Should I use a broker to sell my business?

Usually yes above roughly €1M of enterprise value, where access to buyers and process management genuinely earn the fee. Below that, a 5–10% fee is a large share of the proceeds and the buyer pool is small enough to reach yourself.

#What a good broker actually provides

• Access to buyers you cannot find — particularly funds and strategic acquirers
• Competitive tension, which is where most of the price improvement comes from
• A buffer between you and the negotiation, so the relationship survives it
• Process discipline, so momentum does not die during due diligence

The second item is the one that pays for the fee. A single interested buyer sets the price by negotiation; three interested buyers set it by competition, and the difference is routinely larger than the commission.

#What they do not provide

They do not fix owner dependence, reduce customer concentration or clean your accounts. Arriving unprepared means paying a percentage for someone to discover the same problems a buyer would — and to discover them after you have already committed to a process.

#Questions worth asking before signing

How many transactions have you closed in my sector and size band in the last two years? Who specifically will run my file? What is the exclusivity period, and what happens if you do not deliver? Fee on enterprise value or on what I actually receive?

That last one matters more than the headline percentage.

Preparing your business for sale covers what to do first; what buyers look for covers what the broker will be presenting.