Selling a business without a broker

The case for using a self-serve marketplace like Fair Handover instead of a traditional broker is mostly about cost: brokers typically charge 8 to 12% commission plus a retainer, which on a six-figure UK SME sale runs to £15,000 to £30,000. Doing it yourself saves that money, but you take on the work the broker would have done. Whether that trade is worth it depends on your situation.

This guide is deliberately honest about both sides. We will recommend a broker for some sellers, even though it costs them more. The goal is to help you make the right call for your sale, not to push you toward our pricing.

Where a broker is genuinely worth it

A few scenarios where the broker's commission is most likely to pay back:

You have no spare time and no inclination to handle the process. Selling a business while still running it is a real workload. If you are working 50+ hours a week already and the prospect of an extra 2 to 4 hours per week of enquiry-handling and diligence-preparation is impossible, a broker is the right call.

Your sector is niche or hard to market. If buyers in your sector come from a specific industry network rather than general "businesses for sale" searches, a broker with sector specialism can reach them in a way a marketplace listing cannot. Examples: specialist B2B manufacturing, regulated financial services, certain medical/dental practices.

The deal is structurally complex. Multiple sellers, family transfers, partial sales, joint-venture transitions, regulated sale processes. A broker's experience saves you mistakes that a solicitor by itself does not catch.

You need maximum buyer pool exposure. Brokers list across multiple platforms simultaneously and have proprietary buyer databases. If you want to be in front of every plausible UK buyer at once, that breadth is hard to replicate as a self-serve seller.

Where self-serve is the better call

You have time and are comfortable with the process. If you are retiring or stepping back, you may have months of time you can spend on the sale. The 5 to 10 hours per week you would spend handling enquiries is genuinely doable for most owner-operators.

Your business is straightforward and well-documented. Clean accounts, documented processes, low concentration risk, no regulatory complications. Buyers can self-assess these quickly without a broker's hand-holding.

You have a credible asking price and reasonable expectations. Self-serve works best when the price and the business are both reasonable. If you are pricing aspirationally (10x what comparable businesses sold for), no amount of broker marketing will fix that.

You can be honest with yourself about whether you would handle pressure conversations well. Negotiation, walking away from low offers, telling a serious buyer their offer is short, these are the parts owners often dread. If you can do them, self-serve is fine. If you cannot, a broker is the right call.

What you actually have to do as a self-serve seller

The work breaks down roughly as:

• Listing creation (5 to 10 hours, one-off): write your description, set what is visible publicly, set asking price
• Enquiry triage (2 to 3 hours/week, ongoing): reply to NDA requests, ignore tyre-kickers, ask credible buyers for proof of funds
• Detailed disclosure (5 to 10 hours per serious buyer): send the diligence pack, answer follow-up questions
• Negotiation (4 to 8 hours total per real buyer): heads of terms, back-and-forth on price and structure
• Diligence support (10 to 20 hours total): answer detailed buyer questions through their accountants and lawyers
• Completion (5 to 10 hours): final document review, key handover, banking

Total: roughly 50 to 100 hours from listing to completion for an owner-operator-led sale.

Where the gaps usually show up

Two parts of the broker's role are genuinely harder to replace:

Specialist sector contacts. If your sector relies on personal introductions, a marketplace listing will be slower. Mitigation: combine self-serve with targeted personal outreach to relevant trade buyers or competitors.

Negotiation pressure-testing. A broker speaks to you as someone outside the deal, telling you when an offer is good or bad. As a self-serve seller, you have to be your own check. Mitigation: a £500 to £1,500 sale-advisory session with a corporate finance specialist or accountant can give you that second opinion without committing to a full broker engagement.

Where Fair Handover sits

For sellers who fit the self-serve profile, Fair Handover does the marketplace listing, NDA management, and buyer messaging. We do not pretend to do the broker's relationship work or sector specialism. Pricing is £19/month or 1% on completion, which on a £200,000 sale is between £171 (monthly) and £2,000 (success fee) versus typical broker fees of £20,000+.

If after reading this you think a broker is the right call for your sale, we will not try to talk you out of it.