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Last updated [effective date].
Loupe helps you look more closely at a business before you commit time and money to it. This page explains the limits of what we provide. It forms part of our terms of service, which set out our responsibilities in full.
General information, not advice
Our guides, red flag library, glossary, checklists, country primers, tools and dossiers are general information for your own use. They are not investment, legal, tax or financial advice, and they are not a recommendation to buy, not to buy or to pay a particular price for any business.
We do not know your circumstances, your finances or the full terms of any deal you are considering. Before you make an offer, sign an agreement or commit money, take advice from qualified professionals, such as an accountant, a lawyer and, where relevant, a regulated financial adviser.
Loupe is not a business broker. We do not act for buyers or sellers, and we do not negotiate or arrange transactions.
Valuation results are indicative
The valuation tool gives an indicative range, not a formal valuation. It applies a published method and a versioned set of benchmark multiples to the figures and answers you enter. Our methodology page explains the method, where the benchmarks come from and when to get a formal valuation.
Keep these limits in mind:
- The result is only as good as the figures it uses, whether you enter them or they are filled in from a listing, and we do not check them.
- The benchmarks draw largely on published market data, much of it from the United States and online marketplaces. They may not reflect a particular business, sector or country.
- The tool cannot see things that often move the price of a real deal, such as the quality of the team, the terms of key contracts, the state of the premises or the seller's reasons for selling.
- The affordability check is an illustration based on the assumptions you enter. It is not an offer of finance or a lending decision.
A lender, a buyer, a seller or a professional valuer may reach a very different figure.
Dossiers have limits
A dossier is an analyst-verified report on one business, but it is not an audit, a quality of earnings report, a formal valuation or legal due diligence. It reports what we could find and check at the dates shown, from the listing, public records, other sources available to us and any documents provided to us.
Each finding carries its source, the date it was checked and a confidence level:
- Verified: confirmed against an independent source, such as a company registry or an official notice
- As listed: taken from the listing or the seller's own materials and not independently confirmed
- Estimated: an analyst's own calculation or judgement, with a note on how it was made
Some things cannot be checked from outside a business, and records can be incomplete, out of date or wrong. Sellers may leave things out. A dossier helps you decide what to ask and where to look next. It does not replace the diligence you and your advisers carry out before you sign. Our page on what's in a dossier describes each scope.
Asking prices are not sale prices
An asking price is what a seller or broker hopes to achieve. It is not evidence of what the business is worth or what a buyer has paid. Final sale prices usually land below asking prices, and the structure of a deal, such as seller finance or an earn-out, can change what the headline figure means.
Where Loupe compares a business with similar listings, those comparisons use asking prices, and we label them that way. Where a listing page notes whether an asking price sits below, within or above an indicative range, that note is based only on the listed figures.
Listing information comes from third parties
The feed brings together businesses listed for sale by marketplaces, brokers and other sources. We write our own short teasers and do not copy listing descriptions, but the figures and facts behind them come from the seller or broker. We mark those figures "As listed".
We have not checked listed figures unless a dossier says so. Listings can be out of date, withdrawn, duplicated or wrong, and a business may already be under offer or sold when you see it. Indicators, such as recurring revenue or owner dependence, are drawn from the listing, and fit scores compare the listing with your criteria, so both can be wrong for the same reasons.
We are not the seller or the seller's agent. Contact with sellers and brokers, including any non-disclosure agreement they ask you to sign, is between you and them.
Guides, checklists and country primers
Our guides and checklists describe common practice in general terms. Deals vary, and practice differs between countries, sectors and sizes of business. Country primers give a general overview of how buying a business usually works in each country. They are reviewed by a qualified professional in that country before we publish them, but they do not cover every situation and the law can change after the review date shown on each primer.
Worked examples use fictional businesses and round numbers. They illustrate an idea and are not data about real businesses.
Our responsibility
We take care to make what we publish accurate and useful, and we correct mistakes when we find them. Our responsibility to you is set out in our terms of service, including the limits on our liability. Nothing on this page limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
If you spot something that looks wrong, please tell us through our contact form or at [contact email].