All three ways in

A month without you

No transaction and no deadline, just whether the business could run for a month without you, and what specifically stops if it can't.

A self-assessment for owners who want the business to run without them

The clearest measure of how much a business still runs through its owner is what follows them on holiday: the calls, the approvals, the figures nobody else can produce.

Stepping back is the easy part. Stepping out is when none of that follows you.

The assessment reads your business as someone standing in for you would, and shows you the parts that would still pull you back in.

Where we'd start

The full report on your business

USD $200

Full report. What to do about your business. We bake bread and cakes for our own shops and for cafes and delis. Bakery, United Kingdom. GBP 3,100,000 of revenue in the year to March 2026, 52 people, trading since 1998. How far you could step out today: 33.5 out of 100. A job with staff.
A sample front page, for a made-up business.
  • What 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
  • 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 report

Your result on screen

Nothing to buy

Ready to step out? How much of this business still runs through you. How far you could step out today: 33.5 out of 100. A job with staff.
A sample front page, for a made-up business.
  • 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 that would have to hold without you

Every owner answers the same 31 questions. Coming in this way, the report reads your answers as somebody standing in for you 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.

  1. How much of it is you

    The business runs without you, and it's evident.

  2. What exists outside people's heads

    Most of how the business works is written down, not carried in your head.

  3. What survives you leaving

    What makes the business work would survive you stepping out of it.

  4. Whether anyone but you can read your numbers

    Somebody who is not you could check your figures in a week.

  5. How solid next year's income is

    Most of next year's income is already secure, whoever is here to service it.

  6. Whether it grows without you

    Growth doesn't depend on you, and the trend backs it.

  7. Whether the earnings hold

    You can show what the business earns, and that it will last.

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.
Ready to step out? How much of this business still runs through you. How far you could step out today: 33.5 out of 100. A job with staff.
A sample front page, for a made-up business.

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.

Before you take the month, you'll already know the three answers to deal with first.

Start the free report

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.

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