Most owners go to sell their business without ever having a clear picture of what's actually there — not the financials, but the operations. The team structure, the documentation, the client relationships, the systems. DealFax gives you that picture — scored, benchmarked, and grounded in evidence — before it matters most.
DealFax evaluates 30 operational dimensions across six focus areas — beyond the income statement. Your team depth, documentation quality, customer relationships, succession readiness, and compliance standing. Each assessment combines your operational information with industry benchmarks drawn from public datasets for your specific sector and geography, plus independently verified compliance records checked against public records for wherever you operate.
Most transitions aren't planned. A buyer appears. A partner exits. A health event forces the issue. The Exit Planning Institute finds the majority of business owners have no written exit plan when they begin contemplating a sale. (Exit Planning Institute, 2023 State of Owner Readiness)
You don't need an imminent sale to benefit. The earlier you know where you stand, the more time you have to change it.
A short intake form followed by a structured discovery call. We ask the questions and work through your business with you — no advance preparation or deal experience needed.
Your business is assessed using 16 public data sources alongside your own operational information — industry benchmarks drawn from federal and Census datasets for your sector and geography, compliance records verified against public databases for wherever you operate, and a structured interview and document review. An assessor applies the scoring rubric across all 30 dimensions against defined evidence criteria.
A plain-language report with your readiness score, what each risk costs at the negotiating table, and a prioritized 90-day roadmap to improve your position before you list.
Select an area to explore what we evaluate, what each dimension measures, and why it matters when a business goes to market.
When key relationships, decisions, pricing authority, and institutional knowledge all route through one person, the business's continuity depends entirely on that person staying. We map the specific touch points where the business depends on the owner's direct involvement — and what that dependency looks like when documented.
Not all revenue carries the same weight. Contracted recurring revenue, handshake relationships, customer concentration, and project-based work each represent a different level of certainty about what the business will generate going forward. We score your revenue mix and benchmark growth against public industry data for your sector and size class.
Processes that exist only in people's heads don't transfer reliably. Undocumented workflows, desktop-only accounting, and paper records create verification problems for anyone who needs to understand how the business operates without the current owner present. We evaluate your systems infrastructure and documentation maturity against defined criteria.
Team retention, key-person concentration, and compensation documentation all affect how the business continues after a transition. We benchmark your workforce metrics against public sector benchmarks for your NAICS code and geography — so your turnover rate is measured against what's normal for businesses like yours, not in isolation.
Reputation data, review velocity, and customer relationship structure are independently verifiable signals about the health of the customer base. We benchmark your Google rating and review trends against your local category average, assess customer retention patterns, and evaluate whether client relationships are held at the business level or tied to the owner personally.
Is there a management layer that can operate independently of the owner? Has any transition planning been put in writing? Is institutional knowledge documented in a form someone else can use? We assess management depth, knowledge transfer readiness, and exit timeline clarity — including the TRUST Index evaluation of the seller's own readiness to transition.
Each zone on the DealFax scale reflects operational characteristics that commonly affect how deals are structured, what conditions are attached, and how much of your asking price holds up under scrutiny.
Every business owner deserves to know what they've built before someone else tells them.
No generic templates. No boilerplate. Every DealFax report is built around your specific business, your specific risks, and your improvement opportunities.
From a first look at where you stand, to a fully assessed report, to tracking your progress after remediation.
A structured questionnaire across all six focus areas, benchmarked against public industry data for your specific sector and geography. Delivered within 2–4 business days with a 30-minute advisor call to walk through results.
Advisor-led interviews, document review, and three-layer data cross-reference. The only product that produces a DealFax Readiness Score and TRUST Index evaluation.
Once you've done the remediation work, a Annual Checkup revisits your weakest dimensions — updated score, delta against your baseline, revised classification.
| Feature | DealFax Industry Benchmark · $395 | Assessed Report · $1,995 | Annual Checkup · $495 | Advisor License · $249/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structured self-assessment | ✓ | ✓ | — | $195 each |
| Gap analysis across 6 areas | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Advisor review call | 30 min included | Full readout call | Included | — |
| Benchmark comparison | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compliance verification | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| DealFax Readiness Score | — | ✓ | Updated | — |
| TRUST Index evaluation | — | ✓ | Re-assessed | — |
| Full narrative report | — | ✓ | Delta report | — |
| Remediation roadmap | Priority action list | Full roadmap | Revised roadmap | Priority action list |
| DealFax Verified badge | — | If score ≥ 3.5 | If score ≥ 3.5 | — |
| Co-branded output | — | — | — | ✓ |
The benchmarks that matter aren't national averages. They're pulled from public data for your specific industry, size class, and geography — so a 14% turnover rate means something different for a specialty trade contractor in Northern Virginia than it does as a generic number. Each dimension is then scored against defined criteria with documented evidence requirements — not assessor impression.
Find out where your business stands
before it matters most.
Request a report or reach out with questions. We follow up promptly.
No pitch, no pressure. Tell us where you are and what you're trying to figure out — we'll point you toward the right next step.
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