Deal sourcing is the work of producing a steady flow of businesses that fit a written target, from brokers, referrers, and direct outreach, and screening each one in minutes before spending a week on it.
Where do businesses for sale actually come from?
From 3 channels, in rising order of effort and quality. Listing sites and brokers, where sellers who have decided to sell go and where every other buyer is also looking. Professional referrers, meaning the accountants, attorneys, bankers, and industry suppliers who know which owners are thinking about it before a listing exists. And direct outreach, where the buyer writes to owners who have not decided to sell and asks.
Each channel has a different price. A listed business comes with a broker, a confidential information memorandum, and an asking price built to be negotiated down. A referred business comes with an introduction and usually no memorandum at all. A business found by outreach comes with an owner who has to be talked into the idea of selling before anyone talks about price. The buying guide places sourcing as the second step, after the target is defined, and the definition is what makes any channel usable.
What should you decide before you open a listing site?
The screen. Without one, a listing site is an evening lost to businesses you would never operate. Write down the industries you could run, the geography you can cover, the cash you can commit to an equity injection, and the owner salary the business must pay you before it pays a lender. The business fit quiz turns those into a written target. A listing that fails the screen in 10 minutes is a listing you do not model for a week.
How do you read a listing in ten minutes?
For 5 things. A clear description of what the business sells and to whom. A reason for sale you would believe if a friend gave it. Enough operating history that the earnings are a pattern and not a year. An asking price inside the range businesses like it sell for, which the valuation calculator checks against industry ranges. And earnings that could support both the debt the price implies and your salary, which the debt coverage check answers before you have spoken to anyone.
Two listings out of 10 will pass. That is the point of the screen. It is not a filter for good businesses; it is a filter for businesses worth a phone call.
How does the seller financing filter change what you see?
Most listing sites let a buyer filter for listings where the seller has indicated a willingness to carry part of the price. It is one toggle, and it changes the search. A seller open to financing has already accepted that the buyer will not pay the whole price in cash, which lowers the cash a buyer needs at closing and can, under the SBA program, count toward the required injection when the note is on full standby. The seller standby note page explains what the seller is agreeing to.
The filter is not a signal about the business. It is a signal about the seller's expectations, and it is worth knowing at the first conversation rather than the last.
What do referrers want in return?
To be right. An accountant who introduces a client to a buyer is putting a relationship at risk, and will do it only for a buyer who has a written target, verified funds, and a record of following through. The way to earn referrals is to tell every professional you meet exactly what you are looking for, in one paragraph, and then to be the buyer who does what they said. Referred businesses arrive without a memorandum, so the buyer does the earnings rebuild from the source documents, which is the work anyway.
How does direct outreach work?
A short letter or call to owners of businesses that fit the target, saying who you are, what you are looking for, and why their business fits. Most will not answer. Some will, and the ones who do are usually owners who have been thinking about it and had not found a way to start. The buyer then has to do the whole sale: value the business without a broker's number, explain financing to a seller who has never heard of a standby note, and keep the conversation warm for months.
The reward is a business no other buyer is looking at, at a price built from the numbers rather than from a listing. The cost is time. Direct outreach is a pipeline, not a search, and the Sourcing deals course holds the pipeline template and the first-call script that keep it moving.
When does the search end?
Later than the plan said. Most people who search seriously for a year buy nothing that year, and that is a normal outcome. The search ends when a business passes the screen, survives the earnings rebuild, prices inside a range the coverage supports, and comes with a seller who will sign the structure that makes the financing work. Every one of those is a place a deal should die if it is going to. Killing a deal that does not survive verification is a successful search.
Questions people ask next
Are business brokers worth it for a buyer?
A broker works for the seller and is paid by the seller. They are worth it as a channel because listed businesses come with a memorandum and a seller who has decided to sell. They are not an adviser to the buyer, and their asking price is built to be negotiated.
How many listings should I look at before buying?
Enough that a business passing the ten-minute screen is unusual. Most serious searches read hundreds of listings and speak to a few dozen sellers before one survives diligence, and a search that ends its first year with no purchase is a normal outcome.
Should I search in an industry I know?
Usually. Operating experience is what a lender underwrites and what the employees will test on the first day. The business fit quiz on this site separates the industries you could run from the ones you would only like to own.
What does the seller financing filter mean?
That the seller has indicated a willingness to carry part of the price as a note. It says nothing about the business. It says the seller already accepts a buyer who cannot pay the whole price in cash, which lowers the cash needed at closing.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration, buy an existing business or franchise Primary source. Read 2026-09-08.
- Official Business Doctor, how to buy a business Secondary source. Read 2026-09-08.