Anthony Scilipoti

It is purely an operating performance metric calculated before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization.

That's it.

Now, what runs into a problem is, well, what do I do with stock options?

What do I do with joint venture gains?

What do I do with gains on investments that I made that I happened to sell this year?

What do I do with the charges that I took on that acquisition that I bought this year that I included in my EBITDA, the profits, but at the cost that associated with that transaction, should I include that in EBITDA?

If making acquisitions is part of my business model, there are no longer one-time costs.

This gets us back to, we have a course called The Secrets of Free Cash Flow.

And that's been our most watched and taught course.

And that's because it started, we said it earlier, we said free cash flow is operating cash flow, less capex.

But it's not.

It depends.

Every answer that someone asks you, what should it be?

Well, it depends.

Depends on the company.

You got it.

How should I calculate it?

Well, it depends.

What decision do you need to make?

You always start with the facts before you think about a transaction and how you're going to account for it.