Owners usually want to know what their business is worth. Buyers want to know something else first: will the business still make money if the owner is no longer there to run it?
It is a fair question, and it is the one that shapes almost everything else in a sale. Buyers are not just purchasing your revenue, your fit out or your customer list. They are purchasing the confidence that all of it will still be there once you are gone. When that confidence is high, offers are strong and due diligence moves quickly. When it is shaky, the price drifts down and the process drags on, or the deal quietly falls over.
The uncomfortable truth is that many good businesses are far more dependent on their owner than the owner realises. That is not a criticism. It is usually a sign of someone who cares deeply about what they have built. But it is worth looking at honestly, and well before you go to market.
Why buyers are asking this question first
The Australian business sales market has become more selective over the past year. Three cash rate rises in 2026 have taken the cash rate to 4.35 per cent, and the Reserve Bank has said financial conditions have tightened as a result. Borrowing is more expensive for buyers, and lenders are looking harder at the businesses they fund. In my experience that shows up in a very specific way. Buyers are still active, but they are focusing their attention on businesses with clear financials, simple operations and consistent cash flow, and moving past the ones that look hard to take over.
At the same time, a large wave of businesses is heading for the market. MYOB research found that 48 per cent of Baby Boomer business owners plan to exit within one to five years, with the great majority citing retirement, yet only around a quarter of small and mid-sized businesses have a documented succession plan. Reporting in the Australian Financial Review on PwC research put the figure at 1.4 million owners expected to retire by 2036, with roughly a third having no plan at all.
Put those two things together and the picture is clear. More businesses will be for sale, buyers will have more choice, and the businesses that stand out will be the ones a new owner can step into with the least disruption. For a lot of owners, the sale proceeds are also the retirement plan. The same MYOB research found around a third of exiting owners intend to fund their retirement from the sale. That makes getting this right a personal matter, not just a commercial one.
What owner reliance actually looks like
When I sit down with an owner, reliance rarely shows up as one big thing. It shows up as dozens of small ones. The supplier who only ever deals with you. The three biggest customers who call your mobile rather than the office. The pricing that lives in your head. The staff roster you build every Sunday night. The bank, the landlord and the accountant who all have your number and nobody else’s.
None of these are problems while you are there. Every one of them is a question a buyer will ask. And when the answer is “the owner handles that”, the buyer starts mentally discounting the price to cover the risk, or asking for a longer handover, or walking away in favour of a business where the answers are already written down.
The good news is that this is one of the most fixable issues in a business sale, provided you give yourself enough lead time. A sale in Australia typically takes six to twelve months from engaging a broker to settlement. The work of reducing owner reliance is best done in the twelve months before that clock starts.
Five things to work on before you list
- Map where you sit in the business. Spend a fortnight writing down every decision you make, every relationship you personally hold and every task that stops if you are away. Most owners are surprised by the length of the list. That list becomes your plan.
- Move key relationships across. Introduce your senior staff to your major customers and suppliers, and let them run the next few conversations. A buyer wants to see that the relationships belong to the business, not to you. This also protects your revenue during the handover period.
- Write down how things are done. Simple, current procedures for the tasks that matter: quoting, ordering, rostering, invoicing, opening and closing. They do not need to be polished. They need to be accurate, and they need to exist somewhere other than your memory.
- Give your team real authority. If every purchase over a few hundred dollars needs your sign off, that is what a buyer will inherit. Set clear limits, let your team make decisions within them, and be prepared to accept a few small mistakes as the price of a business that runs itself.
- Test it. Take two weeks off, properly, with the phone diverted. What broke? What did people wait on? Fix those things, then do it again. A business that has already proven it can operate without you is far easier to sell, and it usually commands a better price.
A better business, whether or not you sell
Almost everything on that list makes the business more valuable to a buyer. It also makes it easier to own. Owners who do this work often tell me the business became more enjoyable in the process, because they were no longer the bottleneck for every decision. Some go to market with renewed confidence. Some decide to stay on for another few years, because the business finally gives them the life they wanted from it in the first place. Both are good outcomes.
So the questions worth asking now are straightforward. If a buyer walked in tomorrow and asked who handles the biggest customer, what would the answer be? If you disappeared for a month, what would still get done? And if you are planning to sell in the next two to three years, what would you want a new owner to find waiting for them?
If you are not sure how a buyer would see your business today, that is a useful place to start the conversation. The earlier it happens, the more options you have.
Written by Luke Taylor, Business Broker – Mabble
Built on the foundations of AP Group, Mabble draws on more than a decade of experience supporting business owners through complex business sales across Australia.
Over that time, AP Group developed industry-leading systems, technology and processes to manage transactions with greater structure, confidentiality and control.
Mabble brings those proven systems and specialist-led processes to business sales more broadly, offering a smarter, more structured approach that supports transactions from first enquiry through to settlement.
Mabble combines intelligent technology with experienced business sales specialists to help buyers and sellers move forward with clarity and confidence.
About the Author:
Luke has built businesses, run businesses, and sold businesses – giving him a first-hand understanding of what owners go through and what’s truly at stake in a sale. Over more than a decade, he owned and operated multiple businesses across Melbourne in design and hospitality. He holds a Bachelor of Communication Design from RMIT and a real estate licence, combining creative thinking with sharp commercial awareness.
Luke’s approach is personal and grounded. He takes the time to understand the story behind a business – not just the numbers – and clients consistently describe working with him as feeling supported rather than sold to. That distinction matters when the stakes are this high.
Outside work: coffee, great food, design, camping, surfing, and time with his wife and two boys.