Small business transactions in the first quarter of 2019 experienced a modest year-over-year decline but remain at historically high levels, according to the latest BizBuySell Insight Report, a nationally recognized economic indicator that aggregates statistics from business-for-sale transactions reported by participating business brokers nationwide. A total of 2,504 sold businesses were reported in the first three months of 2019, a 6.5% decline from the same period last year. Similarly, Q4 2018 saw a 6% decrease from the same quarter in 2017.
How does the Phoenix area stack up? Here are a few highlights for small business transactions in the Phoenix-area in Q1 of 2019, which is based on 1,342 Phoenix-area businesses listed in Q1 at BizBuySell.com:
• Median asking price of businesses for sale in Phoenix at the end of Q1 2019 was $199,000 compared to $175,000 in Q1 of 2018.
• Businesses listed in Phoenix at the end of Q1 2019 had a median revenue of $400,000, up from $366,000 at this same time last year in 2018.
• Median cash flow for Phoenix businesses is $95,659 vs median cash flow of $88,679 last year.
It is important to note that both 2017 and 2018 set new records for the most annual small business transactions since BizBuySell started reporting the data in 2007. So while reported deals are down slightly from a year ago, the market continues to be very active compared to the previous decade. In fact, Q1 2019 represents the second highest first quarter on record, trailing only 2018. It is too early to tell if the recent plateau marks any kind of market shift or not. To gain additional perspective, BizBuySell also surveyed business owners and some leading brokers, the results of which are incorporated within this report.
A number of factors could be tempering the strong transaction growth rates seen in recent years. Most notably, these include the recent government shutdown, low unemployment, record profits, deal financing, and general uncertainty around the impact of administration policies relating to tariffs, immigration, and health care.
“Main Street business sales may have been impacted in part due to a stronger economy where individuals are more satisfied as employees (not looking to purchase businesses) and business owners are seeing higher profits (not looking to sell their businesses)”, said Jeff Snell, Chairman of the International Business Broker Association, the industry’s leading trade group. “Also, time to complete business transactions has increased marginally, potentially as a result of the Federal Government budget shut down which closed SBA loan guarantee processing offices. However, broker optimism through 2019 remains strong”, Snell added.
“The business sale market still continues to perform strong in 2019 in terms of number of deals getting done and the multiples sellers are receiving. However, we are seeing signs that the market could become more challenging in the future with interest rates rising and financing becoming both more expensive and harder to acquire. This can make the buyer process lengthy and more difficult, which would suppress multiples and extend time to close”, said Jessica Fialkovich, President, Transworld Business Advisors of Denver.
