Model your exit before you sign the lease
Exit value isn't an end-of-life exercise. The multiple you'll eventually earn is set by decisions you make in year one.
By The Auziplan team
Most founders model an exit once — when a buyer appears. By then the structural decisions that set the multiple are years old and unchangeable.
What moves the multiple
- Revenue quality — recurring and contracted beats project and referral
- Customer concentration — one client at 40% of revenue is a discount, every time
- Owner dependence — if you're the product, the buyer is buying a job
- Margin durability — cost inflation you can't pass on shows up in the price
Auziplan's exit page applies sector multiples to your projected earnings, nets out debt and dilution, and shows founder proceeds under conservative, base and upside scenarios — from day one, not year five.
You don't get to negotiate the multiple at the table. You build it, quietly, for years beforehand.
Sources and further reading
- 1.Enterprise value multiples by sector
Prof. Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern
Published EV/EBITDA and EV/sales datasets used to anchor multiple ranges.
- 2.Capital gains tax and the small business CGT concessions
Australian Taxation Office
Relevant to founder proceeds on an Australian sale.
- 3.Business Asset Disposal Relief
GOV.UK / HMRC
- 4.Selling your business
business.gov.au
External links are provided for verification and point to primary sources. Rates, thresholds and multiples change — check the current figure at the source before relying on it. Auziplan publishes general information, not financial, tax, accounting or legal advice.
