Paul Lange

All three ways in

A self-assessment for owners thinking about selling

What a buyer would see.

Whether there's an offer in front of you or it's years away, the things I'd look at first are rarely the ones owners expect.

Answer 31 questions and see your business the way a buyer would: a score out of 100, the seven things a buyer reads, and the three answers they're most likely to press on. The full report adds the next six months, in order.

Allow 45 minutes to an hour, most of it looking things up.

Most owners who are thinking about selling have a number in mind, and a fair idea of what the business made last year.

A buyer starts somewhere else. Before the price comes up, they're working out how much of what they'd be paying for leaves the day you do.

Whatever still runs through you tends to be priced as risk: in the price, in the terms, or in how long you're asked to stay on. Sometimes it's why a buyer walks away.

The assessment reads your business in the order a buyer usually does, and shows you where they're likely to push, while there's still time to fix it.

What comes back

Choose one: the full report or the summary report

Where I'd start

The full report on your business

USD $200

USD $200 until the end of 31 December 2026, UTC. From 1 January 2027, USD $500.

  • What a buyer 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
Full report. What to do about your business. We mould plastic parts for appliance and car manufacturers. Plastic injection moulding, United States. USD 3,800,000 of revenue in the year to December 2025, 12 people, trading since 1954. Where a buyer would place you: 89.5 out of 100. A business.
A sample front page, for a made-up business.

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 summary report and score

Nothing to buy

Until the end of 31 December 2026, UTC. From 1 January 2027, 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, and emailed if you'd like
  • The full report can still be ordered from your score's page
Ready to sell? What a buyer or an acquirer would see in your business today. Where a buyer would place you: 89.5 out of 100. A business.
A sample front page, for a made-up business.
Start the free report

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 1. Grow other customers so your largest three are under 40 per cent of your revenue

Your largest customer bought USD 560,000 of your USD 3,800,000, or 14.7 per cent. Your largest three together bought USD 1,680,000, or 44.2 per cent.

What it costs you. Your largest three customers are 44 per cent of your revenue, and a buyer will work out what happens if one of them leaves.

What a buyer expects. A buyer pays more when your largest three customers are no more than about 40 per cent of revenue.

The move. Work out which other customers could grow, so your largest three become a smaller share of revenue.

Who does itYou, with whoever runs sales
How longA planning session, then a year
What it costsYour time, and whatever winning new customers costs
Done whenyour largest three are under 40 per cent of revenue, or when you can show the plan that gets them there
You end up holdingA one page plan to reduce your reliance on your largest three customers

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.

The seven things a buyer reads

Every owner answers the same 31 questions. Coming in this way, the report reads your answers as a buyer would, and each of these seven comes back with a reading. The line under each is the reading you'd want, word for word as the report puts it. Move each one to where you think your business stands today, and see roughly where a buyer would place you.

  1. How much of it is you

    The business runs without you, and a buyer can see it.

    Not set yet

  2. How solid next year's income is

    Most of next year's income is already secure.

    Not set yet

  3. What survives you leaving

    What makes the business work would survive a change of owner.

    Not set yet

  4. Whether a buyer can read your numbers

    A buyer's accountant could check your figures in a week.

    Not set yet

  5. What exists outside people's heads

    Most of how the business works is written down.

    Not set yet

  6. Whether the earnings hold

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

    Not set yet

  7. Whether it grows without you

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

    Not set yet

Your guess

Move any of the seven to where your business stands, and your guess appears here.

100Out of 100

A business

A buyer would see a business. What's left to do is the difference between a good price and the best one.

  1. A job
  2. A job with staff
  3. A business that still depends on you
  4. A business with things to fix
  5. A business

Worked out on this page from where you set the seven. Nothing you set is saved or sent.

A buyer won't take your word for any of these.

The 31 questions ask what they'd ask, and the report reads each of the seven from your answers. It also checks two things these 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 number down, whatever the seven say.

Buy the full reportStart the free report

Being straight about what it is not

It's not a valuation, it won't tell you what anyone would pay, and it's not financial, accounting, or legal advice.

It shows you where a buyer is likely to press, so you can prepare. Price also turns on earnings, the market, how the deal is structured and who the buyer is, and a high score doesn't mean only the price is left to settle.

It scores what you tell it, so it's only as accurate as your answers. Where you're not sure, look it up rather than guess.

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.

I read every full report 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 will decide. Use it to prepare, not to predict.

The full report goes further, and nothing is held back from your summary report to sell it.

What it actually asks

31 questions about how the business really runs, plus five about the business itself, in eight parts. Allow 45 minutes to an hour, most of it looking things up.

None of it is difficult. A few of them will annoy you, and those are the ones I would pay most attention to.

What comes back is a number out of 100, the seven readings behind it, what somebody from outside is likely to notice, and the three answers they're most likely to press on. You can read it on screen the moment you finish, and have it emailed if you'd rather read it later.

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.
I already have an offer. Is it too late?
No. Use it alongside your advisers: it shows where a buyer is likely to press, so you and they can have answers ready. It doesn't replace their work on price or terms.
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?
Not to see your summary report: it's on screen the moment you finish. Leave one if you'd like it sent to you, and we'll also send you two short emails about the full report, which you can stop at any time. You can have a link back to an unfinished sitting sent to you, too. The full report is sent by email, so it needs one.
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 things a buyer reads, as a range rather than a score. You don't have to tell us who you are. If you go on to the 31 questions, your answers carry over, so you won't have to answer anything twice. Start the short version
What changes on 1 January 2027?
The full report goes from USD $200 to USD $500. The summary report, which has nothing to buy until then, becomes USD $97, paid before you start. If you start before then, there's nothing to buy for your summary report, whenever you finish.
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

If you would like to know

When a buyer sits down with your figures, you'll already know the three answers they're most likely to press on.

With the full report, you'll also know what to do about them: the next six months, each action in order, read by a person before it's sent. Pay by card or crypto (BTC or XMR) and start straight away.

Buy the full reportStart the free report

There's nothing to buy to see your summary report, and nobody is going to ring you about it. Your answers save as you go, and the sheet will email you a link back if you'd prefer to finish another time.

If it's for someone else, give them the full report as a gift.

If you'd rather go through it with someone, that's the work I do with the firm: Manolutions.

Before you go

See your business the way a buyer, an investor, or someone standing in for you would

Answer 15 questions and get the short report: an indicator of where your business stands today.

Show me where I stand