redactedShort answer: Most Canadian small business owners plan to leave their business within the next 10 years, and very few have a formal plan to do it. In its new report, Passing the Torch, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) found that 63 per cent of owners expect to exit within 10 years. CFIB estimates that more than $2 trillion in business assets could change hands over that period. Only 6 per cent of owners have a formal written succession plan. Another 44 per cent have an informal plan that is not written down, and 50 per cent have no plan at all. If you are thinking about selling, that gap matters to you. Owners who prepare early have more say over timing, buyers and terms. Owners who wait often learn what their business is worth, and who might buy it, only after they have decided to leave. BDC, the federal business development bank, says advisors generally suggest starting an exit strategy at least two years before the exit. In this post I go through the numbers that matter most to sellers and explain how to read them. I also add our recommendations for owners and professionals, and I explain why I wrote Selling Your Canadian Business and how owners, family members, advisors and other stakeholders can get a copy on Amazon. What CFIB found in 2026 CFIB released the report on October 22, 2026. It is based on an online survey of 1,731 small business owners from across Canada, conducted from May 21 to June 11, 2026. CFIB describes the results as nationally representative, weighted by industry and age of owner, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.35 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Start with the exit timeline. Of all owners surveyed, 8 per cent plan to leave within 12 months, 35 per cent within one to five years and 20 per cent within six to 10 years. That adds up to the 63 per cent. Age makes a big difference. Among owners aged 65 and older, 80 per cent plan to leave within 10 years and only 4 per cent expect to still be in the business after that. Among owners under 50, 39 per cent expect to stay more than 10 years. Retirement is by far the most common reason, cited by 78 per cent of owners. The other reasons come more from pressure than from age. About 24 per cent want to pass the business to a family member, 22 per cent want to step back from the responsibilities of ownership and 21 per cent cite burnout or stress. About 20 per cent cite the high cost of operating a business, including tariffs, labour, inputs, financing, taxation and regulatory compliance. In retail, 25 per cent give high operating costs as a reason, and in hospitality the figure is 38 per cent. CFIB notes that many owners count on the sale of the business to fund their retirement. If the sale goes badly, it affects the owner and the owner's family, not only the business. Think about that when you decide how much time and money to put into preparing. The $2 trillion figure: what it is and what it is not You will see the "more than $2 trillion" figure quoted often, so here is where it comes from. According to CFIB's methodology appendix, it is the share of owners planning to exit in the next 10 years (63 per cent) multiplied by the total assets of incorporated small and medium-sized businesses, about $3.281 trillion. CFIB took the asset figure from a Statistics Canada special tabulation for firms with revenues of up to $25 million. The result is about $2.053 trillion, which CFIB rounds to "over $2 trillion." That figure measures assets that could change hands. It is not a forecast of sale prices, and it is not what owners will receive. Assets are not the same as enterprise value, and many of these businesses will never sell. I use the number to show scale, not to value any one company. Assets also change hands in another way that has nothing to do with retirement. In a competitive market, companies and their rivals compete for customers every day. When a supplier stops keeping up, whether on price, quality, service or technology, its customers move to a supplier that does. Revenue, and the value that goes with it, shifts from one business to another. That is a transfer of wealth too, and it happens for good reasons. It is how a market rewards the businesses that serve customers best. CFIB's $2 trillion counts assets that owners plan to sell or hand over. It does not count value that moves because customers switch suppliers. For an owner, the lesson is practical. A buyer pays for what the business will keep earning, and your customers decide that. Keeping up with your market in the years before a sale protects the value you are about to transfer. Think about where your customers could go if a competitor does a better job, and discuss it with your management team and shareholders as part of your exit planning. The planning gap The headline planning numbers come from one question: does the owner have a succession plan? CFIB found that 6 per cent have a formal plan with a documented process and timeline, 44 per cent have an informal plan and 50 per cent have no plan. Keep the word "formal" when you share this statistic. It is not accurate to say that only 6 per cent of