Buyer Line: 404.940.5748  |  Complimentary, confidential business valuations

Resources | Buyer Calculator

How much business can you afford? Start with your cash and your salary, not a listing.

See the highest purchase price your cash and your appetite for leverage can support, and the yearly cash flow a business needs to pay you and carry the loan.

Run the Numbers Buyer Representation

Free, nothing to sign up for. Your numbers stay in your browser.

Affordability calculator

Your Buying Power
What you need to draw from the business each year to live on.
Your equity injection: savings, retirement rollover or investor money.
15% down
10% down is generally the SBA minimum. Seller financing on full standby can count toward that equity, which in rare, well qualified deals brings the buyer's own cash down toward 5%.
The annual rate on the acquisition loan.
What You Can Afford
Max Business Price
$1,000,000
Min Business Cash Flow (SDE)
$251,972

The most you can pay, and the yearly cash flow a business needs to support that price.

Loan Amount$850,000
Annual Debt Service$134,794
Implied SDE Multiple4.0 x SDE
Total Owner Cash Flow$117,178Your salary plus what is left after debt service
Leverage and Risk
This sits in the common SBA down payment range of 10 to 20 percent that most acquisition loans are built around.

How affordability works

Your cash and your down payment set the ceiling: Max Price = Cash / Down %. For that deal to finance, the business must earn enough to pay your salary and cover the loan with the 1.35x cushion lenders commonly look for: Min Cash Flow = Salary + (1.35 x Annual Debt Service). Total Owner Cash Flow is what you would take home at that minimum: your salary plus the cushion left after the loan payments. Hold the required cash flow and the implied multiple up against real listings to see whether a deal is realistic.

For educational estimates only. Actual loan terms, rates and lender requirements vary. This is not a lending offer or financial advice.

About This Calculator

Most buyers begin by browsing listings and only then ask whether the numbers work. This calculator runs the other way. It starts with you: the salary you need to take home, the cash you can put in, and how much leverage you are comfortable carrying. From those it works out the maximum purchase price your position can realistically support.

It also solves the other half of the deal: the minimum annual cash flow (SDE) a business has to produce for that purchase to be financed. It builds in the 1.35x debt service cushion SBA loans are commonly underwritten to, Min Cash Flow = Salary + (1.35 x Annual Debt Service), and turns the answer into an implied SDE multiple you can compare with the asking prices you see.

Treat it as the starting point for a search, not a lending decision. Move the risk slider to see how a bigger or smaller down payment changes what you can buy, then focus on businesses that fit both your budget and your income.

Next Step

Put these numbers to work on a real search.

Buyer's EDGE is free: save target businesses, model each deal in the Acquisition Center, and learn the process in Acquisition Academy. When you are ready for help, an EDGE advisor can represent you from the first conversation through closing, financing included.

Join Buyer's EDGE Free Search Our Listings

Prefer to talk it through? Contact an advisor.