Finding a good business to buy is harder than most people expect. The best deals are not always listed publicly. The ones that are listed require serious filtering to find anything worth pursuing. And going off-market, which is where many of the best deals happen, takes patience and a system.
This guide covers the three main channels for finding businesses for sale: business brokers, online marketplaces, and off-market outreach. Each has a different risk profile, time investment, and deal quality. Use all three and you will have a real pipeline. Use only one and you are leaving options on the table.
Channel 1: Business Brokers
A business broker is a professional who represents sellers in the sale of their business, similar to a real estate agent but for companies. Brokers list the businesses they represent on their own sites and on aggregator platforms. They vet buyers, manage the listing process, and earn a commission at closing, typically 8 to 12 percent of the sale price for Main Street deals under $2 million.
How Brokers Work
Most brokers work with sellers, not buyers. When you contact a broker about a listing, you are dealing with the seller’s representative. That does not mean they are adversarial, but it does mean they are not your advocate. They want to close the deal and earn their commission.
To work with a broker as a buyer, you typically sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before receiving detailed information about the business. The broker will then send a Confidential Business Review (CBR), sometimes called a CIM, which is a detailed overview of the business including financials, operations, and asking price.
How to Find Brokers
The IBBA’s broker directory is the best place to find credentialed business brokers in your area. Look for brokers who specialize in your target industry and deal size. A broker who handles $100K service businesses is not the right person to help you find a $3M manufacturing business.
For more detail on vetting brokers, read How to Find a Business Broker: What to Look For and What to Avoid.
Pros and Cons of Brokers
Brokers pre-qualify sellers and have already done initial screening. The information they provide is more organized than what you would find through a cold approach. On the downside, brokered deals are marketed to many buyers. You are competing. Prices tend to reflect full market value because the seller has been advised on pricing. And brokers charge commissions that factor into how the deal is structured.
Channel 2: Online Marketplaces
Online business-for-sale marketplaces work like real estate sites but for companies. You can search by industry, geography, revenue range, and asking price. They aggregate listings from individual sellers and brokers alike.
The Main Platforms
BizBuySell is the largest and most well-known marketplace for Main Street business sales. It has thousands of listings across every category, from restaurants and retail to service businesses and franchises. Most listings are brokered.
BizQuest is similar to BizBuySell and often has some overlap in listings. Worth checking independently for completeness.
Acquire.com focuses on online businesses, SaaS products, newsletters, e-commerce stores, and digital assets. If you are buying a business that operates primarily online, this is the right platform.
Flippa is another marketplace for digital businesses, with lower average deal sizes and more volume in the sub-$500K range. Quality varies widely, so filtering carefully is important.
LoopNet and CoStar focus on commercial real estate but also list businesses with significant real estate components, like restaurants with owned property or hotels.
How to Use Marketplaces Effectively
Set up saved searches with alerts so you are notified when new listings match your criteria. Move fast on listings that look interesting because good deals attract multiple inquiries quickly. Sign NDAs and request the full CBR before making any judgments based on listing summaries alone. The summary is marketing. The CBR is the real picture.
Be skeptical of listings with unusually high asking prices relative to earnings, businesses that have been on the market for more than six months without a price reduction, and listings with vague or incomplete financial information. These are common warning signs.
Pros and Cons of Marketplaces
Marketplaces give you volume and geographic flexibility. You can search nationwide or narrow to your city. The process is standardized and most listings include basic financials. The downside is the same as with brokered deals: these businesses are being marketed to everyone. You are not getting a proprietary opportunity, and prices reflect full public market exposure.
Channel 3: Off-Market Deals
Off-market deals are businesses that are not publicly listed for sale but whose owners might be open to the right conversation. This is where experienced acquirers find their best opportunities. No competition, no broker commission, and often more flexibility on price and terms because the seller is not in a formal process.
Why Off-Market Works
Many business owners would consider selling if the right buyer approached them, but they have never listed their business and never will. They are too busy running the business, they do not want their employees or customers to know they are thinking about selling, or they simply have not gotten around to it. A direct, professional approach can open doors that no marketplace ever would.
How to Source Off-Market Deals
Direct outreach. Identify businesses you want to buy, research the owners using LinkedIn or state business registries, and send a brief, professional letter or email expressing genuine interest. Keep it short. Explain who you are, why you are interested in their specific business, and that you would like a confidential conversation. Most will not respond, but the ones who do are worth a lot.
Your professional network. Accountants, attorneys, and lenders work with business owners every day. They often know who is thinking about selling before anyone else. Building relationships with professionals who serve business owners is one of the highest-ROI moves a buyer can make.
Industry associations and trade groups. Attending industry conferences or local chamber events puts you in rooms with business owners who may be nearing retirement or ready for a change. These are natural deal-sourcing environments.
Commercial real estate brokers. When a business owner is about to lose their lease or looking at a major renovation, they often start thinking about selling. Commercial brokers see these transitions before anyone else does.
Pros and Cons of Off-Market
The main advantage is exclusivity. You are the only buyer at the table. That gives you pricing leverage and more flexibility on deal structure. The main downside is time and volume. You may need to contact 50 to 100 businesses to generate one serious conversation. It takes patience and a system, not just a one-time effort.
Building Your Search Process
The buyers who close the best deals are running all three channels simultaneously. They have saved searches on BizBuySell, they know two or three brokers who specialize in their target niche, and they are doing regular direct outreach to a target list of businesses they have identified on their own.
Before you start any of this, get clear on your criteria: industry, revenue range, geography, owner-operator vs. passive, and your budget including financing. Buying a business without a clear acquisition criteria is like shopping without a list. You end up looking at everything and buying nothing.
Once you find something promising, understand what it is worth before you go deep. Review How to Value a Small Business and check EBITDA multiples by industry to benchmark the asking price against real market data.
When you are ready to move forward on a deal, the next step is understanding the full process from LOI through closing. Start with M&A for Small Business: The Complete Guide to see how every piece connects.
Bottom Line
Finding a good business to buy requires working multiple channels, being patient, and moving decisively when you find something worth pursuing. The deal flow is out there. What separates buyers who close from buyers who browse is a clear criteria and a consistent process.
Get the tools and resources you need to find and close your first deal at Hustler’s Library. Free to join.
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