Business Broker FAQ: Licensing, $, Timeline, Risk, First Deal

In many places there is no standalone “business broker licence”. Instead, regulation usually piggybacks on two areas:

• Real estate / lease transfer. Some states and regions treat the sale of a business as a real estate activity if property or lease rights are part of the deal. In those places you may need a real estate broker licence to legally represent the sale.
• Securities. If you are essentially selling shares/equity, you are moving in regulated territory (securities law). You cannot casually “place stock” unless you are properly licensed or working with someone who is.

Other regions allow you to act as an adviser on an asset sale (selling the business’s assets, goodwill, contracts, staff, brand, etc.) without holding a real estate licence — as long as you stay in your lane, do not misrepresent, and do not handle regulated instruments directly. Practical translation:

• You must know where you are operating (jurisdiction).
• You must know what is being sold (assets vs property vs shares).
• You must not pretend to be licensed for things you are not licensed for.

We walk you through the “red zones” and where you must involve a lawyer / accountant / licensed real estate broker. Read the public summary at /is-a-business-broker-licence-required/.

Standard model is success fee. For smaller main-street style businesses, a normal range is about 8%–12% of the final sale price, often with a minimum fee. On a $300,000 salon or small logistics company, 10% is $30,000. On a $750,000 exit at 10%, that’s about $75,000 paid to the broker. In reality you may also negotiate:

• Retainer / engagement fee: a modest upfront amount to prove the seller is serious.
• Marketing fee: e.g. $5k–$10k to prepare proper materials, buyer outreach, confidentiality handling.

Your first real cheque often lands in the $15k–$40k range because most beginners start with $100k–$500k type businesses where the owner is tired, wants out, and needs succession — not $20M private equity deals. That is already serious money for one advisory relationship.

Two clocks:

• Clock 1: Getting a signed mandate (your “I represent you” agreement).
  If you already know an owner who is burned out or relocating, you can secure that engagement in weeks once you learn how to ask like an adviser, not a beggar.
• Clock 2: Closing the deal and getting your cheque.
  Selling even a small business is not instant. Buyer due diligence, negotiation on handover terms, landlord approval on lease transfer, etc. Realistic expectation in most markets is measured in months, not days. Six to twelve months to complete a sale is normal; faster only if buyer and seller are unusually aligned.

Translation: you can act like a broker inside 30 days and have a live mandate. The money from that mandate usually clears later, not “tomorrow morning”.

You are the calm middle of the transaction:

• Find and qualify owners who quietly want to exit (retirement, burnout, divorce, relocation, health, succession).
• Make sure the asking price is not fantasy. You build/defend a valuation story the buyer will accept.
• Prepare a confidential brief so buyers understand the opportunity without exposing sensitive data in public.
• Screen buyers. You do not let every random “I want to buy a business” tourist waste the seller’s time.
• Run the communication so the deal stays alive through ego, fear, staff worries, and paperwork stress.

In simple words: you navigate emotion, numbers, and confidentiality. You create enough safety for both sides to sign. For deeper breakdown, see What Does a Business Broker Do?

Yes — if you already sit next to deal flow. If you are a property agent, accountant, small business consultant, banker, wealth manager, or you’re the “trusted adult” in your network, then you already hear “I think I’m done, I want out” before the outside world does. You can turn that into a signed mandate with sane fee terms. No — if you think this is passive lead gen. Cold-spamming strangers with “Hey, do you want to sell your company?” makes you look like a scam and kills credibility. This is high-trust, not high-volume.

The first mandate is 80% positioning and language. You must:

• Speak like succession support, not like a hungry recruiter.
• Show that you understand exit stress (staff handover, landlord approval, confidentiality with suppliers, etc.).
• Offer a clear next step: “I’ll package this and quietly speak to 3–5 qualified buyers, under NDA, and I get paid only if it closes.”

Owners say yes when they feel safe, respected, and not exposed. They say no when you sound like hype. We train this conversation line by line in the 30-day programme.

