Red flag explained · Verification, age and operations
Owner hours not stated: how much work comes with the business?
Short answer: A listing that does not say how many hours the owner works leaves out a cost. That time either becomes your job or a cost you pay someone else, and it is rarely in the profit figure. Ask how many hours a week the seller and any contractors spend, and on which tasks.
When the checker raises it
Raised as medium severity when the listing gives no hours per week.
Why it matters
Ten hours a week at $25 an hour is about $1,080 a month. On a business making $1,500 a month, that is most of the profit.
Hours also tell you what kind of business it is. Three hours a week is an asset; thirty is a job.
A worked example
Composite example, not a real listing
Asking price: $34,000
Average monthly revenue: $1,500
Average monthly profit: $1,250
Business age: 4 years
Traffic or revenue sources typed in: Organic search 75%, Pinterest 15%, Direct 10%.
What the red-flag checker returns: payback of 27.2 months on average monthly profit, and this flag:
Medium Owner hours not stated
You need to know how much work comes with the business, and whether it is in the P&L.
Ask: How many hours a week do you and any contractors spend, and on which tasks?
The same example also raises: Depends on Amazon, Organic search is about 75% of traffic, No connected data source mentioned, Concentration not disclosed.
What to check
- Ask how many hours a week the seller and any contractors spend, and on which tasks.
- Ask which tasks could be handed to a contractor, and at what cost.
- Put the cost of that time into the true payback calculator.
Questions to send the seller
- How many hours a week do you and any contractors spend, and on which tasks?
- Does the P&L include any pay for your own time? If not, what would it cost to replace you?
- How much handover support do you offer after the sale, for how long, and in what form?
- How much of the content do you write personally, and would readers notice a change of author?
Related flags
Useful next
- True payback calculator
- Free red-flag checker: paste a listing and see which flags it raises.
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The checker is a set of plain rules, not an AI model, and its flags are prompts for questions, not verdicts. Composite examples are invented. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.