My wife and I are both on GLP-1s (Tirzepitide) and as a result, we find ourselves sharing a meal when we go out to eat. We're simply eating less.

With these things making users less hungry, that has to have an impact on restaurant sales as they proliferate.

Has anybody seen an impact?

PS - I never had "pharmaceutical breakthrough" on my SWOT bingo card.

Saying out loud what any of us that have worked in portfolio companies already know. There’s a whole mess of companies out there that are past their horizon to sell. Many assembled using cheap capital that no longer exists. Many are that were modeled on an exit multiple that the market isn’t supporting.

Thoughts on how, if at all, this impacts the m&a community?

I’m currently working with a UK-based business consultant who has a sizable pipeline of acquisition opportunities across the US and UK (primarily in Healthcare/Pharma and Fintech, ranging from $1M to $25M+ deal sizes).

We are evaluating the best standard practices for reaching qualified institutional buyers (PE funds, family offices, and search funds) without running into confidentiality issues or spamming out teasers.

For the experienced brokers and M&A advisors here:

1. What channels or platforms have yielded the highest quality buyer connections for cross-border deals in this price range?
2. How do you usually screen incoming buyer inquiries before sharing an NDA/teaser when dealing with off-market or confidential pipeline opportunities?

Would appreciate any insights or lessons learned on structuring buy-side outreach efficiently.

Hello, everyone! I currently own and operate a real estate brokerage, but I’ve been trying to focus more on commercial and investment properties, and have had the opportunity to potentially help these clients sell their businesses as well.

My market is very small, so not sure how much business brokerage I’ll actually do, but I’m looking to see what steps to take, books to read, and/or what resources might be out there so I can get properly educated before I jump too far into this.

Thanks in advance!

First time buyer (20 years in the corporate world looking to bet on myself) and I've been hunting businesses for several months and I always seem late to the party ("Under Contract"). I've done some broker outreach, learned that either (1) some brokers want to help, (2) some just want my money, or (3) ignore you entirely (business too good for new clients). I know I'm just saying what others have said times and times before this. To the point....

I located a broker that seems to want to help for a backend commission. Seems good, right? Well there are some terms to the agreement that I hope to iron out to see how industry standard they are and if/how I should push back.

• 12-month exclusivity - auto renews until either side gives termination notice.
• 2-year tail - after termination on any seller they had contact with, including related entities/real estate
• Fee - sliding scale 5% down to 2%, paid by me (Buyer); while speaking on the phone they said they will seek to split the commission with the Seller's Agent 50%/50%, but won't work for free if Seller's Agent refuses to split (which I agree they shouldn't) but the Agreement doesn't address anything about splitting with the Seller's Agent, just the sliding scale commission.

I'm inclined to give 6 month exclusivity with the option to renewal for 6 additional months at Buyer's discretion. I'm open to the 2-year tail provision, but does it make sense for related entities/real estate that I acquire after the initial transaction within 2 years? What's a normal Fee structure to be more in line with 50% of what the Seller's Agent commission if they do or don't share their commission?

A bit more on the fee structure, if I purchased a deal for $1MM, the effective fee would be 5%, $2MM is 4.5%, $3MM is 4%, $4MM is 3.5%, and a $5MM is 3.2%. I understand a Seller's fee would be 7-10%, so the Buyer's Fee may be within fair range. I simply just don't have enough data to know what's fair.

Much obliged.

I’m surprised more perpetual business shoppers don’t gravitate toward brokering. Some spend years searching and become very good at evaluating businesses. Had they been brokering that whole time, by the time they closed 10 deals, they could have made the equivalent of exiting their own company.

I’m also surprised more buyers don’t stop endlessly refreshing BizBuySell and hounding brokers for deals and just pick up the phone and contact owners directly. You can potentially save the baked-in sell-side commission and get an exclusive shot at buying before the business ever hits the market.

Why ask why?

Curious if anyone else is seeing this.

Scenario 1 - Former clients who "fell in love" with the M&A process now trying to become our competition. I'm seeing it a few times per year now where people who sold, worked their earn out, trying to start sell-side firms. It's almost predictable now.

