See inside the toolkit before you buy it
This is not a description of the workbook. It is the workbook — every sheet, every column, every row label and the actual Excel formulas, read straight out of the file the purchase delivers. No email, no account, nothing to sign up for. If what is below is not worth an afternoon of your time, the full file will not be either.
Already decided? Everything below is what you get. Both files are Excel with live formulas you can read and re-key.
The full Sale Readiness Toolkit — $499 Or just the valuation sheets — $39
What is in the file
| Sheet | Rows | Columns |
|---|---|---|
| Business Inputs & EBITDA | 23 | Item, Type, Value, Notes |
| Valuation Scenarios | 13 | Scenario, EBITDA Multiple, Enterprise Value, Less: Debt, Plus: Cash, Indicative Equity Value, Notes |
| Readiness Assessment | 16 | Area, Score (1-5), Weight, Weighted Score, Guidance |
| Preparation Checklist | 14 | Area, Action, Done |
| Adviser Prep Summary | 7 | Item, Value, Notes |
Sheet 1, in full: Business Inputs & EBITDA
Nothing is hidden here. INPUT is a figure you type; CALCULATED is a formula the file computes when you open it, shown below exactly as it appears in the cell. This is the sheet that decides your number, so it is the one worth reading before you spend anything.
| Item | Type | Cell | Notes in the file |
|---|---|---|---|
| CORE FINANCIALS (most recent full fiscal year) | INPUT | ||
| Annual Revenue | INPUT | 0 | Enter your total revenue for the year. |
| Cost of Goods Sold / Direct Costs | INPUT | 0 | Direct costs of delivering your product or service. |
| Operating Expenses (excl. owner pay, D&A, interest, tax) | INPUT | 0 | Rent, staff wages, marketing, software, etc. — everything except the items below. |
| Owner's Reported Salary/Compensation | INPUT | 0 | What you actually pay yourself, as it appears on the books. |
| Depreciation & Amortisation | INPUT | 0 | From your accounts — real, non-cash expense. |
| Interest Expense | INPUT | 0 | Interest paid on business debt. |
| Taxes Paid | INPUT | 0 | Business-level taxes paid (not owner personal income tax). |
| REPORTED PROFITABILITY (calculated from the above) | CALCULATED | ||
| Reported EBITDA | CALCULATED | =C3-C4-C5-C6 | Revenue minus direct costs, opex, and your reported pay — before D&A, interest, and tax. |
| Reported Net Income | CALCULATED | =C11-C7-C8-C9 | What your accounts actually show as profit. |
| EBITDA NORMALISATION — ADD-BACKS | INPUT | ⚠ Every add-back below must be genuinely defensible. A buyer, their accountant, or a lender will challenge every one. When in doubt, enter zero. | |
| Fair Market Owner Replacement Salary | INPUT | 0 | What it would realistically cost to hire someone to do your job full-time. |
| Owner Compensation Add-back | CALCULATED | =MAX(0,C6-C14) | Only the EXCESS of your reported pay over fair market replacement cost — never the full amount. |
| One-Time / Non-Recurring Expenses | INPUT | 0 | Genuinely one-off costs only (e.g. a lawsuit, a flood). NOT normal costs of doing business. |
| Personal Expenses Run Through the Business | INPUT | 0 | Must be verifiable. This is the add-back category buyers scrutinise hardest. |
| Related-Party Rent Adjustment | INPUT | 0 | Annual difference if you pay yourself/a relative above or below market rent. Can be entered as a negative number if you're currently UNDER market (i.e. rent would need to rise for a new owner). |
| Other Add-backs | INPUT | 0 | Anything else — document each one separately outside this workbook before you rely on it. |
| Total Add-backs | CALCULATED | =C15+C16+C17+C18+C19 | |
| NORMALISED EBITDA | CALCULATED | =C11+C20 | This is the figure a professional valuation would start from — your reported EBITDA plus your defensible add-backs. |
| BALANCE SHEET INPUTS | |||
| Total Interest-Bearing Debt | INPUT | 0 | Business loans, equipment finance, etc. — not trade payables. |
| Cash & Cash Equivalents on Hand | INPUT | 0 | |
Note the owner compensation add-back in particular: =MAX(0,reported pay − fair market replacement). It adds back only the excess over what it would cost to hire someone to do your job, never the full amount. Most free calculators add back the lot, which is the single most common reason an owner's expectation and a buyer's offer are far apart.
The ten areas a buyer examines
Each is scored 1–5 and weighted, and the file computes the weighted total. The guidance below is the guidance in the file, verbatim:
| Area | How it is scored |
|---|---|
| Financial records quality | Clean, reviewed/audited books vs. informal records. Score 1 (informal) to 5 (professionally reviewed 3+ years). |
| Customer concentration | Score 5 if no single customer is >10% of revenue; score 1 if your top customer is >50%. |
| Owner dependency | Could the business run for 30 days without you? Score 5 = yes easily, 1 = it would stop. |
| Management depth beyond the owner | Score 5 if a real second-in-command exists; 1 if every decision routes through you. |
| Recurring / repeat revenue % | Score 5 for mostly contracted/subscription revenue; 1 for one-off, unpredictable sales. |
| Documentation (SOPs, contracts, IP) | Score 5 if processes are written down and contracts are in order; 1 if it is all in your head. |
| Legal / compliance readiness | Score 5 if licences, insurance, and compliance are current and documented; 1 if unsure. |
| Operational process maturity | Score 5 for consistent, repeatable operations; 1 for ad hoc, reactive operations. |
| Growth story credibility | Score 5 if you can point to a specific, evidenced growth plan; 1 if growth is just "hope". |
| Working capital health | Score 5 if cash flow is stable and predictable; 1 if it is frequently tight. |
| TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE | |
| MAX POSSIBLE SCORE | |
| READINESS % | |
| READINESS CATEGORY | A structured self-assessment to guide your preparation — not a professional certification of sale-readiness. |
| DATA CHECK | You cannot confidently assess readiness until every area above has a real score. |
That is the whole structure, and the free valuation calculator runs the same core sum on five of those inputs.
The file adds what the calculator cannot: every add-back category with the defensibility notes above, the value at each multiple side by side, the weighted readiness score, the preparation checklist, and a one-page adviser summary you take into your first meeting. One payment, downloaded to your machine, nothing to log into.
Get the Business Valuation Workbook — $39
The valuation half of the file above — the inputs sheet and the scenario table, built and linked, ready to type your own figures into. Every formula is the one printed on this page.
Want the readiness assessment as well — the ten scored areas, the weighted total, the preparation checklist and the adviser summary? The full Business Sale Readiness Toolkit is $499.
Arithmetic and general information only — not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. It is a workbook you run yourself, not a valuation you can file, and going to market still needs a solicitor and an accountant.
One question the workbook above does not answer: who you are being compared to.
Every one of the ten areas it scores is internal — your figures, your records, your documentation. The competitive picture is the part you cannot assemble out of your own files, and it is the part somebody else raises rather than you.
Read a complete worked intelligence brief first — one brief in full, start to finish, written about an invented company so nothing in it is commentary on a real business. No email, no account, on the same principle as this page.
The Fundraise Positioning Brief ($999) answers that question against the competitors you name at checkout. It is written for a raise; if you are preparing to sell instead, it is the same question, asked by a buyer rather than an investor, and you should judge from the worked example whether that is the version you want. Researched after you buy and emailed to you — not a download. One payment, no subscription.
Research and general information only — not financial, tax, legal or investment advice.