How Long Does It Take to Sell a Business?

Most articles answer this question with the same range: six to twelve months. That figure comes from broker surveys and gets repeated without anyone checking it. We measured what actually happens, using timestamps from 19,867 buyer conversations on Rejigg.

The short version: once a real buyer starts talking to you, things move faster than the folklore suggests. The median Rejigg deal goes from first buyer request to closed sale in 174 days, just under six months. And the wait for your first buyer meeting is measured in days, not months.

The Real Timeline, Stage by Stage

Here is how long each stage takes for the typical completed sale, measured from the moment a buyer first reaches out to an owner on Rejigg. Every figure is a median, meaning half of deals moved faster.

• First request to first meeting: 2 days.
• First meeting to first LOI (letter of intent, the buyer’s written offer): 54 days.
• First LOI to signed LOI: 17 days.
• Signed LOI to closed deal: 101 days.
• Full cycle, first request to close: 174 days median. The middle half of deals landed between 112 and 249 days.

One caveat before you plan around these numbers: our clock starts when the first buyer request comes in. Time spent getting your books in order before buyers show up is real, and it is not in these numbers.

What Happens During Each Stage

Days 1 to 4: the first meeting

The first buyer meeting happens fast because the slow parts have already been done. On Rejigg, buyers are vetted before they can contact you, with proof of funds and track record checked upfront, and NDAs are signed digitally before you share anything identifying. So the first call gets scheduled in days.

Expect that first call to follow a pattern. Buyers ask how you started the business, how revenue has trended, who runs what on your team, how much revenue depends on your biggest customers, and why you want to sell. The tone is friendly, and most of it is material you know cold.

Weeks 1 to 8: from first meeting to a written offer

For the typical completed sale, the first written offer lands about eight weeks in. Between the first call and that offer, serious buyers will ask for your tax returns, a current P&L, and a balance sheet. This is the stage where preparation pays off most, because a buyer who gets clean numbers quickly keeps moving while a buyer left waiting cools off.

The offer usually arrives as an LOI: a letter of intent that names a price and terms, and typically takes your business off the market for an exclusivity window while the buyer finishes their homework. Owners often run several buyer conversations in parallel up to this point, then pick the offer they trust most. Rejigg's deal dashboard shows the offers side by side, with price, terms, and timelines in one view.

Months 2 to 6: diligence, financing, and closing

Closing takes about three more months after the LOI is signed, and most of that time belongs to the buyer's lender. Confirmatory diligence, loan underwriting, legal documents, and final walkthroughs all run in this window.

Your job in this stage is mostly responsiveness: answering document requests, joining a few calls, and keeping your business running well. A dip in performance during diligence invites renegotiation, so the best thing you can do for your timeline is keep operating like you are not selling.

What Makes a Sale Faster

Owners on the fast end of these ranges tend to share three habits, and none of them requires deal experience.

Clean, current books, ready on day one. The document request is predictable: tax returns, P&L, balance sheet, year-to-date numbers. Owners who have them organized before the first call keep momentum through the exact stage where most time gets lost. Rejigg's built-in data room, with QuickBooks import, holds these documents so you share them in a click instead of digging through email.

Recurring revenue. In real deal calls, buyers say plainly that contracted and repeat revenue is what makes a deal financeable, because a lender can underwrite it. Project-by-project revenue can still sell well, but expect more questions and a slower underwriting stage.

Responsiveness. Deals run on momentum. We've seen deals where a same-day reply to a document request kept a buyer engaged, and deals where a two-week silence sent one back to their other prospects. The fastest quartile of our data belongs disproportionately to owners who treat buyer requests like customer requests.

What Slows Deals Down

Deals stall for a small set of specific, nameable reasons. These come up again and again in real Rejigg deal calls, and most of them are preventable.

The buyer's money falls through. A co-investor backs out or a lender declines late. Experienced sellers and buyer advisors both rank financing certainty as the top deal risk, above price. It is fair, and smart, to ask a buyer early how their purchase will be funded and how firm each piece is.

The tax-return gap. Many owners keep books to minimize taxes, which understates what the business truly earns. Buyers and lenders underwrite off tax returns, so a big gap between the returns and your earnings story takes weeks to bridge with documentation. Closing that gap before you sell, with a clear record of add-backs, saves more time than anything else on this list. Our guide to add-backs walks through how.

A co-owner who is not fully on board. If a partner or family member holds a stake, get genuine alignment before the first buyer call. A hesitant co-owner surfacing at the LOI stage is one of the most common ways a months-long process resets to zero.

A scope surprise discovered late. Sometimes a buyer realizes mid-diligence that they want only part of what is for sale, like the service contracts but not the storefront. Being precise early about exactly what is included prevents this.

Anchoring to an old offer. An offer someone floated years ago, and never closed on, is not a price. Deals stall when it becomes the benchmark every real offer gets measured against. A current, defensible valuation gives you a better anchor.

The SBA Runway: Why Closing Takes About Three Months

Most small-business acquisitions are financed partly with an SBA 7(a) loan, and the lender's process sets the pace from signed LOI to close. The bank verifies tax returns, orders a business appraisal, underwrites the buyer, and papers the loan. That runway is the biggest reason the stretch from signed LOI to close runs about three months even when both sides are moving quickly.

You cannot skip the runway, but you can keep it from stretching. Lenders underwrite from tax returns, so the same clean records that impress a buyer also speed up their bank. If you want to understand what a buyer's loan looks like, our SBA loan guide and free SBA calculator show the mechanics.

Where These Numbers Come From

Every figure on this page is measured from platform timestamps on Rejigg, not surveyed or estimated. The starting gun is the moment a buyer opens a conversation with an owner. First-meeting timing uses the first meeting logged in that conversation. Offer timing uses the first LOI recorded. Closing timing runs from the LOI's signature date to the recorded closing date.

Every figure on this page is measured from platform timestamps on real Rejigg deals: mostly businesses under $10M in value, sold directly by their owners to pre-qualified buyers without a broker. We report medians, and the timeline chart follows completed sales from first buyer request to close. The Rejigg deal team reviews this page, and we refresh it quarterly as new deals close. Last updated July 2026.

One more comparison worth naming: brokers typically quote six to twelve months and charge 10% or more for the trouble. The deals in our data closed at a 174-day median with the owner paying nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to sell a business?

The median deal on Rejigg runs 174 days from first buyer request to closed sale, with the middle half of deals landing between 112 and 249 days. The widely quoted 6-to-12-month range comes from broker surveys, not measured deal timestamps.

How quickly will I hear from buyers?

Fast. Across thousands of buyer conversations on Rejigg, the median wait from first buyer request to first meeting is under four days, and a quarter of first meetings happen within a day. Vetting and NDAs are handled upfront, so scheduling is the only thing between you and the call.

How long does it take to get from LOI to closing?

For the typical completed sale, closing runs about three months from signed letter of intent. Most of that window is the buyer's lender underwriting an SBA loan, alongside confirmatory diligence and legal paperwork.

How fast can I sell my business?

The fastest quarter of Rejigg deals went from first buyer conversation to close in under 112 days, right around four months. Owners on the fast end share the same traits: tax returns and P&L ready before the first call, quick responses to requests, and revenue a lender can underwrite.

Does selling without a broker take longer?

Our data says no. Every deal behind these numbers was sold directly by the owner to a vetted buyer on Rejigg, with no broker, and the median full cycle was 174 days. That sits below the low end of the 6-to-12-month range brokers commonly quote for their own process.

Every timeline on this page started with a buyer conversation, and every conversation started with an owner deciding to see what was possible. If you are curious where you would land, get a free valuation and find out what buyers would pay for your business.