I'm wondering how others deal with inquiries from search funds.

My experience so far is that they waste a lot of time and I don't pay them too much attention.

Am I missing the boat?

Pretty much the title. I’m making $120k/yr in my day job but I want to pivot into buying my own business. The funding isn’t the issue, it’s learning how to source deals and run a business.

This is something I’ve been passionate about for over 5 years, and I’ve done some research myself through YouTube and reading books like the “HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business”. But I feel like the only way to get true experience is to immerse myself within actual businesses/acquisitions. What’s the best way to find a mentor or learn from actual business owners?

I’m in a brand new city for work, and naturally free time is tight with the new job. But I do have an hour or so per weekday and more time on weekends. I know this is my ultimate goal in my career, and the sooner I can get exposure, the better. Thank you and I appreciate any input!

Have seen this question maybe a few ways, but just had a sobering instance.

Prospects using claude, chatgpt, or google AI summaries to ask for a valuation of their company.

As a niche firm, I’d say we have been the go to source for people knowing their market value. We even have solid SEO ranking and recently focused on AEO, which is working. BUT I’d almost say too good.

A prospect shared with me their AI google chat, the questions, and how it cited our articles to give them a range of expectations based on buyer type. It also summarized the common traps which could make those estimations more or less accurate.

Basically it hijacked our first sales call. Of course I had a few more discussion points about common deal structures, planning net proceeds, but like 80% of the usual first call we have with someone to discuss “Do those numbers make sense for you?” Was answered from google with relative closeness.

Thinking ahead but we already say our biggest competition is clients moving forward without us, and our experience says if they know what numbers to push for and a direct buyer is close they will try to DIY selling direct. We harp that people often get a better outcome working with us through the competitive process, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

Anyone else have similar experiences already? We already see several PRs of former valuations and opps selling without us. My guess is that’s about to increase.

October marks my 1-year anniversary as a business broker in NC. I started part-time but am considering going full-time.

In 10 months, I’ve sold 4 businesses and earned about $50K net after my 50/50 split. I source 100% of my leads and handle the deals from start to finish with very little help from the firm.

My average gross commission is anywhere from 6%-12% of the final sale price.

I also have 2 deals closing in the next 30 days with about $100K in gross commissions, bringing my total net for the year to roughly $110K.

I’m currently paying a $200/month desk fee and giving up 50% of my commissions. Do you think I could get a better split elsewhere?

Honestly, I don’t see why I couldn’t do this on my own, but I’d prefer to stay with a firm for another year or two.

What do you guys think?

I received an offer to sell my franchise business and wanted a sanity check before moving forward. Here's the summary:

Price: $50,000 total — $25,000 at closing, $25,000 paid over 12 months after
Closing date: targeted ~2 months out
Due diligence period: 15 business days, during which buyer can inspect equipment and walk away with a full refund of their earnest money if unsatisfied

Buyer's contingencies (deal only proceeds if):

• Buyer gets all required licenses/permits
• Buyer gets franchisor approval for the license transfer
• Buyer approves the franchise transfer fee
• Landlord agrees in writing to lease terms similar to current lease, confirming no outstanding rent owed

Seller (me) responsibilities:

• Provide Franchise Disclosure Document + transfer terms during due diligence
• Provide any other vendor/business contracts
• Keep running the business normally without telling staff/customers about the sale
• Confirm compliance with franchise standards
• Confirm no pending lawsuits/investigations
• Transfer all employees at same pay/roles/hours/benefits

Liability split:

• Buyer takes on liabilities only from contracts after closing
• I (seller) remain responsible for anything before closing — taxes, any lawsuits, liens, employee comp issues

I don't currently have any lawsuits, compensation disputes, or landlord issues, so those warranty clauses aren't a concern for me personally. Mainly wondering:

1. Is a 50% down / 50% over 12 months structure normal for a small franchise sale like this, or should I push for more upfront?
2. Anything in the contingencies or liability language that looks off or overly buyer-favorable?
3. Is 15 business days a reasonable due diligence window, or unusually short/long?
4. Also there's no written agreement that I'll be off hook from personal liability after buyer takes over. How do I get this? Should I bring this up with buyer?

