Free Tool
SDE Calculator
Seller's discretionary earnings is the figure most buyers of owner-operated retail businesses work from. Enter your numbers and see it.
How It Works
Profit, Plus What the Business Pays You
Start with net profit, add back your own compensation, personal costs, interest, depreciation and genuine one-off items. Then take off a market wage for anyone a buyer would need to hire to replace your hours. What is left is SDE.
Every add-back has to be evidenced later, so put in figures you could point at in your records. A number that collapses during due diligence costs far more than it gained.
Common questions
- Should I include a second owner's salary?
- SDE conventionally adds back one working owner. A second owner's wage stays as a cost, because a buyer would still need that labour.
- Why does the manager wage get deducted?
- Because a buyer who does not work in the store has to pay someone to do what you do. Leaving it out overstates the earnings they are actually buying.
- Is anything I type here saved?
- No. This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to us and nothing is stored.
From your profit and loss statement
One working owner only
Vehicle, phone, travel, insurance
Costs that will not repeat for a buyer
Only if you currently work in the business
Seller's discretionary earnings
$0
This calculation runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to us or saved. It is a working figure, not a valuation.
Now turn that into a value
Our estimator applies the same method and shows a preliminary range for your business.