How much is a business worth at 300K a year? Sourced SDE and profit multiples, a scenario table, and what lifts or cuts the price for a one-person business.
How much is a business worth at 300K a year? If 300K is owner earnings (SDE), published small-business multiples of roughly 2x to 4x put it around 600K to 1.2M. If 300K is revenue, the answer could be a fraction of that. The number that matters is profit, not sales.
That range is arithmetic on multiples published by brokers and marketplaces, not an appraisal of your business. Below you will find what the 300K actually means, the sources behind each multiple, a table of scenarios, and what pushes a one-person business toward the top or the bottom of the range. It is general information, not valuation, tax or investment advice. A real valuation needs your books and a professional.
How much is a business worth at 300K a year? It depends what the 300K is
"300K a year" can mean four different things, and buyers price them very differently:
- Revenue. What customers pay you before any cost. Worth the least per euro, because costs have not been taken out.
- Net profit. What is left after all costs, including what you pay yourself, if you pay yourself.
- SDE (seller's discretionary earnings). The earnings one full-time owner-operator takes from the business. Brokers use it for small businesses.
- EBITDA. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, with a market-rate manager's salary already deducted. Used for larger companies.
The business-broker site Website Closers defines SDE as net income plus owner compensation, owner perks, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, and one-time costs. It calls SDE the standard formula for businesses valued under roughly $5 million. Its worked example: a landscaping company with $85,000 of pretax net income, a $65,000 owner salary, $8,000 of personal vehicle costs, a $12,000 one-time legal settlement, $10,000 of depreciation and $3,000 of interest has an SDE of $183,000. Notice how far that is from the $85,000 on the profit line.
For a solopreneur this matters in a specific way. You are the owner and the only employee, so your salary is mixed up with the profit. A buyer will usually look at the total the business pays one operator, which is why SDE is the lens that fits you.
Business valuation multiples: what the sources say
A multiple is a price tag divided by earnings. A 3x multiple on 300K of SDE is a 900K price. Everyone quotes multiples; few say where they come from or how soft they are. These are the ones we could read this session, each with its limits.
| Source | Range quoted | What it applies to | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website Closers (broker) | 2.0x to 3.0x SDE for home and commercial services; 2.5x to 4.0x for established B2B service firms; 2.3x to 3.3x for e-commerce brands | SDE, businesses under roughly $5M | Described as typical, shifting with industry, size and owner dependency |
| Website Closers (FAQ) | 2x to 3x for a healthy main-street business; 3.5x to 4x for stronger ones | SDE | "A starting point, not a final number" |
| Under the Radar (newsletter) | 1x to 4x overall; 2x to 3x near $200K SDE; 3x to 4x at $750K+ SDE | SDE | Hypothetical examples, no cited benchmark data |
| Empire Flippers (online business marketplace) | Averages of about 1.1x distressed, 2.3x typical, 2.6x premium, 3.4x 7-figure premium; "most small businesses trade between 1x and 5x" SDE or EBITDA | Annual net profit | Its own 2026 report figures, converted by the marketplace to annual multiples |
| Flippa (marketplace) | "Typically anywhere from 2x to 4x" profit for owner-operated SaaS; 3x to 5x ARR at low growth, up to 7x to 10x ARR at high growth | Profit, or ARR for software | One broker's experience; a promotional page with inconsistent figures |
Two patterns stand out. First, the bands overlap around 2x to 4x, which is why we use that as the working range. Second, none of these are a market price. They are what brokers say deals typically look like. A buyer who finds your business, tests it and wants it can pay more. A buyer who finds your customer concentration can pay a lot less.
What a 300K business is worth in each scenario
Here is the arithmetic. The multiples come from the table above; the multiplication is ours; the 30% margin in the last row is an assumption we picked to illustrate the point, not data. All figures are in the same currency as the 300K, since the multiple does not care whether it is euros or dollars.
