How to sell a business without a broker
You can sell a business without a broker, and plenty of people do — but a broker is not one job, it is five, and the real question is which of the five you can do yourself. The fee is normally a retainer plus a percentage of the sale. Whether that is expensive depends almost entirely on one thing: how ready the business already is, because a prepared business needs far less of what a broker actually sells.
The five jobs a broker actually does
“Broker” is a bundle. Priced separately it is five distinct jobs, and you are unlikely to be equally weak at all five:
| Job | What it really involves | Can you do it yourself? |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Arriving at a number you can defend line by line. | Yes — it is arithmetic on your own accounts, and you can check it. |
| Packaging | The information memorandum: what the business is, what it earns, and why it earns it. | Yes, and often better — nobody knows the business like you do. |
| Finding buyers | Reaching people who are actively looking and can actually pay. | This is the hard one. It is a list you do not have. |
| Qualifying | Separating real buyers from tyre-kickers and competitors fishing for information. | Possible, but it costs you time and the mistakes are expensive. |
| Running the process | Keeping several interested parties moving in parallel so no one of them controls the pace. | Hard while also running the business. |
The first two — the ones owners most often assume they need help with — are the two you can genuinely do yourself. The value sits in the third.
The sum: what the fee has to earn back
A broker is worth paying if they raise the final price by more than they cost. That is a sum you can do before you decide.
Take a business selling at £600,000, with a broker charging a £5,000 retainer and 8% of the sale:
| Sale price | £600,000 |
| Retainer | −£5,000 |
| Commission at 8% | −£48,000 |
| Net to you | £547,000 |
So the broker has to add £53,000, about 8.8% of the price, simply to break even against selling it yourself. Put the other way round: sell it yourself for £547,000 and you are exactly as well off as selling through a broker at £600,000.
break-even self-sale price = sale price − retainer − (sale price × commission rate)
Re-key that with your own figures. The percentage matters more than the retainer: at 8% every £100,000 of price carries £8,000 of fee, so on a larger deal the bar the broker has to clear rises in cash terms even though the rate has not moved.
Where self-sellers actually lose the money
The loss is rarely the number on the listing. It is one of these four:
- One buyer. A sale with a single interested party is a negotiation you cannot walk away from, and the buyer knows it. Competitive tension is most of what a process buys you.
- Disclosing too early. Handing over margins, customer names and supplier terms before anything is committed. A competitor keeps all of that whether or not the deal completes — see selling to a competitor.
- Letting trading slip. Selling takes months of attention. If the figures dip during the process, the buyer re-prices on the new ones, not the old ones.
- Unprepared answers. Every question you cannot answer with a document becomes a discount or a warranty.
Three of those four are preparation problems rather than representation problems, which is why readiness decides the broker question more than deal size does.
The middle path most people miss
It is not broker or no broker. The jobs come apart:
- Do the pricing and packaging yourself. They are arithmetic and knowledge you already hold.
- Pay a solicitor for the legals regardless. This is not the part to save on — the sale agreement, the warranties and the disclosure letter decide what you are still liable for after completion.
- Use your accountant for the normalisation. Add-backs a buyer’s adviser will accept are worth considerably more than add-backs that merely look good.
- Buy introductions rather than full representation where a broker will work on a reduced fee because you already found the buyer.
The one job worth paying full price for is the one you genuinely cannot do: reaching several qualified buyers at the same time.
If you sell it yourself, do these first
- Get a defensible number. Not a hope — a range you can show the arithmetic for, with the owner add-back handled the way a buyer handles it.
- Assemble the documents before you list. Three years of accounts, management figures, contracts, leases and employee terms. Every gap becomes a discount.
- Decide what you disclose at each stage, and stage it so each step costs the other side something to reach.
- Agree the working-capital position early. It is the adjustment sellers understand last and pay for first — see how to sell a business.
- Keep trading. The accounts at completion are the ones that get paid for.
Arithmetic and general information only — not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Your own figures, and your own accountant, decide what any of this means for you.
Do the quick version free
free business valuation calculator — work out your own range before you speak to anyone — a broker who values your business free is also pitching for the listing, and their number is part of that pitch. It runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
The number after debt and cash
The Business Valuation Workbook ($39) goes further than the free calculator above it: five add-back categories rather than owner pay alone, and the step from enterprise value through debt and cash to the equity figure that would reach you. Two linked Excel sheets, run on your own machine. Every row of it is shown on the page before you buy.
See inside the toolkit first
The Business Sale Readiness Toolkit sample shows every sheet, every row of the inputs sheet and the actual Excel formulas — no email, no account. If the sample is not worth your afternoon, the full workbook will not be either.
If you want the readiness assessment too
The Business Sale Readiness & Valuation Toolkit ($499) is a full valuation model with a sensitivity table across multiples, a weighted readiness assessment across the ten areas a buyer examines, a preparation checklist and an adviser prep summary. One-time purchase, instant download.
Frequently asked questions
Can I legally sell my business without a broker?
Yes. There is no requirement to use a broker to sell a business. You will still want a solicitor for the sale agreement and disclosure, because that document decides what you remain liable for after completion.
How much does a business broker cost?
Typically a retainer up front plus a percentage of the final sale price. To judge it, work out the break-even: sale price minus retainer minus commission is the figure you would need to achieve on your own to be equally well off.
What is the hardest part of selling a business yourself?
Reaching several qualified buyers at once. Pricing and packaging you can do yourself, often better. A single interested buyer is the weakest position to negotiate from, and competitive tension is most of what a broker actually sells.
Is it worth using a broker for a small business?
It depends on readiness rather than size. A prepared business with clean accounts, documented contracts and a defensible valuation needs far less of what a broker provides than one where every question turns into a discount.
What should I do before listing my business for sale?
Work out a valuation range you can defend line by line, assemble three years of accounts plus all contracts and leases, decide what you will disclose at each stage, and agree how working capital will be treated at completion.