Know which listings are lying to you before you spend a euro or an hour on them
What it is
The number at the top of the profit and loss statement the broker sent you looks fine. It was chosen to look fine.
Before You Bid is a screen you run on any online-business listing in one pass, using the seller’s own numbers, and every check ends in one of three words. Those words judge the listing, never you. You finish with a filled-in sheet for that listing and a rule for when not to bid.
The three words
PASS. The claim is evidenced on the listing itself. Move on.
PROBE. Probably fine, currently unproven. The check hands you the question to send, already worded.
WALK. A structural tell. No answer fixes it at this price.
The rules
A rule takes away the averaging that a checklist leaves to your own hope.
Any single WALK means do not bid. Three or more PROBEs mean no bid until answered in writing. All PASS means proceed, to real diligence rather than to money.
What is inside
6 kill questions, run at browsing speed before you open a P&L. One hit and the listing is finished.
12 checks, a spread each: the claim, what to ask for, the tell, then the probe to send. One invented specimen runs through them: a listing showing €96,400 profit calls its €308,000 asking price a 3.2× multiple, and once a market salary for the owner’s hours comes out, the profit is €61,400 and the price is a 5.0× multiple.
3 model lenses, for content and affiliate, for eCommerce and for SaaS, where the same trap looks different.
5 EU checks, for when the business is registered in the EU.
10 upside patterns, run last, only on survivors, because a price with nothing improvable behind it buys you nothing.
€47 plus VAT · a PDF · 30-day refund, no reason needed
The EU layer
When the business is registered in the EU, five more checks apply. They read the seller’s VAT registration and what a gap in it costs you, what the marketplace has already reported about his sales to the tax authorities, and whether the customer list can legally move with the business. They also set the filed accounts against the ones you were shown, and mark what changes between buying the company and buying only its assets.
Each runs on a public record or on a question you send, and each ends in the same three words as the rest.
What it is not
This is a screen and not a valuation, so it won’t tell you what the business is worth. Nor does it verify anything, because nobody verifies a business from its listing, which is what the work after an offer is for.
It stops you spending money and weeks on listings that were never going to survive a look. If you want somebody to do that reading for you, this is the wrong purchase, and better you know now.
Who wrote it
I’m Zhivko Stoychev. I advise owners of online businesses in the EU when they sell, which means running the diligence a buyer will run, before he does.
The checks come out of that work, turned around. They’re the questions an analyst asks about a seller’s numbers, written for the buyer to ask himself.
It is the same reading, pointed the other way.
Price and delivery
€47, plus VAT. The checkout adds the VAT that applies to you and shows the total before you pay. Business buyers with a valid EU VAT number pay under the reverse-charge rule.
It’s a PDF. The download link sits on the confirmation page and in a second email that follows the receipt, normally within minutes of payment. You buy it once and run it on every listing you look at after that.
At checkout you tick a box asking for immediate delivery, which gives up the statutory 14-day right to withdraw from a digital purchase. The guarantee below is mine rather than the statute’s, so it stands anyway. Purchase Terms and Refund Policy
Sold by Overstag Ltd. trading as Match My Profit, R.A Izgrev 58/3, Burgas 8008, Bulgaria. Orders and questions, before or after buying: [email protected]. Legal notices go to [email protected].
You might think: “Could I build this framework myself with my favourite AI chat?”
Yes, most probably, if you add 14 years in M&A, the CFA curriculum, 82 closed deals and a few hundred screened and rejected listings. Then you get a framework of the same grade.
If you would rather spend that time on your favourite thing, the PDF behind this button will help you screen online businesses instead.
The one-listing guarantee. Run it on one listing you are looking at now. If it did not change how you read that listing, write to [email protected] within 30 days with your order number. Full refund, no reason needed. Keep the file.
€47 plus VAT · a PDF · 30-day refund, no reason needed
