The 10-Minute Back-of-Napkin Valuation Every UAE Owner Should Do Once a Year
By Bill Anderson, FCCA, Chief Executive Officer, Assetica — 2026-06-03
A five-step framework UAE owners can use to estimate what their company is roughly worth in ten minutes, with a worked example.
Step 1: Work out your real profit
Adjust accounting profit to what a buyer would recognise: add back your own salary, one-off costs and personal expenses, then deduct a market salary for someone to do your job, income that will not continue, and above-market family payroll. What remains, seller's discretionary earnings or normalised EBITDA, is the figure the whole valuation rests on.
Step 2: Choose a multiple range honestly
Privately held SMEs in most sectors change hands at low single-digit multiples of normalised earnings. Score yourself on five questions: could it run without you for three months, is revenue recurring, does any client exceed roughly 20 per cent of revenue, are the accounts audited, and has profit grown for three years. Mostly good answers use the top of a conservative range such as 2x to 4x; mostly bad answers use the bottom.
Steps 3 to 5: Multiply, sanity-check, write it down
Multiply earnings by the multiple for enterprise value, subtract borrowings, add genuinely surplus cash and discount aged receivables to reach equity value. Sanity-check against realistic asset value, which acts as a floor. Then date the number and repeat yearly: the trend matters more than the figure.
What this exercise is not
A napkin valuation is a navigation tool, not a sale price. It will not survive contact with a real transaction, dispute, bank or visa application, where methodology, evidence and independence are required. As an annual habit it keeps value on your dashboard next to revenue and cash.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I roughly value my own business in the UAE?
Normalise your profit (add back personal costs, deduct a market salary for your replacement), apply an honest multiple range such as 2x to 4x for a typical small owner-managed business, subtract debt, add surplus cash and sanity-check against asset value. The result is a rough range, not a sale price.
What is seller's discretionary earnings?
The normalised profit measure used for owner-managed SMEs: accounting profit adjusted for the owner's salary and benefits, one-off items, personal expenses, and a market-rate salary for a replacement general manager.
Is a rough valuation enough for a sale or Golden Visa?
No. Buyers, courts, banks and government bodies require a formal, independent valuation with methodology and evidence. A GDRFA-accepted certified report is required for Golden Visa applications; a napkin estimate has no formal standing.
Speak to Assetica about Business Valuation
Assetica is an independent business valuation firm in Dubai. We do not audit and we do not broker deals, so the number carries no conflict. Read more about business valuation, or book a free scoping call. Standard reports are issued in five to seven business days.