Enterprise value

The value of a business as a whole operating machine, independent of how it is financed. For an owner, the north-star number that daily decisions either build or erode.

Enterprise value is what the operating business is worth in total, before adjusting for its cash and debts. For owner-operated businesses the honest proxy is the market arithmetic: sustainable earnings times a multiple a real buyer would pay.

Its usefulness is as a lens, not a vanity number. Decisions that raise this month's takings can lower enterprise value (deep discounting that trains customers to wait, deferring the systemisation that removes owner dependence), and boring moves can raise it sharply (provable books, memberships, a transferable lease). Owners who check decisions against "does this make the machine worth more" run measurably different businesses than owners who only watch the month.

That lens is the founding idea behind Moonmoot itself.