New York State Business Brokers List for Selling New York Small Businesses
We firmly believe selling a small business must involve a business broker. As we’ve said in older posts (Pennsylvania business broker list), business brokers are the intermediary that prepare both the buyer and seller for a successful transaction. Business brokers are incentivized by the transaction and future transactions, so they’re uniquely aligned to, 1) sell your business to the best possible party and price, and 2) ensure your goals are reasonably met so that you will refer future business (business listings often come from referrals, maintaining a sterling reputation is very important to business brokers). If you’re planning to sell a New York State small business, then start with our list of New York State business brokers list to find the broker that’s right for your business sale. When you start to meet brokers, we suggest you consider these interview questions in choosing the right broker.
- Timing and Schedule? There are three big timing buckets in a business sale: The selling process, the diligence process, and the closing process. Get a sense from the broker about how long the transaction will take at each stage. Ask the broker what time commitments he or she will give your business and what time commitments you need to give to the broker. If the broker is not willing to get on the phone with you or provide concrete time commitments to your business upfront it might indicate that the broker will not be focused on transacting your business. Dig deeper by asking, “why” to understand the issues and be willing to move on if it does not align with your timing requirements.
- What’s Out-of-Bounds and In-Bounds? Some brokers will aggressively market a business with business listing websites, e-mailing campaigns, etc. Others will reach out to curated set of buyers with a bespoke marketing campaign. It’s important for you to understand and accept the way the broker will sell your business before agreeing to sell your business with a broker. Make sure you discuss with your broker what tactics/strategies they’re going to use to sell your business and the visibility this will create for your business. If your business sale is confidential, then this is extremely important to understand before signing with a broker.
- Successful Deal and Broken Deal References? Always ask for reference checks as a follow-up for brokers that you think might fit your need. Try to speak to a business owner that successfully transacted with the broker (either the previous owner or the new owner) and those that did not successfully transact with the broker. It will be harder to get “broken deal” references, but be persistent. Every broker has a broken deal and there’s a lot to learn from the failures.
- Industry Experience? See if the business broker has experience transacting with other businesses in your industry (or adjacent industries). This is not critical to successfully selling your business, but it will help you understand if you think the broker can sell your type of business. Again, you may want to ask to speak to references from successfully closed transactions and transactions that didn’t close with a focus on your industry.
- Professionals Agree? Check with your lawyer (and your lawyer’s lawyer friends) and accountant (and your accountant’s accountant friends) to find out what they know about the business broker. Have they worked with that business broker in the past? Do they know anyone that’s worked with the broker? What questions do they want to ask the broker? Your lawyer and accountant will be spending time with the broker, so they need to be comfortable with the broker as well.
- Valuation Expectations? It is important that you agree with the broker on the valuation expectations of your business before signing an exclusivity agreement. Make sure the broker is honest with you about the value of your business so that sticker shock doesn’t factor in later in the sale process when it can damage a potential deal. You should expect the broker to push back on your initial valuation, use that as the starting point of a valuation conversation.
These questions put you on the right path to finding a good New York business broker (or business broker in any other state), but remember that selling your business is a two-way street. Just as you would expect the broker to be prepared and enthusiastic about your small business sale, you should be too. This means dedicating time to preparing the necessary financial statements and contracts for the broker to review and time to speak with potential buyers, weekly. Additionally, the more transparent you are with what your selling goals (e.g., highest valuation, fastest close, preserved legacy, employee retention, etc.) the more the broker can filter upfront to make sure he or she presents the buyer that fits your desired outcome. Transparency between you and the business broker will only make the process smoother.
A note on our List of New York State Business Brokers
Selling your New York business with a New York business broker puts you and your business on a surer path to successfully closing the transaction. Our New York business brokers list has 247 different business brokers and can help you get started in your process to sell your business. This list features all the brokers we’ve found that sell businesses in New York State and is not filtered for asset class (e.g., real estate business brokers vs. industrial business brokers), size of the business broker’s firm, quality of the business broker’s firm, or even if the business broker is actively seeking new listings. If you have questions about how to approach brokers, what to look for in a New York business broker, or want to learn about selling your New York Small Business to Endurance Eagle, contact us and we’d be more than happy to help.
Download our list of NY Business Brokers