owners have thought about succession. CFIB describes an informal plan as discussions about future ownership and intentions that are usually not written down and often have no process or timeline. Many owners have had those conversations with their shareholders, family or business partners. Few have turned them into a written plan with dates, roles and responsibilities. The gap narrows as the exit date gets closer, but not by as much as you might expect. About 23 per cent of owners planning to exit within 12 months have a formal plan, compared with only 5 per cent of those planning to exit in six to 10 years. CFIB notes that most plans stay informal no matter the timing. Many owners seem to put off formal planning until late in the exit process, when there is little time left to deal with the financial, legal, tax and operational questions. Those questions decide outcomes, and the book is built around them. A buyer will test your financial reporting, your contracts, your key relationships and your tax structure. If you have not tested them first, the buyer will, on the buyer's schedule. Why planning pays off, according to the data CFIB's survey shows that a formal plan changes how confident owners feel about their exit. Among owners with a formal written plan, 86 per cent are confident they can exit successfully and 48 per cent are very confident. Among owners with an informal plan, 82 per cent are confident but only 28 per cent are very confident. Among owners with no plan, 54 per cent are confident and only 13 per cent are very confident. Owners with a formal plan also report fewer obstacles. Overall, 21 per cent of owners with a formal plan reported no barriers, versus 7 per cent of owners without one. They were less likely to say they were too busy to plan (27 per cent versus 38 per cent), less likely to lack experience with transfers (19 per cent versus 35 per cent) and far less likely to not know where to start (7 per cent versus 20 per cent). The report also looked at owners who had acquired an existing business and asked how the transition went. Among those whose acquisition involved a formal succession plan, 81 per cent described the transition as very or somewhat smooth. That combines two categories in CFIB's Figure 13. Among those with no formal plan, the combined figure is 66 per cent. Planning also takes time: transitions with a formal plan tended to take longer, with 76 per cent lasting more than 12 months. That fits the book's advice that a realistic exit takes 18 to 36 months from the first decision to closing. CFIB also points out that a plan does not fix everything. Finding a suitable successor, valuing the business, financing the successor and reducing dependence on the owner were reported at similar rates whether or not the owner had a formal plan. A plan does not solve those problems. It gives you time to work on them. What stops owners from planning Finding a buyer or a suitable successor is the most common barrier, cited by 47 per cent of owners. The next most common barriers are: • Being too busy running the business to plan: 37 per cent • Difficulty valuing the business: 37 per cent • Lack of experience, because this is the owner's first time selling or transferring a business: 34 per cent • Too much dependence on the owner's active involvement: 31 per cent • Financing the successor: 26 per cent • Access to cost-effective professional advice: 22 per cent • Not knowing where to start: 19 per cent Look closely at the top barrier. CFIB asked owners about barriers to developing a succession plan, and the most common answer was finding a buyer or a suitable successor. I think that thinking is part of the problem. Planning has to start much earlier than the search for a buyer. The plan is where you settle what the business is worth, how to reduce your dependence on yourself, what your financial reporting needs to look like, what the tax result will be and what you want from the sale. If you wait until you have found a buyer to start planning, the steps are in the wrong order, and the buyer sets the pace. Discuss the plan with your shareholders, family and business partners first, then look for buyers with the plan in hand. Valuation is where many owners get stuck. Among the 37 per cent of owners who see valuation as a challenge, 66 per cent say they do not know what their business is worth. Half do not know where to start, 43 per cent cite the cost of a professional valuation and 42 per cent are unsure which professionals to approach. About 29 per cent worry that a valuation will come in lower than they expect. Many owners also think of a business valuation as something you only need when you sell. That is another reason they put it off. A valuation is used in many other situations, including: • Financing, when a lender wants to understand what the business is worth • The separation of partners or shareholders • The death of an owner • Divorce • Raising capital • Shareholder disputes If a valuation is useful in all of these, the cost looks different. It is not a one-time expense for a sale you may be years away from. Think about getting a valuation range early, update it when