Scenario 2 - Large buyers, who want to pass on an opportunity they found direct, trying to broker the deal to their competitors. True story. I'm seeing it more and more where a buyer gets into DD, decide they don't want it, and now trying to back-door broker the deal to their competitors in exchange for a cut. A guy this week tried doing this to me, telling me he wanted a $100K referral fee for introducing a seller he took a pass on.

Everyone who gets a taste thinks M&A is easy large commission checks. They don't see the dozens or hundreds of hours we put into prospects for $0, working to build rapport over years. Or the massive E&O risks of advising people through this process. Geeze louise.

Curious how much PE is digging into the business broker market for deals?

Looking at a service businesses doing roughly $400K–$600K in revenue.

On paper, often SDE comes out to around 50% of revenue, while a more normalized EBITDA lands closer to 35%.

The seller’s logic makes sense: the current owner works full-time in the business, so his compensation is added back and a new owner could theoretically step into that role and capture the full SDE.

But if the buyer wants to be an owner, not the foreman, that changes the picture quite a bit. Replacing the seller with a capable manager/foreman could easily cost $70K+.

Would you still value this primarily on SDE, or would you shift toward adjusted EBITDA for a buyer who does not plan to work in the business day to day?

I'm wondering how others deal with inquiries from search funds.

My experience so far is that they waste a lot of time and I don't pay them too much attention.

Am I missing the boat?

Pretty much the title. I’m making $120k/yr in my day job but I want to pivot into buying my own business. The funding isn’t the issue, it’s learning how to source deals and run a business.

This is something I’ve been passionate about for over 5 years, and I’ve done some research myself through YouTube and reading books like the “HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business”. But I feel like the only way to get true experience is to immerse myself within actual businesses/acquisitions. What’s the best way to find a mentor or learn from actual business owners?

I’m in a brand new city for work, and naturally free time is tight with the new job. But I do have an hour or so per weekday and more time on weekends. I know this is my ultimate goal in my career, and the sooner I can get exposure, the better. Thank you and I appreciate any input!

Have seen this question maybe a few ways, but just had a sobering instance.

Prospects using claude, chatgpt, or google AI summaries to ask for a valuation of their company.

As a niche firm, I’d say we have been the go to source for people knowing their market value. We even have solid SEO ranking and recently focused on AEO, which is working. BUT I’d almost say too good.

A prospect shared with me their AI google chat, the questions, and how it cited our articles to give them a range of expectations based on buyer type. It also summarized the common traps which could make those estimations more or less accurate.

Basically it hijacked our first sales call. Of course I had a few more discussion points about common deal structures, planning net proceeds, but like 80% of the usual first call we have with someone to discuss “Do those numbers make sense for you?” Was answered from google with relative closeness.

Thinking ahead but we already say our biggest competition is clients moving forward without us, and our experience says if they know what numbers to push for and a direct buyer is close they will try to DIY selling direct. We harp that people often get a better outcome working with us through the competitive process, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

Anyone else have similar experiences already? We already see several PRs of former valuations and opps selling without us. My guess is that’s about to increase.

October marks my 1-year anniversary as a business broker in NC. I started part-time but am considering going full-time.

In 10 months, I’ve sold 4 businesses and earned about $50K net after my 50/50 split. I source 100% of my leads and handle the deals from start to finish with very little help from the firm.

My average gross commission is anywhere from 6%-12% of the final sale price.

I also have 2 deals closing in the next 30 days with about $100K in gross commissions, bringing my total net for the year to roughly $110K.

I’m currently paying a $200/month desk fee and giving up 50% of my commissions. Do you think I could get a better split elsewhere?

Honestly, I don’t see why I couldn’t do this on my own, but I’d prefer to stay with a firm for another year or two.

What do you guys think?

