Most sellers are genuinely caught off guard by this one. Industry data from business brokerage surveys consistently shows the average time-to-close for a small to mid-sized business runs between 6 and 12 months. Some owners hear that and think they are ahead of schedule. Most find out they were behind before they ever started. Selling a business is not like selling a house. There is no open house weekend, no sign in the yard, no offer in two weeks. It is a layered process of

In many states, there are no licensing requirements to call yourself a business broker. None. That means the person sitting across from you could have closed dozens of deals or could have started last Tuesday. There is no board to check, no bar to pass, no minimum standard to meet. The burden of figuring out whether someone is qualified falls entirely on you. The questions you ask a business broker before signing a listing agreement are the only real vetting tool you have. A

The most expensive mistake I see business owners make before a sale has nothing to do with timing, pricing, or picking the wrong buyer. It is using the wrong earnings metric.

A few months ago I sat across from a business owner who had built a $3 million revenue building company from scratch. Twenty-two years of early mornings and late invoices. He wanted to sell. Great. But he had already made three mistakes before he even called me, and two of them nearly cost him six figures at the closing table. I see this story repeat itself constantly. Selling a business is the process of preparing, pricing, marketing, negotiating, and closing the transfer of