The Listing Contract
A business brokerage usually earns its commission after the business broker and a seller enters into a listing contract and fulfill agreed-upon terms specified within that contract. Most business brokers require an exclusive listing agreement to sell your business. A business broker will not spend thousands of hours or even hundreds of hours without an exclusive right to sell the business. The typical period to sell a business is 6 to 18 months and will require an agreement for a minimum of 12 months. Depending on the size of the business and its complexity, it can take 30-90 days to evaluate a business, conduct an audit of the records and prepare the necessary marketing material in order to take it to market.