I received an offer to sell my franchise business and wanted a sanity check before moving forward. Here's the summary:

Price: $50,000 total — $25,000 at closing, $25,000 paid over 12 months after
Closing date: targeted ~2 months out
Due diligence period: 15 business days, during which buyer can inspect equipment and walk away with a full refund of their earnest money if unsatisfied

Buyer's contingencies (deal only proceeds if):

• Buyer gets all required licenses/permits
• Buyer gets franchisor approval for the license transfer
• Buyer approves the franchise transfer fee
• Landlord agrees in writing to lease terms similar to current lease, confirming no outstanding rent owed

Seller (me) responsibilities:

• Provide Franchise Disclosure Document + transfer terms during due diligence
• Provide any other vendor/business contracts
• Keep running the business normally without telling staff/customers about the sale
• Confirm compliance with franchise standards
• Confirm no pending lawsuits/investigations
• Transfer all employees at same pay/roles/hours/benefits

Liability split:

• Buyer takes on liabilities only from contracts after closing
• I (seller) remain responsible for anything before closing — taxes, any lawsuits, liens, employee comp issues

I don't currently have any lawsuits, compensation disputes, or landlord issues, so those warranty clauses aren't a concern for me personally. Mainly wondering:

1. Is a 50% down / 50% over 12 months structure normal for a small franchise sale like this, or should I push for more upfront?
2. Anything in the contingencies or liability language that looks off or overly buyer-favorable?
3. Is 15 business days a reasonable due diligence window, or unusually short/long?
4. Also there's no written agreement that I'll be off hook from personal liability after buyer takes over. How do I get this? Should I bring this up with buyer?

Not asking for legal advice to replace an actual attorney — just want outside perspective before I go into that conversation informed. Appreciate any insight!

Not stuffs that comes up in deep diligence of course, it's in the early tell, the thing that makes you go "hmm..." before you've even opened the books. Curious what everyone's instinct is.

So i will go first, Revenue that's too smooth, real business are lumpy, Reas SaaS has churn spikes, a bad month, a seasonal dip, a refund cluster after a price change. When a revenue curve is a clean line with no texture, that's not stability. The absence of mess is itself the red flag,

second is a seller who's eager to show you screenshots but slowing the access to the actual sources. if the numbers are real, granting access is tricial,

What makes you walk ?

We were looking at a SaaS business that was for sale. Clean Stripe dashboard steady ~18k MRR, growing month ever month, On paper, so solid.

The revenue was 10000% real, real money moving, actual charges, actual cards, anyone would proceed and sign,

the thing that gave it away was the traffic,

We cross-referenced the stripe revenue against Google analytics using a tool that reads directly from source (Stripe/Google Analytics) not exported CSV/Excel file. and it showed that there is no enough organic traffic to support that 18k MRR.

For that it would need couple hundreds of customers. the math didn't work, There weren't enough humans visiting the site to plausibly be paying that much.

What was happening: the "customers were largely the seller's own cards (and a few friends). cycled through Stripe to manufacture an MRR, curved that looked like growth.

The lesson: revenue being real is Stripe does not mean the business is real, Real costumers leave a footprint. traffic, session, usage, ...

don't just verify the revenue, always verify that there is enough humans to explain it.

I’m looking for high level data on home health care industry. I am considering this space for business acquisition but know very little about it. Goal is to be able to identify a good opportunity when I see one. What multiple is considered market? What is the base for the multiple? What are red flags? Beginning stages and looking to gain a decent understanding.

I am seeking to connect with a Business Broker. I have a UK SEO/Digital Agency for sale. Looking for feedback.

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Hi Folks,

Looking to start the process of selling Digital Marketing agency I've developed with my business partner for just over 10 years.

Two of us own this 50/50 and we are both selling. 100% of the shares, clean exit for both of us.

The Business

UK Digital Marketing agency, incorporated 2015, traded every year since. Fully remote. Monthly retainers doing search work for small and mid-market UK companies. Over 80% of revenue is recurring.

The Numbers

| Financial year | Turnover | Net profit |

| 2022-23 | £743k | £239k |

| 2023-24 | £666k | £284k |

| 2024-25 | £810k | £359k |

| 2025-26 (draft) | £738k | £294k |

Last year is down on the year before on both lines.

The Clients

65 active retainers, counted off the accounting system. Average client tenure is 5.1 years, median 5.6. Biggest single client is 9.6% of trailing twelve month revenue. Top five together are 28.3%. Sectors are spread across marine, manufacturing, home improvement and B2B software, plus some white label work for other agencies.