something material changes, and discuss with your shareholders and business partners what each of you would want to see in one. When one of these events arrives without warning, you will not be starting from nothing. Nearly one in three owners (31 per cent) says the business relies heavily on their active involvement. Buyers see that as risk. If the customers, the knowledge and the decisions all sit with one person, a buyer is likely to lower the price or ask for a long, structured transition. You can fix that, but not in the last quarter before a sale. Discuss with your management team and your shareholders how to spread the load well ahead of time. Who owners plan to sell to CFIB asked owners how they intend to exit. The most common answer is a sale to a buyer unrelated to the family, at 54 per cent. Another 28 per cent plan to sell to employees. About 21 per cent plan to sell to a family member and 19 per cent plan to transfer the business to family without a sale. These categories overlap, because owners could choose more than one. Thirteen per cent plan to close the business, rising to 17 per cent among retailers, and 14 per cent are unsure. Among owners seeking an unrelated buyer, 52 per cent received offers or expressions of interest in the past two years, and 45 per cent received none. The most common sources of interest were individual buyers (28 per cent), large corporations (20 per cent), small and medium-sized businesses (19 per cent) and investment groups or private equity firms (14 per cent). Across most buyer categories, at least 90 per cent of the interested buyers were in Canada, which CFIB reads as evidence of strong domestic demand. Employee ownership is still a small part of the picture. CFIB notes that Employee Ownership Trusts were introduced in Canada in 2024 and that only 8 per cent of owners say they are familiar with them. Even so, 19 per cent of owners with employees say they would be very or somewhat likely to consider selling through one. I would treat that as an early signal, not a trend. If you are curious, talk to your tax advisor before going further. Most sellers want more than the best price. Protecting current employees was rated important by 86 per cent of owners, finding a buyer who will carry forward their way of doing business by 83 per cent and preserving the legacy of the business by 80 per cent. Keeping Canadian ownership matters to 72 per cent. Yet for owners selling to an external buyer, getting the highest possible price is important to 93 per cent. Most owners want both, so think about what matters most to you, and discuss it with your family, shareholders and business partners before you meet a buyer. How to read this report with care Keep four points in mind before you quote any of these numbers. First, this is a survey. CFIB's methodology section names two possible biases: CFIB's membership skews by age, and owners who are interested in succession may be more likely to respond. CFIB weighted the results by industry and age of owner to adjust for this. Weighting reduces bias but does not remove it. Second, the numbers are not directly comparable with earlier editions. You may have seen the 76 per cent exit figure and the 9 per cent formal planning figure from CFIB's January 2023 release. Those came from unweighted results. CFIB states that because previous editions relied on unweighted survey results, "direct comparisons should be interpreted with caution." So I would not say that exit intentions fell from 76 per cent to 63 per cent, or that formal planning slipped from 9 per cent to 6 per cent. Both surveys show a large share of owners preparing to leave and a small share with a formal plan. Third, a survey of owners who intend to exit is not a count of completed sales. Intentions change, businesses close, and some never find a buyer. CFIB itself reports that 13 per cent expect to close. Fourth, asking owners how they intend to exit when half of them have no plan is a flawed approach. CFIB's questionnaire, in Appendix B of the report, asked every owner when, how and why they intend to exit before it asked whether they have a succession plan. An owner who has not planned an exit, but knows they will exit one day, still has to pick a method. Their answer shows what they expect or hope for, not what they have prepared. I would treat figures like the 54 per cent who intend to sell to an unrelated buyer and the 28 per cent who intend to sell to employees as intentions. They do not tell you how many of those owners have a buyer, a valuation or a way to finance the sale. The same goes for the 63 per cent exit figure, which comes from the first question in the survey. CFIB's recommendations and our thoughts CFIB ends its report with recommendations for four groups: business owners, professionals, financial institutions and governments. For owners, it advises planning early with professional advice, including the future successor in the plan, considering alternative exit strategies and reviewing the plan regularly. For professionals, it asks for services sized to small and medium-sized businesses, "how to" templates on finding a buyer, financing a successor and