How to find a business to buy in Canada
Most small businesses for sale are never advertised where you’d look first. Here’s where they actually are, and what to check before you pick up the phone.
Where they’re listed
- Business brokers. Most established businesses with real earnings sell through one. Each broker lists only their own inventory, usually on their own site, so a single search rarely shows the whole market.
- Marketplaces. Big national listing sites. Wide, but heavy on franchises and businesses priced for a quick sale, and many listings are re-posts of broker listings with older numbers.
- Off-market. Accountants, lawyers and bank business advisors hear about retirements before anything is listed. So do suppliers and landlords. Tell them what you’re looking for.
- The owner directly. A short, honest letter to owners of the kind of business you want. Slow, but it finds sellers who hadn’t decided to sell yet.
What to check before you call
- Is SDE published? Only 60% of the listings we track publish owner earnings. Without it nobody can tell you whether the price is sane. What is SDE?
- How does the multiple compare? Asking price ÷ SDE, against other businesses in the same industry. Valuation calculator
- Why is it for sale? A retirement is the reason you can most easily check. “Motivated seller” usually means it’s been listed a long time.
- Could you finance it? Most first purchases lean on a bank loan and some seller financing. The government-backed CSBFP loan has a cap, so bigger purchases need other money — confirm with a lender.
Or start here
We collect 514 businesses for sale from publicly available listings, check them daily, and grade each one on those four questions. Browse Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Manitoba, by industry, or owner-retiring sales in Ontario.
Not financial or legal advice.