Five numbers. Sixty seconds. A commercial health score that tells you where your business actually stands — on margin, cashflow, break-even, and overall commercial sustainability. No sign-up. No payment. Completely free.
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This is a live preview of the Free AI Business Review — the same tool available to all subscribers.
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The Free AI Business Review is designed to give any SME owner an honest read on the commercial health of their business in under a minute. It does not require an accountant, a finance director, or access to management accounts. It requires five numbers — numbers that any business owner should either know or be able to find quickly — and produces an objective, commercially informed assessment of where the business stands.
This page explains what each metric measures, what the benchmarks are, and why they matter for your business.
Gross margin is revenue minus direct costs, expressed as a percentage of revenue. It measures how efficiently the core business model converts revenue into gross profit before overheads are paid. A product business buying at £6 and selling at £10 has a 40% gross margin. A service business billing £1,000 for work that costs £350 to deliver has a 65% gross margin.
Gross margin benchmarks vary significantly by sector. Wholesale and distribution typically operate at 15-30%. Retail at 40-60%. Professional services at 60-80%. Manufacturing at 25-45%. The review benchmarks your gross margin against sector-appropriate thresholds rather than a single universal standard.
Gross margin below sector benchmark means one of three things: pricing is too low, direct costs are too high, or the product/service mix is skewed toward lower-margin offerings. Each has a different solution.
Net margin is what remains after all costs — direct and overhead — have been paid. It is the ultimate measure of commercial sustainability. A business with a positive net margin is generating surplus. A business with a negative net margin is consuming capital and cannot survive indefinitely without either improving performance or raising additional funding.
For most UK SMEs, a net margin of 5-8% represents the minimum viable threshold — enough to sustain the business but insufficient to provide meaningful resilience. 10-15% is solid performance. Above 15% represents strong commercial health with genuine capacity for investment and growth.
Cash runway measures how many months of fixed costs the current cash balance could cover if revenue stopped tomorrow. It is the most direct measure of short-term financial resilience. A business with three months of cash runway can absorb a significant disruption — a large customer going slow, a supplier payment being brought forward, an unexpected cost — without immediately facing a crisis. A business with three weeks of cash runway cannot.
Break-even revenue is the minimum monthly or annual revenue the business must generate to cover all costs. Below break-even, every pound of revenue reduces losses but does not generate profit. Above break-even, every additional pound of revenue generates profit at your net margin rate.
Knowing your break-even revenue is essential for commercial planning. It tells you the minimum acceptable month, the minimum viable new customer, and the revenue level at which a cost reduction initiative actually delivers benefit versus simply maintaining the status quo at lower volume.
The overall score from 0-100 weights the four metrics against each other and against sector benchmarks. It is designed to give an at-a-glance read on commercial health — a single number that can be tracked over time as a measure of overall business improvement. A score above 75 represents strong commercial health. 50-75 represents a business with solid foundations and specific areas to address. Below 50 indicates structural issues that require action.
The Free AI Business Review is a commercial health check, not a substitute for professional financial advice. It is designed to identify issues, provide benchmarks, and suggest priorities — not to replace a qualified accountant or financial adviser for decisions involving tax, compliance, investment, or significant strategic choices. Where the review identifies a concern, the appropriate next step is to work through it with a qualified professional who has access to the full detail of your finances.
5 inputs. 60 seconds. An instant read on whether your business is commercially healthy — and what to do if it is not.