Exitvo answers

Every answer below is aimed at a question people measurably search for, is written from named sources, and links to the page that handles the job itself. None of them is a landing page in disguise.

These are the questions an owner asks when they decide to sell their own business: what the process actually is, how long each part takes, what a buyer will ask for, what a broker costs, and what the documents you are handed are for. Each answer below is written against one measured question, cites what it draws on, and links to the free worksheet or the part of Exitvo that does the work. Nothing here is a valuation, a tax position or a legal opinion: those belong to your own solicitor, accountant and valuer, and this site does not find you a broker or pass your details to one.

• Selling a business happens in five stages, and it stalls in two of them

  Selling a business runs through five stages. Almost every sale that drags is stuck in one of two, and both are document problems rather than price ones.

• To sell a business you pick one of four routes, and they cost differently

  There are four routes to sell a business: to a known buyer, privately to the market, through a broker, or through an adviser. Each costs a different thing.

• The steps to selling a business, in the order that actually matters

  The steps to selling a business are usually listed in calendar order. Listed by which ones block the others, the order is different.

• How do you sell a business, described as it actually goes

  How do you sell a business, described as it actually goes: the slow parts, the parts that surprise owners, and what to do first.

• The best way to sell a business turns on whether you already know the buyer

  The best way to sell a business is decided by one question: do you already know who would buy it? Route, cost and timetable follow from that.

• How to sell a business privately means doing four jobs yourself

  Selling privately saves the commission and hands you four jobs a broker does: finding buyers, screening them, staging disclosure, running it.

• How to sell a business quickly, by removing the delays you control

  Selling a business quickly is mostly about removing your own delays. Three of the four common causes of a slow sale are on the seller's side.

• How long does it take to sell a business depends on four separate clocks

  A sale runs on four clocks: your preparation, finding a buyer, diligence, and completion. Only the first is yours, and it is the one owners skip.

• Things to consider when selling a business, in the order they bind you

  The decisions to make before selling a business are the ones that get harder to change later: what you want, what you disclose, who else can answer.

• Questions to ask when selling a business, sorted by who can answer them

  The useful questions when selling a business sort by who can answer: the buyer, your advisers, the broker, and yourself.

• In a business sale, what is being sold is decided before the price is

  A business sale can be a sale of the company or of its assets. The two differ in what transfers, what stays, and what the paperwork covers.

• A business broker commission is built from more parts than the headline rate

  A business broker commission is a rate, a minimum, a retainer and a base it is applied to. Any one of the four can make the headline rate meaningless.

• Business broker commission rates are quoted in ways that are not comparable

  Two brokers quoting the same commission rate can be quoting very different fees. Four contract terms change what a rate means.

• Business broker fees include several things that are not the commission

  Business broker fees usually include more than commission: a retainer, marketing costs, admin charges and a tail that survives the agreement.

• How much does a business broker charge is answerable only for your own contract

  There is no useful general answer to what a business broker charges. There is a short method for finding out what yours will.

• How much do business brokers charge depends on four things, and size dominates

  What business brokers charge varies with four things: the size of the sale, the sector, what the engagement includes, and whether a minimum bites.

• What do business brokers charge is a clause, and five things in it matter

  The fee clause in a broker engagement has five things worth reading closely, and the headline rate is the least informative of them.

• How much do brokers charge to sell a business is one line in the total cost

  A broker's fee is one of five costs of selling a business. Costing all five before you start is what stops the net proceeds being a surprise at completion.

• What is the average commission for a business broker is the wrong question

  An average broker commission strips out the terms that decide what a fee costs. What to compare instead, and why this site publishes no figure.

• Who pays business broker fee is usually the seller, out of the proceeds

  The seller normally pays the business broker fee out of the sale proceeds at completion. Three situations change that, and one of them catches sellers out.

• Attorney fees for selling a business are driven by complication, not by price

  Legal fees on a business sale scale with complication, not with the price. Four things drive the bill and a prepared seller reduces three.

• What does a business broker do is five jobs, and you are buying two

  A business broker does five jobs for a seller. Two are hard to do yourself and are what the fee really buys; the other three you may already do.

• Selling a business in Florida: the process is the same, three things are local

  Selling a business in Florida runs the same process as anywhere. Three things are genuinely local and are worth identifying early.

• How to sell a business in Florida, in the order the local items bite

  How to sell a business in Florida, ordered so the items that depend on somebody else are started first: filings, licenses, and the records you do not hold.

• A small business sale differs from a large one in four specific ways

  A small business sale is not a scaled-down large one. Four things differ: the owner's own role, the buyer pool, the cost, and the records.

• A selling a small business checklist has five groups, and one sets the timetable

  A checklist for selling a small business has five document groups. One of them depends on other people, and it is the group that decides your timetable.

• Advice on selling a business comes from four places, and they are not interchangeable

  Advice on selling a business comes from advisers, brokers, other owners and the internet. Each is reliable about different things and wrong about others.

• A business sale non disclosure agreement is a staging device, not a shield

  A non disclosure agreement in a business sale controls when information is shared, not whether it can be misused. What it is for, and what it cannot do.

• A business sales agreement is four kinds of clause doing different jobs

  A business sales agreement has four kinds of clause: what is sold, the price and when, what the seller promises, and what happens if wrong.

