Is your business ready to sell?
Eight questions, about two minutes. You'll get a readiness score and, more usefully, a clear view of which gaps a buyer would find first — while there's still time to close them.
A business is ready to sell when it runs without its owner, has three clean years of financial records, no single customer dominating revenue, transferable leases and licences, and a second layer of management. The eight questions below score your business against exactly those criteria — the ones a buyer's advisors examine first.
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Talk it through, confidentiallyGet the detailed gap report
Your score broken down by area, what each gap costs in a real sale, and the sequence to close them before you go to market.
One email with the breakdown. No sharing, and no calls unless you ask.
Send it to me on WhatsAppWhat the eight areas cost you if ignored
Every one of these shows up in due diligence whether or not you prepared for it. The difference is whether you fix it on your timetable, or concede on price on the buyer's:
- Owner-dependence — the most common cause of earn-outs replacing cash at completion.
- Financial records — messy books are the single biggest reason deals collapse in due diligence.
- Customer concentration — one customer above 40% of revenue reprices the whole business.
- Leases and licences — a short-dated lease or a non-transferable licence can end a deal outright.
- Management depth — a capable second tier is what convinces a buyer the business survives handover.
- Growth trend — buyers pay for trajectory; a declining year mid-process invites a re-trade.
- Reason for selling — a planned exit negotiates from strength; a forced one rarely does.
- Timeline — time is the cheapest thing you can spend on price. Runway is leverage.
See the seven-stage process, or estimate what your business could sell for.
About the readiness score
Saleability, not value. It weighs the eight things buyers and their advisors examine first — owner-dependence, quality of financial records, customer concentration, transferability of leases and licences, management depth, growth trend, your reason for selling and your timeline. A high score means a sale process would run cleanly and survive due diligence; it does not by itself mean a high price.
No — it's a list of what to fix first, and most of it is fixable in 6–18 months. The businesses that struggle in a sale are rarely bad businesses; they are good businesses whose records, customer mix or owner-dependence were never prepared for an outside buyer to inspect. Knowing which of those applies to you before going to market is precisely the point.
About two minutes — eight questions, one screen. Your score appears immediately on this page. Nothing is submitted unless you choose to ask for the detailed gap report, and your answers stay in your browser.
Your score broken down by the eight areas, what each weak area costs in a real sale, the specific work that closes each gap, and a realistic sequence for doing it in the time you have before going to market.
Whatever your score, the next step is the same.
One confidential conversation about where the business actually is and what's worth fixing first. No fee, no obligation — and if the honest answer is “wait eighteen months”, we'll say so.