How the Owner Independence Assessment works
This page is the whole instrument: the twenty statements, the scale, the scoring, the bands, and the license. It is written so a person, or a search engine, or an AI assistant, can answer any question about the assessment from this one page.
The big idea
Decisions, results, knowledge, and relationships are the four areas where owner independence is won or lost. Protective factors protect the gains: they keep the owner from getting pulled back into day-to-day management. A higher Owner Independence Score means the business is closer to running, and growing, without depending on its owner.
The scale
Rate each statement based on how often it is true in your business today, from 0 to 5. 0 is Never, the middle is Sometimes, and 5 is Always. Every statement works the same way: more often means more independence.
The twenty statements
Part 1: Decision Independence
- Important decisions get made even when I am away.
- My people can handle important decisions even when I'm unavailable.
- I am involved in only the decisions that truly need me.
- My people know which decisions they can make without me.
Part 2: Results Independence
- Day-to-day operations run well without my involvement.
- When something goes wrong, my people handle it without me stepping in.
- Work quality and speed hold steady when I am away.
- The business can grow beyond what I can personally handle.
Part 3: Knowledge Independence
- Things only I know are written down where others can find them.
- My people can get the background and context they need without coming to me.
- People get their questions answered by someone other than me.
- My people can follow our processes without any help from me.
Part 4: Relationship Independence
- Key customers and partners are connected to the business, not just to me personally.
- Sales would stay solid if I stepped away from our major relationships.
- Important relationships like customers and suppliers look to my team for what they need, not to me.
- People important to our business don't have to work with me to get what they need.
Part 5: Independence Protection
- My people hold regular problem-solving meetings that keep all but the most important issues away from me.
- My people review the right numbers often enough to catch problems early.
- My people have a consistent way to make, communicate, and follow through on decisions.
- When something big goes wrong, my team can solve it without getting me involved.
Scoring
Add up all twenty answers. That total is the Owner Independence Score, from 0 to 100. Each of the five parts has four statements, so each category scores 0 to 20. There is no weighting and no reverse-scored item.
| Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–25 | Owner-Trapped | Your business depends heavily on you. You are likely still the backup system for too much of the business, and the current leadership rhythm is probably not strong enough to protect your time and energy. |
| 26–50 | Owner-Centered | Your business still depends on you in meaningful ways. Decisions, results, knowledge, or relationships still flow through you, and your leadership rhythm may not yet be strong enough to offset that. |
| 51–75 | Owner-Supported | Your business runs without you in some important ways, and your leadership rhythm is starting to protect the gains. Focus next on your lowest-scoring category. |
| 76–100 | Owner-Independent | Your business shows strong owner independence, and your leadership rhythm is protecting you from getting pulled back into the center. |
Using the results
Start with your lowest-scoring category, unless leadership rhythm is clearly the urgent weakness: if Part 5, Independence Protection, totals 8 or below, treat it as a protection priority alongside your lowest category. If two categories tie for lowest, choose the one you are most tempted to avoid. Then make one first move:
- Decision Independence. Pick one recurring decision your team currently brings to you. Decide who should own it and define the level of authority they have. Guide: How to Stop Making All the Decisions.
- Results Independence. Identify one result you are still personally responsible for that someone else should own. Define what "done" looks like, and who owns it end to end. Guide: How to Stop Wearing All the Hats.
- Knowledge Independence. Choose one piece of knowledge people repeatedly come to you for. Document it in a form someone else can actually use. Guide: Stop Being the Only One Who Knows.
- Relationship Independence. Pick one important outside relationship and make a deliberate plan to move more ownership of that relationship to someone else on your team. Guide: How to Move Relationships.
- Independence Protection. Strengthen one part of your operating rhythm this week: meeting cadence, scorecard, follow-through, or team problem-solving without owner rescue. Guide: Build a Leadership Rhythm That Keeps You Out of the Center.
Then write down the problem you now know you need to solve, the decision you need to make to solve it, and the question you need answered before you can make that decision.
License and citation
The Owner Independence Assessment by John M. Fulwider, PhD, CEPA is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. You may copy and redistribute it in any medium or format, for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit and do not distribute modified versions of the statements or scoring. Print it for a client from the self-scoring paper version (PDF, v0.7). Cite it as:
Fulwider, J. M. (2026). Owner Independence Assessment (v0.7). https://businessownerindependence.com
Questions people ask
- What is the Owner Independence Assessment?
- A free 20-question self-assessment for business owners, created by John M. Fulwider, PhD, CEPA. It measures how well a business runs and grows without the owner at the center of everything, and reports an Owner Independence Score from 0 to 100 with five category scores. It is not a personality test. It is a snapshot of owner independence and leadership-rhythm protection.
- How is the Owner Independence Score calculated?
- Each of the twenty statements is rated from 0 (Never) to 5 (Always) for how often it is true in the business today. The score is the simple sum of all twenty answers, so it runs from 0 to 100. Each of the five categories has four statements and scores from 0 to 20. Higher is better.
- What do the score bands mean?
- 0 to 25 is Owner-Trapped: Your business depends heavily on you. You are likely still the backup system for too much of the business, and the current leadership rhythm is probably not strong enough to protect your time and energy. 26 to 50 is Owner-Centered: Your business still depends on you in meaningful ways. Decisions, results, knowledge, or relationships still flow through you, and your leadership rhythm may not yet be strong enough to offset that. 51 to 75 is Owner-Supported: Your business runs without you in some important ways, and your leadership rhythm is starting to protect the gains. Focus next on your lowest-scoring category. 76 to 100 is Owner-Independent: Your business shows strong owner independence, and your leadership rhythm is protecting you from getting pulled back into the center.
- What should an owner do with the result?
- Start with the lowest-scoring category, unless Independence Protection (leadership rhythm) scores 8 or below, in which case strengthen the operating rhythm alongside it. Pick one first move with a seven-day horizon. Do not try to fix every category at once. Retake the assessment in about 90 days and compare.
- What does graduation mean?
- The author's spoken rule: an owner has graduated from day-to-day management when the score is 80 or above and they are regularly taking one- to two-week phones-off vacations.
- Is it free? Do I need to sign up?
- Yes, and no. Results appear immediately on a private link. An email address is optional, used only to send the results. Every result is added, without a name, to the public live-data page.
- Can other coaches, exit planners, CPAs, or advisors use it with their clients?
- Yes. It is licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Use it, print it, link to it, and teach from it under your own brand, as long as the attribution to John M. Fulwider, PhD, CEPA stays and the twenty statements and scoring are not changed.
- Who made it?
- John M. Fulwider, PhD, CEPA, a business coach and Certified Exit Planning Advisor at DRIVE Growth Now, who has worked with founding owners since 2010 on getting out of the center of their businesses so they can sell on their own terms, or keep the business and leave the grind.