Selling Your Business Without a Broker

Yes, you can sell your business without a broker, and owners do it all the time. Nothing in the law requires you to list with one. What you are really choosing is how the sale gets run: through an intermediary who markets the business to a pool of buyers, or in a private conversation with one buyer who wants to own it and run it. Neither route is right for everyone, and the honest answer depends on your numbers and on how much the process itself matters to you.

The short version

The broker route and the direct route differ in three main ways.

• Cost. In a brokered sale the seller pays a success fee at closing. When you sell direct to RockHaven there is no fee on your side at all.
• Confidentiality. A broker markets your business to many people, and word travels as the listing circulates. A direct sale stays between you and one buyer.
• Reach. A broker can put your business in front of a wide pool of buyers at once. A direct sale is one buyer at a time, which limits reach but keeps the process quiet.

Reach is the broker's strongest argument, and for some businesses it produces a better price. The trade is exposure: more buyers see the deal, and more people learn that your business is for sale. A direct sale gives up that reach on purpose. What you get back is privacy and a shorter path to a signed deal. The sections below go through both routes so you can weigh them against your own situation.

What does a broker actually do?

A good broker does real work, and it is worth being clear about what that work is. The broker builds a listing from your financials and writes a summary that describes the business without naming it. That listing goes out to the broker's pool of buyers and to the listing sites those buyers watch. The broker takes the first calls and screens out people who cannot buy. Then the broker brings you the ones worth your time. When talks stall, and they usually do at some point, the broker keeps both sides at the table.

That work has real value, mostly in the hours it takes off your plate during a process that can run for months.

In exchange, the seller pays a success fee when the deal closes. On small business sales the typical fee runs around 10 percent of the first million dollars of the price. The percentage usually steps down on the part of the price above that. Those are typical market terms, and your listing agreement is where the exact number gets set.

What does the broker route cost you?

The fee comes out of your side of the table. On a sale priced at one million dollars, a 10 percent fee is one hundred thousand dollars that leaves with the broker instead of going to you. Owners tend to feel that number more at closing than they did when they signed the listing agreement.

There is a second cost that does not show up in the fee schedule. A listed business gets shown to strangers, and even a blind listing gives away enough detail for people in your market to guess whose business it is. Word gets around. Employees start asking questions, and a competitor who hears about the listing may use it in ways you cannot control. Some owners shrug at that risk. Others would not take it for any price, and for them it settles the question before price even comes up.

What does a direct sale look like?

RockHaven is a buyer, not a broker. When you sell to us there is no listing and no marketing period. You sit down with the people who would actually own the business, and the conversation stays private from the first call on.

Our process has four steps.

1. One conversation. We talk through the basics of the business, and we tell you straight if it fits what we buy.
2. A valuation from your real numbers. We price the business from its cash flow and walk you through the math behind the number, line by line.
3. Terms in writing. You get a written offer that states the price and the terms in one document. The timeline is in that same document.
4. A close with your own advisors. Your own attorney and CPA review the paperwork before anyone signs, and the sale closes on the timeline in the offer.

Once terms are agreed, most closes take four to eight weeks. You pay us nothing at any point in that process. Everything you share with us stays confidential even if we do not buy the business. You can see the full picture on our sell your business page.

When is a broker the right call?

There are cases where we would tell an owner to hire a broker.

Some businesses need a wide auction before their real price shows up. If the value sits with one unusual kind of buyer, competition has to be built before that buyer pays up. A broker with a deep pool in your sector can build it.

Some owners also want a buffer between themselves and the buyer, especially once negotiations get hard. A good broker earns the fee in that role, and we understand why owners choose it.

In a few sectors one kind of buyer pays well above everyone else. Finding that buyer can take a long marketed search, and a broker who knows the sector cold may be worth every point of the fee.

When does a direct sale fit better?

A direct sale fits a business with cash flow that can be proven on paper and revenue in the $1M to $10M range. It also fits when the owner wants the process kept quiet.

Confidentiality is usually the deciding factor, with speed a close second once an owner has made up their mind. A direct sale protects the first and is built for the second.

Most businesses this size end up selling to an operator who will run the place. When that is the likely buyer anyway, a brokered auction adds months without adding much else. One honest conversation can reach the same result, and the fee a broker would have taken stays in your pocket.

None of that makes a direct offer right by default, including ours. Judge any offer on its math, and walk away from one that does not work for you.

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