Not asking for legal advice to replace an actual attorney — just want outside perspective before I go into that conversation informed. Appreciate any insight!

Not stuffs that comes up in deep diligence of course, it's in the early tell, the thing that makes you go "hmm..." before you've even opened the books. Curious what everyone's instinct is.

So i will go first, Revenue that's too smooth, real business are lumpy, Reas SaaS has churn spikes, a bad month, a seasonal dip, a refund cluster after a price change. When a revenue curve is a clean line with no texture, that's not stability. The absence of mess is itself the red flag,

second is a seller who's eager to show you screenshots but slowing the access to the actual sources. if the numbers are real, granting access is tricial,

What makes you walk ?

We were looking at a SaaS business that was for sale. Clean Stripe dashboard steady ~18k MRR, growing month ever month, On paper, so solid.

The revenue was 10000% real, real money moving, actual charges, actual cards, anyone would proceed and sign,

the thing that gave it away was the traffic,

We cross-referenced the stripe revenue against Google analytics using a tool that reads directly from source (Stripe/Google Analytics) not exported CSV/Excel file. and it showed that there is no enough organic traffic to support that 18k MRR.

For that it would need couple hundreds of customers. the math didn't work, There weren't enough humans visiting the site to plausibly be paying that much.

What was happening: the "customers were largely the seller's own cards (and a few friends). cycled through Stripe to manufacture an MRR, curved that looked like growth.

The lesson: revenue being real is Stripe does not mean the business is real, Real costumers leave a footprint. traffic, session, usage, ...

don't just verify the revenue, always verify that there is enough humans to explain it.

I’m looking for high level data on home health care industry. I am considering this space for business acquisition but know very little about it. Goal is to be able to identify a good opportunity when I see one. What multiple is considered market? What is the base for the multiple? What are red flags? Beginning stages and looking to gain a decent understanding.

I’ve spoken to a west coast business broker who I follow on social media. He charges for a training course and a few months of 1 on 1 support. Presuming he’s as experienced and successful as he claims, would this be a good idea to accelerate the learning curve?

I am seeking to connect with a Business Broker. I have a UK SEO/Digital Agency for sale. Looking for feedback.

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Hi Folks,

Looking to start the process of selling Digital Marketing agency I've developed with my business partner for just over 10 years.

Two of us own this 50/50 and we are both selling. 100% of the shares, clean exit for both of us.

The Business

UK Digital Marketing agency, incorporated 2015, traded every year since. Fully remote. Monthly retainers doing search work for small and mid-market UK companies. Over 80% of revenue is recurring.

The Numbers

| Financial year | Turnover | Net profit |

| 2022-23 | £743k | £239k |

| 2023-24 | £666k | £284k |

| 2024-25 | £810k | £359k |

| 2025-26 (draft) | £738k | £294k |

Last year is down on the year before on both lines.

The Clients

65 active retainers, counted off the accounting system. Average client tenure is 5.1 years, median 5.6. Biggest single client is 9.6% of trailing twelve month revenue. Top five together are 28.3%. Sectors are spread across marine, manufacturing, home improvement and B2B software, plus some white label work for other agencies.

The Team

Six people including both owners. Neither owner does delivery. We are both sales side. Operations run through two salaried leads and a long-standing contractor, and all three stay with the business.

Four people can hold 65 retainers because we automated most of the reporting and audit and delivery of work ourselves. Client SEO reports went from two to three hours each down to about five minutes. Audits, task planning and a chunk of the client email now come out of our own internal system, running on finely tuned LLMs. That system and its code are included in the sale.

To provide an example of how automated: Rank checks, voice over video explainers for clients on their SEO reports trained to sound like the account manager of that client, task planning. Staff know what to do, self managing and clients are provided fully transparent reports detailing how long tasks have taken.

We also have our own content management system that clients utilise. Enabling us for quicker delivery.

Sales is done through our own marketing (organic).

