Should you list your business before Christmas or wait for the new year?
What the December to January break does to buyers, lenders, accountants and due diligence, how your peak trading will read, and how to use the break to be ready.
General information only, not financial, legal or taxation advice. Tony Pope holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575.
The short version
- The question that decides it is not the calendar but whether the business is ready on the day it goes to market.
- In Queensland this year Christmas Day falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday, so Monday 28 December is also a public holiday, and New Year's Day is the following Friday.
- The people a sale depends on, including the buyer's accountant, the buyer's lender, both solicitors and the landlord, may be away or short staffed over the break, and the timetable has to allow for it.
- A buyer will read your December trading against the Decembers before it, so a strong peak or a quiet month needs three years of monthly figures beside it.
- If the information pack is not ready, the break is a good time to finish the 2025-26 accounts, reconcile the year to date and build the pack, so the business is ready when buyers are back at their desks.
Whether you list before Christmas or after it matters less than whether the business is ready on the day it goes to market. A ready business can use December. An unready one should use the break to get ready. What the calendar changes is the timetable, and the timetable is worth planning around.
What the break does to a sale
A sale is not one person deciding. It is a chain: the buyer, the buyer's accountant, the buyer's lender, two solicitors, the landlord if there is a lease to assign, and you. Over the break, any link in that chain may be away or short staffed.
This year the calendar is tight. The Queensland Government's list of public holidays has a part day holiday from 6pm on Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December. Christmas Day falls on Friday 25 December. Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, so Monday 28 December is a public holiday as well. New Year's Day is Friday 1 January 2027. Between Christmas Day and the first Monday of January there are three ordinary working days, and some firms will not open on any of them.
Here is what that does to each stage.
Buyer attention. A buyer who is serious can read an information pack over the break. But reading is not deciding, and the decisions need advisers.
The buyer's accountant. The accountant reviewing your figures may close for two or three weeks. Questions sent on Friday 18 December may not be answered until mid January.
The lender. Finance approval needs a credit assessment, and that needs people. A lender's timetable over the break is outside your control and outside the buyer's.
Due diligence. Business Queensland says due diligence can take a week to several months, depending on the scale and complexity of the purchase and how long it takes to obtain and review the information. Over Christmas, the getting of answers is the part that stretches. If the contract has a due diligence period, ask your solicitor how it counts days and whether it runs through the break.
The landlord. If the lease has to be assigned, the landlord or their agent needs to deal with it. They have holidays too.
None of this stops a sale. It means a contract signed in mid December may not settle before the end of January, and a timetable that assumes it will can be wrong. There is more on where the months go in how long it takes to sell a business.
What your December figures will say
The peak matters as much as the break, and it cuts both ways depending on what you sell.
If December is your best month. A retail shop, a café or a gift business may do a large slice of its year in the weeks before Christmas. List in November and a buyer is judging you on figures that do not yet include the peak. List in late January or February and the year to date includes it. That can help, but a buyer will compare it with your previous Decembers, not with your October. One strong December on top of two flat ones reads as one good month. Three Decembers growing in a line read as a trend.
If December is your quietest month. A business that sells to other businesses may lose the last two weeks of December and the first two of January as its customers close. If you list in November, a buyer's accountant doing due diligence in January will be looking at a quiet December in the middle of the year to date. That is not a problem if they can see it is a season. It is a problem if they cannot.
Either way, the answer is the same: three years of monthly figures, side by side, so a buyer reads the shape of your year and not one month of it. If those numbers are not already in the pack, build them now.
Both sides of it
The case for going before Christmas. If the business is ready, waiting costs you something. Your own plans are pushed back by two or three months. A buyer who enquires in November has the break to read the pack, think, and talk it over with family. First meetings can happen before Christmas, and offers early in the new year. Being ready and waiting for a better month is a choice to carry the business, and its risks, for longer.
The case for waiting. If the pack is not ready, a November listing can stall half way, with questions sitting unanswered over the break and a buyer's interest cooling. A listing that drags into February looks older than it is. If your peak is December, letting the year to date show it may present the business better. And for some owners, Christmas trading is not the time to be running meetings with buyers as well as running the shop.
Both are fair. Which one wins depends on your business, not on the month. The broader timing question, whether to sell now or in a few years, is a different decision and is covered in should I sell my business now or wait.
Using the break to prepare
If you decide to wait, the break is useful time. Business Queensland's advice to owners is to give yourself as much time as possible to prepare before you advertise the business for sale, and the quiet weeks are a good place to do it.
Finish the year to 30 June. If your 2025-26 accounts are not final, get them final. A buyer's accountant will want the three latest complete years, and Business Queensland's due diligence list asks for tax returns for a minimum of three previous years. The year to 30 June 2026 is the front of that run. There is more on how a buyer reads it in your FY26 numbers.
Reconcile the year to date. Management accounts from 1 July to 31 December, reconciled to the bank and consistent with the returns. That is the latest picture a buyer will get, and it should tell the same story the returns tell.
Build a clean information pack. The accounts, three years of monthly trading, a schedule of add backs with a document behind each, the lease and its options, key customer and supplier contracts, a staff schedule with start dates and leave balances, and an asset register showing what is owned and what is under finance.
Test yourself. My free readiness check asks twelve questions a buyer's accountant and lender will test, and it takes a few minutes. A low answer on any of them is a list for January.
When buyers and their advisers are back at their desks, you are not starting from scratch. You are ready on day one, and a buyer's first impression is of a business that has its paperwork in order.
A simple way to decide
Three questions, answered honestly.
- Could you hand over three years of returns, the year to date and the lease within 48 hours?
- Is December your strongest month, your weakest, or neither?
- Do you have the time and energy to run meetings with buyers through your own peak?
If the first answer is yes, December is a timetable question, not a reason to wait. If it is no, the break is the time to fix it.
Where a broker fits
I cannot tell you what the market will do between now and February, and nobody can. What I can do is look at your figures and your pack, tell you how a buyer is likely to read your December, and help you set a timetable that allows for the break rather than pretending it is not there.
Common questions
Is December a bad time to sell a business?
Not of itself. What makes it harder is that the people a sale depends on, the buyer's accountant, the lender, the solicitors and the landlord, may be away for part of it. A business that is ready can go to market in November and use December for reading and first meetings. A business that is not ready is better using the break to prepare.
Should I wait until after my busy season to sell?
If your best month is December, there is a case for letting a buyer see it in the year to date figures before you list. A buyer will compare it with your previous Decembers, so the trend matters more than one strong month. If December is your quietest month, show the same month in earlier years so a buyer reads the dip as a season, not a decline.
How long does due diligence take?
Business Queensland says due diligence can take a week to several months, depending on the scale and complexity of the purchase and how long it takes to obtain and review the information. Over Christmas, how long it takes to get answers is the part that stretches, so having the documents ready before it starts matters.
What should I have ready before I list in the new year?
Finished accounts for the year to 30 June, management accounts for the year to date that reconcile to them, three years of monthly trading, a documented list of add backs, the lease and any options, key contracts, a staff schedule and an asset register. That is the pack a buyer's accountant and lender will ask for first.
Keep reading
All notes on selling a business · All seller guides · What is my business worth?
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