Business Price Calculator
A data-driven argument for small-medium business owners considering selling
🚫 MYTH: "Brokers just take 10% and add no value"
✅ REALITY: Even after paying commission, broker-assisted sales typically net owners more money
1. The Business Sale Price Premium Reality
Research shows that broker-managed business sales consistently achieve significantly higher prices than owner-marketed businesses.
📊 Key Insight: Broker-managed business sales typically close for 11-23% higher than owner-sold businesses - a substantial premium that more than covers broker commissions.
Why do businesses see such significant premiums with broker assistance?
- Have extensive buyer networks and databases - especially powerful when they recently listed similar businesses
- Access strategic buyers: If 25 qualified buyers with liquidity and appetite for your business type saw a similar listing, they're prime prospects for yours too
- Identify synergistic opportunities: Brokers connect you with buyers who already own vertically integrated or complementary businesses
- Know current market valuations and sophisticated pricing strategies
- Create professional presentations that highlight business value drivers
- Generate competitive bidding among multiple qualified buyers
2. Your Time is Worth Money
Selling a business is a 6-12 month full-time job involving:
🔍 Buyer Qualification
Screening dozens of unqualified "tire kickers" who waste months of your time
📋 Documentation
Preparing financial packages, legal documents, and marketing materials
🤝 Negotiations
Managing complex deal structures, financing arrangements, and contingencies
🎯 Marketing
Creating professional listings across multiple platforms and buyer networks
Reality Check: While you're spending 20+ hours per week trying to sell your business, who's running it? Many owner-marketed businesses see operational decline during the sale process, further reducing value.
3. Confidentiality & Professional Distance
Brokers provide crucial benefits you can't achieve selling directly:
- Confidentiality: Protect your business from competitors, employees, and customers learning about the sale
- Objective negotiations: Emotional distance leads to better deal terms
- Professional credibility: Serious buyers prefer working with established brokers
- Legal protection: Experienced brokers help avoid costly mistakes and liability issues
4. The Strategic Buyer Network Effect
The true power of brokers: When they recently sold a similar business, they already have 20-30 qualified buyers who were interested but didn't win that deal. Your business becomes their next opportunity!
This network effect is even more powerful in business sales than real estate because:
- Strategic buyers: Companies seeking vertical integration or synergistic acquisitions
- Industry specialists: Buyers who understand your sector and can pay premium multiples
- Qualified liquidity: Pre-screened buyers with confirmed financing capability
- Competitive tension: Multiple serious buyers drive up final sale prices
By going FSBO, you're essentially starting from zero in building this buyer pipeline, while brokers have spent years cultivating these relationships.
5. Deal Completion Rates
Even if you find a buyer, getting to closing is complex. Brokers have the experience to:
- Structure deals that actually close (not just LOIs that fall through)
- Navigate financing requirements and SBA loan processes
- Handle due diligence efficiently
- Resolve issues that inevitably arise during the process
The Bottom Line
Yes, you'll pay a commission. But if that commission results in an 11-23% higher sale price (which research shows is typical for business sales), you come out significantly ahead – while saving hundreds of hours and reducing stress.
The question isn't whether you can afford to hire a broker. It's whether you can afford not to.
