The business can’t run without you

Every question in the business still comes back to you.

Keystone reads how your business actually runs and hands you the next move. The free four minutes return three scores, a profile label, and your value range with the most likely figure locked; naming the one thing keeping the business dependent on you is what you upgrade for.

One exchange, example data
Operating partner
Why can’t I take a vacation?
Keystone
You have not been unreachable for a full day in 90. In the last month, 50 purchases waited on your sign-off and 25 escalations came straight to you, 75 interruptions a decision rule would have caught. Three rules is where that starts.
Your scores
BIS32
SMS44
AAS39
This month
75 decisions routed to you: 50 purchases, 25 escalations.
See your first answer, free

Four minutes, no card. Three scores, a profile label, and your value range with the most likely figure locked. What it returns, you keep.

1.65× → 3.5× what identical earnings sell for, owner-dependent versus owner-light
4 minutes to what keeps the business tied to you, and the first move out, free

Right now, you are the keystone.

Step away, and it falls.

Keystone holds it. You walk free.

Start with your two numbers

What being the bottleneck costs you.

45 hours a week
15 hrs80 hrs
$300,000 a year
$100K$1M+
This month, only you can cover
195 hours
What your time is worth
$130 an hour, at what you earn
Hand back 10 hours a week
$5,560 of your time, a month 43 hours, a month

An estimate from your own two numbers, not a guarantee: your earnings across the hours only you can cover, if Keystone hands back 10 of those hours a week.

01 · The bottleneck

Every decision waits for you.

The quote no one else can price. The escalation only you can settle. The 3am call that is yours because you are the last backstop. It built up one decision at a time, and now the business runs at the width of one person.

This is the owner-dependence the Business Independence Score measures, and it is the single biggest thing between you and a night that is actually yours.

Get my scores free

Four minutes, no card, one email at the end. Free, and everything you see is yours to keep.

A day of decisions
  • Price the new job
  • Approve the refund
  • Handle the upset customer
  • Cover the callback
  • Answer the 3am call
All of it routes to you.

02 · The way out

The business runs the night without you.

Keystone takes the decisions off your desk. Decision routing gives the team what they own and on what conditions. Documented standards and the manager standup keep the questions from landing on you. The weekly owner brief tells you what happened without a single call.

You start with the free diagnostic: 18 questions, four minutes, three scores, and the one thing to fix first. The order is the point, so you fix the constraint, not the noise.

Get my scores free

Four minutes, no card, one email at the end. Free, and everything you see is yours to keep.

Keystone decision-rights screen: each decision assigned to a role and a condition.
Decision routing: who owns what, and on what condition.

03 · The operating system

The system you log into, not a report you file.

A report you download once changes nothing. Keystone is where you run the week: a manager standup, a documented SOP library, and a weekly owner brief that already knows what changed. The diagnostic takes four minutes; this is the other fifty-one weeks. The screens below are the live product surface, on demo data.

Software that ships a score and walks away changes nothing, so a paid door opens with a shared success plan and a guided first 100 days: the outcome you came for written down with the stages that get you there, and a check that the number actually moved.

Keystone manager standup screen: the week's decisions and their owners in one view.
The manager standup: the week runs without you in the room.
Keystone weekly owner brief: what happened and what needs you, in one email.
The weekly owner brief: what happened, without the call.
A Keystone SOP: a documented procedure a new hire can run from the record.
SOPs a new hire runs from the record, not from you.
Swipe
Get my scores free

Four minutes, no card, one email at the end. Free, and everything you see is yours to keep.

04

Three scores

What Keystone measures.

BIS
Business Independence Score
Can the business run without you?

Measures how much the operation depends on your daily involvement: the decisions only you make, the customers who call you by name, and what stalls when you step away for two weeks.

SMS
Systems Maturity Score
Is it documented, or in your head?

Measures how much of the business is written down and repeatable: standard procedures, clean handoffs, and whether a new manager could run it from the record rather than from you.

AAS
Acquisition Attractiveness Score
Would a buyer pay up for it?

Measures how a buyer scores the factors that set the multiple: clean books, recurring revenue, customer concentration, and how transferable the whole business is.

05

How it works

From 18 questions to your first handoff, in four minutes.

01

Step one

Answer 18 questions, four minutes

Answer 18 questions about how your business actually operates. Free, no credit card, under four minutes, and one email at the end for the scores.

