Plenty of businesses are sold without a broker, and plenty of owners pay a fee for work they could have done. The useful question is not whether to use one, but which parts of the job you are able to do, which parts you are willing to do, and which two parts nobody should attempt alone.
In short
- A broker's real product is a process: a buyer pool, pressure and someone who is not emotionally involved.
- Marketing and first conversations are the parts an owner can most realistically handle themselves.
- Never write the purchase agreement yourself, and never decide the deal structure without a CPA.
What the fee actually buys
Fees for small-business sales are commonly quoted around ten percent, often with a minimum that dominates on smaller deals. What that should buy is a list of buyers who exist before you arrive, several of them interested at once, and a third party who can ask a buyer an uncomfortable question without it becoming personal.
Competition is the part that is genuinely hard to reproduce alone. One interested buyer sets the price by negotiation; three set it by comparison. If a broker cannot describe how they will produce more than one, the fee is buying paperwork.
What you can reasonably do yourself
Preparing the business is yours regardless of who you hire — the books, the add-back schedule, the documented process, the honest note on concentration. Nobody can do that for you and no broker will do it as well as the person who knows where everything is.
Listing it is also within reach. An anonymous listing on a marketplace, a clear summary that does not identify the business, and a simple screening routine will handle first contact. What you need is discipline about the order things are released in: summary, then a signed NDA, then detail, then names.
- Prepare three years of reconciled financials and a one-page add-back schedule
- Write a summary that describes the business without identifying it
- Decide in advance what is released before an NDA, after an NDA, and only under offer
- Ask every enquirer what they have bought before and how they intend to fund it
The two things not to do alone
The purchase agreement is a legal document that decides what you are liable for after you no longer own the business — representations, warranties, indemnities, what happens if a customer sues over work done under your ownership. A template from the internet does not know your business and will not be there when it matters.
Deal structure is the other. Whether the sale is of assets or of the company, and how the price is allocated across those assets, changes what you keep after tax, sometimes by a large amount. That conversation belongs with a CPA before you agree terms, not after — by the time it is in a signed letter of intent, the choice has largely been made.
Confidentiality is where unrepresented sellers slip
The failure mode is rarely a dramatic leak. It is a listing detailed enough to identify the business, a photograph with the signage in it, or an eager answer to a question from someone who turns out to be a competitor rather than a buyer.
Set the rule before the first enquiry: the public page never identifies the business, the identity is released only after an NDA, and financial detail only to a buyer who has shown they can fund the purchase. Then hold the line even when a promising buyer pushes. The ones who object to a normal process are telling you something.
Common questions
- Can I list on a marketplace and bring in a broker later?
- Yes, and it is a reasonable sequence — test the response yourself first, and engage someone if it is thin or if the process becomes more than you want to run. Check any agreement you sign for how it treats buyers who first contacted you before the engagement, because that clause is where disputes start.
- How do I know a buyer is real?
- Ask early and directly what they have acquired before, how they intend to fund it, and what their timeline is. A serious buyer answers without discomfort. Release detail in stages tied to those answers rather than to enthusiasm.
- What does it cost to list a business here?
- Nothing. Listing is free for owners and brokers, listings are reviewed rather than published automatically, and identifying detail stays off the public page. This site is a marketplace and does not represent either side of a transaction.
This is general information, not investment, legal, tax or valuation advice. Every business and every transaction differs; take professional advice on your own circumstances before acting.