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    1. Home»
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    3. How Long Does it Take to Sell a Business?»

    How Long Does it Take to Sell a Business?

    Ney Grant
    Getting Started

    Of course, this answer depends on the complexity of the

    business, financing required, and some other factors.  A survey of business brokers was done by one

    of the top business-for-sale websites, www.businessesforsale.com, and

    they found the following in terms of the time it takes to sell “the average”

    business:


    • 28% of

      brokers said within 6 months.

    • 31% of

      brokers said within 9 months.

    • 21% of

      brokers said within 12 months.

    • 10.5%

      of brokers said that more than 12 months was required to sell a business.

    That seems about right to me.  Even the ones that sell quickly seem to have

    some issue that makes them take a few months at least.  Here’s an example.

    We basically “pre-sold” a company recently because I already was in touch with a buyer that wanted the company. 

    However, we still needed to do the financial analysis and valuation,

    which take a few weeks and in this case longer because the books were not in

    ideal shape.  To be fair to the seller

    and make sure it was a fair market value price, we put it on the market and

    advertised it.  But sure enough, my buyer

    made a decent offer and it was negotiated and accepted within a few weeks.

    However this was a $5 million dollar business and my buyer

    didn’t have that in cash, so some serious funding was required.  Did I already mention the books were less

    than ideal?  I was convinced that the

    earnings and cash flow were there, the buyer was convinced, and the seller was

    living proof, with an extravagant lifestyle supported by the business.  But convincing bankers was far more

    difficult, and it took six full months to find a lender that would do the deal. We finally found a lender,and the buyer has a great company and the seller is now retired.

    An average selling time of nine months is about right.  I tend to think of six months as a typical,

    straight forward sales process where the business doesn’t sit on the market too

    long.  Of course, if the business isn’t

    priced right it can sit on the market for a very long time.   It doesn’t take much time to find an

    overpriced business on the for-sale web sites, and some have been for sale for

    a couple of years or longer.

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    Profile: Ney Grant

    Ney is a merger and acquisition advisor, entrepreneur, and executive who has been involved with buying and selling companies for almost 20 years offers advice to help you plan for the sale or purchase of your business. He writes the Buying and Selling a Business blog.

    BizBuySell
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