A self-assessment for owners thinking about selling
What a buyer would see
Whether there's an offer in front of you or it's still years away, much of what moves the number sits outside the accounts, and much of it can be fixed.
Answer 31 questions and see your business the way a buyer would: a score out of 100, the seven things a buyer reads, and the three answers they're most likely to press on. The full report adds the next six months, in order.
Allow 45 minutes to an hour, most of it looking things up.
Most owners thinking about a sale know two figures: the price they have in mind, and what the business made last year.
A buyer starts somewhere else. Before a price is discussed, they're establishing how much of what they'd be paying for leaves the day you do.
Whatever still runs through you tends to be priced as risk: in the price, in the terms, or in how long you're asked to stay on. Sometimes it's the reason a buyer walks away.
The assessment reads your business in the order a buyer usually does, and shows you where they're likely to press, while there's still time to fix it.
What comes back
Choose one: the full report or the summary report
Where we'd start
The full report on your business
USD $500
- What a buyer would see, and the answers that decide it
- Where your score comes from, area by area
- The next six months, each action in order, and what done looks like
- Something in writing at the end of each action, the kind of paper a buyer or a bank asks to see
- Read by Paul Lange before it is sent, within 72 hours
- Your summary report in the meantime, on screen the moment you finish, and by email
Click below to pay by card or crypto (BTC or XMR). Then start the assessment. Your answers save as you go.
Buy the full reportYour summary report and score
USD $97
- Your score out of 100, and the seven readings behind it
- The three answers somebody is most likely to press on
- On screen the moment you finish, with a link by email and a PDF to keep
- The full report can still be ordered from your score's page, and for three months the USD $97 comes off its price
One action from a sample full report, for a made-up business
Every action in the full report is set out this way, starting from one of your answers. They're ordered across the next 30, 90 and 180 days, with the ones a buyer would mark you down for first at the front.
Action 1. Grow other customers so your largest three are under 40 per cent of your revenue
Your largest customer bought USD 560,000 of your USD 3,800,000, or 14.7 per cent. Your largest three together bought USD 1,680,000, or 44.2 per cent.
What it costs you. Your largest three customers are 44 per cent of your revenue, and a buyer will work out what happens if one of them leaves.
What a buyer expects. A buyer pays more when your largest three customers are no more than about 40 per cent of revenue.
The move. Work out which other customers could grow, so your largest three become a smaller share of revenue.
| Who does it | You, with whoever runs sales |
|---|---|
| How long | A planning session, then a year |
| What it costs | Your time, and whatever winning new customers costs |
| Done when | your largest three are under 40 per cent of revenue, or when you can show the plan that gets them there |
| You end up holding | A one page plan to reduce your reliance on your largest three customers |
Both take the same 31 questions and the same 45 minutes to an hour.
If it's for someone else, give them the full report as a gift.
The seven things a buyer reads
Every owner answers the same 31 questions. Coming in this way, the report reads your answers as a buyer would, and each of these seven comes back with a reading. The line under each is the reading you'd want, word for word as the report puts it. Move each one to where you think your business stands today, and see roughly where a buyer would place you.
How much of it is you
The business runs without you, and a buyer can see it.
The higher end is for an owner who's had two weeks away, phone off, while someone else ran it. Go lower for each kind of thing that still comes back to you, such as customers, decisions or problems.
Not set yet
How solid next year's income is
Most of next year's income is already secure.
The higher end is for a year that's mostly contracted or from repeat customers, with no one customer carrying it. Go lower for each weak spot, such as revenue you'll have to win again or one customer worth a big share.
Not set yet
What survives you leaving
What makes the business work would survive a change of owner.
The higher end is for a business that holds its own contracts and brand, with key staff on signed restraints. Go lower for each thing still tied to you, such as something in your name, a personal guarantee, or someone who could leave with customers.
Not set yet
Whether a buyer can read your numbers
A buyer's accountant could check your figures in a week.
The higher end is for last year's accounts finished and monthly profit reports arriving within a month. Go lower for each gap, such as reports that run late or personal costs in the books.
Not set yet
What exists outside people's heads
Most of how the business works is written down.
The higher end is for a business where a new person could learn the main jobs from your guides and your records export cleanly. Go lower for each thing that lives only in someone's head, such as a process nobody has written down.
Not set yet
Whether the earnings hold
You can show what the business earns, and that it will last.
The higher end is for gross profit that's held for three years, customers who pay on time and prices that keep up with costs. Go lower for each warning sign, such as slipping margins, overdue debts or tax, or thin cash.
Not set yet
Whether it grows without you
Growth doesn't depend on you, and the trend backs it.