tax, help with valuation and a more consistent approach to valuing a business. We agree with all of it. Here is what we would add for owners and for professionals. For business owners: read, learn and study before you decide We recommend that owners read, learn and study before they decide. Before you hire anyone, spend a few weeks with what is already published, most of it free. CFIB found that 34 per cent of owners say this is their first time selling or transferring a business and that 19 per cent do not know where to start. Among owners who have a plan, 38 per cent built it without outside help. An owner who has done the reading asks better questions, spots weak advice sooner and uses an advisor's time better. Here is where to start. We checked every link on October 23, 2026: • Your financial institution. Your bank and wealth manager likely publish exit and succession guides. The next section lists what each major institution offers. • BDC. The change of ownership hub has a section on planning your succession and a section on selling your business, covering exit strategy, finding a buyer and valuation. • Succession Ontario. Succession Ontario offers free, self-paced resources, a valuation calculator and a directory to find an advisor. Invest Kingston reports that Kingston Economic Development Corporation delivers the program with provincial funding (source). • M&A Club Canada. The M&A Club runs chapters in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec and lists more than 150 events a year, including roundtables and an annual forum. • Business Transitions Forum. Produced by Cube Business Media, the Business Transitions Forum travels across the country. Its site lists Vancouver on November 18, 2026, then Calgary on April 20, 2027, Halifax on April 27, 2027, Toronto on May 19, 2027 and Saskatoon on June 3, 2027. • SUCCESSion. Annex Business Media's succession conference held its first full-day edition in Vaughan, Ontario, on May 21, 2025 (Annex Business Media) and a 2026 edition in Vaughan on April 21, 2026. • Federal government. The Canada Revenue Agency explains the lifetime capital gains exemption and the tests for qualified small business corporation shares in its capital gains guide (T4037) and the rules for employee ownership trusts. Check the current exemption amount before relying on any figure. • Other provinces. British Columbia publishes a business succession page. Manitoba offers an employee share purchase tax credit. In Quebec, Repreneuriat Québec supports sellers in French. • CFIB. CFIB's exit options page compares passing a business to family, a management buyout or employee trust, and a sale to a third party. • My book. Selling Your Canadian Business covers the full process in 12 steps. Details are at the end of this post. Also worth your time: • Free confidential consultations. Invest Kingston's transition page offers free, confidential consultations on preparing, valuing, marketing and negotiating a sale. Almost every business broker and M&A intermediary will also offer a first confidential conversation at no cost, as a courtesy, to win new sell-side mandates. Don't be shy about asking, and explore it with any professional you are considering. • Community workshops. The Southern Alberta business succession project lists free workshops and webinars on exit planning and selling your business. • Who the financial buyers are. The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) publishes a market overview of private equity activity. Its H1 2026 overview is a good way to see how active Canadian private equity buyers are. • Federal tools in development. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada has issued a call for proposals of up to $3 million over two years to build free succession tools and roadmaps for buyers and sellers. Watch for the results. Other books on selling a Canadian business are worth reading too. Each one looks at the subject from a different angle, and reading more than one is a good way to see which questions to take to your advisors: • The Maple Leaf Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business by Jim Nairn, a business broker in Kingston, Ontario. The publisher's release says it is written for the Canadian market and covers valuation, taxes, deal structure and transition planning. • Exit Right: From Ownership to Retirement by Max Beairsto. The Audible listing describes it as a guide to exiting a Canadian small business, including QSBC status and the lifetime capital gains exemption, and it is available as an audiobook. • Insider Tips on Selling a Business in Canada by Greg Kells of Sunbelt Ontario, with a companion title on buying a business in Canada and French editions of both. See the Sunbelt announcement and the author's Goodreads page. • Defusing the Family Business Time Bomb by Jenifer Bartman and Evelyn Jacks, from Knowledge Bureau. It focuses on passing a Canadian family business to the next generation. • Guide de référence sur le transfert d'entreprise, a French guide from the Chaire IG Gestion de patrimoine en planification financière at Université Laval, developed with the Chambre des notaires du Québec, the