What an investor would see
An investor or a bank isn't buying the business so much as underwriting whether the earnings survive you, which is stricter in places and kinder in others.
A self-assessment for owners raising money or borrowing
Raising capital is selling part of the business. An investor is a buyer taking a smaller share, and reads the same seven things a buyer reads.
What they add is a question a buyer never has to ask: what happens to their money if you leave.
Their money would be committed to the business, and nothing would stop you walking away from it. The more of it that runs through you, the more they'll ask for in return, or the longer they'll wait.
The assessment reads your business the way an investor does, and shows you what they'd want fixed before they commit.
Where we'd start
The full report on your business
USD $200
- What an investor 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
- Read by a person before it is sent, within 72 hours
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 result on screen
Nothing to buy
- Your score out of 100, and the seven readings behind it
- The three answers somebody would press on hardest
- On screen the moment you finish, and emailed if you'd like
- The full report can still be ordered from your score's page
Both take the same 31 questions and the same 45 minutes to an hour.
The seven things an investor reads
Every owner answers the same 31 questions. Coming in this way, the report reads your answers as an investor would, and each of these seven comes back with a reading. These are the readings you want, word for word as the report puts them.
Whether an investor can read your numbers
An investor's accountant could check your figures in a week.
How solid next year's income is
Most of next year's income is already secure.
Whether the earnings hold
You can show what the business earns, and that it will last.
Whether it grows without you
Growth doesn't depend on you, and the trend backs it.
How much of it is you
The business runs without you, and an investor can see it.
What survives you leaving
What makes the business work would survive a change of owner.
What exists outside people's heads
Most of how the business works is written down.
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. For some, that discomfort is kind of the point, and it's most of why it takes the time it does. Every question is something a buyer or investor would ask in the first fortnight of looking at you, and the ones you can't answer quickly are the ones they'll press on hardest.
- How your week actually goes.
- Who your customers are and how much of next year is already spoken for.
- What happens when you're not there.
- What exists in writing rather than in somebody's head.
- What your accountant has finished, and when.
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. Answer it carelessly and you'll get a careless result, and that would be nobody's fault but yours.
There's nothing to buy to see your result, and you don't need to give us an email address to read it on screen. If you leave one, we'll send it to you as well. The full report goes further, and nothing is held back from your result to sell it.
When an investor sits down with your figures, you'll already know the three answers they'll ask about first.
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.
Your answers are yours. We do not sell them. We do use anonymised data, aggregated, to establish industry, regional and other statistics.