The FNDRS Playbook · PB26 · Decision
The founder’s two scorecards: how to evaluate an offer
To evaluate an offer for your business, score the deal as a buyer scores the business: cash at close against the number you need, certainty of the rest, your role after close, your people and your name, and your belief in the buyer’s plan.
The idea
Buyers score the business. Founders should also score the deal.
Every buyer scores your business before they offer. Few founders score the offer with the same discipline.
Two scorecards, side by side, keep the decision honest: one for what the business is worth, one for what the deal is worth to you.
You sell once. They buy for a living.
Every sale of a founder-led business is a negotiation between a first-timer and a professional. Each chapter of the playbook closes part of that gap.
Read the asymmetryThe figure
Why score the deal as well as the business?
A deal that scores well on the business and badly on the deal is a deal you will regret.
The business
The buyer’s view
- Earnings quality
- Owner independence
- Customer diversification
- Revenue visibility
- Transferability
The deal
The founder’s view
- Cash at close against the number you need
- Certainty of the deferred and contingent consideration
- Your role after close: its length and its authority
- What happens to your people and your name
- Fit with the buyer: do you believe their plan?
How to read it
Two lists of five criteria. The first is how a buyer scores the business; the second is how the founder should score the offer. Both need to be strong.
The three P’s
Where this chapter sits
This chapter supports the three levers rather than pulling one of them.
Positioning
Which category. Where in the range.
Pre-emption
Find it first. Frame it first.
Process
Competition. Timing. Leverage.
Sell, build, or hold.
More in Decision
See where your business sits
The Go-To-Market Analysis (GTMA) places your business on these frameworks with your own numbers, before a buyer does.