The Owner Dependence Tax What being the bottleneck really costs you
Every owner-led business pays a hidden tax for depending on one person. Find out how much yours is costing you — in hours, in growth, and in what your business is actually worth. About three minutes. No login. Your answers stay private.
What is the Owner Dependence Tax?
The Owner Dependence Tax is the recurring cost a business pays when it can't run without its owner. It shows up three ways: the high-value hours the owner burns on work the business should handle itself, the growth lost when decisions wait for one person, and the discount a buyer applies to a company that depends on who's in the chair. A business that thinks pays almost none of it — because it remembers, senses, acts, and learns on its own. This assessment estimates your tax and shows you which of those four capabilities to build first.
Related: Owner Dependence Tax (glossary) · The Business That Thinks · Insights
How this is calculated
The score blends two things: the four-loop result — how well your business remembers, senses, acts, and learns on its own (60%) — with how central you are day-to-day in hours, the share of those hours spent on operational work, and how long the business could run without you (40%).
The annual Tax is the value of your high-leverage hours spent on operational work, plus a conservative estimate of the revenue lost to decisions that bottleneck through you. It's capped to stay realistic.
Equity at Risk is the discount a buyer applies to a business that can't run without its owner — a rough read on how much of your company's value is tied to your presence.
These are directional estimates to make a real problem visible — not an appraisal. Your actual numbers depend on your business.