Hey folks. I run a small landscaping company (5 employees, ~$400k revenue). I listed it in 3 local Facebook groups and on Marketplace, and got nothing but tire-kickers and people asking if I'd take $20k cash. Has anyone here tried Facebook first and then moved to a real listing site like BizBuySell or Flippa? Did the paid listing actually bring better buyers, or just more of the same? Trying not to waste money but also wasting weeks on FB.
Marketplace
Has anyone sold their business after initially trying Facebook and then using a listing website?
Facebook is where buyers go to ask "is this still available" and then vanish. Listing sires at least filter out the people who can't spell 'escrow'
I did the reverse — listed on a broker site first, got almost no traffic, then threw it on FB as a hail mary. FB actually got me two real conversations. Neither closed, but your mileage may vary. What's your asking price Range? That matters more than the platform honestly.
Asking $310k. Small enough that brokers don't want to touch it, big enough that broke dreamers can't afford it. Awkward middle.
That's the dead zone. Brakers want $1M+ listings, and the DIY sites are full of people who watched one YouTube video about buying businesses with no money down.
Paid listing on BizBuySell was worth it for me. Not because the site itself brought the buyer, but because I could send people there and it looked legit. Gave me something to point to instead of a FB post that look ed like I was selling a used lawnmower. The actual buyer came from a competitor who found the listing.
This. Half of selling a business is just not looking like a scam.
Honestly I'd try a business broker who does smaller deals before paying for a self-listing. Some do sub-$500k. You'll pay a commission but they'll screen out the Facebook trolls for you. Just my 2 cents, I know brokers are unpopular here.
Unpopular because they want 10% to post the same listing you could post yourself., But yeah for a landscaping biz with equipment and recurring contracts, a broker might actually help with the handoff. Buyers get nervous about service businesses where the owner IS the business.
That's my fear — i'm in the truck 4 days a week. Nobody wants to buy a job. But I've got two crew leads who've been with me 6 years, so it's not purely me.
Then lead with that. "Two long-tenured crew leads" is your headline, not the trucks. Also put it on the listing site, not just the FB post where the first comment is always someone's uncle who "knows a guy."
lol @ "knows a guy" — accurate. Got three of those on my post. One offered to "partner up" which I'm pretty sure meant he wanted to work there for free.
Quick tip since you're going the listing site route: get your P&L and tax returns cleaned up before you pay for placement. Nothing kills a listing faster than a buyer askign for financials and getting a shoebox of receipts. The site brings the eyeballs, the numbers close the deal.
Also don't sleep on reaching out directly to bigger landscaping companies in your area. They buy smaller operations all the time for the contracts, and crews. Didn't use FB or a listing site at all for that route.
That's an angle i hadn't considered. There's a bigger outfit two towns over that's been swallowing up little guys. Might just email the owner directly. Thanks for the reality check on FB though — sounds like I should list properly and stop refreshing Marketplace.
Keep the FB post up too, it's free. Just don't expect it to do the work for you. And when the big outfit emails back, don't tell them your number in the first message. Ask what they're looking for first. Learned that one the hard way.