| What the 300K is | Multiple used | Indicative value |
|---|---|---|
| SDE, home or commercial service business | 2.0x to 3.0x | 600K to 900K |
| SDE, established B2B service firm | 2.5x to 4.0x | 750K to 1.2M |
| SDE, e-commerce brand | 2.3x to 3.3x | 690K to 990K |
| Net profit, online business at Empire Flippers averages | 2.3x typical to 2.6x premium | 690K to 780K |
| Net profit, owner-operated SaaS | 2x to 4x | 600K to 1.2M |
| Revenue, assuming (our assumption) a 30% margin, so 90K of SDE | 2x to 3x of SDE | 180K to 270K |
The bottom row is the lesson. Two businesses can both "make 300K a year" and sit 3x apart in value, because one keeps most of it and the other spends it. Is a business worth 3x profit? Often a fair rule of thumb for a healthy small business, and the sources above support it as the middle of the band. But "often" is doing the work. The multiple is a judgement about risk, and risk is where a one-person business is exposed.
Why solo businesses sell at a discount (and how to close the gap)
Website Closers lists what raises and lowers a multiple. Recurring revenue, consistent growth and strong stable margins raise it; customer concentration and owner dependency lower it. It also lists software and services as higher-multiple industries. Read that list as a solopreneur and the problem is plain: you are the most owner-dependent business there is. If the buyer cannot run it without you, they are not buying a business, they are hiring you for a year at a premium. That is why the same earnings are worth more in a business with systems than in one with a founder.
The fixes are unglamorous, and they are also the fixes that make the business better while you own it:
- Make revenue recurring. Subscriptions, retainers and renewals beat one-off projects. A buyer can predict next year.
- Spread your customers. If one client is most of your revenue, a buyer will price that fear in. Aim for none being large enough to hurt if they leave.
- Write the business down. Processes, logins, supplier terms, how the product is built. If it lives only in your head, it leaves with you.
- Keep clean books. Website Closers lists add-backs that buyers routinely reject: hypothetical savings, undocumented personal travel, expenses that are in a pitch but not on a tax return, and a "one-time" legal fee that happens three years in a row. Your SDE is only as good as your paperwork. See Solopreneur Accounting Software for how to keep it tidy from day one.
- Track the right numbers. Churn, margin and growth are what a buyer asks for first. SaaS Metrics That Matter covers the core ones.
The same logic applies to buyers: they pay for earnings they can keep. That is why founders who sell their company do so from a documented, transferable position. We wrote about how that looks in How Solo Founders Sell Their Companies.
Value is not what you walk away with
A headline price and a payout are different things. Deals often involve staged payments, a handover period where you stay on, taxes, broker fees and adjustments for inventory, working capital or debt. Website Closers itself notes its example value is before adjusting for inventory, working capital or debt assumed at closing. How much you actually keep depends on your country, your structure and the deal. That is a conversation for an accountant and a lawyer, not a blog post.
The other half of the question is whether selling is even the goal. A business making 300K of owner earnings can pay you a salary every year for as long as you run it. A sale turns future years into one cheque and ends the income. Use What's Your Quit Number? to see what monthly income you actually need, and let that, not a headline valuation, decide whether you want to be a seller at all.
Our own caution on method: pick a range, then test it against reality. Ask a broker for comparable sales in your niche and get one independent opinion. If the numbers you collect disagree widely, your business is hard to price, and that is information too.
Frequently asked questions
Is a business worth 3x profit?
Three times profit is a common rule of thumb and sits inside the 2x to 4x range brokers quote for small businesses. Whether it applies to you depends on owner dependency, recurring revenue and growth. Treat it as a starting point, not a price.
What is a business worth with 1M in sales?
Sales alone do not set the price; profit does. A business with 1M in sales could be worth almost nothing or several multiples of that, depending on how much of the revenue becomes owner earnings. Ask what the SDE is, then apply a multiple like those in the table.
What is the difference between SDE and EBITDA?
SDE adds back the owner's whole compensation and perks, and suits businesses run by one working owner. EBITDA assumes a paid manager and is used for larger companies; Website Closers quotes 3.0x to 4.5x for EBITDA of 500K to 1M. At 300K a year, you are almost certainly in SDE territory.
How do I value a one-person business quickly?
Work out your SDE, pick the multiple range that matches your kind of business, multiply for a low and high estimate, then adjust down for owner dependency and customer concentration. Then get a professional opinion before you act on it.
Should I sell, or keep a 300K business?
That is a life question as much as a financial one. If you are not sure what you want from your business, take the Corporate Suffocation Index to find out what you are optimising for first.