AI Blocks › Handle money and investing
Find out if a business is worth owning, before you look at its price
Give it a business and its figures. Get a pass, fail or too-hard call on ten tests, and what to check next.
Find out if a business is worth owning long term is a free AI workflow for the job "Handle money and investing". It guides your AI through several skills in order, passing each step's output to the next.
Free · No account · Made by AI Blocks · Level: advanced · Thinking: high
What it does
Most people start with the price. The better order is to ask first whether the business is worth owning at any sensible price. If you cannot explain how it makes money, if its record keeps changing, or if you cannot estimate its cash, no price will make it a good choice. This workflow runs the questions in the order they cut things down. First the lasting edge and whether the business sits inside what you understand. Then whether the record is steady, and whether the people in charge treat spare cash and the truth like owners would. Then the money tests: return on equity, margins, whether the profit kept added value, and the cash an owner could really take out. It ends on one page of ten tests, each marked pass, fail or unknown, and a verdict: too hard, not worth a price check, dig more, or worth a price…
You give it
- The business, in a few lines, and what you know of its rivals (optional)
- Four or five years of its accounts, with profit, equity, debt, sales, spending and working capital
- Notes on its managers, such as past letters to owners (optional)
- Competitors (optional)
You get
- A test of whether the edge is real and lasting
- A call on whether the business is inside what you understand
- A check that the record is steady, with changes of course flagged
- A view of how the managers use cash and tell the truth
- Return on equity, margins and the one-dollar test, each marked pass or fail
- Owner earnings as a range
- One page with ten tests, red flags and a reading list, and a verdict
Use it when
- You are weighing a business to buy or to own a share of, and want a plain call before you spend time on its price.
- You like a business and want to know if your liking holds up against ten tests.
- You are comparing two businesses and want them on the same page.
Steps
- Business power tester: Describe your business and rivals. Get a test of whether your edge lasts and which of seven powers to build next.
- Circle of competence sorter: Describe a business or bet. Get it sorted as yes, no or too tough, with your real edge written down.
- Steady track record checker: Paste a business and its yearly results. Get whether its past is a fair guide, with any change of course flagged.
- Owner-minded management checker: Describe the people running a business. Get how able, honest and owner-minded they look, from what they did with cash and pay.
- Return on equity and margin checker: Paste several years of a company's accounts. Get return on equity, margins and a one-dollar test, each marked pass or fail.
- Owner earnings calculator: Paste a company's profit, depreciation and spending. Get the cash an owner could take out each year, as a range.
- Business investment scorecard: Paste your findings on a business. Get ten tests marked pass, fail or unknown, and whether a price check is worthwhile.
How to use it
- Download the handoff pack. It's a zip with HANDOFF.md and every skill file this workflow uses.
- Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
- Describe the business, then paste or attach its accounts for the last four or five years.
- Read the unknowns on the last page first. They show what to read or ask next.
- If the verdict is worth a price check, carry on with "Value a business and the discount to ask for".