A sale has to be done for the right reason in order to be successful. Brokers say good reasons to sell include a desire to move on to something else, health, family commitment, divorce, retirement, or death of a spouse.

Finances, on the other hand, are not considered a positive motivation for selling your business. When people want to use the proceeds to pay off a mortgage, or when financial considerations are the driving force for some other reason, the sale often does not happen. If a sale motivated by money does go through, it often takes a long time to sell, and frequently sells for a price significantly lower than what the owner hoped. When people try to sell for financial reasons only, they are almost always unrealistic about the worth of their business. Their price is not related to the marketplace because they have doubled the worth or more and the marketplace will just not net them that.