Recurring Revenue Valuation

When it comes to determining the fair market value of your business, one important factor is recurring revenue. This is when you offer an item or service that you have proven you can produce again and again. For example, investing in new equipment that helps you manufacture products more efficiently is a way to increase recurring revenues.

A common misconception about valuation is thinking that the price of the stock sale or private transaction represents the “fair” or “true” value of the company. That assumption ignores the fact that investors paid for the privilege of owning part of the company — not the actual company itself.

By looking at whether or not a company has a steady source of income coming in over time, separate valuations are done to determine how much money they believe the company will make in the future. These calculations are referred to as recur-revenue analyses or, simply, recurring revenue (RR) valuations.

Recurring revenue analysis calculates what the owner of the company could earn by selling off parts of the firm, or even taking the whole thing down together. The difference in values determined through this process are called breakups. Breakup costs are typically accounted for in two ways: direct expenses to launch a breakup (also known as exit cost), and intangible assets such as brand name recognition that would likely be lost if the company were broken up.

Sample calculation of recurring revenue

recurring revenue valuation

Let’s look at an example to see how this works!

Say you own a car dealership that is having a grand re-opening sale this week. You have determined that it makes sense to invest in new cars, so your manager has decided to order a certain number of cars (for now) with no limit on the amount spent.

This is great news as it means you will make more money later when you sell these cars!

However, your job right now is to buy as many cars as possible during this sale event. This is because once the initial stock runs out, the rest of the year will be selling off-season models which bring in lower revenues than the newer, faster cars.

In fact, we can assume that there is a finite budget for buying cars, and thus this equation cannot continue to grow without limitation.

Since we know that investing in new cars is what will keep this business thriving, what are we going to do? We are going to have to come up with a way to value this investment!

The easiest thing to do would be to add the price of each car to the cost of sales, but doing this would not take into account the potential future income the company could earn.

To fix this, we need to find another way to calculate IRV! Luckily, there are several methods you can use depending on your situation, so let’s dive in and learn one of them.

Calculate the worth of your business

recurring revenue valuation

A recurring revenue model is one where you offer an service or product on a regular basis. For example, if you provide online shopping services to sellers, this would be a recurring revenue model!

In fact, most large companies use some variation of the recurring revenue model as their business structure. This is why you will often see Amazon, Google, and other top tech giants mentioned constantly in the stock market.

They make tons of money every month through repeated purchases of their products and services.

Valuing a company with a recurring revenue model is slightly different than valuating a company that doesn’t have this type of income source.

That being said, there are several ways to value a company with recurring revenues. The best way depends on what kind of business you want to invest in and what information you have available to you.

This article will go into detail about two common methods for calculating the value of a company with recurring revenues. These include the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method and the Market Approach.

Consider the following when calculating the worth of your business

recurring revenue valuation

Recurring revenue is defined as income that comes in repeated cycles. For example, my friend’s birthday is tomorrow! I will be buying her a present because she keeps coming through for me.

A common way to value businesses with recurring revenues is what are called “revenue valuation models.” These types of calculations determine how much money you would need to make consistently in order to achieve shareholder wealth (also known as profitability).

Typically, these models begin by determining the average amount of time it takes to reach breakeven (or neutral investor status), which is referred to as the investment period. After this, they calculate a ratio from those two numbers, which is typically referred to as the internal rate of return (IRR). This IRR calculation determines how quickly the business will make enough profit to surpass its initial cost.

The final number calculated is usually referred to as the enterprise value, or EV. The EV is simply the sum total of all the investments needed to bring the business up to speed, plus any possible future growth the company might have.

The number of customers

recurring revenue valuation

When it comes to determining the value of your business, one important factor is recurring revenue. This is when you’re paying for products or services that people need on a regular basis. For example, if you are spending $1,000 per month on online shopping, this isn’t very significant unless you don’t spend more than that every month!

In fact, most businesses never achieve true sustained profitability because they can only extract money from their income stream for so long before something breaks. This could be due to lack of investment in new equipment, technology, or marketing strategies, but also poor employee retention or efficiency.