Normal expectation: 6 to 12 months from serious engagement to close, depending on size, financial cleanliness, buyer financing, and how realistic the price is. Bigger, messier, or overpriced deals take longer. A small, healthy, well-priced business with an obvious strategic buyer can move faster.

You can absolutely create legal risk for yourself if you behave like a clown. Risk spikes when you:

• Lie about numbers or hide ugly facts.
• Send confidential financials to random buyers with no NDA.
• Act as if you are a licensed real estate / securities professional in a jurisdiction where you are not.

You reduce risk when you:

• Work under a written engagement that defines your role, scope, and fee.
• Stay in advisory language (“here’s how we could position this for buyers”) not legal promises (“this is guaranteed tax outcome”).
• Loop in qualified legal/accounting help when the deal touches regulated territory.

We cover basic compliance boundaries in the training. Deeper jurisdiction detail: /is-a-business-broker-licence-required/

You do not need car-dealer energy. You need calm authority. The job is not “persuade anyone to buy anything”. The job is:

• Earn trust from a tired owner so they give you the mandate.
• Filter time-wasters out and bring only serious buyers to the table.
• Keep both parties steady when fear hits (“Will staff leave?”, “Will I inherit hidden debt?”, “What about transition?”).

If you can hold uncomfortable money conversations without panic, you’re already 80% ahead of most people.

Often yes. A lot of small-business exit work is local or regional, but you do not always have to sit in the same city every day. You can advise, package, screen buyers, and negotiate via calls, if:

• You understand the local market enough to speak credibly (rents, labour cost, margins, demand).
• You have channels to meet buyers who are actually capable of taking over the business, not just “interested”.
• You respect any licensing boundaries for that geography.

Translation: remote is possible. Remote without context is fantasy.

Pattern of failure:

• No signed engagement. They “help for free” and pray. Seller uses their buyer and pays them $0.
• Fantasy pricing. They accept the seller’s dream number. No buyer will pay it, so nothing closes. No close = no cheque.
• Sloppy confidentiality. They leak sensitive info to unqualified buyers. Seller loses trust and kicks them out.
• Emotional instability. They panic, oversell, make promises they cannot legally make, and now everyone is angry.

We eliminate those 4 failure points in Week 1–2 of the 30-day programme.

Highest probability of first cheque fast:

• Property / commercial real estate agents who already talk to owners about leaving / retiring.
• Accountants, consultants, wealth managers, bankers who hear “I want to exit” before the public does.
• Ex-founders / operators who still know buyers in their old niche and can speak operational reality, not theory.
• Calm connectors from established business families. You already have credibility and access; you just need structure, paperwork, and positioning that protects you and gets you paid.

If you match one of those, read the full profile page at /who-this-is-for/ and the experience background at /about/.

If you do it right, you are not selling “a thing”. You are guiding a retirement / succession event without blowing up staff, clients, or reputation. For many older owners this is the single biggest financial and emotional handover of their life. You create value if:

• You make the exit cleaner, faster, and less stressful than they could do alone.
• You protect confidentiality so staff do not panic and walk.
• You match them with a buyer who can actually run the business.

You are unethical if you lie, inflate, or push them to sign deals that are bad for them just so you can book a fee. We do not work with people like that.

Normally you are paid on successful closing. If the deal collapses before signatures and funds move, you usually do not get the big success fee. Exceptions:

• You negotiated a non-refundable retainer / engagement fee up front.
• You charge a fixed “go-to-market package” fee to prepare materials and start controlled outreach.

This is why we push you to use grown-up engagement paperwork from day one, not “handshake, bro”. We show you how to protect yourself in the first conversation.

Honest answer:

• You will not become a senior mergers adviser in 30 days.
• You can become a functioning entry-level broker with one live mandate if:
  • You already sit close to owners who want to exit, and
  • You get professional help with positioning, engagement paperwork, valuation framing, and first buyer outreach — so you do not burn that mandate.

That is exactly what the 30-day sprint is built to do — get you from “interested” to “I have a signed, fee-protected mandate and first buyers in conversation”.