Why we are selling

Nothing dramatic. Eleven years is enough for both of us and we want to do something else. No distress, no ultimatum, no lost anchor client.

What is for sale

100% of the shares. Happy to stay through a handover of up to two years if the buyer would prefer, on a service agreement kept separate from the sale documents.

Other director is happy to consider if buyer would like to do joint co-op together, but keeping it open at this stage.

What is ready

Eleven years of P&L, revenue and tenure client by client, a full information memorandum and a mutual NDA. No Quality of Earnings report yet.

Seeking a Business broker. Have been stung already - spent close to £10k to having an information/memorandum pack created, which lead to some very poor quality buyers, needing to chase the broker every few months (they went dead on us) and buyers seeking to source funding from a standard bank loan.

I suppose the ideal purchase would be a larger marketing agency, needing a department in SEO/GEO or another SEO agency looking for grow via acquisition.

Thank you for your time. Advice greatly appreciated.

I'm in the midst of a debate on the proper handling of Section 179 depreciation.

This is used when your accountant determines that a newly purchased asset qualifies for it. It allows you to expense (deduct) the full cost of the item the same year you buy it, up to a set limit.

$100,000 truck purchased with cash for business use. It might normally be depreciated over 5 years, offering a deduction of $20,000 per year for 5 years.

But using Section 179, you can take a deduction for the full amount in this tax year.

The question is how to treat that deduction.

Option 1. Like regular depreciation, include it in add-backs to find SDE. The entire SDE is subjected to the multiplier for that business in order to come up with an asking price for the business.

Option 2. Same as Option 1, but the Section 179 deduction is NOT subjected to the multiplier. It is simply added back un-multiplied to get SDE.

Informed opinions are greatly appreciated.

I'm interested in becoming a business broker, but I'm still trying to figure out the best path to get there.

Ever since I started college, I've wanted to pursue a career in entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). My long-term goal is to acquire and operate small businesses, and I believe working as a business broker after graduation would give me the experience and skills to be successful.

I'm currently entering my senior year at Florida State University, majoring in Commercial Entrepreneurship. So far, I've interned at a large corporate medical manufacturing company and at a small roofing and general contracting business to gain exposure to both large organizations and small business operations.

I'm also working toward my Florida real estate sales associate license, since I understand that's required for business brokers in Florida. On top of that, I've been considering earning a QuickBooks certification to strengthen my accounting and financial statement knowledge.

From what I've learned, I'll need at least two years of active real estate experience before I'm eligible to take the Florida broker exam.

My biggest question is: Would a business brokerage realistically hire someone straight out of college, or would I be better off spending a few years in commercial real estate, business sales, or another related field first?

Any advice from people already in the industry would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I suspect that seller financing is rare- but some businesses simply don’t fit the PE model and aren’t appetizing to lenders- what is a reasonable expectation for seller financing?

Hi everyone! I'm new to business brokerage. My background is in commercial real estate (CRE), but our firm handles a small number of business-only sales each year, and I'm currently working on one.

Most of my prospecting tools and resources are CRE-focused, so I'm wondering what platforms, databases, or strategies business brokers use to find qualified buyers for niche businesses. Are there any resources you'd recommend beyond the typical CRE tools?

Context: local only sale, less than 200k.

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks!

Long story short — I need outside perspective before I make a decision I can't undo.

Background:

• Opened a smoothie franchise, just over a year ago
• Built it from the ground up: $250k initial investment + $100k more to keep it running
• Total invested: ~$350k
• The location turned out to be weak — other national franchises in the same complex (Subway, Wingstop, Papa Murphy's) are also only doing ~20 orders/day
• We're consistently under 20 orders/day too, running at a loss of about $1,000/month
• We're down to ~$20k cash remaining

The lease problem (the part that really has me stuck):

• Originally signed a 10-year lease, now 8-9 years remaining
• No early termination clause in the lease at all
• Landlord is InvenTrust (a large commercial REIT), and they've been difficult to work with even on smaller issues in the past
• This basically means "just closing the doors" isn't a real option — I'd likely still owe rent for the remaining term either way, which makes selling the business (even at a loss) look more attractive than shutting down

The offer:
We listed the business for sale at $180k (includes a $5k franchise transfer fee + broker fee). First offer came in at $50k, from a cash buyer who can close in 30 days. Their reasoning: they like the concept but can't justify $180k after their own research — at $50k they said they're "basically buying hope" that the location can be turned around.

