How I work, and what I believe about selling a business
The way a sale runs when I am the broker, and the handful of things I hold to that decide how it runs.
Licence 4963575 · Member, Australian Institute of Business Brokers · Last updated 15 September 2026.
Get my free appraisal, in writingCall 0431 124 128
No obligation. Nothing is published. Nobody is contacted.
How I work
The first conversation is thirty minutes, confidential, and costs nothing. No obligation, no follow-up pressure, and nobody finds out you had it.
You are probably not selling this year. Twelve months to three years out, wanting to know where you stand, is the usual position, and that is the most useful time to have the conversation, because there is still time to change the answer.
If the appraisal shows your value is being held back by owner dependence or customer concentration, you have a runway to do something about it. If you are closer to sale-ready than you thought, you can move while your sector is strong.
If I think the honest answer is that your business is not saleable in its current state, I will tell you that rather than take a listing that will not sell. And if you have already got an agreed buyer at an agreed price, I will tell you that you probably need a good solicitor more than you need me.
What the 19 units behind the licence actually cover
| Subject | Units | What it prepares the holder to do |
|---|---|---|
| Professional practice, ethics and legislation | 3 | Preparing for professional practice, accessing and interpreting ethical practice, and accessing and interpreting legislation in real estate. |
| Marketing | 2 | Establishing marketing and communication profiles, and marketing a property. |
| Appraisal and sale | 4 | Appraising property for sale or lease, establishing vendor relationships, establishing buyer relationships, and selling property. |
| Trust accounts | 2 | Preparing to work with real estate trust accounts, and transacting in a trust account. This is the money handling that the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld) then governs. |
| Tenancy and property management | 4 | Establishing landlord relationships, managing a tenancy, managing the tenant relationship, and ending a tenancy. None of it applies to selling a business. |
| Tribunal and lone worker safety | 2 | Presenting at hearings in real estate, and managing off site and lone worker safety. |
| Agency management | 2 | Managing operational finances in the property industry, and managing customer service activities. |
| Business valuation, business broking or financial statement analysis | 0 | Nothing in the Queensland pathway covers it. That is not a complaint about the licence. It is the reason to ask a licensed broker what else they have done, and to keep asking until the answer is specific. |
Unit lists from the Queensland Government licence and salesperson registration pages, read 14 August 2026. The unit codes are published on those pages. Titles are used here, and the counts are of the 19 units required for a full licence, of which the 12 salesperson units are a subset.
What I believe about selling a business
More than twenty years around businesses and the people who own them has left me with a short list of things I have found to be true. They shape how I run a sale.
- The best time to talk to a broker is two years out, not two weeks. Early gives you room to change the answer. Late only gives you time to accept it.
- Confidentiality is not a nice to have. Lose it and you can lose staff, customers and negotiating position in the same week. It is the first thing I protect and the last thing I relax.
- A business that cannot run without the owner is a job, not an asset. Closing that gap is the work I push owners hardest on, because it changes what a buyer will pay rather than just how quickly they say yes.
- Clean books beat a good story every time. Buyers pay for evidence. They discount potential, and they discount it hard.
- Deals die from drift, not from disagreement. A sale that falls over rarely blows up. It slows down, goes quiet, and never starts again.
- Nobody wins from an overpriced listing. It sits, it goes stale, buyers start asking what is wrong with it, and it eventually sells for less than it was always worth.
- Your accountant and your solicitor are on your team. Bring them in at the start, not the week before contracts. A sale structured without them is a sale that unravels later.
- If I am not the right broker for your business, I will say so. A listing that cannot sell costs me more than it costs you, and I would rather point you at the right person than waste a year of your time.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Find out what your business is worth.
Free, confidential, and no obligation to list anything. Thirty minutes, phone or video. Nobody finds out you asked.