I went through this process not too long ago and figured I’d share what it actually looked like for me.

Back in 2024, I owned an online health and wellness brand doing around $3M/year in revenue and still profitable. The issue wasn’t margins, it was growth. Post-Covid, things flattened out and stayed that way for about two years. I wanted to exit and reallocate my time and capital into real estate.

My first attempt was selling it myself. I contacted competitors, spoke with a few aggregators, and listed the business on BizBuySell. The response was slower than I expected, and most of the interest I got involved low cash upfront with heavy earn-outs. That structure didn’t make sense for what I was trying to do.

After a few months of that, I decided to speak with brokers. I talked to three that specialized in online businesses. All came back with fairly similar valuation ranges. One was slow to respond, another felt dismissive, and the third (Acquisitions Direct) seemed to have deeper experience specifically with e-commerce and online brands, so I moved forward with them.

Once the business was officially taken to market, buyer interest picked up quickly. Within about three weeks, I had two serious offers. The broker stayed involved throughout the process, which was helpful since I hadn’t been through a full sale before.

Closing took longer than expected due to the SBA loan process and some government shutdown delays, but we still closed in late 2025 with roughly 95% cash at closing. Overall, I was very happy with how it turned out.

Looking back, trying to sell on my own probably cost me a few months. For my situation, working with a broker ended up being the right move.