Value Builder Score
Value Acceleration Methodology™ — three gates
This page covers Gate 1 and 2. The Value Builder Score is the diagnostic that drives both.
The Value Builder Score is not just a measurement. It is an education in what actually makes a business valuable to own, to operate, and eventually to sell.
Most owners take the assessment thinking it is about exit. They leave realizing it is about how they run the business today. The same eight drivers that earn premium offers from buyers are the drivers that make a company easier, calmer, and more profitable to run while you still own it.
Two gates of work, one diagnostic. In Gate 1 (Discover), the Value Builder Score is the assessment we use to build your prioritized action plan, the plan that ranks what moves the needle on value next, before a buyer ever sees it. In Gate 2 (Prepare), the same score becomes the scorecard for the improvement work, the master plan you and your team execute against until the next reading.
The same score is also the pre-market read every sell-side client of ours receives, alongside a NACVA Professional Standards valuation, before we ever take a CIM to a buyer. Whether you are 12 to 36 months from a sale or ready to go to market now, this score is how you see what a buyer is going to see.
Businesses scoring 80+ sell at a 71% premium. Companies scoring 90+ receive offers 7.1× higher than average.
Across studies of 30,000+ and 52,000+ businesses respectively. And those same businesses are markedly easier and more profitable to run while their owners still own them.
What the Value Builder Score actually measures
A 13-minute owner questionnaire produces a single number from 0 to 100. That number is your business's score across the 8 Drivers of Value. The drivers came out of analyzing tens of thousands of businesses across industries and price points. They are the factors that buyers consistently pay more for, and the same factors that signal a well-run company from inside the owner's chair.
The 8 Drivers of Value
The cleanliness, consistency, and growth of your top and bottom line.
For buyersPredictable financials drive higher valuation multiples.
For you todayYou know what your business makes and where the money goes.
How much more revenue is realistically available with your current systems.
For buyersA clear growth runway is worth more than a great current number.
For you todayYou know where to invest next, not just where you have been.
Your independence from any one customer, employee, or supplier.
For buyersConcentration caps offers. Independence raises them.
For you todayA single client loss does not threaten the business.
Whether the business generates more cash than it consumes.
For buyersCash-generative businesses earn a premium over cash-hungry ones.
For you todayYou take real distributions instead of constantly feeding the business.
The portion of revenue you can count on every month or every year.
For buyersRecurring revenue earns its own multiple on top of one-time revenue.
For you todayCash flow is predictable. Bad months do not sink the business.
A defensible position in your market, something competitors cannot easily copy.
For buyersA defensible niche commands premium pricing and protects future cash flow.
For you todayYou are not constantly competing on price.
Whether customers come back, refer others, and tell you so.
For buyersHigh loyalty signals durable revenue and lower risk.
For you todaySelling to existing customers costs a fraction of winning new ones.
Whether the business can run when you are not in the room.
For buyersA business that requires the owner is a job, not a company. Heavy discount.
For you todayYou can take vacations and weekends without the place falling apart.
What your score means
The same number tells two stories at once: what a buyer would pay, and what running the business feels like from the owner's chair.
Significant work needed. The business is more of a job than a company. Hard to sell, hard to leave.
Sellable, but discounted on multiple. Running it still puts you in the middle of most decisions.
71% premium pricing, and running the business actually feels manageable. Fewer fires, better margins.
7.1× higher offers. The business basically runs itself. You set direction instead of fighting daily fires.
The Score is the start. The walkthrough is where you actually learn what to do about it.
After you finish the questionnaire, we sit down for a 30-minute results session. This is not a sales call. It is the educational part of Gate 2. You leave understanding what each driver means for your specific situation, which 2 to 3 drivers will move the needle most, and what improvement looks like in practice.
- Score interpretation. What your number says about your business today.
- The drivers that matter most for you. Not all eight at once. The 2 or 3 that will move the score most given your starting point.
- What improvement looks like in practice. Concrete examples from real businesses in your size and industry range.
- How it ties into broader Gate 2 work. Score → CVGA function prioritization → AI & automation implementation.
What you walk away with
- A 0–100 Value Builder Score. Your business's overall sellability and operating health.
- An 8-driver breakdown. Your strongest and weakest drivers, scored individually.
- An industry benchmark. How your score stacks against other businesses your size in your space.
- A 30-minute educational walkthrough. The session that turns the score into a plan.
Take the Value Builder Score
Free. Confidential. Roughly 13 minutes. Results plus a walkthrough with a Duran Advisors Certified Value Builder™.