How to Find a Business to Buy in Australia

Everyone wants to buy a business. Almost nobody knows where to look.

I've been sourcing acquisition targets in Australia for over twenty years. First in oil and gas advisory. Now in blue-collar PE — trades, landscaping, cleaning, the businesses that keep suburbs running.

The biggest thing I've learned? The best businesses for sale are rarely the ones you find on page one of a listing site.

Here's where to actually find them. And more importantly, how to find the ones worth buying.

Start With the Marketplaces (But Don't Stop There)

The obvious starting point is online. Australia has several business-for-sale platforms, and they're worth your time — with caveats.

Bsale is probably the most established. They've been running since 2000 and list thousands of businesses across every industry and region in Australia. Good filters, decent volume.

BusinessesForSale.com has a strong Australian section with over 150,000 active buyers browsing monthly. Useful for gauging what's on the market at any given time.

BusinessForSale.com.au connects directly with private sellers, which sometimes means fewer middlemen and more room to negotiate.

Business2Sell and AnyBusiness.com.au round out the field. Both have solid listings, particularly outside the capital cities.

Here's the problem with all of them: by the time a business hits a public listing, every buyer with a search alert has already seen it. The good ones get enquiries within days. The great ones — the ones with clean books, loyal customers, and an owner ready to transition — often sell before the listing goes live.

Public marketplaces are your starting grid. They're not the finish line.

Business Brokers: The Gatekeepers

Brokers control a significant share of the small business transaction market in Australia. And like real estate agents, they vary enormously in quality.

A good broker does three things well. They vet the businesses they represent, so you're not wasting time on fantasies dressed up as financials. They manage the seller relationship, which matters more than most buyers realise. And they have a pipeline of businesses that haven't hit the market yet.

That last point is the key. Brokers often have a list of business owners who are "thinking about selling" — not listed, not committed, but open to the right conversation. If you build a relationship with two or three brokers in your target industry, you get access to those conversations before anyone else.

How to approach them: be specific about what you're looking for. Don't say "I want to buy a business." Say "I'm looking for a trades or services business in Perth or regional WA, turning over $500K to $2M, with an owner open to a transition period."

Specificity earns you priority in their call list.

The downside? Broker fees. Typically 5-10% of the sale price, paid by the seller — but factored into the asking price, which means you're indirectly paying for it. Worth it for a good broker. Expensive mistake with a bad one.

Off-Market: Where the Best Deals Live

This is where I spend most of my time now. And it's where the maths changes.

Off-market deals are businesses that aren't listed anywhere. The owner hasn't engaged a broker. They haven't posted on Bsale. They might not even know they want to sell yet.

Why does this matter? Competition. Or rather, the absence of it.

A listed business with good numbers might attract ten serious enquiries. An off-market deal might attract one — yours. That difference shows up in the purchase price, the negotiation dynamics, and the transition terms.

How do you find off-market deals?

Direct outreach. Identify businesses in your target sector and geography. Look at Google Business profiles, industry directories, trade association member lists. Then reach out. A simple letter or email: "I'm looking to acquire a business like yours. If you've ever considered selling, I'd love to have a conversation."

Most won't reply. Some will reply and say no. A few will say "funny you should mention that — I've been thinking about it."

Those are the ones.

Accountants and lawyers. They know which of their clients are approaching retirement, going through a divorce, or just tired. They won't breach confidentiality. But if they know you're a serious buyer, they'll mention your name when the conversation comes up. Buy your accountant coffee. It's the highest-ROI networking you'll do.

Industry networks. Trade associations, business owner groups, even local chambers of commerce. Show up, be genuine, be patient. The deals come through relationships, not cold emails.

Word of mouth. Tell everyone you know — your barber, your neighbour, your kid's soccer coach — that you're looking to buy a business. I've seen deals originate from the most unlikely conversations. The retired plumber at the BBQ who mentions his mate wants out of his electrical business. That's a real deal, not a hypothetical.

The Generational Opportunity in 2026

Here's something most buyers aren't paying attention to.

The average age of small business owners in Australia is climbing. Hard. The most common age bracket is now 50-plus, and a wave of retirements is coming — particularly in trades and services businesses.

These owners built their businesses over 20 or 30 years. They have loyal customers, reliable cash flow, and no succession plan. Their kids don't want the business. They haven't engaged a broker because they don't know where to start.

If you're a buyer in this market right now, the timing is in your favour. There are more motivated sellers than motivated buyers in the blue-collar space. That's not going to last forever.

How to Filter: The Questions That Actually Matter

Finding businesses for sale is the easy part. Finding the right one is the job.

When I evaluate an acquisition target, these are the first five questions I ask:

1. Why is the owner selling? Retirement is the best answer. "I'm burnt out" is workable. "The business is struggling" — that's a different conversation entirely. The reason shapes everything.

2. What happens when the owner leaves? If the owner IS the business — all the key relationships, all the technical knowledge, all the customer trust — you're not buying a business. You're buying a job. And an expensive one.

3. How clean are the books? Two years of properly audited financials is the minimum. If the owner tells you "the real numbers are better than what's on paper" — run. Sellers who hide revenue from the ATO will hide problems from you.

4. What's the customer concentration? If one customer represents more than 20% of revenue, you have a risk, not a business. Customers leave. Contracts end. Diversification isn't optional.

5. What does the team look like? Do the employees stay post-acquisition? Are they skilled? Loyal? Can the business run for two weeks without the owner present? If not, you're buying a dependency, not an asset.

These five questions kill about 70% of deals I look at. That's the point. You're not trying to buy any business. You're trying to buy the right one.

Tools I Actually Use for Deal Sourcing

I keep it simple.

Google Alerts for industry keywords plus "for sale" or "retiring" in my target regions. Costs nothing. Surfaces opportunities I'd otherwise miss.

LinkedIn for connecting with brokers, accountants, and business owners in my target sectors. Not for posting "I want to buy your business." For building relationships over months.

A spreadsheet. Every potential target, every conversation, every follow-up date. Deal sourcing is a pipeline business. Treat it like one.

ABN Lookup and ASIC searches for basic due diligence before I pick up the phone. How long has the business been registered? Who are the directors? Any recent changes? Five minutes of research saves hours of wasted conversation.

The Mistake Most First-Time Buyers Make

They look for the perfect business.

It doesn't exist.

Every acquisition target has problems. Revenue might be flat. One key employee might be shaky. The equipment might need replacing. The owner's record-keeping might be done on the back of receipts.

The question isn't whether there are problems. It's whether the problems are fixable — and whether the price reflects them.

I'd rather buy a business with three known problems at the right price than a "perfect" business at a premium. The known problems are your margin of safety. They're what the next buyer — the one who wasn't patient enough to dig — walked away from.

What I'd Tell My Younger Self

Start looking six months before you think you're ready. Deal sourcing takes time. Relationships take time. The business you buy in month eight is probably one you first heard about in month two.

Build your broker network early. Have your financing pre-approved. Know your criteria cold.

And don't fall in love with a business before you've seen the books.

The businesses are out there. In every suburb, every regional town, every industrial estate in Australia. Owners who built something real, ready to hand it over.

Your job is to be ready when they are.