Business
How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Business in Australia?
Selling a business in Australia typically costs somewhere between a few hundred dollars and tens of thousands, depending almost entirely on which route you take. A traditional broker charges a percentage of the sale price plus fees upfront; a private sale run yourself costs far less but takes more of your own time; independent advisory sits in between.
Here's what actually makes up that cost, so you can see where your money would go before you commit to any of it.
Traditional broker commission
Most business brokers in Australia charge a success fee — commonly around 7% of the sale price, though it can range from roughly 5% to 12% depending on the broker and the size of the deal. That fee is only payable if and when the business actually sells, which sounds appealing until you look at what usually comes before it.
Most brokers also charge sign-on fees, business profile fees, and marketing costs upfront — running into the thousands — regardless of whether the business ever sells. The success fee then applies on top of that when it does. Minimum fees are common too, often sitting around $15,000+GST, which matters more for smaller businesses where 7% of the sale price wouldn't otherwise reach that floor.
What that commission actually buys
To be fair to brokers, that fee isn't for nothing. A full-service broker typically runs buyer search and advertising, manages enquiries, and handles negotiation on your behalf — work that takes real time and, done well, can bring buyers you wouldn't have found yourself. Whether that's worth the cost depends on how much of that work you're able or willing to do yourself, and how much your business's profile suits public marketing versus a quieter, more targeted search.
Selling privately
If you run the sale yourself — sourcing your own buyer, handling your own negotiations — the direct selling costs drop substantially. What doesn't disappear are the costs around the sale itself: legal fees for the sale contract, accounting advice on structuring and tax, and making sure the sale documentation actually meets what's legally required to transfer a business — something a licensed intermediary builds into their service, but which you'd need to arrange yourself, typically through a solicitor, if you're selling privately. None of these are broker fees, but they're real and worth budgeting for regardless of which route you take.
Independent advisory — the third option
Between full-service brokerage and doing it entirely alone sits independent advisory: fixed-fee support for the appraisal, positioning, and structuring work, without a success commission tied to the outcome. A Business Value Review ($695), for example, is a fixed, one-off cost whether or not you go on to sell, rather than a percentage that only applies at settlement. For a private sale process, the fee scales with the level of support you actually want, but it stays fixed and disclosed upfront rather than contingent on the sale price.
The trade-off is the one already mentioned above: this isn't a public listing and marketing service. If part of what you need is broad buyer search and advertising, that's a conversation worth having directly rather than assuming either model covers it by default.
The Adelaide angle
South Australia's business community is small enough that a lot of sales start with an existing relationship — a supplier, a competitor, someone already known to the owner. In that situation, the parts of a broker's fee that pay for cold buyer search and marketing are often paying for something you don't actually need, which is exactly where independent advisory or a private sale tends to make more sense.
What you can control
Regardless of which route you choose, a few things shift the cost in your favour. Clean, well-organised financials mean less back-and-forth — and lower fees — with whoever you engage for legal or accounting advice. Knowing your business's actual value before you talk to a broker means you're negotiating commission from a position of knowing what you're paying for, not just accepting a standard rate. And getting an independent read on what your business is realistically worth before committing to any path means the biggest number in this whole equation — the sale price your costs are a percentage of — is grounded in something real rather than an optimistic guess.
The honest bottom line
There's no single "right" amount to spend selling a business — it depends on how much of the process you want handled for you versus how much you're comfortable running yourself, and how confident you are in the number you're selling at in the first place. Knowing what your business is actually worth is the one piece of information that makes every other cost decision easier to weigh up.
Got a question about your own situation before you book anything? Email jarrod@jarrodosborn.au — I read every one.
Know your number before you talk to anyone about selling.