Free Business Valuation
Find out what your business is worth — free, and without obligation. Answer three questions and get an indicative range on screen in minutes, with a considered figure from an admitted attorney and financial analyst within 24 hours.
Three questions, then a number.
Tell us three things
Your sector, last full year’s turnover, and operating profit. Round numbers are fine — nothing is submitted until you choose to send it, and nobody is holding you to the figures.
See an indicative range instantly
We apply a sector-appropriate multiple to the profit you entered and show a low, midpoint and high figure on screen. It is a sense check, not a valuation, and it is described that way throughout.
Get the considered version in 24 hours
Marthinus Hartman reviews what you sent, applies proper method, and comes back within one working day with a range and the assumptions behind it. No charge, and no obligation to go further.
What arrives in the email.
An indicative range
A low, midpoint and high figure — not a single number, because no honest valuation is a single number.
The multiple applied
Which sector multiple was used and why, so you can sanity-check it against what you already believe about the business.
The main assumptions
The two or three things that would move the figure most, stated plainly and without jargon.
What would firm it up
Which records a formal valuation would draw on, so you know what a proper engagement involves before committing to one.
A human read
Every response is reviewed by a person before it goes out. Nothing is auto-generated and sent unseen.
No sales sequence
One reply. If you want to take it further, you say so — you will not be chased, and you will not be added to a mailing list.
What a free business valuation is — and what it isn’t
A free business valuation is a fast, indicative estimate of what a company might be worth, based on a small number of inputs. It applies a sector multiple to a business’s operating profit and returns a range. It is genuinely useful for orientation — for getting a sense of whether a business is worth hundreds of thousands or many millions — and it costs nothing to obtain.
What it is not is a formal valuation. A free indicative figure looks at one number, the profit, and applies a broad multiple to it. It cannot see the balance sheet, the cash-flow pattern, the customer concentration, the quality of the earnings, or the dozens of adjustments a proper valuation makes. For that reason a formal valuation routinely lands thirty percent or more away from the free estimate, in either direction.
This matters because the two are used for entirely different things. An indicative range is fine for an owner’s own curiosity or an early sense of a deal. A figure you intend to put in front of a buyer, a bank, SARS, the Master of the High Court or a court needs the formal version — and using a free estimate where a defensible valuation is required is one of the more expensive mistakes an owner can make. Pravata offers both, and is clear at every step about which is which.
How the free valuation is calculated
The free valuation uses a profit-multiple method, the most common quick approach for small and medium-sized businesses. In the South African market, SMEs commonly change hands at somewhere between two and five times operating profit, and the free tool works within that range, adjusting for the sector the business operates in.
Different sectors attract different multiples because they carry different levels of risk and growth. A technology or software business with recurring revenue typically sits at the higher end; a hospitality or construction business, where earnings are more cyclical, sits lower. The tool also adjusts for size — larger businesses tend to attract higher multiples — and for how long the business has been trading, since a longer track record reduces perceived risk.
The operating profit figure itself matters enormously, which is why the tool asks for profit before interest and tax, after a market-related salary for the owner. Many owner-managed businesses understate their true earning power by paying the owner more than a market salary, or overstate it by paying nothing at all. Normalising that figure is one of the first things a proper valuation does, and even at the indicative stage it makes the estimate far more useful.
Why Pravata offers it for free
Offering a valuation for free might seem to give away the very thing the firm sells. In practice it does the opposite. A large proportion of owners asking what their business is worth are some way from actually transacting — often two or three years out, quietly planning an eventual exit, succession or raise. Charging for that first conversation simply means it never happens, and the relationship never begins.
A free indicative range also scopes a potential engagement faster and more honestly than a sales call. Within a few minutes it tells both sides whether a formal mandate is worth anyone’s time and roughly what scale of business is involved. That is more useful to the owner and to the firm than an hour of general discussion.
It is offered on a genuine no-obligation basis. There is no card required, no drip sequence of follow-up emails, and no mailing list. A single considered reply comes back within 24 hours, and if the owner wants to take it further, they say so. That restraint is deliberate: a firm that trades on defensible, independent judgement has no business chasing people who asked a simple question.
From free estimate to formal valuation
For owners who decide they need more than an indicative range, Pravata provides formal valuations at two levels. A Standard valuation is a full exercise — several recognised methods run in parallel and reconciled, earnings normalised, and the whole thing written up as a report with the assumptions and their sensitivities set out. It is suitable for negotiation, planning and investor conversations, and is typically delivered within ten working days.
An Executive valuation adds a financial due-diligence overlay, on-site verification and legal review, and is prepared to a standard that will withstand SARS, a lender, the Master or an opposing expert in litigation. It is the version an owner commissions when the figure has to survive someone else’s scrutiny, and it runs to three to five weeks.
Both are quoted as a fixed fee, agreed in writing after a free scoping call, with no hourly billing and no open-ended engagement. Because Pravata combines an admitted attorney and a financial analyst in a single practice, a valuation can flow directly into the agreements that follow — a share sale, a shareholders’ agreement, an estate arrangement — with the same person understanding both the numbers and the law. The free valuation is simply the front door to that.
Free business valuation.
Is the free business valuation really free?
Yes. There is no charge, no card required and no obligation. It exists because most people asking what their business is worth are some way from transacting, and Pravata would rather have that conversation early than not at all.
How accurate is the free valuation?
Treat it as a sense check. It applies a sector multiple to a single profit figure, which ignores the balance sheet, cash flow, customer concentration and everything else that moves a real valuation. A formal valuation routinely lands thirty percent or more away from it in either direction.
What is the difference between this and a formal valuation?
A formal valuation runs several methods in parallel, normalises reported earnings, tests the assumptions, and produces a documented report with sensitivity analysis — the version you can put in front of a buyer, a lender, a court or SARS. The free version is an indicative range, and nothing more.
How long does the free valuation take?
The indicative range appears on screen in minutes. A considered reply from Marthinus Hartman follows within 24 hours on working days; enquiries over a weekend are answered on Monday.
Will you contact me repeatedly afterwards?
No. You get one reply. There is no drip sequence and no mailing list. If you want to take it further, you tell us.
Is my information confidential?
Yes. Your figures are treated as confidential and are never shared with third parties. Where a formal mandate follows and the information is sensitive, a non-disclosure agreement is signed before anything further is sent.
Do I need to be anywhere specific to use it?
No. The free valuation is available to business owners anywhere in South Africa. Pravata has offices in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban, and takes mandates nationally.
Find out what your business is worth.
Send three figures and get an indicative range within 24 hours — free, with no obligation. Everything happens on the main Pravata site.
Start my free valuationPravata — Business Valuations & Mergers. Serving businesses across South Africa.
Visit pravata.co.za for full services, pricing and contact details.
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