The honest range
Most owners underestimate how long a sale takes. Selling a business is not like selling a house. There are no open inspections on a Saturday. Each stage involves documents, advisers and waiting on other people.
Australian brokers and advisers commonly quote 6 to 12 months for a sale on the open market. Well prepared businesses with clean records can move faster. Businesses with tangled books, or owners fitting the sale around running the business, take longer.
What the stages look like
Preparation, before the business goes to market. Your accountant tidies the figures and separates personal from business costs. Anywhere from weeks to a few months, depending on the state of the records.
Finding a buyer. A broker advertises the business without naming it, screens enquiries and introduces serious buyers. This is the least predictable stage: weeks at best, many months at worst.
Offer and due diligence. A buyer makes an offer, then checks the business properly: the numbers, the contracts, the customers, the staff. Commonly 60 to 90 days.
Contract and settlement. Lawyers draw up the sale contract, conditions are met, and the money moves. Usually a few weeks once due diligence is done.
What slows a sale down
- Records that take work to understand, or profit that needs explaining.
- A business that depends on the owner for everything.
- Customer contracts or leases that need a third party to agree.
- Buyers who need bank finance, and banks taking their time.
- Renegotiation late in the process, which sends everyone back a stage.
What speeds it up
- Clean, accountant prepared figures for the last three years.
- Knowing your bottom line before the first conversation.
- Selling to one buyer directly, rather than testing the whole market.
- A buyer who pays cash at settlement and does not renegotiate.
How it works with us
Because you deal with us directly, there is no marketing stage at all. Within two weeks of our first conversation you have our written offer, with a clear price. All we need is a few hours on the phone and your high level financials.
From the day you accept, the sale typically takes 60 to 90 days to complete, and we finalise on the terms we agreed. We do not come back late looking to change them. You can see each step of our process.
There is no clock on the decision itself. Many owners talk to us a year or more before they are ready, and that is fine. More on when the right time to sell is.