How to find the best small businesses for sale?

March 12, 2025
by a searcher from University of Cincinnati - Carl H. Lindner College of Business in Lebanon, OH 45036, USA
Hello! I’ve been at it for only a couple months on bizbuysell but haven’t found many good opportunities yet. Curious where everyone has had luck. SMBmarket? Strategies for a pre market approach to find the right businesses/owners directly?
Thank you!
Ryan
from Tufts University in Medfield, MA 02052, USA
The theme above rings true to me. Develop a target sector/segment and a story that you personally have on why you're a great partner. Attack the market outside of the existing marketplaces. Independent Sponsors and Searchers have higher returns when they have proprietary deals (i.e. - no broker/sell side involvement). None of my deals involved anyone but me sourcing them and I did not do volume outreach. When others zig, you should zag. HVAC companies and Dentists are barraged by low effort outsourced and proprietary outreach. Focus on something you have a passion for and build a strong pathway.
Other thoughts:
* Develop adjacent network like high end lawyers, placement agents, and other people who feed the PE ecosystem. These people often know of things kicking around and certainly can give you POV on work you're doing. My core point here is bizbuysell is about as low effort as you can get - develop something interesting and execute on that.
from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, USA