Whether you're acquiring a business, selling yours, or weighing a partnership, "what's it worth?" is really six questions. This free scorecard turns a gut feeling into a structured rating across the six functions that drive a company's value, so you can compare targets, spot gaps that lower the price, and decide with evidence rather than instinct.
How the Scorecard Works
You rate the business on a set of factors, each from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), then average them within each function and overall. A low average isn't necessarily a dealbreaker; it's a map of where value is missing and what you'd need to fix (or discount for). The six functions:
- Human Capital: staff quality, whether the team can scale, hiring needs, and the caliber of the executives ("snakes" vs lifetime partners).
- Partnerships: strategic potential, overlap with your network, existing channels, and how scalable those partnerships are.
- Messaging and Pricing: content and website quality, targeting, positioning and differentiation, brand value, audience value, product-market fit, pricing, and packaging.
- Financials: cash needs, clean books, fundraising needs, cash conversion cycle, business model, scalability, recurring revenue, and current vs potential size.
- Digital: analytics, funnel, marketing platform, no-code automation potential, inbound and organic lead flow, and domain value.
- Ownership: whether the owner should stay or be replaced, the vision to reach $10M+ in value, leadership readiness, coachability, and whether a lasting partnership is possible.
How to Use It
Make a copy, score each factor honestly, and look at the function averages. The strong functions tell you what you're buying (or selling) on; the weak ones tell you where the work is and where the negotiating leverage lies.
If you're selling, run it on your own business first to find and fix the value-killers before a buyer does.
Get the Scorecard
Make a copy of the M&A Venture Scorecard and score your target (or your own business). It pairs well with our guide to making your business valuation a priority, and the Finance Cheat Sheet for the metrics behind the numbers.
We help CEOs think through buy, build, and partnership decisions, and if you need a senior operator to run the work, Express Match™ pairs you with a vetted fractional executive in as fast as two weeks. Talk to our Team to book a free 30-minute Scalability Audit.