How much should I offer to acquire a business that makes $395k annually?

$395K is revenue - what were the revenues last 3 years? Trend matters.

And overall profit is negative because of the employees and owner payments. How much is the current owner payment?

What do you believe the new revenue and new profit would be with the reduced employee headcount and the non-payment to the owner?

Now take that number and give yourself and whoever else in your family you plan to work there a reasonable salary.

Is there anything left over? That is the only number that matters. If you are back to 0, this business is worth $0. If you are negative, the owner needs to pay you to take over the lease. If you are positive, multiply this number by X where x is the number of years of profit you’re willing to give up your the owner. I would not go higher than x= 3.

At an ask of $249K, this business needs to profit of more than $83K/year after you have paid a salary to everyone including yourself. Is that possible?