Brokerage Services for Very Small Businesses
Full service brokerage services offer a complete solution for selling your business. List, market and sell your business with full service brokerage.
Brokerage services are provided by REeBroker Group, with Murphy Curtis (02225358 ) acting as agent.
REeBroker Group, based in San Diego California, was established in 2005 and has industry leading business experience behind each and every transaction.
Brokerage process
With brokerage services, a business broker handles your sale. The broker lists, markets and sells your business.
Brokerage services begin with an introductory phone call where you tell us about your business and we give you our professional assessment of the sell-ability of your business. We will tell you the strengths of your business as it pertains to a sale, as well as challenges that we think your business might encounter. From our initial meeting, we will be able to give you a sense of the fair market price. Once you decide to list with us, we will delve much deeper into your business to create a valuation and suggested list price. We will tell you what you need to do to prepare for the sale and help you time the listing of your business to maximize reach. We’ll create visually pleasing sales materials that tell the story of your business to potential buyers as well as present your financial information in an easy to understand format.
Once your sale is advertised, which we’ll handle, we will manage the leads for you, starting with non-disclosure agreements. Our lead management process is more front loaded than most brokers. We will spend more time qualifying potential buyers and making sure that only “real” leads gain access to your confidential business information. Once we find a buyer, we’ll negotiate offers for you and help you manage the diligence process so your sale closes.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is impossible to predict how long it will take for your business to sell. Once you decide to list your business, it will take about one month for it to be marketable. The lead management phase is usually (but not always) the longest and it is difficult to predict how long that will last. We will always do our part to keep things moving along by responding promptly to potential buyer queries.
Once buyer and seller agree upon a price, the goal is always to close as sale as expeditiously as possible, with the goal of one month. Businesses that are priced correctly generally find a buyer within a few months
- Think about selling before you are ready to sell. Running your business with the goal of an eventual sale makes for an easier selling process.
- Keep orderly financial statements. Clean books sell businesses. Messy, confusing or unclear financials reduce value and make selling difficult.
- Figure out how you want to sell your business. Do you need a broker? Or can you figure this out?
Brokerage fees are a commission paid out of proceeds from the sale of your small business. Our rates are extremely competitive. Contact us to learn more.
There are additional expenses when selling your business. We can tell you more about which, if any, you might incur. Examples of this might include:
- Maintenance costs - you may need to spruce up your physical or online presence in order to prepare for the sale.
- Escrow fees - depending on the structure of your sale and what you’re selling, you might want to use an escrow agency during the sale.
- Attorney fees - depending on your state and the nature of your business, you may wish to have an attorney draw up a Purchase Agreement for you. In California, you can use the standard MLS forms however we recommend you work with an attorney for your Purchase Agreement.
- Advertising fees: We bill you for the exact amount it costs to post your for sale ads.
Yes, we do, but we typically prefer to avoid it.
If you have an owner operator business, you need to convince someone that your job is worth buying. You are the best person to do this, not a broker.
Let's put it another way, if you've been running an owner operator business for a while, you're pretty smart and organized. You are better off selling your business yourself with strategic help - coaching calls, sales materials and business valuation.
We come from the very small business world, having owned Pilates studios and online businesses. We understand schedule software, business management software and that your role as an owner is nuanced. We deeply respect that you may not want your customers and employees to find out about a potential sale. Most importantly, our business exists for the sole purpose of helping very small business owners successfully exit their businesses. The traditional brokerage model isn’t scalable to very small businesses. The “fix” for this is either an artificially high high price, which impacts sellability, or an inexperienced broker, who might not handle your sale with the care it needs.
How we sell your business depends on your business, your industry and your goals. We’ll list your business on one of the many business for sale websites. We’ll likely send an email blast about your business for sale (obviously the listing and email would be without the name or identifying information). Beyond that, depending on your business, we may reach out to people we know or people you recommend to tell them of the listing (again, without identifying information).
The main difference between us and most brokers is that we’ll spend a lot more time qualifying leads. We won’t give out your sales materials to just anyone. And, we’ll work closely with you to make sure that everyone who receives your information is fully vetted. We will focus on quality over quantity when it comes to sales leads for your business. Once we start talking to prospective buyers, we’ll engage in conversation with them to answer their questions in a timely manner.
BEeBroker is the brokerage agency we work with. They allow the most flexibility so that we can focus exclusively on very small businesses. This means we don't sell new franchise opportunities, big restaurants or dry clearers. We focus exclusively on very small businesses where we can work directly with the business owners towards a successful sale.
Brokerage services are for California based businesses. We focus on Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside counties.
Brokers like to say you need a broker. We disagree. It's been our experience that very small business sales are better suited to a DIY approach to selling that comes with strategic support. Simply put, all VSBs have a degree of owner involvement. Given this, you're still going to need to do some heavy lifting to close your deal. Brokerage services are definitely better suited to slightly bigger very small businesses.