Expand Your Career Horizons Into Business Broking

We sit down with Steve Finn from Finn Business Sales to discuss how Business Broking is a great career path or side career for those in real estate.  You simply need your full real estate agent licence and a whole new career awaits.  Steve shares his journey to success in this dynamic industry and how his business can make you a success in business broking as well.

Why business broking is such a good career choice

Business broking is a great career choice and a very good add-on for a real estate agent because it allows you to expand your income opportunities. It can be seen as a side hustle or bolt-on to a Real Estate agent’s main business. With great income potential to be made and no regular ‘open for inspection’ days like residential property (because most of the information is given via email), the whole sales process is quite easy to manage from a time point of view.

Business Broking Commission Structure

The sales commissions from selling a business are usually 5%-10%. There’s a minimum fee of about $10,000 that business brokers charge to make a listing and sale worthwhile. So commissions range from as low as $10,000 at the lower end, to up-to $100,000 plus. Even if a real estate agent decided to do a few business sales and only manages to list and sell one or two businesses per year, there’s still some good extra money

If you want to keep 100% of your business sale commissions, that is certainly possible. For a real estate agent with a real estate registration certificate, they simply need to complete the full Real Estate Agent License course and then apply for the license with the State Government.

How I became a success in business broking?

Almost 20 years ago I started off as a residential real estate agent and after a few months I decided to make the change and focus more on a five day a week business. I still liked the idea of selling high-priced items such as property and businesses, that’s when I fell into the world of being a business broker.

In the beginning, I didn’t really know a lot about what I was doing, but I did as much learning and training as I could so I could provide a service to my clients that was better than they were getting anywhere else. In the end it worked because we grew Finn Business Sales to where it is today – we are the number one business sales group in Australia with more than 50 people on the ground in every capital city and every major regional city as well.  We even started our own specialist training arm, offering online courses around listing, selling, and buying businesses.

Tips to those new to the business broking industry

The thing I found when I started was you don’t need to know a lot about the business itself because normally you’re really just getting the information ready; do the marketing; help manage the buyer; and then eventually you arrange for the buyer to meet up with the vendor.  The vendor then explains the business to them so it is quite easy that way.

The one area where those new to the industry will need some help is knowing how to value a business correctly. There is no central platform such as RP Data or the like that shows other similar businesses that have sold, so it’s really down to understanding how businesses are valued and then working out at an agreed listing price with the vendor.

How can Finn Business Sales help you becoming a Business Broker?

For any agents interested in business sales, I’d recommend our fast-track online course Business Broker Pro. It can be done online and finished the same day. This is an easy and fast way for a real estate agent to learn exactly how to be a successful business broker.

We also have a short online course called Business Valuations Pro that helps with this and it’s been very popular with a lot of licensed brokers, real estate agents, accountants, and even just general business advisors who are looking to understand the marketplace.

We also offer an opportunity for residential and commercial real estate agents to become authorised partners with Finn Business Sales. This means we can collaborate with you on some business sale listings, and even help you bring them on board. We then split the commission – it can be a good way to test out if you like the business sales market.

Finding buyers in our industry isn’t as easy as in real estate. It’s certainly a buyer’s market, but potential buyers can be quite nervous about investing into a business. To help with this, we created an online course to help people learn the tips and tricks. It’s a quick course that takes only a couple of hours to complete and we call it the Business Buying Masterclass. This is been really popular because people are worried they will get burnt when they buy a business.  So the course helps them go in with a lot more knowledge as to how it all works so they can protect their money and also find the right business for them.

In summary, I think every real estate agent should know how to value and sell a business. In the end even if they make a choice to only focus on property, it’s new knowledge that can be used to help clients and set themselves apart from other agents in the area. I’d recommend that if you are a registered salesperson, you should consider expanding your horizons and protect your future income by obtaining your full Real Estate Agent License and finding a way to expand into new markets.

Steve Finn is the co-founder of Finn Business Sales, Australia’s largest business sales organisation. For enquiries relating to becoming an Authorised Partner, email steve@thefinngroup.com.au