Selling Your Business During the Covid-19 Pandemic

By Phil Reese · August 5, 2020 · Updated June 26, 2026

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many businesses to grind to a halt. Some have been able to adapt and find new ways to meet the needs of their customers, but others haven’t been able to do much more than sit back and wait. For many long-time business owners, this pandemic has proven to be another in a long line of setbacks, including numerous recessions over the last couple of decades. Some are looking at this as a good time to sell their business with help from a Phoenix business broker. However, even if they want to sell, they may not be able to if their business is in a downward spiral. From what I have seen, most buyers are not willing to take the risk of buying a business that has been adversely affected by the pandemic. These business buyers are taking on a wait-n-see attitude. They want to wait till the pandemic passes to see if the business they are looking at has recovered to pre-pandemic sales levels.

If your business has been adversely affected by the pandemic and you are determined to try and sell it now, you should expect to receive low ball offers and attract buyers who will insist that you carry a note for a large part of the purchase price. Help from a Chandler business broker is your best option. Another challenge sellers are facing is political in nature. Being so close to the Presidential election, a lot of buyers are putting off buying a business until after the election. This usually happens leading up to every Presidential election. Depending on your political persuasion, you may think if Trump wins it will be great and if Biden wins it will be a disaster. Or you may believe the opposite. Either way, Buyers hate uncertainty and some will wait until the results are in. If you would like to find out what your business is worth now, contact Arizona Business Broker Phil Reese. Phil has been helping people buy and sell businesses for the last two decades, and he is a member of the International Business Brokers Association, the Arizona Business Brokers Association and is a Master Certified Business Intermediary. He is committed to helping you get the best price for your business. Just check out his ratings on Google and on his website at www.philsellsbiz.com to learn what others have to say about his Chandler business broker services.

Is This a Good Time To Sell My Business?
The pandemic-era question of whether to sell now has a general answer that outlasts any one downturn. This is the yes, maybe, or no test I run on profit, employees, track record, and books, and what an owner in the no column has to change before a sale can happen.
How Are Business Acquisitions Financed?
This article warns that buyers will ask you to carry a large note in a downturn. This explains how seller carry notes work in normal times, why most deals include one anyway, what a typical down payment and term look like, and how the buyer gets checked out first.
Why Pricing Your Business Too High Can Backfire
Low offers in a downturn are one thing. Low offers because the price was wrong to begin with are another, and this explains how to tell the difference, what a stale listing costs you, and why the asking price should be set from the financials rather than from what a broker promised.
“I Have No Intention of Ever Selling My Business.”
Downturns force exits that owners never planned. This covers the three ways every owner eventually leaves a business, closing, passing it to family, or selling, and why planning the exit early, while the business is on an upward trend, keeps it on your terms.

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