# Business by budget: methodology (snapshot October 1, 2026)

Source: BigIdeasDB Main Street Index, US listings only, de-duplicated across sites (a BizBuySell listing that matches a businessesforsale listing on state, price and cash flow is counted once). 46,000+ US listings with a disclosed asking price; 27,000+ also disclose seller's discretionary earnings (SDE).

- All figures are ASKING prices and STATED SDE from listings, never closed deals.
- Multiples use deal_version 1.0.0: asking price / SDE, kept only between 0.1x and 50x. Payback in years equals the multiple (before debt, tax and capex).
- Industry medians: benchmarks scoring_version 1.2.0, region ALL, size band ALL, USD + SDE only, not indicative, n_multiple >= 30.
- Seller financing: listing field "offered" or AI-extracted listing text "offered" (buyer_version 1.2.0). About three quarters of listings say nothing; silence is not "no".
- Stated reasons for selling: motivation_version 1.0.0, excluding non_answer and not_an_owner_exit.
- SBA illustration (assumptions, not a quote): equity 10% of total project cost; total project = asking price + 10% working capital + 3% fees; 10-year term; 10.5% interest; debt service coverage threshold 1.25x. Lenders also subtract a market salary for the owner; we show a $50,000 salary case.
- No percentile is published below n = 30.
- Startup costs are NOT in this dataset. Any startup-cost figure on the page is cited to its external source.