When selling a small business, two crucial factors significantly impact the purchase price:
Earnings:
The amount of earnings your company generates is a key determinant, typically measured as Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA). A sell-side quality of earnings analysis presents an opportunity to enhance both the quantity and quality of these earnings.
EBITDA can be increased by identifying adjustments to your financials that a new buyer should not anticipate incurring. This includes one-time expenses or events, personal expenses that the owner ran through the business, or the normalization of recent changes to business operations.
When the buyer is performing due diligence they are going to be looking for adjustments that will favor them. However, they are not going to point out to you adjustments that will be in your favor it’s up to you to do that.