• Business sale escrow is money held back, and the terms decide whether you see it

  In a business sale, escrow holds part of the price against warranty claims. Three terms decide whether it comes back to you.

• What happens to cash when selling a business depends on one agreed definition

  Whether the cash in the business is yours or the buyer's is a matter of agreement, and it is settled by how the deal defines what is being sold.

• Questions to ask a business broker, before the engagement rather than after

  Six questions to ask a business broker before signing. Three are about reach, three are about the contract, and none of them is about the headline rate.

• What do business brokers do on a live instruction, week by week

  What business brokers do day to day: prepare material, approach buyers, screen enquiries, coordinate diligence and hold the timetable.

• How to sell your business: the owner's order, from numbers to closing

  Selling a business runs in a fixed order. Doing it out of order is what costs owners months and, often, the deal itself.

• How to sell a small business while you are still running it

  A small business sale is the same process with less margin for error. Preparation matters more, not less, when there is no deal team.

• How to sell a company: what changes when a sale becomes a process

  Above a certain size the sale becomes a managed process with a formal information memorandum, several bidders and a longer diligence.

• Preparing to sell your business: what to fix before a buyer looks

  Preparation is what a buyer pays for. Four things are worth fixing before a sale and one of them takes a year to fix properly.

• Sell my business Texas: what actually changes with the state

  Very little about selling changes with the state, and the parts that do are worth knowing: filings, transfers and who has to consent.

• Sell my veterinary practice: the owner's route, team first

  A veterinary practice sale turns on three things buyers examine first: the clinical team staying, the client base, and the premises.

• Sell my dental practice: what the buyer is really examining

  Clinical practices sell on patient base, payer mix and whether the treating clinician stays. Records handling is the constraint nobody plans for.

• Sell my HVAC business: what buyers pay for in a trade business

  Trade businesses sell on recurring work, crew retention and licenses. Contract-based revenue is worth far more than the same revenue in callouts.

• Sell my SaaS business: retention first, then everything else buyers check

  Software and online businesses are bought on retention and traffic durability. Both are examined in a way other sales never see.

• Sell a manufacturing business: what moves the price, and other types compared

  What a buyer examines changes with the business type. Four types, and the one question each of them turns on.

• Sell your insurance agency: the book, the carriers and who consents

  Agencies and franchises both sell subject to somebody else's consent. Knowing whose, and on what terms, comes before anything else.

• How to sell part of your business: rights, governance and exit terms

  Selling a share means choosing a partner, not an exit. What the buyer gets, and what you keep control of, has to be written down.

• LOI meaning: the letter of intent a buyer sends, explained

  An LOI is mostly non-binding except for the parts that are not. Exclusivity and confidentiality usually bind, and that is the trade.

• Reps and warranties: what a seller promises, and how to limit it

  Warranties are statements you promise are true, with money behind them. Disclosure is how a seller manages that exposure.

• Mutual NDA: when it fits a sale, and the clauses that matter to a seller

  In a business sale the information flows one way, so a unilateral NDA usually fits. Mutual ones appear when the buyer shares too.

• Business purchase agreement: what it commits a seller to

  The purchase agreement is where the deal becomes binding. Five sections carry nearly all of a seller's remaining risk.

• Earn out: what the deferred part of the price commits you to

  An earnout defers part of the price against future performance you may no longer control. The measure and the control are the whole negotiation.

• Seller financing business acquisition: what makes the deferred price safe

  Seller financing means you are lending the buyer part of the price. Security and priority decide whether you are likely to be repaid.

• Escrow agent definition, and the holdback held at closing

  Escrow parks part of the price with a neutral third party. How it is released, and who decides, is the part worth negotiating.

• Confidential information memorandum: the CIM a seller sends buyers

  The CIM is the document that makes a buyer engage. Writing it forces the seller to answer the questions diligence will ask anyway.

• Due diligence list: what a buyer asks for, and the data room behind it

  Diligence asks for the same categories every time. Assembling them before a buyer exists is the highest-return work in a sale.

• Quality of earnings report: the diligence that tests a seller's profit

  A QoE tests whether reported profit is real and repeatable. It is not an audit, and for a seller it is worth understanding before one arrives.

• SDE meaning: business owners' measure of what a firm earns them

  SDE is the total financial benefit one full-time owner takes from a business. It is the measure small-business buyers actually use.

• Asset sale: what it means and how it differs from selling the company

  An asset sale transfers named assets, not the company. It changes which consents you need and how the price is allocated.

• M&A process: the stages in order, and the terms a seller meets

  M&A is the vocabulary your buyer's advisers use. Knowing the stages and the terms stops the process feeling like it is happening to you.

• ESOP structure: selling to your employees through a trust

  An ESOP sells the business to a trust for the employees. It is a real exit route with real complexity and it suits a narrow band of businesses.

• Management buyout: selling to the team already running the business

  An MBO sells to the people already running the business. They know everything, which removes diligence risk and removes your information advantage.

• Business exit planning: what the years before a sale consist of

  Exit planning is what you do in the years before a sale. It is mostly reducing the business's dependence on you, and it cannot be rushed.

• M&A advisory, read from the side of the table that signs the engagement letter

  What an M&A advisory firm is engaged to do, which side of the deal it is on, the registration line federal law draws, and the three numbers in the letter.