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· Updated · Selling a business

Restructure or sell, and how owners tell the difference too late

Restructuring fell from 19.8 per cent of first insolvency appointments in 2024-25 to 12.1 per cent in 2025-26, while court liquidations rose. Here is the honest test for which side of that line a business is on, and why the window closes quietly.

General information only, not financial, legal or taxation advice. Tony Pope holds Queensland Office of Fair Trading licence 4963575.

Free confidential market appraisal. No cost, no obligation, and no charge before or after we meet. Licensed by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, licence 4963575. Member, Australian Institute of Business Brokers.

The short version

  • Restructuring was 12.1 per cent of first insolvency appointments in 2025-26, 1,714 companies, down from 19.8 per cent and 2,918 the year before. Creditors voluntary liquidation was 45.1 per cent.
  • Court liquidations rose from 2,762 to 3,144 over the same two years. That is a creditor making the decision the owner did not.
  • A sale needs time and a going concern. Both are things a stressed business runs out of in that order.
  • The question is not which option is better. It is which options are still open, and that changes month by month.
Article cover: two paths from the same point, one narrowing
Article cover: two paths from the same point, one narrowing

There is a moment in a struggling business where two doors are open, and a later moment where only one is. From inside the business, the difference between those two moments is hard to see.

What the numbers say about how owners are choosing

In 2025-26, 14,153 companies entered external administration or had a controller appointed for the first time, against 14,722 the year before.

How those appointments started is the more interesting part, and it moved. Creditors voluntary liquidation was 45.1 per cent of them. Restructuring was 12.1 per cent, down from 19.8 per cent a year earlier: 1,714 companies against 2,918. Court liquidations went the other way, from 2,762 to 3,144.

A restructuring is an owner choosing a process designed to keep the company trading and keep them in control of it. A court liquidation is a creditor making the choice for them. One year of figures does not prove why the mix changed, and I am not going to pretend it does. What it shows is fewer owners reaching the door that was still theirs to open.

Figures updated 8 October 2026 from the ASIC insolvency statistics released on 6 October. When this was first published it carried the figures to 31 May 2025, when restructuring was running at about one appointment in five.

The test that actually separates the two

Not profitability. Not how tired you are. The test is solvency, and then time.

Can the business pay its debts as and when they fall due. If the answer is no, or you are not confident it is yes, that is a question for a registered liquidator or a restructuring practitioner, and it is urgent. It is not a broking question and anyone who treats it as one is doing you harm.

If the answer is yes, how many months of runway. A confidential sale campaign takes time. Preparation, appraisal, marketing, qualifying, due diligence, contract and settlement. Six to nine months from appraisal to settlement is the realistic shape of it, of which three to six is the campaign and the contract. A business with four months of cash is not in a position to run that process well, and a buyer can smell a forced timeline from a long way off.

Why the window closes quietly

Because nothing dramatic happens on the day it closes.

Stock gets thin because there is no cash to replace it, so sales soften. A key person leaves and is not replaced. A supplier moves you to cash on delivery. The BAS goes on a payment plan. Each one is survivable and none of them is the end. Together they change what the business is: a buyer looking at it now sees declining revenue, thinner stock, a gap in the team and an ATO arrangement, and prices all four.

The business did not become unsellable. It became a different business, and the one that was sellable was the one that existed eight months earlier.

What to do if you are somewhere in the middle

Get the solvency question answered by somebody qualified to answer it, this month. That answer determines everything else and it is not a judgement call an owner should be making alone at the kitchen table.

If the answer is that you are solvent and the problem is performance, then you have a real choice: fix it and sell later, or sell now at what it is worth now. Both are legitimate. What is not legitimate is a plan that assumes you will have the same choice in six months, because that is the assumption the numbers above are made of.

The part I will say plainly

A free appraisal will tell you what the business is worth today and what is dragging the number down. It will not tell you whether you are solvent, and I will say so rather than guess.

If the appraisal turns into a conversation that should be with an insolvency practitioner, I will tell you that too, and it will cost you nothing to have found out.

Common questions

Can you sell a business that is in financial difficulty?

Sometimes, and more often than owners assume, but the requirements are strict. The business has to still be trading, the numbers have to be capable of being explained, and there has to be enough runway to run a confidential campaign and reach settlement. What kills it is usually not the difficulty itself, it is leaving the decision until there is no time left.

What is small business restructuring?

It is a formal process introduced in 2021 for eligible incorporated small businesses under a liabilities threshold, where the directors stay in control of the company while a restructuring practitioner helps put a plan to creditors. It is not a sale and it is not administration. Whether a business is eligible and whether it is the right path is a question for a registered practitioner, not a broker.

Should I talk to a broker or an insolvency practitioner first?

If you can pay your debts as they fall due and the problem is performance, start with the broker and the accountant. If you cannot, or you are not sure, the insolvency practitioner is the first call and the more urgent one. A broker who takes a listing from a business that needed a practitioner three months earlier has not done that owner a favour.

Keep reading

Article cover: a timeline with a cut-off marked near its endThe ATO stops taking credit cards on 30 November. What that does to your cash, and what a buyer reads into itAfter 30 November 2026 the tax office will not accept a credit card. Both sides of the argument, what it does to a business that paid its BAS on a card, and what a buyer's accountant sees.Article cover: stacked layers, three solid, one highlighted and one still only an outlineLaw, draft or promise. What is actually settled before you sellSix of this year's changes are settled, two are drafts and one is an election pledge. A plain ledger of what an owner can plan a sale around in October 2026, and what could still move.Article cover: a timeline with one date marked on itEvery business gets a tax value on 1 July 2027, whether it is sold or notThe capital gains tax changes are law. Assets held on 30 June 2027 are treated as sold and bought back at market value, and that figure divides how a later sale is taxed. What it means for an owner.Article cover: a gate with a bar across the top and loose pieces inside itThe non-compete bill now reaches into the sale contract. The clause to watchTreasury's draft bill bans more than employee non-competes. Your own restraint as a seller is left alone, but a promise between businesses not to recruit staff may not be. Both sides, and what to check.Article cover: a ledger with one line carrying more weight than the restThe card surcharge is gone. Where that cost went, and what it does to your earningsFrom 1 October 2026 a business cannot add a surcharge on eftpos, Visa or Mastercard. The RBA's case, the small business case, and how a buyer will read the year the surcharge stopped.Article cover: nine changes layered, three of them carrying weightNine things that changed for business owners this year, and which ones move your pricePayday super, a permanent write-off, a 4.75 per cent wage decision, four rate rises and a draft non-compete ban. A plain list of what actually landed in 2026, and which items a buyer prices.

All notes on selling a business  ·  All seller guides  ·  What is my business worth?

Check it yourself

Primary sources, none of them affiliated with me and none of them endorsing this site. Where anything here differs from an official source, the official source is right.

SourceAustralian Securities and Investments CommissionInsolvency statistics and the register of registered liquidators, both free to search.SourceAustralian Financial Security AuthorityPersonal insolvency, which is where sole traders and partnerships end up rather than in the ASIC numbers. Live registerFair Trading Licensing RegisterSearch licence 4963575, or any other broker. Peak bodyAustralian Institute of Business BrokersThe national peak body, formed in 1989. GuidanceSelling, closing or leaving your businessBusiness Queensland’s own guidance. Tax officeSmall business CGT concessionsThe four concessions that decide what you keep. OmbudsmanWhen businesses change ownersWhat a transfer means for entitlements. RegisterASIC ConnectCompany status, officeholders and business names.

Links open on external government and industry websites. The full list sits on licensing, registers and official sources.

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