How long does it take to sell a small business?

How long does it take to sell a business?

• Brokers surveyed for the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA) and M&A Source Market Pulse report for the second quarter of 2026 said sales of smaller "Main Street" businesses, those under $2 million according to IBBA's highlights, averaged six to ten months from engagement (when the broker is hired) to close. Larger deals, worth $2 million to $50 million, averaged 11 to 12 months. The $2 million to $5 million deal-size band rose from nine months to 11.5.
• BizBuySell, an online marketplace where businesses are listed for sale, put the median time to close (the middle figure, so about half of deals closed faster) at 170 days, about five and a half months, in its 2025 year in review. That covers deals closed through its marketplace in 2025, where the median sale price was $350,000.

A business worth about $2 million sits on the Main Street line, so look at both IBBA ranges. The release does not say which sizes within a range take longest.

The two sources will not match. They use different data and may count time differently, and IBBA's release calls its figures averages in one place and medians in another. Both count only businesses that sold, and IBBA's come from sales that brokers and advisors handled. IBBA's clock starts when a broker is hired, and both stop at closing, so neither counts a transition period afterwards. IBBA's also leaves out your preparation beforehand.

Where does the time go?

The timings below are our estimates, except the due diligence row, which is IBBA's Q4 2022 median (see the next section).

Stage	Estimate	What happens
Preparation	3 to 12 months	Records organized, financials recast, problems fixed
Choosing a broker and listing	1 to 2 months	Opinion of value, listing agreement, marketing materials
Finding a buyer	3 to 6 months	Inquiries, confidentiality agreements, meetings, offers
Due diligence, financing and legal	2 to 3 months from offer to close (IBBA median, Q4 2022), often longer	The buyer and their accountant check everything, the lender approves the loan, the lawyers draft the contract, the landlord is asked to consent
Closing	A day	Signatures and funds
Staying on after closing	Set in the deal	You train the new owner. If the buyer uses a loan backed by the US Small Business Administration (SBA), you generally can't stay on as an officer, director, stockholder or employee, but can be hired as a consultant for up to 24 months

Small-business accounts are prepared for tax reporting, not to show a buyer the cash flow available to an owner. Recasting presents the same records in the way buyers and lenders assess them.

Added together, the middle rows come to roughly six to 11 months, which overlaps IBBA's ranges, though the estimates are ours. For the whole sequence in order, see how to sell a small business.

How long from offer to closing?

Once a buyer makes an offer and you sign a letter of intent (the buyer's written offer, setting out the price and main terms), due diligence starts and the lawyers draft the contract. IBBA's Market Pulse report for the fourth quarter of 2022 gives the median months to close, from listing or engagement and from the offer:

Business value	Median months, listing or engagement to close	Median months, offer to close
Under $500,000	6	2
$500,000 to $1 million	8	3
$1 million to $2 million	8	3
$2 million to $5 million	8	3
$5 million to $50 million	10	3

That survey is nearly four years old, so treat it as the order of magnitude, not today's number. About half of deals took longer than these medians, and typical sales spent more time before the offer than after it.

What slows a sale down

Slow answers in due diligence. For example, a buyer asks for three years of statements and gets them in pieces over several weeks. Each delay can give them time to cool off or look at another business. Having the documents ready before you list is the main thing within your control here.

The bank. If your buyer uses an SBA loan, the lender's rules generally require it to check your financial statements against IRS tax transcripts (the IRS's record of what you filed). Differences it cannot explain can hold up the loan or end it.

The landlord. Many leases require the landlord's consent before the lease can be transferred to a buyer, so the landlord can set the pace. Check what yours says and ask early.

The price. A business priced above what buyers will pay tends to sit, and a long listing can make buyers wonder what is wrong. A price cut can then look like trouble. See why businesses don't sell.

Surprises. A license that does not transfer, a customer contract that ends on a sale, an unpaid or disputed tax bill. Each can restart a negotiation. Your lawyer or CPA can tell you which apply to your business.

What you can shorten, and what you can't

How long the right buyer takes to appear depends on the market and on your price. Once an offer arrives, what you control is how fast you can answer, and that is the stretch the offer-to-close figures cover. The bank and the landlord set their own pace, but a seller whose records are already organized has far less to scramble for.

Working back from your date

If you want to be out by a certain date, count backwards. As a rule of thumb of ours, not a survey figure, start preparing two to three years ahead, and the wider exit planning three years or more ahead.

If you want to have closed the sale by	Start preparing by
Two years from now	Now
Three years from now	Within the next year

That allows up to a year to prepare and up to a year to sell. For a longer transition afterwards, or room for a slow deal, start earlier. It feels early, but most sellers start late: across its five deal-size bands, IBBA's second-quarter 2026 survey found that between 60% and 90% of sellers had completed less than one year of exit planning, or none at all. Exit planning (getting yourself and the business ready for a sale) covers how to begin.

If you need to sell sooner

It can still be done. Concentrate on what SBA lenders ask for: three years of financial statements or tax returns that match each other, a written reason for each add-back (a personal or one-off expense a buyer would add back to your profit), and a complete document folder. By our estimate, those take weeks rather than months if your bookkeeping is already in reasonable shape. Be honest in the listing about what a new owner will need to fix, and talk to your broker about how that affects the price.

Your next step

Write down the date you would like to be finished, then count back with the table above. Then do two tasks that help whatever the date: put your last three years of tax returns, financial statements and your lease in one folder, and read what the lease says about transferring it. A buyer is likely to ask for all of it, and having it ready can help keep the weeks after an offer from stretching.

Keep reading

• How to sell a small business: the steps, in order
• Checklist for selling a business: how to prepare it for sale
• Letter of intent to purchase a business: what's in it and what to negotiate

This guide is general information, not tax, legal or valuation advice. Every business is different: talk to your accountant, lawyer and broker about yours.