Ordre des CPA du Québec and the Autorité des marchés financiers. See the Université Laval announcement. Two things to keep in mind. Many of the organizations on this list also sell services, so read their material for what it teaches and compare more than one source. And reading does not replace advice. Use it to prepare for your first meeting with your accountant, your lawyer and your M&A advisor, and talk it over with your shareholders, family and business partners. For professionals: what content already exists CFIB asks professionals to build better offerings and "how to" templates. Much of that material already exists. CFIB found that only 5 per cent of owners with a plan used a succession support network and only 4 per cent turned to a bank. The issue is less about supply and more about owners not knowing where to look. Before you build something new, point your clients to what is already published. Then put your effort into the gaps CFIB names: a consistent approach to valuation, practical guidance on financing a successor and plain-language tax guidance. The lists below show what we could verify on October 23, 2026. They are not rankings. Pages change, so check each one before you share it with a client. Banks and other financial institutions • RBC: Business owner planning • TD: Business succession planning and Selling a small business successfully (TD Wealth) • BMO: Business succession planning (BMO Private Wealth) and Mergers and acquisitions (BMO Commercial Bank) • Scotiabank: Why you need a business succession plan and Using advisors to plan your exit strategy • CIBC: Taking the next step: Preparing a business for growth, succession or sale (February 10, 2026) and a business transition planning brochure (undated) • National Bank of Canada: What does a "win-win" succession plan look like? and Sell your business • Desjardins (French): Transfert d'entreprise : guide complet pour une transition réussie and Transfert : évaluer et maximiser la valeur de votre entreprise • ATB Financial: ATB Business Transition Guide, a free seven-step guide • BDC: Business transfer, which includes advisory support and a business transfer loan Credit unions and cooperative financial groups • Desjardins: in addition to the guides above, Business transfer outlines four stages of a transfer and business transfer loans, and, in French, Céder son entreprise à ses enfants sans payer trop d'impôts (May 25, 2026) covers selling to your children • Servus Credit Union: Commercial succession planning and Succession planning • Coast Capital Savings: Transferring or selling your business, which invites owners to book time with a business advisor Accounting firms • Deloitte: How to unlock business value before you sell • KPMG: Transitioning your business and Exit timing: How to maximize value when exiting your business • PwC: Once in a lifetime and Top 10 tips for preparing to exit your business • MNP: Know before you sell: Tax and legal considerations, a webinar listing • BDO Canada: Guide to selling your business • Doane Grant Thornton: Tax considerations when exiting your business • Baker Tilly: How Baker Tilly helps businesses unlock the highest value when selling • Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton (French): Quelles sont les options pour assurer la relève de votre entreprise? • Richter: A strategic exit plan starts now Law firms • Borden Ladner Gervais: Planning a business exit: 8 ways to set your business up for success and Employee ownership trusts: Business succession alternative for private businesses in Canada • Osler: Acquisitions of private businesses in Canada, a report on the legal and market factors in private deals • Gowling WLG: Guide to private company M&A, published in 2018 and written mainly for buyers • Fasken (French, for practitioners): Private M&A in Canada: Transactions & Litigation • Miller Thomson: Buying instead of building, written mainly for buyers Financial planners, valuators and exit planners These designations can help you find the right professional for each part of the plan. Ask each one how many owners they have taken through an exit. • FP Canada (formerly the Financial Planning Standards Council) licenses the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP) designation in Canada. See its certifications and its planner directory. The directory does not filter for business owners, so ask about exit planning experience. • Chartered Financial Planner is a separate designation from the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario approved it in 2024 for use of the financial planner title in Ontario. • Institut de planification financière (formerly IQPF) is the body in Quebec that awards the diploma leading to the Pl. Fin. title. The page is in French, with an English page on the CFP pathway. • Advocis, the Financial Advisors Association of Canada, offers a Find an Advisor search by designation, location and language. • CBV Institute awards the Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) designation, which it calls Canada's only designation dedicated exclusively to business valuation. See its overview and its Find a CBV search. Valuation is