How to find businesses for sale, on the market and off it

There are two ways to find businesses for sale. The first is the public market: adverts on marketplaces and businesses registered with a broker, which anyone can search today. The second is private: an owner who would sell, and may already have decided to, but has told no one and placed no advert. Most searches only cover the first market. The second is larger, because an owner who has not committed to selling has every reason to stay quiet about it, and it rewards a buyer willing to do some of the finding themselves.

Two markets, not one

Think of every business that will eventually change hands as sitting somewhere on a line. At one end are businesses actively, publicly for sale: listed, priced, and visible to every other buyer searching the same terms. At the other end are businesses whose owner has given selling no real thought yet, but would listen to the right approach at the right time. Nearly all the advice aimed at buyers covers only the first group, because it is the easiest to search and the easiest to sell tools and services against. The second group is where a patient buyer with a clear brief has the least competition.

Neither market is "better." A public listing gives you a profit figure, an asking price, and a seller who has already decided to sell, which shortens the process considerably. Finding and testing those claims is a separate skill, covered in our guide to reading a business-for-sale listing. An off-market approach gives you less information up front and a longer runway before anyone agrees to anything, in exchange for far less competition and, often, an owner who has not yet set a price in their own head.

The public market: marketplaces and brokers

Online marketplaces exist in most English-speaking countries for exactly this purpose: sellers or their brokers list a business with a headline description, a revenue and profit figure, and an asking price, and buyers search by sector, location and price band. They are a reasonable place to start building a sense of what things cost and how listings are written, and worth treating as a starting point rather than a final figure before the asking prices start to look either cheap or expensive.

Business brokers are the other main route onto the public market, and some of what a broker sells never appears in a public listing at all; a broker's private client list can matter as much to a serious buyer as the listings on their website. Registering interest with a broker is normally free to a buyer, and the seller pays the broker's commission on completion, not you. Because of that, there is little downside to registering with several brokers rather than one, as long as you are clear with each about what you are looking for. Ask a broker directly how many of their current instructions are already listed publicly, how many are not, and whether they specialise in your sector; a broker who sells everything from cafés to engineering firms knows your trade less well than one who only works in it.

Whichever route brings you a candidate, the questions you then need answered do not change, and our guide to why owners actually sell applies equally to a business found through a marketplace and one found through a cold approach.

The private market: reaching an owner before they list

An owner who has not listed a business has not necessarily ruled out selling it. Retirement, a health change, a falling-out with a business partner or simple tiredness often arrive well before an owner does anything about it publicly, and a surprising number only start the process because someone credible asked. Reaching that owner is slower and less certain than browsing a marketplace, but it is not mysterious. It comes down to three things: a specific brief, a way of finding names, and a reason for the owner to take your approach seriously.

Ask people who already know. Accountants, solicitors and insurance brokers who work with small business owners often hear about a planned sale, or an owner's frustration, well before any broker is instructed. Trade suppliers, industry bodies and anyone else embedded in a sector hear things too. Telling a small, specific group of people exactly what you are looking for, rather than a vague "I'm looking to buy a business," is what makes them think of you when something comes up.

Build your own list. In the UK, every limited company's basic details are public and searchable for free through Companies House's advanced search, run by the UK government. You can filter by nature of business, shown as a SIC code, a numeric classification of what trade a company is actually in, alongside incorporation date, registered office address and company status. That lets you build a list of, say, every active plumbing or joinery company incorporated more than fifteen years ago in a particular region: a reasonable proxy for an owner old enough to be thinking about an exit. The United States has no single equivalent; company registration sits with each state's Secretary of State, and searchable detail varies a great deal from state to state, so check what your own state actually publishes before assuming this approach transfers directly.

Make the approach count. However you reach an owner, by letter, a personal introduction or a direct call, be specific about what you are looking for and realistic about what to expect. Most people you approach this way will not reply, and most of those who do will not be ready to sell soon. That is normal, not a sign the approach has failed; it is a volume-and-patience exercise rather than a quick one, closer to what professional buyers mean when they talk about building their own deal flow rather than waiting for deals to arrive.

What each route actually gives you

The figures below are a plain comparison, not a ranking. Which route suits you depends on how much time you have and how much competition you can tolerate.

Illustration, not a real search: a buyer with a clear brief filters the Companies House register down to around 60 companies in one trade and one region that look old enough to have an owner nearing retirement, writes to all 60, and over several months ends up in a real conversation with perhaps four or five of them. One goes on to become a serious deal. Nothing about those numbers is guaranteed; they illustrate the shape of the exercise, not a result to expect.

What to do next

Decide which market you are actually prepared to work in before you start searching either one. If you want a transaction within months and can live with more competition, marketplaces and several non-exclusive brokers are the faster route; write a one-paragraph brief you can repeat consistently, since a broker you approach once in a while will forget you between calls. If you can give it a year or more and want less competition, start with the people already around your target sector, build a list from your own country's company register, and make your approach specific and low-pressure the first time. Most buyers end up doing some of both, and neither route removes the need for proper due diligence once a real candidate appears; our due diligence checklist for a first acquisition is the next read once you have one. Talking the search itself through with people who have done it before is also worth doing early, which is a large part of what the Republic of Investors community exists for.

Common questions

Do I have to pay a business broker to search for a business? No. Registering interest with a broker is normally free for a buyer. The seller pays the broker's commission when a sale completes, not the buyer, so there is little cost to registering with more than one.

Is an off-market business usually cheaper than one on a marketplace? Not automatically. Lower competition for your attention does not mean a lower price; an owner who has never tested the market may have an unrealistic figure in mind, or none at all. You still need to work out what the business is actually worth; see our guide to valuing a small business before any number goes into an offer.

How many businesses should I look at before making an offer? There is no fixed number. What matters is a brief specific enough that you can tell quickly which candidates are worth a proper look, so that the businesses you do spend time on are ones that fit, rather than whichever happened to appear first.

Can I find a business to buy without ever using a broker? Yes. Marketplaces and your own research, including a country's company register where one is searchable, can get you to a candidate without a broker involved at all. You will still usually want an accountant and a solicitor once a specific deal is on the table.

Should I tell a broker I am also searching off-market myself? There is no reason to hide it, and most brokers assume serious buyers are doing both. Being clear about your brief and your timeline tends to get a better response than being vague about how seriously you are looking.