100 city markets/Honolulu, HI
Covered market #56

Businesses for sale in Honolulu, HI

13,150 business establishments operate in Honolulu, and 5,715 of them employ between 5 and 99 people — the range most often bought and sold by individual owners. Professional and technical services leads the local mix with 1,707 firms.

Local market

What the Honolulu business base looks like

Business establishments13,150

Every physical location with paid employees in Honolulu ZIP codes.

Employing 5 to 99 people5,715

Large enough to run without the owner on site, small enough for an individual buyer. This is where most transactions happen.

Share of the local base43%

The rest are mostly owner-only businesses, which rarely change hands as going concerns.

Largest industries in Honolulu

  • Professional & technical services1,707
  • Restaurants & accommodation1,653
  • Retail1,611
  • Healthcare & social assistance1,553
  • Personal & repair services1,495

These five account for 61% of establishments in Honolulu. A buyer's odds are best where the local base is deepest, and a seller competes with everyone else in the same column.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Business Patterns 2023. Figures cover the ZIP codes the Postal Service assigns to Honolulu, which approximates but does not exactly match the city limits. Establishment counts are locations with paid employees; sole proprietors without employees are not included. Latest available year: 2023.

Buying, selling, combining

No single industry carries Honolulu.

The five largest categories split 8,019 businesses between them fairly evenly, with professional and technical services only 1.0× the size of restaurants and accommodation. Demand is spread rather than concentrated.

Buy in Honolulu

5,715 businesses here employ 5 to 99 people. That is enough to be selective without waiting months between candidates — worth watching professional and technical services and restaurants and accommodation in particular.

Search this market

Sell in Honolulu

With no dominant industry in Honolulu, buyers arrive with broader criteria and fewer direct comparisons. A clearly presented business stands out sooner than it would in a concentrated market.

Start an owner listing

Combine several into one

Acquirers looking for scale in Honolulu often cannot buy it in one piece. 1,707 professional and technical services firms is the kind of depth that lets several be combined into one company big enough for a buyer that would not look at any of them alone.

How combinations work

Nothing here is a listing or an offer. Confidential details stay behind NDA acceptance and the seller's own consent.