A complete business valuation and growth plan, built for owners who want to know what their business is worth today and what it takes to make it worth more tomorrow.
The Business Value and Growth Plan is a written report that tells you three things.
Most owners start here when working with Exit Factor. The findings then become the foundation we use to customize a full consulting engagement specifically for your business.
Business Exits Behind the Model
Industries Served
Operational Value Factors Analyzed
Local Office Markets
Owners ask, “How much is my business worth?” and get three very different answers depending on who they ask. The fast answer from an accountant or a broker is a ballpark estimate. A formal appraisal is a regulated document built for legal, tax, or lending purposes. Exit Factor’s Business Value and Growth Plan is built for owners who want to know what their company will actually sell for and how to move that number up before they sell.
A detailed evaluation of specific tangible and intangible assets, usually for insurance, lending, estate, or tax purposes. Performed by a credentialed appraiser to formal valuation standards.
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A point-in-time economic value, typically calculated as EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) or SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) times a market multiple. This is often delivered as a simple report or free calculator estimate.
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This Exit Factor proprietary report combines a market-based business valuation with a forward-looking growth plan. It scores your business across 89 operational value factors, benchmarks your financial performance against industry peers, sets the targets and projections needed to hit your future exit goals, and provides the roadmap to get there.
Best For:
Start with a free consultation and we’ll help you choose the right path based on your goals.
The Business Value and Growth Plan is a written report that your Exit Factor consultant builds for your business specifically. It pulls from your financials, your industry, your goals, and a structured interview about how the business runs. Business value isn’t determined by numbers alone, although that’s a big part of it. We’ve identified 89 operational factors that affect what buyers, lenders, and investors will pay for a business, and we’ve organized them into our VORTEx Model™ so they’re easy to act on. The final report is yours to keep, review with your spouse or financial planner, and use as a roadmap for the next 12 months.
Your estimated current business value is calculated using a market approach based on EBITDA and an industry-relevant multiple. Includes a clear explanation of how the multiple was determined and what would move it up.
Multi-year trend tables for gross revenue, EBITDA, gross margin, and EBITDA margin, with peer benchmarks at the industry median and top quartile. Surfaces whether your margins are accelerating, compressing, or running flat against peers.
Your business scored across the 89 operational factors that drive value, organized into the five phases of the VORTEx Model. Current score and twelve-month projected improved score for each phase. Shows where the business is strongest and weakest from a buyer’s point of view.
Your business scored across the 89 operational factors that drive value, organized into the five phases of the VORTEx Model. Current score and twelve-month projected improved score for each phase. Shows where the business is strongest and weakest from a buyer’s point of view.
Your business scored across the 89 operational factors that drive value, organized into the five phases of the VORTEx Model. Current score and twelve-month projected improved score for each phase. Shows where the business is strongest and weakest from a buyer’s point of view.
A summarized profit and loss view, plus the market comparable data behind your multiple. The comparables aren’t theoretical models. They’re tied to actual sold-business transactions in your industry, drawn from the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) networks Exit Factor sits inside. This is where many reports stop short and where Exit Factor’s heritage in M&A shows up directly in your numbers.
For most owner-operated businesses, value is calculated as EBITDA times an industry-relevant multiple. EBITDA is what your business earns. The multiple is where most of the variation, and most of the opportunity to increase business value, lives.
The Equation
Two businesses can have identical EBITDA and sell for very different prices. The reason is risk. Buyers pay more for businesses that are easier to step into, more predictable, and less dependent on the owner. The Exit Factor Valuation Model accounts for both sides of the equation across three components.
EBITDA, revenue trends, and margin performance. The earning power of the business today.
Real transaction data from comparable businesses, tied to actual sold-business deals in your industry, is used to establish the relevant multiple range for your size and sector.
How your business operates. Systems, team, customer base, and owner involvement, to name just a few. This is the part most valuations skip, and it’s the part that moves the multiple the most.
