Sell, raise, or step out
How much of it is you?
It's one of the first things anyone outside your business works out, and it shapes what they'll pay, what they'll lend, and whether you could step back for a month without it costing you.
Answer 31 questions about how the business runs and see it the way a buyer, an investor, or someone standing in for you would: a score out of 100, the seven readings behind it, and the three answers they're most likely to press on. The full report adds what to do about it: the next six months, each action in order, read by a person before it's sent.
31 questions about how it runs, five about the business itself. Allow 45 minutes to an hour, most of it looking things up.
Why this is worth knowing
Most owners find out how much of the business still depends on them at the worst possible moment. When somebody offers to buy it. When a bank asks for the last three years. When they need to stop, and discover they cannot.
You may be selling. You may be raising money, or borrowing against it. You may be planning neither, and just want to know whether the thing runs without you. The three are closer than they look: the same seven questions sit under all of them, though a buyer, an investor and a lender each weigh them differently. A buyer looks hardest, so a buyer's standard is the one the assessment scores against, whether or not you ever meet one.
If you're selling
A buyer is paying for earnings that carry on after you've gone. Whatever still runs through you tends to be priced in: in the price, in the terms, or in how long you're asked to stay.
If you're raising or borrowing
An investor wants to know the plan can be delivered without you carrying it. A lender asks something narrower: whether the repayments are safe if you're not there.
If you want to step out
Nobody is buying anything. The test is whether the business runs for a month while you're away, and which calls, approvals and figures would still find you.
There's a difference between a business and a job with staff.
It is worth knowing which one you own before somebody else tells you.
Try the question everyone outside your business asks
How much of the business still runs through you? Move the dot to where you think yours stands today, and see what a buyer, an investor and a month away would each make of it. It's a rough guide from one question, not your result.
How much of it is you
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
Ready to sell?
What a buyer wants to see
The business runs without you, and a buyer can see it.
See all sevenReady to raise?
What an investor wants to see
The business runs without you, and an investor can see it.
See all sevenReady to step out?
What a month away needs
The business runs without you, and it's evident.
See all seven
Nothing you set is saved or sent.
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.
The seven it reads
- How much of it is you
- How solid next year's income is
- What survives you leaving
- Whether someone else can read your numbers
- What exists outside people's heads
- Whether the earnings hold
- Whether it grows without you
Your score is worked out the same way whichever reason you choose. The reason changes the order the report reads the seven in, and whose eyes it reads them through.
It also checks two things the seven 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 score down, whatever the seven say.
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, an investor, or someone standing in for you 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.
Your 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 3. Take another two weeks off, and write down everything that still reached you
You were last away for two weeks with your phone off in July 2026, and family ran it.
What it costs you. You last tested it in July 2026, and a buyer will ask how it went.
What a buyer expects. A buyer expects the business to have run for two weeks in the last year without the owner or the owner's family.
The move. Book the next two weeks away and keep a note of everything that still reached you. That note is your next list of things to hand over.
| Who does it | You, and whoever you leave in charge |
|---|---|
| How long | Two weeks, booked in advance |
| What it costs | The cost of actually taking the vacation |
| Done when | you've been gone two weeks with the phone off and the business is still standing |
| You end up holding | A dated note of what still reached you while you were away |
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.
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.
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, investor or lender 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.
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.
- 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, 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
Give the full report as a gift
For a partner, a relative, or a business associate who owns a business. They answer the questions whenever they're ready, and their full report comes to them within 72 hours of finishing, read by a person before it is sent.
You choose whether the voucher comes to you to hand over, or goes straight to them, saying it's from you. It works for three years from the day you buy it.
USD $500
Give it as a gift