How Long Business Sales Really Take: 16 Deals We Closed

Ask Google how long it takes to sell a business and you'll get six to twelve months. That's the range the major brokerage and advisory firms publish. When we checked in September 2026, Google's AI answer was quoting Reddit to back it up.

Nobody shows their own deals. So here are ours.

Every deal has a buyer and a seller. The time from a signed letter of intent to close is the same calendar on both sides of the table, so we've included every deal we closed, whichever side we were on. The time before the letter is different, and we say which side we represented on each one.

Deals where we represented the seller

Clark's owner wanted to stay on through a two-year transition. We had the buyer within 30 days, a signed letter by day 45, and a close about 70 days after that.

Interworks' owner wanted a buyer who'd keep the team and the clients. It went from our first conversation to close in under 90 days, before the next tax season, and the buyer came from our own network.

The third was the largest. It needed a strategic buyer, meaning a company already in that line of business. We found one about two months after we were hired, and the deal closed about 90 days after the letter.

That's the sell-side process we describe in how long it takes to sell a business: buyers we've already vetted, a firm date for offers, and a close measured from the letter of intent.

Deals where we represented the buyer, with exact dates

Five deals is a small sample, and we'd rather say so than round it into a claim. Deal size doesn't explain the spread on its own: the fastest one was a $12.5M business. The time before the offer varies even more. We made the Spring Arbor offer less than 30 days after that buyer started with us, and worked with the Avalanche buyer for about a year first. We walk through these five in more detail, including the search that comes before the offer, in how long it takes to buy a business.

Deals where we represented the buyer, by month

For older deals we have the month, not the day. "About" means within a few weeks either way.

What made the long ones long

Two deals on this page ran about five months from letter to close. We know exactly why.

• Lakeside HVAC. The buyer's personal finances meant going through several lenders before one would close the loan.
• Orangetheory. The buyer was using an SBA loan when the government shut down. That added two months on its own.

Neither delay came from the business being sold. Both came from the buyer's money. That's the pattern worth knowing if you're selling: the quickest way to lose three months is a buyer whose financing isn't real yet. It's why, when we run a sale, we bring buyers we've already vetted instead of whoever answers a listing.

Two deals we walked away from

A timeline only counts the deals that closed. Here are two that didn't, because walking away was the right call.

• An Oregon HVAC business. Revenue was falling, and 60 percent of it came from three customers who were all shrinking. We walked away.
• A New York paint striping business. Every contract was with the government, and the business had depended on who was running the program at the time. After due diligence we couldn't get comfortable, and we recommended walking away.

We tell almost every buyer on the first call that our job is to tell them not to buy the wrong business. These two are what that looks like.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to sell a business once there's a letter of intent?

On the sixteen deals we closed between 2024 and 2026, about two to five months. Where we have exact dates, it was 71 to 118 days from signed offer to close, and the middle deal took 96. Where we ran the sale for the seller, closing came about 70 to 90 days after the letter.

How long does the whole sale take, from hiring an advisor to closing?

On our seller deals, Interworks took under 90 days from start to finish and Clark took about four months. On our buyer deals, where the months include finding the business, it ran from about three months to more than a year. Most of that difference came before the offer: one buyer worked with us for about a year before we made an offer on the business.

What slows a business sale down?

On our deals, the buyer's financing. One buyer had to go through several lenders because of their personal finances. Another was on an SBA loan when the government shut down, which added two months. Neither delay came from the business being sold.

Why do some deals close faster than others?

Size alone doesn't decide it. The fastest deal on this page was a $12.5M business, 71 days from offer to close. The two slowest by month both lost their time to the buyer's financing.

Do you ever walk away from a deal?

Yes. We walked away from an Oregon HVAC business whose revenue was falling and depended on three shrinking customers, and from a New York paint striping business that relied entirely on government contracts. Our job is to tell a buyer not to buy the wrong business.

Where your own sale would land

The timeline starts with a number you believe. If you're thinking about selling, start with what your business might be worth, and then read how to sell your business for the five steps that keep a sale on schedule.