02

Step two

Three scores, and the one thing holding you in

Three scores that name what keeps the business tied to you: how independent it is, how documented it is, and what a buyer would see. Free shows the value range, calibrated against ten years of closed transactions, with the most likely figure locked: you see the band you sit in, not the single number inside it, until a paid door opens it.

03

Step three

What to hand off first, and in what order

Free returns three scores, a profile label, and your value range with the most likely figure locked. What it returns, you keep. The full ranked order, so you hand off the thing that frees a day before the thing that frees an hour, opens on a paid door.

Before you start

Have a question first? Ask the Operator.

A straight answer on what your number is built on, what it costs, or whether it fits your business. No pitch, and no figure I cannot ground.

06

Pricing

Free to start. Upgrade when it earns its keep.

Four doors on one question: how much of the company runs on Keystone. Start on the free diagnostic and move up only when a door earns its keep. Billed monthly or yearly, and yearly saves two months on every paid plan.

Free
$0
Always free. No card, one email.

One business, your three scores, and your value range with the most likely figure locked. What it returns, you keep.

  • Three scores: BIS, SMS, AAS
  • Estimated sale price range, most likely figure locked
  • Your three scores and a profile label
Get my scores free
Operator
$129/mo $1,290/yr
or $1,290 a year2 months free vs monthly

Track one business toward a stronger number, with the system that moves it.

  • Everything in Free, plus live valuation
  • The operating system: routing, standup, SOPs, weekly brief
  • Scenario Engine, 3 saves
  • 1 integration: QuickBooks or Jobber
  • 100-day onboarding
Get my scores free
Swipe the plans
Not sure which?

Pick by what you are doing right now.

  • You want your three scores and your number, nothing more.Free
  • You are improving one business and want the system that does the work.Operator
  • You are also weighing a purchase, or sizing up a business to buy.Command
  • You run several businesses and want them in one view.Portfolio
  • You are an advisor or CPA running this for a book of clients.Advisor / Practice

Compare the three main plans

Swipe to compare
Feature Free Operator Command
Diagnostic
Three scores: BIS, SMS, AASYesYesYes
Estimated sale priceRange, most likely figure lockedLive, most likely figure shownLive, most likely figure shown
Scenario EngineNot included3 savesUnlimited
Library IntelligenceNot included3 a monthUnlimited
The operating system
Decision Routing, Manager Standup, AI SOPsNot includedYesYes
Weekly Owner BriefNot includedStandardEnhanced
Integrations: QuickBooks, JobberNot included12
SOP photo upload, branding, PDF exportNot includedNot includedYes
Shared success planNot includedYesYes
100-day guided onboardingNot includedYesYes
Buy-side
Deal Analyzer: SBA check, red flagsNot includedNot includedYes
Scope and price
Businesses111
Price $0 $129/mo$1,290/yr $199/mo$1,990/yr
Also available
Portfolio $349/mo$3,490/yr

Command for each of up to 5 businesses, plus the Portfolio Dashboard and the 2x2 that says which one to work first.

Get my scores free
Advisor and Practice

A different ladder, for a CPA, broker, or firm running Keystone across a book of clients: 10 active businesses on Advisor, 30 across up to 5 seats on Practice. Client invitations, a pre-session brief for every one, one dashboard for the roster.

See advisor pricing →
Swipe
Price lock

Subscribe at a price on this page and you keep that price for the life of the subscription, including through any future increase. Start at $129 today and it is $129 in year five.

Every paid door is billed monthly or yearly, and yearly saves two months: pay for ten, use twelve. The free diagnostic never asks for a card.

Beyond the software

Every door above is Keystone, and Keystone measures. When the operation itself has to be rebuilt, that is one done-with-you engagement over two weeks, not a subscription. See Full Operations Modernization →

The data behind the estimate

A number built on asking prices is built on the seller’s wish.

Most owners carry a number from a broker or an accountant, built on what businesses ask, not what they close for. Keystone calibrates against a decade of closed transactions and 1.6M+ SBA 7(a) loan records, so your estimate reflects what a buyer actually pays.

10 yrs
of closed transactions

Every estimate is calibrated against completed sales, not asking prices.

1.6M+
SBA 7(a) loan records

Public loan data grounds the multiples by industry and business size.

1.85×
SDE, the independence gap

The spread between an owner-dependent and an owner-light sale, on identical earnings.

See the full methodology, sources, and what the estimate is not →