The Sell-Ready Score
What would a buyer find in your business today?
Find out in about 8 minutes. Free.
The guided tour is read by the Emerson North guide voice, a synthetic voice. Every line also appears on screen. No audio plays until you press play.
The six areas
What we look at.
Owner dependence
A buyer is buying a business, not your calendar. The more it depends on you, the less a buyer can take over.
Customers
Revenue that is concentrated or one-time is risk a buyer must price in. Repeat, contracted revenue is what they look for.
Financial clarity
Buyers and lenders rely on clean books. Add-backs are personal or one-time expenses, and they need documentation.
Growth predictability
A business that wins customers steadily is easier for a buyer to trust than one that relies on luck.
Systems and documentation
If the way work gets done lives only in people’s heads, it leaves with them. Written process stays.
Team and transfer readiness
Key people, signed contracts, tidy legal records and a successor plan often decide whether a deal closes or stalls.
How the score works
How the score is worked out.
How it is calculated
Each area has four questions. Each answer earns zero to three points, so an area can earn up to twelve. We convert that to a number from 0 to 100. The six areas count equally, and your score is their average, rounded.
Your three biggest gaps are your three lowest-scoring areas. The plan starts with those, largest first.
What it is not
This score is not an appraisal, and it is not legal, tax or investment advice. It does not account for your industry, location or deal terms, and it does not predict a sale price.
No outside numbers
Your score comes only from your own answers. We show no dollar estimate and no market benchmark.
What happens to your answers
Emerson North stores your answers and score with your contact details so Bryce can follow up. They are shared with an exit specialist only if you tick the box asking for that introduction. We do not sell your information. Privacy policy.
Owner dependence: the four questions
- If you were out of reach for thirty days, what would happen?
- Who holds your most important customer and supplier relationships?
- How much of the selling, quoting or pitching do you do yourself?
- When did you last take two weeks off with no work at all?
Customers: the four questions
- What share of last year’s revenue came from your single biggest customer?
- How much of your revenue repeats or is contracted?
- How are your largest customer relationships documented?
- How well do you know your customer retention, meaning how many customers stay?
Financial clarity: the four questions
- What state are your books in today?
- How many years of clean profit and loss statements and balance sheets could you hand over today?
- Are personal and one-time expenses, called add-backs, separated and documented?
- Do your tax returns match your books?
Growth predictability: the four questions
- Where did your last ten customers come from?
- How predictable is your monthly flow of new leads?
- What happens when a new lead comes in?
- Who runs your marketing and sales?
Systems and documentation: the four questions
- How many of your core processes are written down?
- Where do your business data and software live?
- How do you know the business is doing well?
- How is a new hire trained?
Team and transfer readiness: the four questions
- If your best employee quit tomorrow, what would happen?
- Do employees and contractors have signed agreements that assign their work and intellectual property to the company?
- How clean is your legal housekeeping: entity, licenses, leases, liens and disputes?
- Is there a named successor and a written transition plan?
Who built this
Bryce Folsom, and Emerson North.
Bryce builds Emerson and runs a portfolio of companies. He is preparing to buy and operate businesses, and he is documenting what works and what does not. He is a Georgia operator and civic builder. Emerson North uses practical systems to improve how businesses operate.