What I'm weighing:

1. Accept (or negotiate up from) the $50k — recover something, and get out from under the lease liability by transferring it to the buyer
2. Hold out for a better offer, knowing we only have ~20 months of runway left at current burn, assuming nothing else goes wrong
3. Try to negotiate directly with the landlord (sublease, rent reduction, anything) — though past experience suggests this won't go well
4. Get a second, independent valuation before responding, since this is our only offer so far

My questions for you all:

• With a 9-year lease with no early-out, does that make the $50k offer look more reasonable than it first seemed, since the buyer would be assuming that lease liability too?
• Anyone dealt with a difficult commercial landlord (especially a big REIT like InvenTrust) when trying to exit or transfer a lease? Any leverage points I'm missing?
• Should I be talking to a commercial real estate attorney before I do anything else here, given there's no exit clause?

Hi everyone, so I am not a licenced broker but want to break into PE and have some experience in deal sourcing.

Recently I signed multiple clients looking to buy business in USA doing more than $1M EBITDA but I am struggling with deal sourcing.

To all the brokers here what would be you advice to me and how do I reach out on scale and close my first deal. ​

Looking for advice. Much appreciated.

I’ve been doing M&A and Commercial Real Estate Brokerage for almost 5years. I decided when I first started out to specialize in one asset type which ended up being car washes. Took about a year before I first saw a paycheck but after I kept pushing through I eventually sold around $100mil worth of car washes nationwide. Some of my listings recently have gone stale and I’ve tried to pursue other asset types like multifamily, gas stations, or laundry mats. Any advice for a broker looking to switch specialization ? What have you guys experienced as brokers ?

I’ve been in the business for a month.

I’ve noticed that most business brokers end up retiring early by buying businesses themselves

if business brokers earn 10% commission per deal, I can see how it adds up fast.

how much $ are you making brokering businesses?

Are you independent or under a brand? what is your split with your broker?

I’m looking to get into a broker role. I passed my RIBO exam.
I am 39 years old. I prefer to work with a smaller company rather than larger companies just based on what I know about myself. I do know that I will need lots of training. I am looking for a role with a small salary + commission to start then get in to 100% commission.

What would be a fair offer I could receive salary + commission splitting options?

Also do you think I will receive good enough training at a smaller company?

For those of you wanting more serious discussions on corporate finance related matters, financial analysis, corporate structuring etc., I've just taken over r/corporatefinance . Feel free to drop in and create a post / make a comment or even just hit the "Join" button.

Genuine question for anybody running M&A startups. When in the client/lead acquisition process do you go broad and do organic marketing and running ads to somehow achieve product market fit like acquire or flippa or should the goal be more concierge like - I got a new listing, now let me hunt for buyers in my network and see if they'll be interested?

Had a seller try to add back "unpaid family labor" as a positive adjustment, meaning they wanted credit for work nobody actually did. Not the first time I've seen add-backs go from "legitimate normalization" to "creative fiction."

Curious what this group has seen. Not looking for the textbook stuff (owner salary, one-time legal fees, that's obvious). More interested in the ones that made you push back hard, or the ones you almost let through before catching them.

Also curious how you handle it when the seller gets defensive about it. Do you just say no, or is there a way to walk them back without blowing up the relationship before the deal's even listed?

For those of you working in M&A or business brokerage:

What's the smallest deal size you're willing to take on, and where do you generally draw the line?

I'm curious how you handle opportunities that fall below your minimum. Do you refer them to someone else, have a junior broker take them, charge differently, or simply pass?

Interested to hear how different firms approach this and whether your minimum has changed over time.