Exit Factor is owned by the same group that operates the largest business brokerage network in the world. Every year, that network is exposed to thousands of business sales across nearly every industry. We see what buyers actually pay for, what makes lenders comfortable financing a deal, what makes private equity walk away, and what makes a business sell at the top of its multiple range versus the bottom.
The Business Value and Growth Plan isn’t built on a textbook or a handful of case studies. The VORTEx Model™ is the result of thousands of completed sales and thousands of conversations with the people on the other side of the table. The 89 operational factors we scored were chosen because we’ve watched them move the multiple repeatedly in real transactions.
The Business Value and Growth Plan scores 89 specific operational factors, all organized around the five phases of the VORTEx Model™. Each phase has a current score and a twelve-month projected improved score in the report. The result is a precise view of which two or three changes will most affect your valuation over the next twelve months.
Core purpose: Identify long-term growth and exit strategy.
Core purpose: Improve financial performance and reporting.
Core purpose: Improve people, process, and technology management and efficiency.
Core purpose: Identify and implement growth strategies.
Core purpose: Transition to executing the exit plan.
The full report covers all 89 operational factors. The few you focus on first are the ones most likely to have the greatest impact on your multiple.
Talk through your business, your goals, and your timeline with an Exit Factor consultant. We confirm whether the Business Value and Growth Plan is the right next step and outline the scope and pricing together.
Output
A clear yes-or-no on whether the report is the right fit for your business.
We collect your financials and walk through a structured interview about how the business runs, your team, your customer base, and your goals. This usually takes two to three hours of your time across one or two meetings.
Output
A complete picture of your business and the inputs we need to build the report.
Your consultant runs the financial analysis, pulls real transaction comparables from the industries we’ve sold businesses in, and scores your business across the 89 operational factors in the VORTEx Model™.
Output
The full Business Valuation and Growth Plan, tailored to your business.
We walk through the report with you in a working session, focus on the highest-leverage moves for the next 12 months, and decide together whether you want a full Exit Factor consulting engagement to execute the roadmap.
Output
A clear plan for the next twelve months, with or without continued Exit Factor involvement.
Start with a free consultation to see if the Business Valuation and Growth Plan is the right fit for your goals, timeline, and next stage of growth.
For most owner-operated businesses, business value is calculated as EBITDA times an industry-relevant multiple. The multiple varies based on industry, size, owner dependence, recurring revenue, and several other operational factors. A ballpark answer is possible in a few minutes with a calculator. A precise answer requires scoring your business against real transaction comparables and the operational factors buyers pay attention to.
For most owner-operated businesses, the formula is Business Value = EBITDA (or SDE) × Market Multiple. Start by calculating your average EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) over the last three to five years. Then look up the typical multiple range for your industry and business size. Multiply the two for a rough number. The challenge is the multiple. Two businesses with identical EBITDA can sell for very different prices because the multiple is set by operational factors: owner dependence, recurring revenue, customer concentration, documented systems, and growth trajectory, amongst many others. A free calculator gives you a ballpark guess or range. The Business Valuation and Growth Plan derives a more precise value by scoring your business against 89 operational factors and benchmarking your multiple against real recent transactions in your industry.
You can get a ballpark estimate yourself in about thirty minutes. Pull your last three to five years of profit and loss statements, calculate average EBITDA or seller’s discretionary earnings, and look up published industry multiple ranges. Multiply them. What you cannot do yourself is benchmark your multiple against real recent sales of comparable businesses, score yourself against the 89 operational factors buyers pay attention to, or project what your value can become in twelve months of focused improvement work. That is what Exit Factor’s Business Valuation and Growth Plan does. Most owners who complete a self-evaluation come to Exit Factor because the DIY estimate raises more questions than it answers.
Three buckets of information are needed for a credible business valuation. Financials: three to five years of profit and loss statements, your current balance sheet, and a clean view of owner compensation and discretionary expenses. Operations: how revenue is generated, who the largest customers are, how dependent the business is on the owner, and what systems are documented, amongst others. Goals: your timeline, your wealth target, and what an ideal exit looks like. For a Business Valuation and Growth Plan, Exit Factor walks through all three in a structured interview, then collects any missing information during the discovery phase. Most owners can be ready for the kickoff in a week or less.
