Questions owners ask before selling — answered straight.

Six to eight months from first conversation to money in the bank is typical for a prepared, realistically priced Singapore SME. Well-prepared businesses in active sectors can complete in four to five; licence-heavy or complex deals can run nine to twelve. The biggest variable isn't the market — it's how clean the financial records are and how quickly each side responds once offers are on the table.

When it's performing — not when you're exhausted or the numbers have turned. Buyers pay for trajectory, so the best exits are planned 12–24 months ahead: enough time to normalise the accounts, reduce owner-dependence and go to market on strength. Market cycles matter far less than your business's own curve. If circumstances force a faster sale, a structured process still beats a distressed one.

Our process suits profitable businesses with roughly S$2M–S$20M annual revenue or adjusted EBITDA above about S$300,000 — the range where serious trade buyers, family offices and search funds actively acquire in Singapore. Below that, the economics of a full sell-side process stop making sense for you, and a marketplace listing is often the better route. Message us either way — we'll tell you honestly which side of the line you're on.

Nothing, for the first conversation — it's thirty minutes on WhatsApp or a call about your goals, timeline and whether a sale makes sense at all. If you engage, the working documents come later: three years of financial statements, management accounts, ACRA records, key contracts and leases. Don't reorganise or 'tidy' anything first; advisors would rather see the real picture early than discover surprises in due diligence.

Singapore has no capital gains tax, so for most owners selling shares in their Pte Ltd, the sale proceeds are not taxed. The main caveats: IRAS can treat gains as taxable income if buying and selling companies is effectively your trade; buyers pay stamp duty of 0.2% on share transfers; and asset sales are different — the company may be taxed on gains over book value and GST can apply. Structure decides the outcome, which is why it's negotiated early. We coordinate with your tax advisor before terms are locked.

Effectively, yes. Singapore SME deals are typically priced 'cash-free, debt-free': the headline price assumes you extract excess cash (usually as a tax-free dividend before completion) and settle borrowings, leaving an agreed normal level of working capital in the business. That working-capital level is a negotiated number — one of those quiet terms that can move the real proceeds by six figures.

Brokers in Singapore typically charge 5–10% of the sale price, some with upfront or monthly retainers. Our schedule is published and success-only: 5% up to S$5M, stepping down to 1% above S$50M, minimum S$100,000, zero upfront — we're paid from the proceeds when you are. Your other costs are your own lawyer for the sale agreement and, in some deals, a tax opinion. See the full breakdown on the fees page.

Yes — this is standard practice, not a special request. The business is marketed under a no-name 'blind profile'; buyers are screened and financially qualified first, sign an NDA before your identity is revealed, and receive sensitive information in stages inside a controlled data room. Your staff typically learn of the sale when you announce it — after completion, with the future secured. The full mechanism is explained on the home page.

It happens, and the process is built for it. Every buyer is scored on intent and capability before any disclosure; NDAs carry non-solicitation clauses covering your staff and customers; and the data room releases information in stages — customer names, pricing and supplier terms come last, after price and structure are already agreed. A competitor who is genuinely the best buyer can stay in the process; one who's fishing never gets past the shallow end.

You generally can't force a co-shareholder to sell, and most SME constitutions give them pre-emption rights over your stake — but deadlock is more solvable than it feels. A market-tested valuation turns an emotional stand-off into an arithmetic conversation: the reluctant partner can buy you out at the evidenced price, join the sale, or accept terms that protect their position under the new owner. We've run each of these plays; the first step is a valuation neither side can argue with.

You're in the majority — most Singapore SME successions now end in a sale, not a handover. The good news: a sale done while the business is performing converts your life's work into retirement capital, and the things succession was meant to protect — staff, brand, customers — become negotiated terms of the deal. Many of our sellers are exactly here: sixties, profitable business, no successor. The earlier the conversation starts, the more options stay open.

Yes. Singapore places no general restriction on foreign ownership of private companies — regional trade buyers, Southeast Asian consolidators and international investors are among the most active acquirers of Singapore SMEs, and often the best payers. A few licensed sectors require regulatory notification or approval on change of control, which is checked in preparation, not discovered in due diligence. Completion mechanics are the same; funds flow through the same escrow protections.

You can sell yourself — owners do. But one buyer negotiating against an inexperienced seller sets their own price, and running a six-to-eight-month process while managing the company is where self-run sales most often die. A broker's case rests on three things: competitive tension between several vetted buyers, a shield that keeps the sale confidential and you out of the firing line, and the business staying on-curve because you never stopped running it. The sell your business page covers what that looks like in practice.

Mostly scale and depth of process. 'Business broker' usually means marketplace listings and smaller transactions; 'M&A advisory' means a managed sell-side process — valuation evidence, targeted buyer outreach, structured negotiation, due diligence management — for larger deals. For Singapore SMEs in the S$2M–S$20M revenue range, what matters isn't the label but whether your advisor runs a real process. Ours is sell-side M&A methodology applied at SME scale, on success-only broker economics.