The higher end is for a business where most of your last ten new customers came without your name, referral or pitch. Go lower for each one that still needed you.
Not set yet
Your guess
Move any of the seven to where your business stands, and your guess appears here.
100Out of 100
A business
A buyer would see a business. What's left to do is the difference between a good price and the best one.
- A job
- A job with staff
- A business that still depends on you
- A business with things to fix
- A business
Worked out on this page from where you set the seven. Nothing you set is saved or sent.
A buyer won't take your word for any of these.
The 31 questions ask what they'd ask, and the report reads each of the seven from your answers. It also checks two things these can't: whether the business still makes money once you're paid properly for your work, and how much rests on your biggest customer. Either can hold the number down, whatever the seven say.
Being straight about what it is not
It's not a valuation, and it doesn't tell you what your business is worth or what anyone would pay. It's also not financial, accounting, legal or other professional advice.
It shows you where a buyer is likely to press, so you can prepare. Price also turns on earnings, the market, how the deal is structured and who the buyer is, and a high score doesn't mean only the price is left to settle.
The assessment scores what you tell it. Nobody checks your answers, inspects your books, or rings your accountant, so the result is only as accurate as the answers. Where you're not sure, look it up rather than guess; that's most of the 45 minutes.
Every finding in the full report starts from one of your own answers, set out under its heading, so you can see exactly where it came from.
Every full report is read by Paul Lange, who founded the firm, before it's sent. That read isn't an audit: nobody checks your answers against your records.
No self-assessment can tell you what a particular buyer will decide. Use it to prepare, not to predict.
Your summary report is on screen the moment you finish, with a link by email and a PDF to keep. The full report goes further, and nothing is held back from your summary report to sell it.
What it asks
31 questions about how your business actually runs, plus five about the business itself, in eight parts.
They aren't difficult questions, but some are uncomfortable, and a few will take you a minute to find. That's most of why it takes the time it does. Each one is the kind of thing a buyer or an investor asks early on, and the ones you can't answer quickly are usually where they'd press hardest.
Set aside 45 minutes to an hour, and have last year's revenue and your most recent accounts within reach.
It doesn't have to be one sitting: the sheet will email you a link back to it if you'd rather finish later.
Before you start
- How long does it take?
- Allow 45 minutes to an hour for the 31 questions, most of it finding figures. Your answers save as you go, so it doesn't have to be one sitting.
- I already have an offer. Is it too late?
- No. Use it alongside your advisers: it shows where a buyer is likely to press, so you and they can have answers ready. It doesn't replace their work on price or terms.
- What should I have to hand?
- Last year's revenue and your most recent accounts. If your accounts are more than two years old, or you have fewer than three months of monthly profit and loss figures, your summary report will say a buyer couldn't read the business yet, and show you what's missing, instead of giving a number.
- Do I have to give you my email address?
- You give one when you pay, and your summary report comes with a link by email and a PDF to keep. We'll also send you two short emails about the full report, and you can stop them at any time.
- When does the full report arrive?
- Within 72 hours of you finishing the questions, or of paying if you buy it after your score is on screen. It comes to your email address with a link to its own private page. If you buy it before you start, your summary report comes first, on screen the moment you finish and by email.
- Is there a shorter way to start?
- Yes. The short version asks 15 questions you can answer from memory, and shows you roughly where you stand on three of the seven things a buyer reads, as a range rather than a score. There's nothing to buy, and you don't have to tell us who you are. If you go on to the summary report or the full report, your answers come straight in once you've paid, so you won't have to answer anything twice. Start the short version
- If I buy the summary report, then want the full report?
- For three months after your summary report is first on screen, the USD $97 you paid comes off the full report built from the same answers, and you can change your answers without paying again.
- Can I get my money back?
- We don't refund a payment because you didn't finish the questions or changed your mind. If you're buying as a consumer and the law gives you a right to cancel, you keep it: write to us within 14 days of paying and before your report is sent, and we refund what we haven't yet provided.
- What currency, and how do I pay?
- US dollars, by card, or by Bitcoin or Monero.
- Who sees my answers?
- Your answers are yours. We do not sell them. We do use anonymised data, aggregated, to establish industry, regional and other statistics. Your report goes to you alone; anyone you give its link or code to can open it. Investability Special Terms
When a buyer sits down with your figures, you'll already know the three answers they're most likely to press on.
With the full report, you'll also know what to do about them: the next six months, each action in order, read by a person before it's sent. Pay by card or crypto (BTC or XMR) and start straight away.
Set aside 45 minutes to an hour, and have last year's revenue and your most recent accounts within reach.
It doesn't have to be one sitting: the sheet will email you a link back to it if you'd rather finish later.
If it's for someone else, give them the full report as a gift.