Roughly 90% of businesses listed for sale in the UK never complete a transaction. Here's the honest truth about why — and what to do about it.
The headline statistic is brutal: roughly nine in ten businesses that go to market never sell. Most business owners assume this happens to other people. It doesn't. It happens to businesses exactly like yours.
The broker model is built around instruction fees, not completion fees. Once you sign, the pressure to perform is limited. Brokers are paid when you list. Completion is a bonus — not a guarantee.
The buyer pool is smaller than it has ever been. Higher borrowing costs, tighter lending criteria, and increased due diligence requirements have driven qualified buyers out of the market. The buyers who remain are more demanding and slower to move than they were five years ago.
And here is the problem nobody mentions: the moment you start the sale process, your attention splits. Customers notice. Staff notice. Performance slips. By the time a buyer does appear, the numbers that attracted them no longer exist.
Find out if your business is genuinely sellable — download the free guide →
Silas J. Lees is a chartered surveyor, property investor, author, and trainer. He has worked alongside Robert Kiyosaki, Robbie Fowler, and Martin Roberts of Homes Under the Hammer. He has spent six years actively trying to acquire businesses in the UK property services sector.
In that time he has seen more deals collapse through broker incompetence, inflated valuations, and hidden liabilities than most people encounter in an entire career.
He is not a broker. He does not charge fees. He is a buyer — which means his interests are aligned with yours in a way that a broker's never can be. If he buys your business, it has to work. That is the incentive that keeps an honest conversation honest.
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