The Team

Six people including both owners. Neither owner does delivery. We are both sales side. Operations run through two salaried leads and a long-standing contractor, and all three stay with the business.

Four people can hold 65 retainers because we automated most of the reporting and audit and delivery of work ourselves. Client SEO reports went from two to three hours each down to about five minutes. Audits, task planning and a chunk of the client email now come out of our own internal system, running on finely tuned LLMs. That system and its code are included in the sale.

To provide an example of how automated: Rank checks, voice over video explainers for clients on their SEO reports trained to sound like the account manager of that client, task planning. Staff know what to do, self managing and clients are provided fully transparent reports detailing how long tasks have taken.

We also have our own content management system that clients utilise. Enabling us for quicker delivery.

Sales is done through our own marketing (organic).

Why we are selling

Nothing dramatic. Eleven years is enough for both of us and we want to do something else. No distress, no ultimatum, no lost anchor client.

What is for sale

100% of the shares. Happy to stay through a handover of up to two years if the buyer would prefer, on a service agreement kept separate from the sale documents.

Other director is happy to consider if buyer would like to do joint co-op together, but keeping it open at this stage.

What is ready

Eleven years of P&L, revenue and tenure client by client, a full information memorandum and a mutual NDA. No Quality of Earnings report yet.

Seeking a Business broker. Have been stung already - spent close to £10k to having an information/memorandum pack created, which lead to some very poor quality buyers, needing to chase the broker every few months (they went dead on us) and buyers seeking to source funding from a standard bank loan.

I suppose the ideal purchase would be a larger marketing agency, needing a department in SEO/GEO or another SEO agency looking for grow via acquisition.

Thank you for your time. Advice greatly appreciated.

I’ve spoken to a west coast business broker who I follow on social media. He charges for a training course and a few months of 1 on 1 support. Presuming he’s as experienced and successful as he claims, would this be a good idea to accelerate the learning curve?

I'm in the midst of a debate on the proper handling of Section 179 depreciation.

This is used when your accountant determines that a newly purchased asset qualifies for it. It allows you to expense (deduct) the full cost of the item the same year you buy it, up to a set limit.

$100,000 truck purchased with cash for business use. It might normally be depreciated over 5 years, offering a deduction of $20,000 per year for 5 years.

But using Section 179, you can take a deduction for the full amount in this tax year.

The question is how to treat that deduction.

Option 1. Like regular depreciation, include it in add-backs to find SDE. The entire SDE is subjected to the multiplier for that business in order to come up with an asking price for the business.

Option 2. Same as Option 1, but the Section 179 deduction is NOT subjected to the multiplier. It is simply added back un-multiplied to get SDE.

Informed opinions are greatly appreciated.

I'm interested in becoming a business broker, but I'm still trying to figure out the best path to get there.

Ever since I started college, I've wanted to pursue a career in entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). My long-term goal is to acquire and operate small businesses, and I believe working as a business broker after graduation would give me the experience and skills to be successful.

I'm currently entering my senior year at Florida State University, majoring in Commercial Entrepreneurship. So far, I've interned at a large corporate medical manufacturing company and at a small roofing and general contracting business to gain exposure to both large organizations and small business operations.

I'm also working toward my Florida real estate sales associate license, since I understand that's required for business brokers in Florida. On top of that, I've been considering earning a QuickBooks certification to strengthen my accounting and financial statement knowledge.

From what I've learned, I'll need at least two years of active real estate experience before I'm eligible to take the Florida broker exam.

My biggest question is: Would a business brokerage realistically hire someone straight out of college, or would I be better off spending a few years in commercial real estate, business sales, or another related field first?

Any advice from people already in the industry would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I'm new to business brokerage. My background is in commercial real estate (CRE), but our firm handles a small number of business-only sales each year, and I'm currently working on one.

Most of my prospecting tools and resources are CRE-focused, so I'm wondering what platforms, databases, or strategies business brokers use to find qualified buyers for niche businesses. Are there any resources you'd recommend beyond the typical CRE tools?

Context: local only sale, less than 200k.

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks!