A Wave of Business Owners Cashes Out
BizBuySell reports that sales of small businesses surged in the third quarter—but at lower prices.
Good Morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Yelp’s AI assistant can now answer questions about local businesses.
Small employers are facing dramatically higher health insurance fees.
American farmers are trying to figure out why President Trump is putting Argentina first.
The Dallas Fed reports that the immigration crackdown is restraining growth in Texas.
SELLING THE BUSINESS
The rush to sell seems unlikely to continue in the fourth quarter: “A strong market for small-business sales cut through the noise of the Trump administration’s tariffs during the third quarter of this year. Buyers pushed ahead while many owners chose to cash out before more political surprises—including the current government shutdown–could throw a wrench in the market. According to BizBuySell, an online marketplace that tracks U.S. business sales, closed transactions rose 8 percent year-over-year and 11 percent from the prior quarter. Buyers are acting fast: The typical business sold in just 149 days, the shortest turnaround since 2017 and down from 176 days the quarter before. Yet prices slipped. The median sale price fell 2 percent from a year earlier and 9 percent from Q2 to $320,000. Sellers may be lowering expectations to move before conditions worsen.”
“The rush to buy shows how strong the appetite for ownership remains. Many buyers are ‘corporate refugees’—that is, mid-career professionals who want control over their work. Forty percent of buyers fall into that group. For them, economic uncertainty is less a deterrent than motivation. Service and retail businesses led the market. Acquisitions of service companies rose 11 percent year-over-year; retail deals were up by 14 percent. Buyers focused on practical, recurring-demand sectors like HVAC, plumbing, and landscaping.”
“Manufacturing told a different story. Transactions there fell 11 percent, and the median sale price plunged 37 percent to $550,000. The drag reflects the very tariffs and trade volatility that define the broader economy. Many deals have been delayed as buyers and sellers try to price the risk. That slump comes despite the Trump administration’s new Made in America Manufacturing Initiative, announced in March 2025.”
“The fourth quarter is likely to be a different story when it comes to sales volume. The trade fight with China is heating up again, fueling uncertainty, and the government shutdown has frozen approval of loans backed by the Small Business Administration, which fuel many small-business deals.” READ MORE
