Before any of the process questions, an owner is making one structural choice: who finds the buyer, and what that costs. There are four routes and they are genuinely different in effort, in fee and in who does the work. Owners often discover this after engaging somebody, which is the expensive order. Setting the four side by side first takes twenty minutes and frequently changes the decision, particularly for owners who already know who is likely to buy.
To somebody you already know
A competitor, a manager, a supplier, a family member. There is no marketing and often no fee to anybody for finding the buyer, so the cost is your own time and your advisers' at completion. The risk is that a single buyer with no competition knows they have no competition, and the negotiation reflects it. Being ready still matters, because the buyer will still run diligence.
Privately to the market, or through a broker
Selling privately means you do the finding: listings, approaches, confidentiality, and screening people who are not serious. It costs time rather than fee. A broker does that for a commission on the price, usually with a minimum and often a retainer, and brings buyers you would not reach. The choice is mostly about whether you have the buyers and the hours, not about the percentage.
Through a corporate finance adviser
At a larger size the process is run by an adviser with a fuller mandate: preparing the material, running a structured process, managing several bidders. The fee structure is different again and the process is heavier. If this is your route, the adviser brings a data room and their own machinery, and your preparation feeds theirs rather than replacing it.
Questions people ask about sell a business
Which route is cheapest?
Selling to a buyer you already know, in fee terms. Whether it is cheapest overall depends on the price you achieve without competition, which is the part no fee comparison captures.
Can I approach a competitor directly?
Owners do, and the usual protection is a confidentiality agreement before anything sensitive is shared. What that agreement should contain is a question for your own solicitor; this site explains what the document is for and never drafts one.
Does the route change what I have to prepare?
Barely. Every route ends in a buyer running diligence, and the pack they ask for is broadly the same. That is why preparation is worth starting before the route is decided.