The Listing Review
with Jocelyn Ruiz
Free Confidential Second Opinion
For owners selling on their own — or between brokers
Was it the price, the business, or the way it was sold?
A free, confidential second opinion on a listing that didn't sell — from someone with nothing riding on the answer. It ranks what is most likely in play, shows you the arithmetic, and explains why each factor moves what a buyer will pay. You read it immediately.
Not an appraisal. Not a sales pitch. Nothing of mine depends on what it says — most good businesses stall for reasons no one explained to the owner.
How it works
Three steps, and a second opinion on screen
Answer a few questions
About 3 minutes. No documents, no spreadsheets, nothing to prepare.
The review runs on your answers
It reads your figures the way a buyer reads them, and explains what the buyer is actually computing. This part is software, and it is immediate.
You read the finding right away
The whole review is on screen — nothing is withheld for a call. It also says plainly what it cannot see. A copy by email, or a conversation, only if you want one.
What stalls a sale
Eleven reasons good listings sit
Most stalled listings have several of these in play at once. Your review reads your answers against all eleven and ranks the ones most likely present. None of them mean your business isn't worth buying — they are what a buyer is weighing.
The price against what the business earns
A buyer measures the price against what the business earns. Common, and fixable.
The direction earnings are heading
Buyers pay for where the earnings are heading, not only where they have been. Common, and fixable.
Whether a buyer could prove the earnings
The earnings are real, but a buyer needs to see them documented. Common, and fixable.
How much of it runs through you
It runs beautifully because of you — which is what makes a buyer pause. Common, and fixable.
How concentrated the revenue is
One large account carries more of the revenue than a buyer is comfortable with. Common, and fixable.
Whether it transfers cleanly to a buyer
The lease, licence, or right to operate has to pass cleanly to the next owner. Common, and fixable.
The standing of the licences and permissions
An open licensing or compliance matter is something a buyer cannot price around until it is resolved.
What a buyer finds when they look the business up
What a buyer finds online before they ever contact you shapes what they expect to inherit. Common, and fixable.
What is owed against the business
Debt secured against the business is cleared at closing, so a buyer cannot price around it until it is settled.
How the deal was structured for buyers
The terms on offer don't give a qualified buyer a workable path to close. Common, and fixable.
Who actually saw it
The listing is visible, but not in front of the specific buyers who would want it. Common, and fixable.
About Jocelyn
I help business owners sell what they built.
Most listings that stall aren't bad businesses — they're good businesses with a solvable problem somewhere in the price, the numbers, the way the deal is put together, the licensing or the reach. You may have been told part of this already. Here, nothing I earn depends on what it says.
After 30+ years across finance, real estate, and lending, I've sat on every side of a deal — the numbers, the financing, the buyer's hesitation. That's why I tend to see the thing others miss in a listing that isn't moving.
Jocelyn Ruiz
Get a second opinion
About three minutes of questions, then your review on screen. Nothing to prepare, no call required, and nothing owed.