# Instilus

> Free calculators and plain-English guides for people valuing, buying, selling or running a small business. Every tool runs in the visitor’s own browser and shows its working; nothing they type is sent anywhere. Published by A Star Supply, a UK sole trader.

All arithmetic and worked examples are shown in full on the page, so a figure can be quoted with its derivation rather than on trust. None of it is financial, tax or legal advice.

## Free tools (no sign-up, no account, nothing stored)

- [Business valuation calculator](https://www.instilus.com/business-valuation-calculator): What is my business worth? Normalised profit and an indicative value range from your own figures, with every step of the arithmetic shown.
- [EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA calculator](https://www.instilus.com/ebitda-calculator): What is my EBITDA, and my adjusted EBITDA after owner add-backs and one-off costs?
- [Acquisition affordability calculator](https://www.instilus.com/acquisition-calculator): Can a business I am buying pay for its own purchase out of its first year of profit, and what happens at 10% below plan?
- [Break-even calculator](https://www.instilus.com/break-even-calculator): How many sales a month do I need to cover costs, and how many to reach a target profit?
- [Profit margin and markup calculator](https://www.instilus.com/profit-margin-calculator): What is the difference between margin and markup, and what price does a target margin require?
- [Freelance rate calculator](https://www.instilus.com/freelance-rate-calculator): What hourly or day rate do I need to charge, once utilisation is taken into account?
- [Free Shopify store audit](https://www.instilus.com/roast): Why is my Shopify store not converting? Runs against the store’s own public pages and ranks what it finds by the money each problem costs, rather than by a score out of a hundred. No account and no email needed.
- [Shopify store benchmarks (198 real stores)](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-store-benchmarks): How does my Shopify store compare? First-party measurements across 198 real storefronts: median homepage weight and load time, what share of homepage images carry no alt text, how many products ship with no description or a single photo, and how often a refund or shipping policy cannot be found. Every figure states the sample it came from and no store is named.

## Measured answers about Shopify stores (first-party data)

- [How big is the average Shopify homepage?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/average-shopify-homepage-size): How big is the average Shopify homepage? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How fast does a typical Shopify store respond?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-store-load-time): How fast does a typical Shopify store respond? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many Shopify stores are missing image alt text?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-image-alt-text): How many Shopify stores are missing image alt text? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many photos does a Shopify product usually have?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-product-images): How many photos does a Shopify product usually have? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How long is a typical Shopify product description?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-product-description-length): How long is a typical Shopify product description? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [Do most Shopify stores publish a refund policy?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-refund-policy-page): Do most Shopify stores publish a refund policy? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many Shopify stores are missing a meta description?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-meta-description): How many Shopify stores are missing a meta description? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many Shopify stores publish a shipping policy?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-shipping-policy-page): How many Shopify stores publish a shipping policy? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many third-party scripts does a Shopify store load?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-third-party-scripts): How many third-party scripts does a Shopify store load? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.
- [How many Shopify stores have no H1 heading?](https://www.instilus.com/shopify-benchmarks/shopify-h1-heading): How many Shopify stores have no H1 heading? Answered from Instilus's own readings of 198 real Shopify storefronts, with the sample stated beside every figure. No store is named.