Most small businesses are valued using a market approach. The formula is Business Value = EBITDA × Market Multiple. EBITDA (or seller’s discretionary earnings, for smaller businesses) is the earning power. The multiple is set by comparing your business to similar businesses that have recently sold. Inside that multiple, operational quality (owner dependence, systems, recurring revenue, customer concentration, growth trajectory) moves the number up or down significantly.
Multiples vary widely by industry, size, and operational quality. For example, healthcare businesses generating between $1 million and $25 million in revenue sell anywhere from 1× to 18× EBITDA, with most landing in the middle of that range. The difference between the low end and the high end of the range is operational: owner dependence, recurring revenue, documented systems, clean financials, and growth trajectory. A real-comparable benchmark for your specific industry and size is part of Exit Factor’s Business Valuation and Growth Plan.
Buyers are primarily trying to reduce risk. They pay premiums for recurring revenue, documented systems, low owner dependence, low client concentration, clean financials, growth trajectory, and other factors they find important. They pay less for businesses that lean heavily on the owner, have customer concentration, or maintain books consistent with industry standards. Exit Factor sits inside one of the largest business brokerage networks in the world and sees thousands of these buyer reactions every year, which is why the 89 operational factors we score are the ones that have actually moved deals.
To increase the value of your business, you can increase the multiple it sells for, increase the EBITDA, or ideally both. The multiple moves when operational risk goes down: less owner dependence, more recurring revenue, documented systems, and cleaner financials. EBITDA moves with margin work and growth. Exit Factor’s Business Valuation and Growth Plan scores you across 89 operational factors organized by the VORTEx Model. Most owners can see meaningful increases in business value within 12 to 24 months by focusing on a few of those factors, not all of them at once.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is the standard for mid-sized businesses. SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) adds one working owner’s salary back to EBITDA and is typically used for smaller, owner-operated businesses. The Business Valuation and Growth Plan uses the appropriate measure for your business’s size and reports the relevant peer multiples where they are helpful.
A free calculator gives you a quick ballpark estimate based on a handful of inputs. It’s useful for a back-of-the-envelope number. It’s not enough to decide whether to sell, finance, partner, or grow. The Business Valuation and Growth Plan is a written report prepared by an Exit Factor consultant specifically for your business, including peer benchmarking, scoring across the 89 operational factors, and a 12-month growth roadmap. Free calculator estimates have been known to be off by hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars when compared against the actual sale price.
Owners who want to increase business value over the next one to five years, owners who have received an unsolicited offer and need to know whether it’s fair, owners going into a partnership change or buyout, and owners building toward a sale, succession, or family transition. If you only want a quick ballpark number, a calculator is enough. If you want a roadmap and a real benchmark, Exit Factor’s Business Valuation and Growth Plan is the right starting point.
The Business Valuation and Growth Plan is a one-time paid engagement. Pricing varies based on the size and complexity of the business. Most owners start with the report and then decide whether to upgrade to a full Exit Factor consulting engagement to execute the roadmap. The free consultation is when we confirm the scope and pricing together, so you know exactly what you’re investing in before you commit.
Exit Factor is built on insights from more than 2,000 business exits across 75+ industries, distilled into a methodology that helps owners build companies that are more profitable, more valuable, and designed to give them options on their own timeline. Every Business Valuation and Growth Plan is delivered by a Certified Exit Factor Consultant trained in the VORTEx Model™. With locations across 150+ U.S. markets and five international markets, an Exit Factor consultant is almost always within driving distance.
Business exits behind the methodology
Industries served
U.S. markets
+ 3 international markets
Want the full methodology in book form? Read The Exit Factor by Jessica Fialkovich, Founder of Exit Factor →
A free consultation is the fastest way to find out whether a Business Valuation and Growth Plan is the right next step for your business. Bring your questions, bring a rough sense of your goals, and bring the numbers you have. We’ll handle the rest.