one of the gaps CFIB names. • Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). The Exit Planning Institute, a U.S. organization, awards the CEPA after a five-day program and proctored exam. The credential renews every three years with 40 hours of professional development. Its Find a CEPA directory filters by province and by advisor type, including accountants and M&A advisors. Our view: a CEPA can help an owner coordinate the planning phase across accountants, lawyers and wealth managers. M&A, brokerage and private capital associations • International Business Brokers Association (IBBA): the IBBA's regional groups page lists IBBA Canada, and Canadian brokers who join the IBBA are part of it automatically. Owners can use the IBBA's find a business broker search, and brokers can earn the Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designation. • Association for Corporate Growth (ACG): ACG's Canada region lists chapters in British Columbia, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec and Toronto. The Toronto chapter calls itself Canada's largest community of middle-market M&A dealmakers and brings together private equity professionals, advisors and business leaders. Its Capital Connection and DealSource North event runs November 9 to 10, 2026, in Toronto. • Alliance of M&A Advisors (AMAA): an international association of middle-market M&A professionals with members in 25 countries and the Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA) credential. • M&A Club Canada: The M&A Club runs chapters in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec and lists more than 150 events a year, including roundtables and an annual forum. • The M&A Source: an association of lower middle market advisors that offers the M&AMI and CM&AP certifications and a member directory that includes Quebec advisors. The IBBA's page says the IBBA and the M&A Source are both sections of the same parent organization. • Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA): CVCA is the national industry association for Canada's private capital sector. Its member directory is the place to find private equity firms, who are among the financial buyers in your market. Its H1 2026 market overview reports $12.7 billion of private equity investment across 252 deals. The full report archive requires a CVCA membership or a CVCA Intelligence subscription. Economic development agencies and chambers of commerce • Kingston Economic Development Corporation delivers Succession Ontario and runs a succession page with free confidential one-on-one consultations. • Community Futures Transition Program, Ontario: Frontenac Business Services, PELA Community Futures and Trenval Business Development Corporation offer advisory support and a transition loan for owners buying and selling existing businesses, according to Inquinte (April 2, 2026). • Campus du repreneuriat, HEC Montréal: a two-year training program (French, announced June 19, 2025) that prepares economic development advisors to support business transfers. • Chambers of commerce and boards of trade: your local chamber or board of trade is a good first stop for workshops and introductions to advisors and buyers in your community. Preparing the next generation of business buyers CFIB reports that half of current owners started their business from scratch, 25 per cent bought it from an unrelated owner and 21 per cent bought or received it from family. It recommends that governments promote buying an existing business as a path into entrepreneurship. These programs are already training buyers, and if you know about them you will be better prepared to talk to a prospective successor. For example, Shivani Patel, our Managing Director, speaks at the launch of Venture for Canada's ETA Bootcamp in Toronto on October 24, 2026 (details). • Venture for Canada, a national charity, runs the ETA Academy, which it calls Canada's first community-based course for aspiring business owners who want to explore buying a business. Its site lists ETA Academy 101 and a bootcamp for aspiring acquirers. • Ivey Business School: the Ivey ETA Program was founded in 2023 with Toronto-based Alcorn Partners. • Haskayne School of Business: an MBA course on the search fund model, available since January 2024. • HEC Montréal (French): R+ entrepreneuriat par acquisition, announced June 1, 2026, combines 10 weeks of part-time training with 12 to 24 months of acquisition support. • Repreneuriat Québec (French): guidance for buyers, including the Accès experts program and a guide for repreneurs. • CPA Ontario: an on-demand course, Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition: What CPAs Need to Know, worth one professional development hour. • Osler: Navigating the silver tsunami (January 13, 2026) explains how search funds can work as a succession option. • Financing for buyers: the BDC Business Purchase or Transfer Loan, the Canada Small Business Financing Program (which can finance the eligible assets of an existing business, up to $1.15 million in total) and Futurpreneur Canada, which offers an equity-free loan of up to $75,000 to start or buy a business for applicants aged 18 to 