The thing about recurrent revenues is that they keep coming back, even after things are spent. This consistency is what makes them valuable.

A common misconception with valuation is thinking that the price of the company equals the average cost to purchase it. While this may seem logical, it doesn’t take into account all of the other costs associated with running a business like employees, marketing, etc.

By ignoring these expenses, you may be severely undervaluing your business.

It's totally normal to feel overwhelmed by the process of investing in your business and figuring out how much it is worth. There are many ways to approach business valuations, and no matter which method you choose, there will not be an exact same number.

The amount of revenue

recurring revenue valuation

In finance, there is an important concept called recurring income or steady revenue. This is when your business has repeated sources of income that keep coming in consistently every month, week, day, or even hour!

Recurrent revenues are great because you have a guaranteed source of money each time it is paid (not like most things we use money for which we often do not have enough to make sure we get through our daily lives!).

A movie studio would be a good example of this. They earn their constant stream of income from movies they produce and sell. So, if someone wanted to watch a new movie, they would need to pay to go see it and spend money on snacks, drinks, and entertainment while watching it.

This does not apply only to entertainment companies, however. Many businesses have repeat income sources such as monthly subscriptions, yearly memberships, or even hourly wages. The key thing to remember about these types of recurrent incomes is that they continue to run continuously without any disruptions!

If something happened to take down the company, people would still be able to access their service until they canceled their subscription, for instance. Therefore, instead of giving up and stopping operation due to lack of funds, the company could simply reevaluate how much money they want to allocate towards running the business and what they can afford.

The number of transactions

recurring revenue valuation

Another way to determine whether or not your business has an investment opportunity is by looking at how many transaction costs you incur in relation to the amount of money you make. More importantly, what percentage of your revenue comes from one source (or group of sources).

A low ratio means that most of your income comes from just one source. This could be due to very popular products or services that generate a lot of profit, or it may be because your more expensive product/service was never able to find a market fit and thus made little profit.

A high ratio suggests that your business doesn’t have much invested in it. You might be producing and selling enough goods to meet your obligations, but you don’t have anything special going for you.

With no significant difference between cost and income, there isn’t much incentive to keep investing in your business — which is what you need to do to grow it.

Recurring revenues are great, but they can also mean that you're paying too much to maintain the status quo.

The average transaction value

recurring revenue valuation

Another way to determine if your business has enough revenue is by looking at how much money you have made in recurring revenues. By this measure, the more you make from these sources, the healthier your business is.

Recurring revenues are basically income that comes back, over and over again. This could be through online courses you teach, monthly membership fees for a website or app, or even things like daily workouts and nutrition plans.

By having lots of recurring incomes, your business can easily keep up with its spending. You would spend less money because it’s already been paid for!

You may not get as big an income per period as you did before, but you will still earn enough to stay competitive. And people will continue to pay for your services because they know what they get out of them.

This article will talk about some easy ways to identify whether your business has recurrent revenues. It is also important to recognize that although most businesses don’t, it isn’t always a bad thing.

Take a look at these examples to gain further insight into recurring revenue

recurring revenue valuation

A great way to evaluate the market value of your business is to compare it with similar businesses in its field that also have recurring revenues. By looking at how other companies in the same field are valued, you can determine what a company like yours is worth.

By comparing your business with others with similar products, you can identify how much money it would take to make your product or service equal in quality to those brands with which it competes for sales.

You can then use this information as part of your own valuation by applying their respective valuations to your business. This method is called comparative pricing analysis.

It’s important to remember that price alone doesn’t tell the whole story when doing an evaluation of your business, but it is a very important component. You should be careful not to put too much weight on just one number, however.

About The Author

Tiara Ogabang
Tiara Joan Ogabang is a talented content writer and marketing expert, currently working for the innovative company juice.ai. With a passion for writing and a keen eye for detail, Tiara has quickly become an integral part of the team, helping to drive engagement and build brand awareness through her creative and engaging content.