About GradeThisDeal
GradeThisDeal is a screening tool for anyone evaluating the purchase of a small or mid-sized business — searchers, first-time buyers, brokers and advisors. It turns a deal's headline numbers into a clear, defensible read on whether the price, cash flow and risk actually stack up.
Why we built it
Most acquisition “calculators” apply a single generic formula to every country and sector. But the things that make or break a deal — foreign-worker quotas, licence transferability, lease protection, owner work-pass rules, government-contract revenue — are intensely local. A business that scores well in one market can be uninvestable in another for reasons a generic tool never sees.
So we built the opposite: a fixed scoring engine, and a separate, citeable configuration for each market. The engine never changes; each market's rules and reference figures live in data, calibrated to a stated date against primary sources.
How the score works
Every deal is scored 0–100 across four dimensions:
- Valuation — the asking price against the sector's earnings-multiple band.
- Financial health — margin, payback and track record.
- Market-specific risk — the local rules that quietly cap value.
- Qualitative — recurring revenue, customer and owner dependence, books quality.
Alongside the grade you get a valuation range, a Monte-Carlo fair-value distribution, financing and DSCR math, and a plain list of the flags that matter — plus an honest data-confidence meter that drops when you mark inputs unknown. The full scoring logic, calibration process and primary sources are documented on the methodology page.
How we make money
On-screen analysis is free and unlimited. We keep the lights on through optional PDF-memo downloads, donations, a Pro subscription, and unobtrusive advertising on free pages. We don't sell your data.
Honesty first
GradeThisDeal is a screening tool, not financial, legal or tax advice. Reference figures drift, so every market is date-stamped and flagged when stale. Always verify against primary sources and professional advisers before you commit.