39. Selling Your Canadian Business • The Canadian Exit Briefing. A monthly newsletter for Canadian business owners and advisors, with analysis, practical tips, case studies and M&A market updates. A daily companion, What's Trending in Canadian Mergers & Acquisitions Today, is hosted on LinkedIn. • Podcast. The Selling Your Canadian Business podcast is a sell-side guide for owners, with 187 episodes on preparing personally and within the family, using the lifetime capital gains exemption and navigating the M&A process in Canada. • Video interviews. The Selling Your Canadian Business YouTube channel carries our buyer interview series, hosted by Shivani Patel, our Managing Director. • Articles. The blog publishes free articles for owners and advisors. • Community. The platform, at sellingyourcanadianbusiness.ca, invites owners to join a community of 80,000 Canadian business owners and their advisors. Canadian business listing websites CFIB recommends that governments create a secure business transition marketplace modelled on Repreneuriat Québec, and its report notes that few options connect exiting owners with buyers. These sites already exist. The descriptions below are each site's own, and we have not assessed their fees, quality of buyers or success rates. English: • Village Wellth is a deal management platform for business buyers, with a marketplace of businesses for sale. BetaKit describes it as a Canadian fintech startup. When we checked, the home page showed United States listings priced in U.S. dollars. • BusinessSellCanada.com is a self-serve classified site where sellers, agents and brokers post listings in Canadian dollars. A French version is linked. • Sunbelt Business Brokers Canada is a broker network with regional offices. It has a French version. • BizBuySell Canada lets owners list a business and lets buyers filter by province, industry and price. It serves Canada but does not describe itself as a Canadian company. • BusinessesForSale.com, Canada edition is operated by Dynamis Ltd and lists businesses from brokers and independent sellers. • Business2Sell Canada lists businesses from franchisors, brokers, agents and private sellers. The page says Business2Sell Group is an Australian company with a Canadian branch. • DealStream is an online community where members find owners, brokers and investors. • SuccessionMatching is a paid matching service for North American buyers and sellers, in English and French. CFIB's 2023 release said it partnered with the service. • bizsold.com lists businesses and franchises across Canada and the United States, with a broker finder. French: • Repreneuriat Québec, plateforme Index lets sellers present a business confidentially and buyers search by sector, region and price. Confidential details are visible only to subscribers. • LaVitrine.biz has the site's analysts create the listing for the seller. Buyers browse by sector and region. • Entreprisesavendre.quebec lets sellers publish listings, and buyers browse by category and location. • Acquizition.biz describes itself as an online marketplace for buying and selling businesses. Its page does not explain how listing works. • Sunbelt Business Brokers Canada also publishes a French version, linked above. A listing site is one way to reach buyers. It is not a sale process. I don't recommend listing the business yourself. Bring in a few advisors and talk to them first, because every situation is unique and not like any other. What worked for another owner may not work for you. Why I wrote Selling Your Canadian Business The planning gap in CFIB's data is the reason I wrote the book. Selling Your Canadian Business exists because Canadian business owners deserve comprehensive, practical guidance on the regulatory environment, tax considerations and market dynamics they face when they exit. Most of what owners find online is generic, American or narrow. Generic guidance does not cover how to qualify for the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, what an Investment Canada Act review involves, how provincial differences affect a deal or how Canadian buyers behave. Narrow guidance covers tax or valuation but not how the pieces fit together. Much of it also suggests that an owner can manage the whole process alone. CFIB's numbers show why this matters. One in three owners says this is their first time selling or transferring a business. Two in three owners who struggle with valuation do not know what their business is worth. More than one in five says cost-effective professional advice is hard to get. These owners are about to make what is often the largest financial decision of their lives, and many are making it without a plan or a guide. The book is meant to be that guide. It sets out a 12-step framework, from clarifying your motivations through assembling advisors, preparing the business, marketing to buyers and negotiating, to life after ownership. Each chapter ends with timed action steps. It treats the emotional side of an exit, including identity, relationships and purpose, as seriously as the financial side. And it takes a professional-advisor-led approach on purpose: owners lead and make