A business broker is an intermediary who helps bring buyers and sellers of small businesses together. In some ways they are similar to realtors, except that they sell businesses instead of real estate.
At the Corporate level, such professionals might be called investment bankers, M&A; professionals, or similar exalted titles to match their huge fees.
But in the small business market their title of “business broker” simply matches what they do, broker businesses for sale. And their fees are not the multi-million dollar fees of the big boys, but more realistic for the market.
A former colleague and friend went from being a manufacturing executive in a NYSE-traded company, to opening his own business as a business broker.
He and his partner are the only business brokers in a small town in Ohio. Things are booming, because it is becoming much more common nowadays to buy and sell small businesses. They even sell Amish businesses on occasion, since they are located near the heart of Amish country in Ohio.
I asked him to tell me the best places to find small businesses for sale on the Web. I thought if anyone would know, he would. He actually took a few minutes to sit down and write out a list of sites with small businesses for sale.
Here is the list of sites he gave me:<ul><li>Business Broker Network</li>
<li>International Business Broker’s Association</li>
<li>Biz Buy Sell*</li>
<li>Biz For Sell</li>
<li>Busimarket</li>
<li>Merger Network</li></ul>So which is the best of these sites? That I don’t know. However, he placed an asterisk next to Biz Buy Sell, so that tells you something.
Where to Find Small Businesses for Sale
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