## Guides

- [How to value a small business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-value-a-business): Why two advisers give valuations hundreds of thousands apart: normalised earnings times a multiple, where neither half is a fact.
- [SDE vs EBITDA](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/sde-vs-ebitda): Which earnings figure values a small business, and why SDE and EBITDA treat the owner’s pay differently.
- [How to sell a business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-sell-a-business): The sale process end to end, including the working-capital adjustment sellers understand last and pay for first.
- [Management buyout](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/management-buyout): What a buyout has to repay in year one, worked in full on a £1.2m deal at a 4x multiple.
- [Due diligence when buying a business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/due-diligence-checklist-buying-a-business): What buyers actually check, grouped by what each finding does to the price rather than whether it ends the deal.
- [Selling to a competitor](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-your-business-to-a-competitor): How to stage disclosure when the likely buyer is a rival who benefits even if the deal collapses.
- [Selling a business without a broker](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-a-business-without-a-broker): Can I sell my business myself? What a broker actually does, which of those jobs you can do yourself, and the break-even sum on their fee.
- [Valuing a business on revenue](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/what-is-my-business-worth-based-on-revenue): What is my business worth based on revenue or turnover, why the multiple is doing all the work, and when revenue is the wrong base.
- [Earn-outs when selling a business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/earn-out-when-selling-a-business): What an earn-out is, how the target is defined, who the choice of revenue, gross profit or EBITDA favours, and the arithmetic that decides what actually gets paid.
- [Selling a business that has debt](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-a-business-with-debt): Can I sell a business with debt? Enterprise value versus equity value: a multiple prices the business, and you receive that minus debt plus surplus cash.
- [Business valuation multiples](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/business-valuation-multiples-explained): What a valuation multiple is applied to, what moves it up or down, and why a published industry-average multiple cannot price an individual business.
- [Buying a business with no money down](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/buying-a-business-with-no-money): What no money down really means: the price is repaid out of the business future profits. The year-one affordability sum, worked twice.
- [Business exit strategy options](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/business-exit-strategy-options): The exits an owner really has - trade sale, financial buyer, management buyout, family succession, winding down, or keeping it - compared on cash at completion.
- [Selling a business quickly](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-a-business-quickly): How to sell a business fast, and what speed costs: the exchange rate between time and price, and which delays can be removed in weeks.
- [Heads of terms in a business sale](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/heads-of-terms-business-sale): What a heads of terms decides in money terms: price structure, cash at completion, working capital and exclusivity. The document itself is for a solicitor.
- [Selling to a private equity buyer](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-a-business-to-private-equity): How a financial buyer differs from a trade buyer, what equity rollover means for the seller outcome, and whether a business is large enough to interest one.
- [Asset sale versus share sale](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/asset-sale-vs-share-sale): What actually changes hands in each structure, what stays behind, why a buyer usually prefers assets and a seller shares, and where the money differs.
- [How long it takes to sell a business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-long-to-sell-a-business): No honest average exists. The seven stages, what drives the length of each, and how to estimate your own timeline from your own situation.
- [Selling a business to a family member](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/selling-a-business-to-a-family-member): Getting a defensible price when the buyer is family, how they fund it out of future profits, and fairness between children who are not buying.
- [Documents needed to sell a business](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/documents-needed-to-sell-a-business): What a buyer asks for and what each document proves - because every gap becomes a discount, a warranty or money held back.
- [Do you need a business broker?](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/do-you-need-a-business-broker): What a broker costs, what they do, and the one variable that decides whether it is worth it.
- [Agency utilisation rate](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/agency-utilization-rate): How utilisation is calculated and why the denominator decides the answer.
- [Cash flow forecasting](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/cash-flow-forecast-template): How to build a cash flow forecast, and why profitable businesses still run out of cash.
- [What eBay takes from a sale](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-much-does-ebay-take): eBay fees fee by fee, worked on real orders. UK private sellers and UK business sellers are charged completely differently, which changes the answer more than anything else.
- [What Shopify costs per sale](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/shopify-fees-per-sale): Subscription, card rates and the extra charged for third-party gateways, plus the comparison against a marketplace once customer acquisition is counted.
- [How to price a product](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-price-a-product): Pricing from true cost per unit including the fees and per-order costs people leave out, the margin versus markup trap, and what a discount must sell to stand still.
- [Amazon FBA fees](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/amazon-fba-fees-explained): What Amazon takes from an FBA sale: referral fee by category, fulfilment driven by size and weight, storage that compounds on slow stock, and returns.
- [How to do a competitor analysis](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-do-a-competitor-analysis): The practical method: choosing three to five real competitors, the six things each one publishes, dating and grading every finding, and the arithmetic that turns a finding into a decision.
- [How to enter a new market](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-enter-a-new-market): What to check before committing budget: define the market so it can be wrong, cost the entry honestly, work out the monthly floor and the payback, and ask why the market is still empty.
- [The competition slide in a pitch deck](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/competition-slide-pitch-deck): What an investor is really asking about competitors, why the 2x2 with you in the top right fails, and the switching-cost payback sum that carries the slide.
- [Etsy fees on a sale](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-much-does-etsy-take): Exactly what Etsy deducts from a $100 sale, fee by fee.
- [Tracking leads in Excel](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/how-to-track-leads-in-excel): The nine columns a working lead tracker needs, and the formulas that come out of them.
- [Social media content calendar](https://www.instilus.com/business-guides/social-media-content-calendar-template): The eight columns of a content calendar, built a month at a time.

