Course

Evaluating businesses

Read a deal packet line by line and find what it leaves out. Includes the teardown worksheet.

$200

Course purpose

Who this course is for

This course is for a buyer with a real listing or confidential information memorandum who needs to decide whether the opportunity deserves an offer. It is built for the point where a persuasive story must become an inspectable analysis.

A CIM is a seller's presentation, not a diligence conclusion. The buyer has to identify what is present, what is missing, how the earnings were adjusted, and which assumptions make the asking price appear reasonable.

The course separates seller's discretionary earnings from EBITDA and connects each measure to the operating model behind it. It also treats add-backs as claims requiring documents. If the business will still need the expense after closing, removing it overstates the cash available to the buyer.

Red flags do not all end a deal. Some change price, structure, transition support, or the questions that must be answered in diligence. The goal is a valuation range and a go or no-go recommendation another reviewer can challenge.

Students also learn to distinguish an unanswered question from a negative finding. That distinction keeps uncertainty visible, prevents premature conclusions, and gives the next diligence step a clear purpose.

Course outcomes

What you should be able to do

Read a CIM line by line and record unanswered questions.
Build a documented bridge from reported profit to normalized earnings.
Distinguish SDE from EBITDA and match the measure to the valuation approach.
Produce a supported valuation range and recommendation.

Section 1

Reading the CIM

Identify presentation choices, missing details, and claims that need independent support.

Section 2

SDE and EBITDA

Understand the owner-labor assumption behind the two earnings measures.

Section 3

Testing add-backs

Decide which proposed adjustments are documented, nonrecurring, and unlikely to continue.

Section 4

Assets and red flags

Connect equipment condition, owner dependence, concentration, and lease risk to value.

Section 5

The written evaluation

Bring the findings into a clear valuation range and advance, revise, or reject decision.

Inside LearnHouse

The course deliverable

The paid course includes a business evaluation worksheet for recording normalized earnings, red flags, valuation assumptions, and the final recommendation. Detailed teardowns stay in LearnHouse.

Before you start

Complete Sourcing Deals or bring a genuine listing and its available financial package.

Continue the work

Small business valuation guideReview the public valuation framework.Seller's discretionary earningsUnderstand the earnings basis used by many listings.SDE and add-back calculatorCompare reported and adjusted earnings across periods.

What you are and are not buying

Before you open a course you can have all of your money back, for any reason. Opening it delivers it, and after that the purchase is final.

That guarantee covers the instruction. It does not cover whether you buy a business, or what any business you buy earns or sells for. Nobody can honestly promise that, and anyone who does is selling you something.

There is no time limit on the first half of that and no exception to the second. Open nothing and ask, and you get everything back. Open it and it is yours.

Results vary. Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice.