What it costs to sell a business.
The fee is rarely the largest number in a sale — the price you accept is. But the route you choose sets both, and for most owners the right route is decided almost entirely by the size of the business.
What does a business broker charge?
On a business under $1M the minimum fee, not the percentage, is usually what you pay.
Brokers work on commission. Published ranges cluster at 8 to 12%of the sale price for businesses under about $1 million, and BizBuySell’s own guidance puts the range at 8 to 15%.
The number that catches owners is the floor. Most brokers set a minimum fee of $15,000 to $50,000 regardless of the transaction. On a $400,000 sale a $35,000 minimum is not 10% — it is closer to 9% of the proceeds before tax, and it is charged whether the process took three months or eighteen.
Above $1 million the structure usually tiers. A common grid runs 10% on the first $1 million, 8% on the second and 6% on the third, which blends to roughly 6 to 10% across that range. Monthly retainers of $2,500 to $10,000 appear at the upper end and are normally credited against the success fee at closing.
What does an M&A advisor charge?
The percentage falls as the business grows. The minimum fee is what binds at the bottom.
In the lower middle market, success fees run 3 to 6%on deals between $10 million and $25 million. Axial’s 2026 fee survey puts the effective rate at about 3.4% at $20 million, compressing to roughly 2.0% by $100 million.
Below $10 million the percentage stops being the operative number. Minimum fees around $150,000 are documented at that end of the market, alongside a monthly retainer credited against the success fee. An advisor who quotes 5% on a $3 million business is quoting $150,000 either way.
This is the arithmetic behind a rule most owners work out too late: the cost of advice falls as a share of the deal exactly as the deal gets large enough to justify it.
What does listing it yourself cost?
The listing is cheap. Everything the broker would have done is not.
A listing on a marketplace runs $500 to $1,000 for a six-month engagement. Against an 8-to-12% commission that looks decisive, and for a small, simple, owner-operated business it often is.
What the listing price excludes is the work. BizBuySell’s own accounting puts an appraisal at $5,000 and up, CPA support at $1,000 to $5,000, a selling memorandum at $500 to $3,000, and legal at $2,500 to $5,000. Its worked example of a $350,000 sale totals about $53,000 of cost — near 15% of the price, most of it not the listing.
The listing fee is not the comparison. The comparison is the listing fee plus your own time and the professional help you buy piecemeal, against a commission that bundles all of it.
Which route fits which business?
The honest version, including the part that costs us work.
List it, or use a Main Street broker. A minimum fee of $15,000 to $50,000 is the entire economics of the engagement, and no amount of analysis changes a price the market sets narrowly. An owner here should not be hiring an M&A advisor, and should not be paying us either.
Broker territory, and the minimum fee still bites. The question worth asking before signing is what the broker will actually do for the 8 to 12% — how many buyers they will approach, and whether any of them are strategic.
The percentage becomes the number. At $20 million and 3.4%, the fee is roughly $680,000 — and a single percentage point of price is $200,000. At that size the analysis stops being overhead and starts being the cheapest thing in the transaction.
What Griffin charges
A fixed fee for the analysis, published, and separate from any decision to go to market.
Griffin’s valuation report is $5,000 to $15,000, scoped and fixed on the first call. It is not a commission and not a percentage of anything — it is the cost of knowing what the business is worth, what moves that number, and which buyers would pay it, before committing to a process.
Sell-side and buy-side mandates are retained engagements and priced separately. Most owners read the report three to five years before a sale and do nothing with it for a while, which is the intended use.
- Broker commission ranges, minimum fees, tiered grids and retainers: CT Acquisitions, “How Much Does a Business Broker Charge?”, updated 10 August 2026.
- Commission range of 8–15%, listing costs, appraisal, CPA, memorandum and legal figures, and the $350,000 worked example: BizBuySell Learning Center, “How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Business?”
- Lower-middle-market success fees, the 3.4%-at-$20M to 2.0%-at-$100M compression, and sub-$10M minimum fees: Axial 2026 M&A Fee Guide (surveyed Q2 2026), reported by M&A Community, updated 6 August 2026.
- Figures are third-party market ranges current as of September 2026, not quotes. Any individual engagement is priced by the firm offering it.
If you would like the analysis run for your own business, a short note is enough to begin. Contact