Why Your Business Isn't Selling (And How to Fix It)

You listed your business for sale. You expected offers. Instead: crickets. Or worse — lowball offers that feel insulting.

This happens more often than you'd think. Studies suggest that only 20-30% of businesses listed for sale actually close a transaction. The rest sit on the market, get pulled, or the owner gives up.

If your business isn't selling, here's what's probably wrong — and what to do about it.

1. Your Price Is Wrong

This is the most common problem, and it's almost always the same story: the owner believes the business is worth more than the market says it is.

Your business is not worth:

• What you need for retirement
• What you invested over the years
• What a friend's business supposedly sold for
• What you could earn if you ran it for 5 more years

Your business is worth what a qualified buyer will pay today, based on your trailing earnings, growth trajectory, and risk profile. Period.

The fix: Get a professional, market-based valuation from a broker who actually closes deals in your industry. Not an online calculator. Not your accountant's estimate. A real assessment from someone who knows what buyers are currently paying.

2. Your Financials Are a Mess

Buyers — and their lenders — need clean, verifiable financial records. If your books have any of these problems, you're scaring off serious buyers:

• Personal expenses mixed with business expenses
• Cash revenue not reported on tax returns
• Inconsistent accounting methods year to year
• No monthly financial statements
• Missing or incomplete tax returns
• Unexplainable revenue swings with no documentation

When a buyer's CPA or QoE firm can't make sense of your numbers, they walk. It's not worth the risk.

The fix: Invest in 12-18 months of clean bookkeeping before going back to market. Separate personal expenses. Produce monthly P&L statements. Work with a CPA who understands businesses preparing for sale.

3. You Are the Business

If every major client relationship, operational decision, and revenue-generating activity runs through you, buyers see a business that collapses the day you leave. That's not a business — it's a job with overhead.

Owner-dependent businesses either don't sell or sell at steep discounts, often with large earnouts that shift risk back to the seller.

The fix: Start delegating now. Hire or promote managers. Transfer client relationships. Document processes. The goal is to prove the business can function without you for at least 30 days. This takes time — usually 6-12 months of deliberate effort.

4. Customer Concentration

If one client represents 20%+ of your revenue, buyers see existential risk. What happens if that client leaves after the sale? The buyer just overpaid for a business that lost a quarter of its revenue.

Even if you've had that client for 15 years, buyers can't count on the relationship surviving a change of ownership.

The fix: Diversify your client base before re-listing. Grow other accounts. Acquire new customers. Get below 15% concentration for your largest client. This may take 12-24 months, but the impact on valuation and salability is dramatic.

5. Revenue Is Declining

Nothing scares buyers faster than a downward revenue trend. A business with declining revenue is:

• Harder to finance (lenders won't underwrite declines)
• Perceived as higher risk (what else is going wrong?)
• Subject to aggressive negotiation on price and structure

Even one bad year in your trailing three creates problems.

The fix: If revenue is declining, selling right now is the wrong move. Focus on stabilization and recovery. Get 2-3 quarters of stable or improving numbers before going back to market. A business trending upward — even from a lower base — is far easier to sell than one trending down.

6. Bad Broker (or No Broker)

Not all brokers are effective, and listing on BizBuySell alone isn't a marketing strategy. Signs of a bad broker engagement:

• Your listing has been up for 6+ months with no qualified interest
• Your broker hasn't provided regular updates or feedback
• You haven't seen evidence of proactive buyer outreach
• Your CIM is thin, generic, or poorly written
• Your broker is carrying 30+ listings and can't give you attention

The fix: If your broker isn't performing, have a direct conversation about what's not working. If nothing changes, consider switching. A good broker actively markets to a targeted buyer list — not just passive marketplace listings.

7. Deal Structure Expectations Are Unrealistic

Some owners insist on 100% cash at close with no transition period. For businesses under $10M, that's rarely realistic. Most deals include some combination of:

• SBA financing (which means the deal takes 60-90 days to close)
• Seller financing (5-20% of the purchase price)
• Earnouts or transition payments
• A 6-12 month transition period where the seller stays involved

If you're unwilling to be flexible on structure, you're eliminating most of your buyer pool.

The fix: Understand that deal structure is a negotiation tool. Offering seller financing or a reasonable transition period can actually get you a higher total price, because it expands your buyer pool and gives buyers confidence.

8. The Market Has Changed

Sometimes the problem isn't your business — it's the market. Interest rate increases, industry downturns, or shifts in buyer appetite can reduce demand for businesses like yours.

The fix: Talk to your broker about current market conditions for your industry and size range. It may make sense to wait for conditions to improve rather than chase a bad market.

What to Do Right Now

If your business has been languishing on the market:

1. Pull the listing. A stale listing (12+ months) becomes toxic. Buyers assume something is wrong.
2. Get an honest assessment. Talk to a broker who will tell you the truth, not what you want to hear.
3. Fix the problems. Address whichever issues above apply to you.
4. Re-list when ready. Come back to market with clean books, a realistic price, and a strong marketing strategy.

A well-prepared business priced correctly in today's market will sell. The question is whether you're willing to do the work to get there.

Need a Second Opinion?

If your business hasn't sold and you're not sure why, I'll give you an honest, no-cost assessment. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is all you need. Book a call.