Would you buy your own business?
What a buyer discounts is what makes the business hard to own
Most owners have a number in their head for what the business is worth. Buyers have a different number, and the distance between the two is rarely about how good the business is. It is about risk the owner has stopped noticing — and it is the same risk that keeps you in the middle of everything, makes results hard to predict, and makes the business difficult to hand to anyone, buyer or successor.
This scorecard is the short version of the diligence a buyer would run. It will not value your business. It will show you where value is leaking, and every item it surfaces is worth addressing whether you sell in three years, in fifteen, or never. A business that scores well is simply a better business to own: it runs without you, it produces more cash, and it is worth more on the day you decide to do something about it.
Score
Want the detailed interpretation?
Send me your score and I will reply with what it typically means for a business of your size, and the two or three items I would address first. No newsletter, no follow-up sequence.
Your score is attached automatically. I am the only person who sees it.
A low score is a list, not a verdict
Most of what this scorecard surfaces can be fixed in eighteen to thirty-six months, and each item is worth real money at a sale, and real freedom well before one. The expensive path is discovering them during diligence, when the buyer sets the price on every one.
If you would like to talk through what your score means for your business specifically, I offer a 45-minute review at no cost and no obligation.
Request a 45-minute review