, promoted listings, shops and international.

• What does Shopify cost per sale?

  Shopify's own UK prices on a real order: plan fees, card rates, the third-party gateway charge, and where the monthly fee stops mattering.

• How to price a product so it actually makes money

  Most pricing stops at cost plus a markup. Count the fees, postage, returns and your own time, price backwards from a target margin, and check the discount.

• What does Amazon take from an FBA sale?

  Amazon's own UK fee schedule applied to real orders: referral fee by category, FBA fulfilment by size tier, plus storage and aged-inventory costs.

• How to do a competitor analysis

  A competitor analysis that ends in a dated decision, not a grid: who to include, what is genuinely public, how to grade each finding, and the arithmetic.

• How to enter a new market: what to check first

  The checks before you commit budget to a new market: define it narrowly, cost the entry honestly, work out the payback, and ask why it is still empty.

• The competition slide: how to answer the investor question

  What an investor is really asking about competitors, why the 2x2 with you in the top right fails, and how to build a comparison you can defend, with sums.

• Etsy vs Shopify fees: which one is actually cheaper?

  Both platforms' own published UK rates on the same order, the order count where Shopify gets cheaper, and the advertising budget that gap actually buys.

• How much should you charge for shipping?

  What a parcel really costs to send, why free delivery moves the same money, and the threshold arithmetic that decides whether an offer pays for itself.

• How to calculate the landed cost of a unit

  Freight, duty, clearance and the costs that only appear after the goods arrive, divided down to one sellable unit, with a full shipment worked through.

• The reorder point formula, and what getting it wrong costs

  Daily sales times lead time plus safety stock, worked in full, with the arithmetic that compares what the buffer costs against what a stockout costs.

• Inventory turnover, and what dead stock is really costing you

  Cost of goods sold divided by average stock, worked line by line and per product, plus the sum that says what a slow line costs to keep on the shelf.

• How to calculate a wholesale price

  Wholesale, RRP and keystone worked from one cost base, with the minimum order size the arithmetic sets and what the wholesale line really earns per unit.

• Margin vs markup: what is the difference?

  The same £5 profit is a 50% markup and a 33.3% margin. Both formulas, a conversion table, and the pricing mistake that quietly costs you margin.

• How to calculate customer acquisition cost

  Spend £1,840, win 92 new customers, and CAC is £20. Whether £20 is good depends on contribution per order — the full worked arithmetic, by channel.

• How to calculate customer lifetime value

  A customer spending £48 a time, 3.2 times a year, for 2.5 years is worth £384 in revenue and £175 in contribution. Which number you can actually spend.

• How to calculate break-even ROAS

  Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by your contribution margin. At 45.6% that is 2.19, and every pound spent below it loses money. Worked in full.

• Economic order quantity: how much to order at once

  EOQ is the square root of 2DS/H. At 4,800 units a year it comes out at 408 — and ordering 1,200 at a time costs £680 a year more than it saves.

• Sell-through rate: the formula and what it tells you

  42 sold from 140 received is a 30% sell-through and 10 weeks of cover. The formula, a four-line worked table, and the markdown arithmetic.

Arithmetic and general information only — not financial, tax, legal or investment advice.