You've been underestimating what you've built. Your gut number came in $640,000 below the point estimate of what the answers say the business is worth today.
The higher figure is on paper for you to hold — Section 3 shows how it's built, so you bring receipts, not just conviction, to the conversation.
You said you'd need $600,000 to walk away. After clearing $100,000 of business debt, a sale at today's point estimate leaves you roughly $1,040,000 — the number you need is covered.
That's the strongest position an owner can hold going into an exit conversation: from here, everything is upside rather than survival. The rest of this report is about the difference between enough and everything you could get.
Every input the valuation touches is on the table. If any of the assumptions below look wrong, the whole number is worth restating — email us and we'll rerun it.
| Line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Revenue, last full year (F1) | $750,000 |
| − Operating costs (F4) | $500,000 |
| EBITDA | $250,000 |
| + Your compensation add-back (F5) | $75,000 |
| + Family payroll adjustment (F6 × F7 scale) | $51,000 |
| + Personal expense add-backs (F10) | $25,000 |
| + Rent normalisation (F9) | $0 |
| SDE — seller's discretionary earnings | $400,000 |
Once buyer-standard add-backs are applied, the true earnings on offer to a new owner are $400,000 — not the $250,000 the P&L reads. That difference — $150,000 — is the buyer's upside on paper the day after closing.
Every industry has a range of SDE multiples that businesses change hands at. For Construction, the published band is 1.8× to 3.1×. Your readiness score of 95 / 120 places you at 2.86×, which — applied to your SDE of $400,000 — produces the value range shown on the cover: $1,030,000 to $1,255,000.
The multiple is a linear interpolation across the band by readiness score. It is not a black box: take your score divided by 120, multiply by the width of the band, and add the floor. The range around the point estimate is ±10%, which is the honest read on any single-diagnostic valuation.
After business debt (F8: $100,000): $930,000 to $1,155,000. This is what lands with you after the sale clears the business debt — the number the Wealth Gap in Section 2 is measured against.
Indicative range based on your inputs and published market transaction data — not a formal appraisal.
The readiness score is a buyer-weighted read across the five domains that determine what a business changes hands for. Below is the domain-by-domain breakdown, with the mechanism buyers care about for each.
Weakest domain: Financial Quality. Sections 5 and 7 concentrate on this domain first, weighted by dollar impact.
Your answers price you at 2.86×. At full readiness they'd price you at up to 2.97×. The difference is $45,000 — this ledger shows which answers are holding it.
Allocation rule: proportional to the point-recovery weight of each finding. Findings render individually until the named share reaches roughly 75% of the total pot, capped at 15 rows; the remainder is grouped by title into a catch-all row so nothing goes unnamed even when its dollar share is small. The rendered column below sums exactly to $45,000 — arithmetic that doesn't reconcile destroys the trust that dollarisation exists to build, so we don't let it drift.
| Finding | Impact |
|---|---|
| Key supplier ties are partly personal Personal goodwill doesn't convey — the buyer restarts every relationship at zero unless the terms are on paper. First fix: Convert goodwill to contract. From your answer: “Mostly me personally.” | −$10,862 |
| Some personal expenses run through the business Every mixed transaction is a diligence question and a haircut on trust — even the defensible ones. First fix: Separate fully, then prove a clean quarter. From your answer: “Substantially mixed.” | −$9,310 |
| Prices haven't moved in over two years A business that can't raise prices has no demonstrated moat and no inflation cushion — buyers price the ceiling in. First fix: Prove pricing power on a low-risk segment. From your answer: “Longer ago than 2 years.” | −$9,310 |
| One platform or supplier matters a lot Single-platform businesses carry a well-known, priced-in risk profile — one policy change reprices the company. First fix: Stand up the second leg. From your answer: “One is critical — losing it would hurt badly.” | −$7,759 |
| Some errors reach customers Every customer-caught error spends trust the business is built on — and becomes a diligence anecdote. First fix: One pre-customer check on the worst offender. From your answer: “Me, when I happen to look.” | −$7,759 |
| Total gap | $45,000 |
5 answers in the assessment scored a strong A. These are the elements that hold the value up — the reasons a buyer would pay closer to the top of the band than the bottom.
Each one is a good thing. Each one is also a thing that becomes provable at diligence time — buyers pay premium multiples for the strengths they can verify, not the ones you tell them about.
Ordered by effort first, dollars second — small moves lead even when the amount is modest, because momentum compounds and sequencing beats optimising. The ledger in Section 5 tells you what each fix is worth; this section tells you the order to attack them in.
S effort$9,310 impact
S effort$9,310 impact
M effort$10,862 impact
M effort$7,759 impact
L effort$7,759 impact
Time to fully-ready: 6-12 months to lift to premium.
Selling today, as-is. Selling as-is today, the business commands a clean multiple with a normal-length process. Time on market: 3-6 months. Earnout risk moderate.
After the sequence. $1,065,000 to $1,305,000 — the range the sequenced fix list opens up. This is the readiness ceiling, not a market ceiling: the business could still command more with genuine growth on top, but a buyer will always price against the answers, not the aspirations.
At your equity — what actually lands with you — the sequence moves the number from roughly $1,040,000 to roughly $1,085,000. The debt doesn't grow with the value; every dollar of the lift is yours.
What this report is, and isn't. The valuation range in this report is an indicative estimate. It is based on the information you provided — unverified — and on published market data for completed transactions in your industry. It is deliberately conservative, and it is not a formal business valuation or appraisal. It does not meet the standards required for tax filings, legal proceedings, disputes, financing applications, or the execution of a sale. For any of those, engage a credentialed valuation professional (CVA or ABV in the US, a RICS-registered valuer in the UK, an accredited business valuer in Australia). What this report gives you is what an appraisal doesn't: a plain answer on whether the number is worth improving before anyone official ever looks at it.
This report is one operator's read on a small set of buyer-standard questions. It is worth what a diligent read is worth — no more, no less. If the numbers or the framing look off, email info@axiro.cc and we'll rerun it against your restatement, no charge.
The Assessment is the diagnostic. The Program is the delivery — Axiro operators inside the business, closing the gaps this report names, ready by exit time.
Learn about the ProgramAxiro Fractional CFOFinancial Quality is the weakest domain on this assessment. If the priority is fixing that specifically — books, margin, recurring share — a fractional CFO engagement is a faster and cheaper path than the full Program. Both options are above.