Free tool

Gold Coast Business Valuation Calculator: Free and Private

Enter your own figures and see a value range from the four methods certified valuers rely on, with every calculation shown as you go.

Gold Coast business owners can use this free calculator to estimate a value range with four methods: capitalisation of earnings, discounted cash flow, a market multiple and adjusted net assets. Because you supply a low and a high rate or multiple, the answer is a range rather than one figure. It is an educational aid, not a valuation.

Calculate the value of your business

Choose a method and enter your figures

Select one of the four methods and enter your own numbers; the range recalculates as you type. Nothing leaves your browser, and you do not need to give an email address to see the answer.

Your figures

The numbers already filled in are examples that show how the form behaves. Replace them with your own, and enter both a low and a high rate so the result is a range rather than a single point.

Step 1. Normalise your earnings

Reported profit reflects the business as you run it, not as a buyer would inherit it. Normalising restates it from the buyer's point of view. Enter add-backs as positive figures and deductions as negative figures.

A$
A$
A$
A$
A$
Maintainable earnings A$0

Step 2. Capitalisation rate

%
%
Equity bridge, optional

A capitalisation rate or multiple gives enterprise value, the worth of the operations to lenders and owners together. Deduct debt and add any surplus assets to see what the owner would actually receive.

A$
A$

Enterprise value range

Enterprise value
Less interest-bearing debt
Plus surplus assets
Equity value

Not included in this result

  • Comparable sales evidence matched to your industry, size and part of the coast
  • Whether the earnings you entered will last, including through quieter seasons
  • Allowances for tax, working capital, contingent liabilities and your lease terms
  • Discounts for a minority stake or for an interest that is hard to sell
  • Goodwill that is personal to you and would leave with you
Everything runs inside your browser; nothing you type is transmitted or saved. Speak to a certified valuer

This is not a valuation

The calculator only performs arithmetic on the numbers you enter. It has not examined your financial statements, cannot tell whether your earnings will continue, does not choose comparable sales, and makes no adjustment for a minority stake or an interest that is hard to sell. It is general education, not financial, legal or valuation advice, and should not be relied on for a sale, a court matter or a tax position.

When someone else has to rely on the figure, we prepare one of three reports. An Indicative valuation is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report sets out the approaches applied and the reasoning behind them. A Detailed report applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full, for review by a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert.

The methods

How the four methods work

Capitalisation of earnings

Takes one year of maintainable earnings and divides it by a capitalisation rate. It fits an established business with steady recent results, such as an allied health practice in Robina, where one year is a fair guide to the years that follow.

Income approach

Discounted cash flow

Projects cash flow year by year and discounts each year back to a present value. It fits a business on a changing path, such as a growing software company in Varsity Lakes or a residential builder in Coomera whose largest project finishes in year three.

Income approach

Market multiple

Scales maintainable earnings by a multiple taken from recent comparable sales. The result is only as good as the transactions behind the multiple, and those transactions are the one thing a calculator cannot supply, whether you run a Broadbeach restaurant or a Burleigh Heads surf shop.

Market approach

Adjusted net assets

Restates every asset at market value and subtracts the liabilities. It leads for a capital-heavy business such as a boat builder in the Coomera marine precinct, and it marks the floor under every other result.

Asset approach
Limits

Where the arithmetic stops and judgement starts

Typing in numbers is the simple step. Judgement decides the result: whether the earnings you entered hold up through the quieter months between school holidays and major events, which recent sales between Coomera and Coolangatta genuinely resemble your business, how much of the goodwill would leave with you, how many years remain on your lease if you trade from a shop covered by the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld), and how much of your revenue rests on a handful of customers. A form cannot capture any of that.

The capitalisation rate shows this most clearly. In an engagement the valuer builds it from a risk-free rate based on long-dated Australian Government bond yields, an equity risk premium, a size premium, an industry premium and a loading for the risks specific to your business. Here you simply enter it. A rate a few points out changes the result substantially, however precise the figure on screen looks.

For the same reason, a broker's rule of thumb, such as a flat multiple of turnover or gross fees, is only ever a sense-check. It treats a high-margin business and a struggling one alike, when margin and risk are exactly what separate two businesses of similar size in the same trade.

Questions

Calculator questions from Gold Coast owners

Begin with maintainable earnings. Restate reported profit so it includes a market salary in place of your own drawings, rent at an arm's length rate and no one-off items. Then value those earnings in one of three ways: divide by a capitalisation rate, multiply by a multiple taken from comparable sales, or project the cash flows and discount them back to today. That gives enterprise value; deduct interest-bearing debt and add surplus assets to reach the equity value an owner would receive.
No. It is a teaching tool that runs sums on the numbers you give it. It has not read your financial statements, tested your assumptions, selected comparable sales or adjusted for control and marketability. A valuation is a written opinion signed by a qualified valuer who will defend it if it is challenged. Even the lightest of our three report types, the Indicative report, is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance.
Because one number suggests more precision than any method can genuinely deliver. You give a low and a high rate or multiple, and the calculator values the business at each. Valuers work the same way: arrive at a range, narrow it to a single figure only when the purpose demands it, and explain in writing where the conclusion sits within the range and why.
As an owner, you usually care about equity value. Enterprise value is what the trading operations are worth to lenders and shareholders together, and it is the output of a capitalisation rate or a multiple. Equity value is the amount left for shareholders once interest-bearing debt comes off and surplus or non-operating assets go back on. The calculator shows this step separately so the two are never confused.
That input is left to you, and it is where the real judgement sits. A capitalisation rate is assembled from a risk-free rate, an equity risk premium, a size premium, an industry premium and a loading for risks specific to your business, such as dependence on a few customers, on seasonal visitor trade or on you personally. A multiple should come from real comparable transactions screened for industry, size, growth and location, not from a number mentioned over coffee at a business breakfast.
Your accounts show the business as you have chosen to run it, not as a buyer would take it on. Normalising swaps your drawings for a market salary for the role, restates rent paid to a related party at market, removes one-off items and strips out income from assets the business does not need. Normalisation causes more disagreement between valuers than any other step, so the calculator shows it openly rather than hiding it.
No. A property settlement in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, which deals with Gold Coast matters through the Court's Brisbane registry, a small business CGT concession claim with the ATO, or a shareholder dispute in the Supreme Court of Queensland each needs a written opinion from a certified valuer who has worked through the records and will stand behind the result. Use the calculator to get a feel for the answer before that conversation; it cannot replace it.
Enter a full year, or better still an average of several, never an annualised busy stretch. Tourism, hospitality and short-stay operators on the coast often trade hardest through school holidays and major events and more quietly in between, so scaling up a peak quarter overstates maintainable earnings. If a recent year was lifted or depressed by something unlikely to happen again, take it out in step 1. A valuer would also ask how dependable the visitor and event trade is for your location and how much of it a buyer could keep.
No. The calculator is plain JavaScript that runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted, recorded or stored, and you do not need to give an email address or phone number to see the result.
It can only be as accurate as the assumptions you give it, which is why it shows a range and its working. It cannot judge the quality of your earnings, how concentrated your customer base is, how secure your lease is, or whether goodwill would stay once you leave. Use it to prepare for a conversation with your accountant or with us, not to set an asking price.
Keep reading

Read next

Methodology The three valuation approaches By sector Valuing Gold Coast businesses by sector Report depth Indicative, Summary and Detailed reports
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