A buyer does not start with your story. A buyer starts with questions. If you can answer them before anyone asks, the sale goes faster and the price holds. If you cannot, the buyer asks for a lower price or walks.
Here are eight questions buyers ask. The thresholds come from broker and buyer checklists. They are rules of thumb, not laws. Use them to find your weak spots early.
- Can someone else run this if you leave for a month? Buyers price owner-dependence. Quiet Light treats transferability as one of four pillars of value. Mike Begg's checklist fails a deal if the owner still works more than 20 hours a week with no team to absorb it, or if every function is the owner.
- Do the numbers rebuild from the source systems? Buyers match bank deposits, processor payouts and marketplace settlements to your profit and loss statement. A P&L is a claim. A settlement report is a record. Equity Value Advisors and Mike Begg's first check both start here.
- Who are your top customers, channels and products, as a share of revenue? eComSwap says one customer at 20% of trailing-twelve-month revenue is a common flag. At 30% it is a material concern. Mike Begg's checklist fails one channel above 90% of revenue or one product above 70%. Exit Ready Advisors says more than about 70% of revenue on one platform draws extra scrutiny.
- Is the growth rented or owned? Buyers split paid from organic. They ask what happens if Meta, Amazon or one creator stops working. Mike Begg's checklist reads more than 50% ad-attributed revenue as buying an ad account. eComSwap lists more than 70% of new customers from one paid channel as a common walk-away flag.
- Will the accounts, brand registry, domains, ads and data transfer? Buyers want these held by the selling company. They do not want them under a personal login or an agency's account. Equity Value Advisors covers this under channel control, and Mike Begg lists it in several checks.
- Is inventory real, aged and profitable by product? Old stock, stranded units and products that lose money after ads and fees are diligence items. You want to find them before the buyer does. Equity Value Advisors runs inventory as its own workstream.
- What happens to suppliers, warehouses and key people at close? Buyers read whether contracts can be assigned. Mike Begg's checklist fails a single supplier above 50% of cost of goods when there is no backup.
- Can a new owner pick up the process on day one? Missing written steps and knowledge that lives only in the founder's head are priced as a job with inventory attached. Quiet Light and Mike Begg both flag this.
Two more for creator and service businesses
- Does the audience stay if the face leaves? If people follow you and not the brand, a buyer is paying for a person who is leaving. Look at how much traffic and sales come from your own name.
- Does delivery still work if the founder is not the talent? If the founder is the one doing the work clients pay for, the business is a job. Show that a team can do the work to the same standard.
What to do with twelve months
Start with the questions where you score worst. Write down the steps of the work. Move every login and account into the company. Put a second person on each key relationship. Rebuild your P&L from the source reports. Cut the hours the business needs from you.
Give yourself time. FE International and Eightx both tell ecommerce owners to start 18 to 24 months before they want to close. A year is the short version. Buyers see the trend, so a clean year counts.
This list is a starting point. A real review also covers tax, legal entity and capital structure, which this page does not.
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