The Sellability Score

1. Could a stranger reconcile your P&L to your tax returns?

Yes looks like: Statements tie to returns; an accountant maintains them. No looks like: Cash habits, personal expenses mixed in, or returns that tell a different story.

2. Does the business run for two weeks without you?

Yes looks like: A manager or team handles operations, sales, and decisions. No looks like: Customers, pricing, and every key decision run through you.

3. Does any single customer exceed 15% of revenue?

Yes looks like: No customer above 10%. No looks like: One relationship could take a fifth of revenue out the door.

4. How much revenue repeats without being re-sold?

Yes looks like: Contracts, memberships, or maintenance agreements carry most of it. No looks like: Every month starts from zero.

5. Can your licenses and permits transfer or be replaced by a buyer?

Yes looks like: Transferable, or held by staff who will stay. No looks like: The critical license is yours personally and leaves with you.

6. Does your lease have five-plus years of term or options, with assignment rights?

Yes looks like: Long runway and a landlord who will consent. No looks like: Short remaining term, no options, or hostile assignment terms.

7. Would your key people stay through a sale?

Yes looks like: Tenured team, market pay, and a second-in-command. No looks like: Flight risks at key positions, or pay below market propping up margins.

8. Are contracts, processes, and systems documented?

Yes looks like: Written agreements, documented processes, transferable system access. No looks like: Handshakes, habits, and passwords in your head.

9. Are your prices at market, or propped by loyalty discounts?

Yes looks like: Raised within the last two years and comparable to competitors. No looks like: Long-tenured customers on decade-old rates.

10. Are revenue and margin flat or growing over three years?

Yes looks like: Steady or growing, with explainable bumps. No looks like: Declining, or spiky in ways you cannot document.

11. Would inspections, claims history, and regulators come up clean?

Yes looks like: Clean record, current insurance, no open issues. No looks like: Open violations, claims patterns, or gray-area practices.

12. Is there a believable reason you are selling?

Yes looks like: Retirement, health, relocation: a reason that is not the business. No looks like: The honest answer is that something is getting harder.