How buyers actually value your business

Almost every private company sale in the UK comes down to the same arithmetic: maintainable earnings multiplied by a multiple, adjusted for cash and debt. The sector sets a rough multiple range. Everything else about your business decides where inside that range, or outside it, you land.

Owners tend to focus entirely on the multiple. In practice, the earnings figure is usually where more value is won or lost, because it is built from evidence you control.