If you’re considering using Brown Business Brokers of Birmingham Alabama, this comprehensive Brown Business Brokers review will help you decide if they will work for you.
We did in-depth analysis including contacting Brown Business Brokers to get as much information on this business brokerage so you could have all the facts you need.
UPDATED: January 2025
Our Overall Rating
Overview Of Brown Business Brokers
Brown Business Brokers is a business broker located in Birmingham Alabama.
This business broker serves the entire state of Alabama so if you want to sell a business or buy a business in the state and you may want to consider using them.
Before you sell your business and choose a business broker though, be sure to read our guide to the top 6 best business brokers in Alabama.
This business brokerage was started and continues to be run by Fletcher Brown.
Fletcher has been involved in the world of business for many years. He spent 15 years in the banking financial world.
Fletcher also grew up in a family of business owners as well as owning a business himself. During this period he also went through the process of selling the family business.
On top of being a business broker, Fletcher is also a licensed real estate agent which means he can help facilitate the sale of business building and land as well.
This business brokerage has one purpose and that is to help sellers sell their business for the highest price and to help buyers find the perfect business.
Types Of Businesses Brown Business Brokers Sells
Brown Business Brokers specializes in helping people sell businesses and franchises. They typically work with tightly knit family owned businesses with revenues at $5 million or under.
They mainly work with Alabama owned businesses and have a true passion at helping Alabama based business owners get the most for their business.
Valuation Process And Sales Process
To understand how a business broker works, you need to know their process of valuing a business and the process they use to sell a business. Here we will look at an overview on the processes this business broker uses.
Preparation To Sell
If you come to Brown Business Brokers looking to sell a business, the first thing they will do is begin to help you prepare your business to sell.
Valuation
They will determine the value of your business but very little is said about this process on their website.
Marketing Plan
Once a valuation is determined, a marketing plan is developed to help attract buyers. The exact process used to market the business is not discussed on their website but it’s clear that Fletcher uses sites like BizBuySell.com to find buyers. You can see his businesses listed for sale here.
Screening Of Buyers
When a potential buyer is found, screening is done to make sure they are qualified to purchase the business.
The exact process they use is not made clear from the information on their website but they do state that they put buyers through a qualification process.
Preparation Of Documents
Selling a business requires many legal documents. They handle the preparation of all documents that will be needed throughout the process.
Negotiation
When a potential buyer has been qualified and agrees to purchase a business, they goes to work to negotiate the deal and get the best price for the business.
Due Diligence
When a deal is finally agreed to to buy a business, the due diligence process starts where the buyer has a period of time to examine every aspect of the business to make sure everything is accurately represented.
Brown Business Brokers handle and manage this whole process to ensure it is done correctly and within a certain period of time.
Closing
Once due diligence is complete and the buyer wishes to proceed with the sale, then the brokerage will handle all closing activities to make sure the deal is completed with any issues.
The process used by Brown Business Brokers to sell a business seems to be very similar to the majority of other business brokerages firms. As we did our research for this Brown Business Brokers review, we found that their website does not go in-depth into the process but you can easily contact them to discuss this further.
Brown Business Brokers Success Rates
We were not able to gather any information about the closure rates and success rates of this business broker.
In fact, their website mentions nothing about how many businesses they have sold and the total transaction value they have achieved over the years.
Their website does show that they have sold around 31 businesses. This is an estimate but 31 business sales are shown on the Brown Business Brokers website.
At the time of this writing Brown Business Brokers has 18 businesses listed for sale and 6 franchises listed for sale.
You can also see the businesses they have listed for sale on BizBuySell.com.
Fees Charged By Brown Business Brokers
Brown Business Brokers charge a 10% fee of the total selling price of the business. This depends on the size of the business. The fee may be lower for larger business sales.
There is a minimum fee of $10,000 so if the fee from the business sale is less than this, you will end up paying the minimum of $10,000.
Brown Business Brokers Pros And Cons
In this area of our Brown Business Brokers review we will look at the pros and cons of using this business broker to sell your business.
Pros
- Owner has years of experience in the business world.
- Owner has owned a business and bought and sold his own businesses.
- Great response times at 7 hours.
Cons
- Less than 10 years experience as a business broker.
- Website is not clear about closure rates and success rates.
- Only one business broker seems to work for this firm.
- Website not quite up to today’s more modern standards.
Brown Business Brokers Conclusion And Verdict
From the mouth of the owner:
“Bringing real-world experience is what sets us apart. All of our brokers have owned a business and/or bought and sold a business, applying this valuable know-how to a client’s individual situation.
We are committed to leading our clients though the process with transparency, and we’ll never inflate a value simply to get your business.
We also co-broker which many of the bigger firms do not. This ultimately allows you to reach more potential prospects and gives you a better chance of selling your business.
Bringing real-world experience is what sets Brown Business Brokers apart from other business brokers in Alabama.”
It does seem that Brown Business Brokers has some benefits to using them.
They most likely will give you one on one attention because they have a very small staff. This can be great if you like to have someone who gives you a more personalized service.
Plus the owner and President, Fletcher Brown, has himself been a business proprietor and gone through the process of selling his own company. This gives him insight some brokers may not have.
They also have great response times. We contacted Brown Business Brokers and they responded to our request within 7 hours. That’s a great response time and means should you have issues, they will be there to help.
However, it’s clear this brokerage does not have the track record of other more seasoned business brokerages.
We also did not like the fact that their website needs to be brought up to more modern standards. First impressions matter and we feel that if a business brokerage does not consider the importance of something as crucial as a website, what else might they miss?
If you want a more personalized one on one approach when using a business broker, consider Website Properties. From our experience they offer the best service of any you will find in the market.