the final decisions, but accountants, lawyers, tax specialists and M&A advisors bring expertise that owners cannot replace on their own. I also wanted the book to honour the work behind these businesses. Owners put decades of sacrifice and persistence into building something. The way they exit should reflect the same care. Where to get the book: available to every stakeholder through Amazon A sale involves more people than the owner. The book is written for owners first, but it is also useful to the people who sit beside the owner or across the table during a sale. • Owners preparing to sell in the next one to five years, including founders who have never sold a business before • Family members who will be affected by a sale, a transfer or a succession • Key employees and managers who may be buyers or successors, or who want to understand what a sale means for them • Accountants, lawyers, financial planners and wealth managers who advise owners. CFIB found that owners lean on accountants (41 per cent), lawyers (21 per cent) and personal financial advisors (17 per cent) when they plan a succession, and sharing one guide with a client helps everyone work from the same map • Lenders and buyers who want to understand the seller's process and what sellers expect Selling Your Canadian Business is available on Amazon in both of Canada's official languages, English and French. Each edition comes as an ebook, a softcover and a hardcover, so every one of those readers can order the format that suits them. Get Selling Your Canadian Business on Amazon.ca What to do after reading the CFIB numbers Here are six steps that follow from the report and from CFIB's own recommendations for owners. 1. Write the plan down. Move from informal to formal. A plan needs a timeline, named roles and a process, not only a conversation. 2. Talk to the people it affects. Discuss what each person wants with your shareholders, family and business partners before you meet a buyer. 3. Start earlier than feels necessary. BDC suggests starting at least two years before an exit, and says succession planning ideally begins 18 to 24 months ahead. The book assumes 18 to 36 months from the decision to closing. 4. Get a valuation range. Valuation uncertainty was the biggest obstacle among owners who cited it. Knowing roughly what your business is worth tells you whether you are ready and what to improve first. 5. Reduce your dependence on yourself. If 31 per cent of owners say the business relies on them, a buyer will notice it in yours. Document processes, develop a second layer of leaders and move key relationships off your desk. 6. Build your advisor team early. Include your accountant, your lawyer and an M&A advisor from the start, and include the future successor in the plan, as CFIB recommends. Most business brokers and M&A intermediaries will give you a first confidential conversation at no cost, so ask. Frequently asked questions • How many Canadian small business owners plan to exit in the next 10 years? According to CFIB's 2026 report, Passing the Torch, 63 per cent of small business owners plan to leave their business within 10 years: 8 per cent within 12 months, 35 per cent within one to five years and 20 per cent within six to 10 years. • How many Canadian small business owners have a succession plan? CFIB found that 6 per cent have a formal written plan, 44 per cent have an informal unwritten plan and 50 per cent have no plan. • How much business value could change hands in Canada? CFIB estimates that more than $2 trillion in business assets could change hands over the next 10 years. The figure is based on total assets of incorporated small and medium-sized businesses, not on sale prices. • When should I start planning to sell my business? BDC says advisors generally suggest starting an exit strategy at least two years before the exit, and recommends starting 18 to 24 months ahead for succession planning. My book assumes 18 to 36 months from the initial decision to closing. Related articles • How to find and qualify buyers for your Canadian business: the next step once you know what your business is worth. • Shivani Patel to speak at Venture for Canada ETA Bootcamp: how acquisition entrepreneurs fit into the buyer landscape. • How does succession planning raise business value?: why a documented plan reduces buyer risk. Sources • Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Passing the Torch: How Canada's Small Business Owners Are Planning Their Exit and Why the Next Generation of Ownership Matters. October 2026. • Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Most small business owners plan to exit their business over the next decade, putting over $2 trillion at risk. News release, October 22, 2026. • Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Over $2 trillion in business assets are at stake as majority of small business owners plan to exit their business over the next decade. News release, January 10, 2023. • BDC. Your best exit strategy. • Statistics Canada, Industrial Organisation and Finance Division, 2024 special tabulation, as cited in Appendix A of the CFIB report. Not independently reviewed.redacted