Selling a privately-held business is a process with a known shape: know what it's worth, package it confidentially, qualify buyers before they learn the name, run a competitive process, and hold the deal together through diligence. This page walks the whole arc — and personalizes the numbers to your industry.
Start with your industry
1.5× – 3.5× SDE
commonly observed range for owner-operated businesses
Generic small-business range; broker review narrows.
Ranges are commonly observed market patterns on seller's discretionary earnings — not an appraisal or an opinion of value for any specific business. See multiples by industry for the adjusters that move every range.
The strongest sales rarely start with a crisis. They start one to two years out: an owner who can see retirement, relocation, a partnership unwinding, or simply the next chapter — and who uses the runway to clean the books, reduce owner-dependence, and document the operation. A business sold from a position of preparation commands the top of its range; a business sold under deadline pressure negotiates from the bottom of it. If a sale is even on your horizon, the best time to understand your number is now, not when you need it.
Three years of financials, normalized earnings (owner compensation, perks, one-time items), the right lens for your size — SDE for owner-operated businesses, EBITDA where management runs the floor — and comparables for your industry. The output is a defensible range and a go-to-market price. Start free with the SDE calculator or read how value is actually calculated.
A blind profile markets the business without identifying it — industry, region, financial profile, growth story. The detailed materials live behind an NDA. Your name, your address, and your customer list appear nowhere public. The mechanics are on selling confidentially.
Every buyer signs a nondisclosure agreement and demonstrates financial capability before learning which business is for sale. That filter is what makes a confidential process actually confidential — and it spares you weeks of conversations with buyers who could never close.
One buyer is a negotiation; several are a market. The spread between a single-buyer deal and a competitive process — in price, in terms, in survival rate — is routinely larger than the entire brokerage fee.
Most deals that die, die between letter of intent and closing: financing wobbles, diligence surprises, lease assignments, license transfers, cold feet. Managing that stretch — keeping both sides moving, sequencing the contingencies, landing the escrow — is where an experienced broker earns the fee.
Brokerage compensation is typically a success fee paid at closing out of proceeds — commonly 8%–12% on main-street transactions, with tiered scales on larger deals; the structures are laid out plainly on business broker fees. Most sales run six to twelve months end-to-end. Florida engagements run under the state's 61J2 brokerage framework — see Florida business broker — and deals that cross state lines run through the partner structures described on multi-state engagements.
Run the free SDE calculator for an instant range, or start a confidential inquiry — two sentences about the business, no documents, and we'll tell you what the process would look like for your industry. Replies within one business day.
Most main-street and lower-middle-market sales run six to twelve months from engagement to closing. Clean books and low owner-dependence shorten the runway; SBA financing timelines often set the floor.
No — but the spread between a single-buyer negotiation and a competitive, confidential process is routinely larger than the entire fee. The broker's product is conditions: multiple qualified buyers, confidentiality intact, and a deal that survives diligence.
Not from the process. The business is marketed blind, buyers are NDA-bound before learning the name, and staff typically learn of the sale after closing — usually framed as good news, with the buyer's growth plans attached.
The ranges and statements on this page describe commonly observed market patterns. They are not an appraisal, a broker price opinion, or an opinion of value for any specific business, and they are not a representation that any business will sell at any particular price or multiple. Individual results vary widely with size, geography, deal structure, and market conditions. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice; consult your own advisors.
Dom Dominguez, MBA, MS is a Florida-licensed business broker. As required by Florida Real Estate Commission Rule 61J2, the broker license is registered with Hedgestone Business Advisors, a trade name of Steinberg Re Holdings, LLC, a Florida limited liability company (collectively, "Hedgestone"). Hedgestone neither owns nor operates this Site; this disclosure appears solely for brokerage-licensure compliance. Vaultolio is a brand name for the website only and is not itself a legal entity or licensed brokerage. Florida Broker License No. FL BK3529743. Mailing address: 2431 NW 92nd Ave, Coral Springs, FL 33065. Phone: 813-389-9466. Vaultolio does not claim or represent licensure in any other state.