← Back to yourmachine.co
FREE · 5 MINUTES · 20 QUESTIONS · NO SIGNUP TO STARTPOWERED BY FIKR SCORE
THE FOUNDER TRAP TEST

Are you building
a business — or a
job you can't quit?

In 5 minutes and 20 questions, find out how founder-dependent your business really is — and the single highest-leverage move to start fixing it. No signup. No sales call. Just your number and your next step.

Take the free test ▸
Instant score · no email to start
96% of service businesses never scale past the founder. This tells you if you are one of them — and why.
Sample scorecardFounder-dependent
5 practices · your founder-dependency map
01WHY YOU CANNOT SEE IT

You already sense something is off. You just can't see it from inside the machine.

Revenue plateaued. You are working more, not less. Every deal still needs you, every delivery still runs through you, and a two-week holiday would cost you money. That is not a discipline problem or a marketing problem — it is a structural one. The business is built around a person, and people don't scale.

The test gives you what you can't give yourself from the inside: an objective, structured read on exactly where you've become the bottleneck.

02IN 5 MINUTESTHREE THINGS, INSTANTLY
01
Your Founder-Dependency Score
A single 0–100 benchmark across the 5 practices that decide whether a service business scales or stalls.
02
Where you are leaking value
The specific practices quietly capping your growth and torching your enterprise value.
03
Your one highest-leverage move
Not a 40-item to-do list. The single change that moves the needle most, this quarter.
03THE 5 PRACTICES · 20 QUESTIONSFIVE PRACTICES. ONE HONEST PICTURE.
Not an opinion poll. Twenty real scenarios — you pick the answer closest to your reality — across the five practices that separate a practice you own from a business that owns itself.
01Business Architecture
Is the value in your system — or in your head?
Whether you have built a franchise-able prototype or a bespoke, one-off delivery only you can run.
02Value Chain
Could someone deliver your outcome for 30 days without calling you?
How much of the work lives in documented playbooks vs. your instinct and memory.
03IP Protection
Do you own an asset — or a reputation that walks out the door with you?
Whether the methodology, brand and know-how are captured assets — or evaporate when you do.
04Revenue Architecture
Are you paid for outcomes and recurring value — or for hours you cannot clone?
Whether pricing is tied to value and recurring streams — or resets to zero every month with your calendar.
05Exit Readiness
If you stopped tomorrow, is there a business left to sell?
The blunt one: enterprise value of a business that needs you to exist is roughly zero.
20
scenarios. One honest picture.
04FROM CLICK TO CLARITYTHREE STEPS · FIVE MINUTES · NO WALL
1
Answer 20 scenarios
One screen at a time, no prep, no login to start.
2
Get your score instantly
Your 0–100, your radar across all 5 practices, your weakest link.
3
Take your next move
One concrete, prioritised action — plus the option to go deep with the full 140-question diagnostic when you are ready.
05YOUR SCORECARDA NUMBER YOU CAN ACT ON

Not a vague "you're doing great." A benchmarked 0–100 score, a five-practice breakdown that shows the exact cracks, your founder-dependency archetype, and the single move with the highest leverage right now.

Screenshot it. Sit with it. Then decide what to fix first.

Trapped Expert→Emerging Firm
DO THIS FIRST
Document your delivery so it runs 30 days without you.
★FINISH THE TEST · GET THE BOOKTHE COMPLETION REWARD

Complete your score and we'll send you the book — free.

Finish the 5-minute test and get a free digital copy of The Service Machine by Luis Gonçalves — the field manual behind this whole method. The 25-chapter playbook for the 96% of service businesses that never scale past the founder: productize the expertise, install value-based pricing, build the partner network, and extract yourself from delivery.

✓The full M·A·C·H·I·N·E methodology — 7 pillars, 7 parts, 25 chapters
✓The exact sequence: from "you are the product" to "the system is the product"
✓Value-based pricing, the partner network, and the founder-extraction arc
✓Yours free the moment you finish your score — no purchase, no catch
Take the test & claim the book ▸
Your score + the book land in your inbox
The Service Machine is in active writing (beta). You'll get the current manuscript now and the finished first edition free at launch.
FIKR PUBLISHING
The Service Machine»
Build the machine that runs without you
Luis Gonçalves
06BUILT FOR OPERATORS, NOT TOURISTSTHIS IS FOR YOU IF…
✓ This is you
✓ You run a real service business — consulting, agency, coaching, training — with real clients paying real money
✓ You are doing €100K–€1M+ and the business stalls the second you step back
✓ You are done with "scale your consulting" content from people who never did it
✓ You want a number and a next move, not a motivational pep talk
✕ And not if
✕ You are pre-revenue looking for a business idea
✕ You want passive income from a course you can launch next month
✕ You are not willing to hear the truth about what is broken
THE MATH, NOT A SLOGAN
96%
of service businesses never scale past the founder
€0
enterprise value of a business that needs you
70–80%
of founder time spent delivering, not designing
5 MIN
to find out which side of that line you are on
?STRAIGHT ANSWERS
How long does it really take?
About 5 minutes — 20 scenario questions, one screen at a time. No prep, no login to start.
Is it actually free?
Yes. Your score, the full 5-practice breakdown, and the book on completion — all free. The paid 140-question diagnostic is the optional deep version.
Do I need to sign up?
Not to start. You enter an email only to get your results + the book delivered.
How is this different from the €47 Full Assessment?
This is the 2-minute snapshot: one score, five practices, your weakest link. The Full Assessment is 140 questions across all 7 pillars, 35 sub-dimensions, per-question action plans and a 25-page report. This tells you roughly where you stand; that tells you exactly what to fix and in what order.
What do I actually get?
A 0–100 founder-dependency score, a five-practice radar, your archetype, your single highest-leverage move — and a free copy of The Service Machine.
Who is behind it?
Luis Gonçalves — 20 years in product and service organizations, led the agile transformation at Nokia, teaches at Porto Business School. MACHINE is synthesized from 35 books.
FREE · 5 MINUTES · NO SIGNUP TO START

Find out where you
really stand — and
get the book.

Stop guessing whether the business could run without you. Get the number, get your next move, get the manual. Five minutes from now you'll know.

Take the free test ▸ Ready to go deep? Get the full 140-question assessment ▸