The BeancounterBusiness valuation for South African owners

You have a number in your head. It has never been tested.

Nearly every owner we've valued was wrong about what their business would sell for — and wrong in the same direction.

Owner's number
R15m
→
What a buyer pays
R8.5m

A real software services business we valued this year. The difference wasn't the market. It was four things inside the business — three of which the owner could have fixed with eighteen months' notice.

10 questions · about 2 minutes · free

The thing most owners get wrong

Your accountant's valuation answers a different question.

A traditional valuation tells you what your business should be worth in theory — discounted cash flows, cost of capital, the textbook method. It's rigorous, and it's not what anyone will pay you.

Buyers of South African SMEs are not financial engineers. They're individuals using a pension or a retrenchment package, or small strategic acquirers. They ask one question: how quickly do I get my money back, and how much risk am I carrying while I wait?

The gap between those two numbers is usually large, and it is always made of specific, nameable things. That's what we measure.

What decides the number

Eight factors, and most owners can only name two.

They don't move value by five percent. The first three on this list routinely halve it, or end the deal.

  • 01 How much the business depends on you
  • 02 How concentrated your customers are
  • 03 Whether your financial records stand up to scrutiny
  • 04 How predictable next year's revenue is
  • 05 Where the three-year trend is pointing
  • 06 Whether anyone else could run it
  • 07 What's written down and what lives in your head
  • 08 How defensible your position in the market is

Start with the free check

Ten questions about how your business actually runs. No financials, no logins, nothing to look up — every answer is a click.

You'll get back a short read on which of the eight factors are most likely suppressing your value, what each one typically costs, and one thing you're doing better than most. It won't give you a number. A number off ten estimates would be a guess, and a guess is what you already have.

When you want the actual number

The Business Value Report

A full valuation of your business, built from your real financials by a team that has worked with thousands of South African SMEs. Written to be read by you, not by another accountant.

  • What your business would realistically sell for today — a range, a most likely figure, and a stretch ceiling
  • Three valuation methods, triangulated, with every add-back shown line by line
  • The accounting valuation alongside the market valuation, and the gap decomposed into its causes
  • Your sellability scorecard across all eight factors
  • Four to six substantive findings, ordered by what they cost you
  • Who would actually buy a business like yours, and what a sale process looks like
  • An action plan with an estimated rand impact on each item
  • 25–30 pages. Usually about two weeks.
R5,000
Once off, including VAT. No retainer, nothing recurring.

Not sure it fits your business? Book 15 minutes with Divan before you decide.

Who this is for

A good fit

  • Established, profitable South African businesses
  • Owners thinking about a sale in the next one to five years
  • Partners or shareholders who need a defensible view of value
  • Anyone planning succession or retirement
  • Owners who have been approached and need their own number before they negotiate

Not a fit

  • Property or investment holding companies — these need a registered property valuer, and we'll tell you so
  • Pre-revenue startups raising capital — different methodology entirely
  • Valuations for SARS, divorce, estates or litigation — these need an accredited valuer who can be cross-examined
  • Businesses in distress or forced sale

Why us

Eighteen years inside South African small businesses.

The Beancounter has worked with thousands of SMEs since 2008. We've seen the numbers from the inside, and we know what gets added back, what gets questioned, and what quietly kills a deal in due diligence.

The methodology behind the report was built by Marnus Broodryk — founder of The Beancounter, and an investor on Shark Tank South Africa who has personally evaluated and bought into small businesses. The judgement about where your multiple sits in its range is his, not a formula's.

The report is honest, including when that's uncomfortable. If the number is lower than you hoped, we'll show you exactly why, and what it would take to change it.

You work on it every day. It's worth knowing what it's worth.

10 questions · about 2 minutes
What's holding your value back
What's holding your value back

Your read is ready.

Where should we send it? You'll get it on screen straight away — the email is so you still have it next week.

We'll send occasional notes on what moves the value of a small business. One click to stop.

Now the number

The factors above tell you where value is leaking. The Business Value Report tells you how much, what the business would actually sell for today, and what each fix is worth in rand. Built from your real financials.

R5,000