Benchmarking Seller's Discretionary Earnings in a Small Business: Based on data from Pratt's Stats (PDF)

June 2015 978-1-62150-054-4 PDF (55 pages)

BVR (editor)

Business Valuation Resources, LLC

Seller's discretionary earnings is an integral figure in small-businesses transaction data. For a business appraiser, it represents an important financial metric for valuation. For a business intermediary, it is a crucial figure used to price and list a business for sale. For the owner-operator of a small business, it represents a measure of earnings - a figure that can serve as a benchmark indicator for other companies in the same industry.

This special report reveals what small business owners are achieving in seller's discretionary earnings by sector and company size with benchmarking from 21 industry groupings including real estate, personal services, restaurants, construction and more. We used Pratt's Stats, a database with thousands of business transactions to analyze seller's discretionary earnings in sold private businesses with metrics including discretionary earnings to revenue, selling price to discretionary earnings, and profit margins.
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  • Executive Summary 
  • Methodology 
  • Industry Groups
    • All Industries (SIC 0111-9999) 
    • Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (SIC 0111-0971) 
    • Construction (SIC 1011-1411) 
    • Manufacturing (SIC 2011-3999) 
    • Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services (SIC 4011-4971) 
    • Wholesale Trade (SIC 5012-5199) 
    • Retail Trade (SIC 5211-5999) 
    • Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (SIC 6011-6799) 
    • Services (SIC 7011-8999) 
    • Food Stores (SIC 54) 
    • Real Estate (SIC 65) 
    • Personal Services (SIC 72) 
    • Business Services (SIC 73) 
    • Automotive Repair, Services, and Parking (SIC 75) 
    • Health Services (SIC 80) 
    • Lawn and Garden Services (SIC 0782) 
    • Restaurants (SIC 5812) 
    • Bars and Drinking Places (SIC 5813) 
    • Real Estate Agents and Managers (SIC 6531) 
    • Beauty Shops (SIC 7231) 
    • Business Services, Not Elsewhere Classified (SIC 7389)