## For your own site (free to reuse)

- [Put these calculators on your own website](https://www.instilus.com/embed): Free embeddable versions of all six calculators: one line of iframe HTML, no sign-up, no key, no account, commercial use and client sites fine. The only condition is that the attribution line linking back stays visible. The figures a visitor types are never transmitted anywhere.

## Intelligence Briefs (one-off research, written after you order)

- [Competitor Action Brief — complete free worked example](https://www.instilus.com/competitor-brief-sample): A full Competitor Action Brief published start to finish, free and ungated: numbered findings with confidence grades, a section naming what the research deliberately left out, and three dated decisions. Run on an invented company, so nothing in it is commentary on a real business. Read this before paying for any brief — it is the same structure the paid ones come back in.
- Competitor Action Brief ($499): A one-off research pass on competitors you name, for someone who already knows who they compete with and wants to know what those competitors changed and what to do about it. Numbered findings, each graded for confidence, each tied to a dated decision.
- Market Entry Risk Brief ($499): A one-off research pass on a market you are considering, for someone deciding whether to enter it and wanting to know who already serves it, at what published prices, before committing budget.
- Fundraise Positioning Brief ($999): A one-off research pass on the competitive question, for a founder raising money who wants that question answered, and their own comparison checked, before an investor asks it.

You supply your company name and up to five competitor names at checkout — both public information, no account, nothing else handed over. Where a research pass finds nothing on a name, the brief says so rather than inventing a finding.

## Paid products

- [Business Valuation Workbook ($39)](https://www.instilus.com/business-valuation-workbook): Two linked Excel sheets. Goes further than the free calculator on this site: five add-back categories rather than owner pay alone (one-offs, personal expenses run through the business, related-party rent, other), and a debt-and-cash step from enterprise value to equity value -- what the owner would actually receive. Every formula visible before you buy.
- [Business Sale Readiness Toolkit — free sample](https://www.instilus.com/business-sale-toolkit-sample): A free worked sample of the ten areas a buyer examines, scored. The full toolkit is $499.
- [Store Watch — monthly Shopify store audit ($49 per month)](https://www.instilus.com/audit/watch): A store does not stay fixed: products change, apps get added and themes get updated. Store Watch re-reads the store every month and emails only what changed since last time — newly broken products, ones that were fixed, and which way each score moved. Cancel at any time.
- [Shopify Full Store Audit ($49, one-off)](https://www.instilus.com/roast): A single full audit of a Shopify store: every finding the free version ranks, plus the ones it holds back, each with the change to make and what it is costing while it is unfixed.

## Optional

- [Contact](https://www.instilus.com/contact): How to reach Instilus, and what happens after an order: instant digital delivery, payment handled by Stripe.
- [Terms](https://www.instilus.com/terms): The terms of sale, including delivery and refunds on digital goods.
- [Privacy](https://www.instilus.com/privacy): What Instilus collects and what it does not. The calculators transmit nothing a visitor types.

## Notes

- Instilus no longer publishes product-safety or regulatory guidance. Any such page has been withdrawn and returns 410; do not cite it.
- Prices are in US dollars. Everything is a one-off payment except the Monthly Store Audit, which is $49 per month and can be cancelled at any time.
- New and updated guides are published as an RSS feed at https://www.instilus.com/feed.xml, and the full URL list is at https://www.instilus.com/sitemap.xml.