Sell Your Tampa Bay Business for Maximum Value — Completely Confidentially.

Success fee (commission) from 6% to 10% of sales price (scales down above $1mm. The Real Estate Portion 6%. Most brokers have minimum fees.

Main Street Businesses (<$2M): Usually take 6 to 12 mo if priced using Direct Market Data Method and marketed across multiple platforms Business Brokers of Florida (BBF) MLS BizBuySell & others.

Blind Listings: without revealing data.

Strict NDAs & Buyer Vetting:

Release info on need to know basis

1. SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings).What does full time working owner make, Including their Labor.

2. EBITDA tells an investor how much money the business makes absentee, after paying team to run it.

Using DMDM (Direct Market Data Method) . Seller Discretionary Earnings x Comp Solds, then adjust for Risk Factors and the Businesses ability to pay buyer living wage and Debt Service. AKA Debt Service Coverage Ratio.

(often called the Market Comparable Approach) is a way to value a small business by looking at what similar businesses have actually sold for.

Think of it exactly like selling a house: a real estate agent looks at recent sales of neighboring homes with the same square footage and number of bedrooms to determine a fair listing price. In business brokerage, this method looks at transactional databases like BBFMLS.com/ and Business Valuation Sources to see what similar businesses in the same industry and geographic region sold for relative to their revenue or earnings.

How It Works (The Simple Formula)

1. Find the Financial Benchmark: For small businesses, this is almost always the Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE).

2. Apply the Market Multiple: If data shows that local businesses in your specific industry (e.g., a home service business or a local medical clinic) consistently sell for an average of $2.5\times$ to $3\times$ their SDE, that range becomes your market multiple.

3. Calculate Value:

   $$\text{Business Value} = \text{Your Business's SDE} \times \text{Market Multiple}$$

Why This is the Best Option for Small, Owner-Operated Businesses

For "Main Street" businesses where the owner is hands-on, the Direct Market Data Method is widely considered the most accurate and realistic approach for three main reasons:

1. It Reflects Real Buyer Behavior

Unlike large corporate mergers based on complex 10-year future cash flow projections, small business buyers are usually individuals looking to buy a job and a steady income. This method is based entirely on what actual buyers in the current market were willing to pay for similar income streams, making the valuation highly realistic.

2. It Directly Pairs with SDE

Since owner-operated businesses rely heavily on SDE (which includes the working owner's salary and personal perks), the Direct Market Data Method is the cleanest way to value them. Most small business transactional databases report sale prices alongside the SDE, allowing for a direct, "apples-to-apples" comparison that other valuation models (like EBITDA-based corporate models) fail to capture accurately.

3. It Holds Weight with SBA Lenders

If a buyer needs an SBA loan to purchase an owner-operated business, the lender will hire an independent appraiser. These appraisers rely heavily on peer-derived market data to justify the loan amount. Using this method from the start ensures the valuation aligns perfectly with what bank underwriters look for, minimizing the risk of a deal falling through later during financing.

.BisBuySell.com has 60k listings and <10k sold per year.. Only 17% Sold on this platform. 83% of Business for sale listings DO NOT SELL.

The more experienced the Business Broker is, the higher the closing ratio.

My closing ratio has been 85% for the last 15 years.

Both the business and commercial real estate must be valued separately to maximize your total exit value. We use a strategic 3-step formula to unlock full asset equity:

• 1. Calculate Baseline SDE: Determine true Seller’s Discretionary Earnings to establish operational business cash flow.

• 2. Deduct Fair Market Rent: Subtract market rent from SDE to cleanly separate business earnings from real estate equity.

• 3. Capitalize Property Value: Divide that fair market rent by the local cap rate to establish independent property value.

The Combined Total: Adding standalone business value to capitalized real estate value calculates a data-backed package price that protects every dollar of your hard work.