---
title: "8 Best Business Brokers in Miami: Fees and Deal Sizes 2026"
lang: en
canonical_url: https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-ma-advisors-miami
last_updated: 2026-10-23
published: 2026-10-23
category: [mergers-and-acquisitions]
author: "Marc Seitz"
summary: "Compare 8 verified business brokers in Miami by deal size, fee model and sector focus, plus Florida licensing rules and how to run a confidential sale in 2026."
---

# 8 Best Business Brokers in Miami: Fees and Deal Sizes 2026

Miami has more foreign buyers per closed deal than any other US metro, which changes how a sale should be run and who you should hire to run it. This guide profiles 8 verified business brokers in Miami with deal bands, fee models and sector focus.

The local buyer mix is the thing to understand first. Alongside the usual SBA-backed individual buyers and private equity add-on programmes, Miami draws Latin American families deploying capital into US operating businesses, E-2 and EB-5 investor visa buyers who need a business that qualifies as much as one that performs, and a growing base of relocated fund managers and family offices working out of Brickell and Coral Gables.

The companies changing hands reflect the economy. Trade and logistics feeding PortMiami and Miami International Airport, construction and building services, healthcare practices, hospitality and food service, marine and yachting, import-export and distribution, plus a professional services layer built around cross-border work.

That variety cuts both ways. A wide buyer pool is good for price and bad for confidentiality, and it makes the choice of adviser matter more than in a single-industry town. Unsolicited buyers pay unsolicited prices, and the point of hiring one of the business brokers in Miami below is to turn one interested party into four or five.

  Every adviser on this list will ask where your documents are going to live
  before they take the mandate. A **data room for Miami M&A** is the
  permissioned workspace that holds your Latin American distribution and
  freight forwarding contracts, your customs and import records and your
  Miami-Dade licences and leases while several buyers review them at once.

Comparing more than one metro? The [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors?market=Miami) holds every firm we have researched and opens filtered to Miami, so you can line these 8 up against each other on deal size and sector.

## Quick list of business brokers in Miami

- **Cassel Salpeter & Co.**: Coconut Grove investment bank for middle market and emerging growth companies.
- **Conexus Capital Advisors**: Miami boutique focused on specialty ingredients and process industries.
- **South Florida M&A Advisors**: Lower middle market sell-side firm covering $5M to $100M companies.
- **VR Business Brokers Miami**: Biscayne Boulevard office of a network operating since 1979.
- **SunBridge M&A Advisors**: Miami brokerage covering Coral Gables, Brickell, Doral and Hialeah.
- **Amerivest Group**: Miami-Dade brokerage working the $100K to $1.4M band.
- **Murphy Business Sales Miami**: Boca Raton office covering Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
- **Miami Business Brokers**: Confidential advisory and brokerage for local owners and buyers.

## How to get yes from business brokers in Miami

Good Miami advisers turn down more sellers than they sign. A firm can only run a handful of processes a year with senior attention, so every engagement has to look like one that closes. Your job in the first meeting is to remove reasons to say no.

Earnings quality decides that faster than anything else. Miami owners run heavy add-back schedules and buyers know it: vehicles, family payroll, travel and rent paid to an entity you also own all get challenged. If you cannot put an invoice behind a line, assume a buyer strips it and reprices at closing. On a business earning $1M, a $150,000 add-back haircut costs roughly $600,000 at a 4x multiple.

The second filter is documentation quality, and it is a bigger issue in Miami than in most metros. Cash-heavy businesses, related-party transactions across borders and informal payroll arrangements all narrow your buyer list, because an SBA lender or a private equity buyer cannot underwrite what a tax return does not show. Clean two full years before you go to market if you can.

Third, be ready to move. Staging everything in a permissioned workspace before the teaser goes out is the fix, and our review of the [best virtual data rooms](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-virtual-data-rooms.md) covers what each tier costs.

Bring these to your first broker meeting:

1. Three years of tax returns plus current year to date financials
2. An add-back schedule with documentation behind every line
3. Revenue by customer for the last two years
4. Your lease, equipment list and any vehicle or vessel titles
5. A staff roster with roles, tenure and pay, names redacted
6. Contracts, licences, permits and any franchise or distribution agreements

_No credit card required._

## How to find business brokers in Miami

Florida has an unusually strong state trade body. Business Brokers of Florida runs a statewide multiple listing service that most Miami brokerages use, and membership is the first thing to check. On top of that, business opportunity brokerage falls under Chapter 475 of the Florida statutes, so most local brokers hold a real estate licence you can verify with the state.

The national bodies fill in the rest. The International Business Brokers Association awards the Certified Business Intermediary designation, and M&A Source awards the Merger & Acquisition Master Intermediary credential for larger transactions.

- **Business Brokers of Florida**: State association with an MLS and published production rankings.
- **Florida real estate licence**: Ask for the number and check it with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
- **IBBA and M&A Source**: National bodies with an ethics code and the CBI and M&AMI credentials.
- **Deal band honesty**: Ask for the median closed transaction over 24 months, plus the smallest and largest.
- **Cross-border capability**: Ask how many foreign buyers they closed with last year, and in which languages they run a process.
- **Visa buyer experience**: E-2 and EB-5 buyers need structures that qualify, which not every broker has done.
- **Fee model**: Straight percentage for Main Street, retainer plus success fee above roughly $2M.
- **References**: Two sellers who closed recently, including one deal that got difficult.

## How to approach business brokers in Miami

Approach brokers the way a buyer will approach you: with information, in stages, and without giving away more than the stage requires. You are interviewing them at least as much as they are screening you.

Confidentiality deserves particular care in Miami because trade communities are tight and multilingual, and a document that leaks travels through WhatsApp faster than through email. In construction, logistics and restaurants especially, a rumour reaches your competitors and your best crew leads within days.

1. Pick five firms whose stated deal band brackets your revenue and earnings.
2. Open with a blind summary: sector, revenue, earnings, submarket and timing.
3. Ask each for a written opinion of value with the comparable transactions behind it.
4. Ask what the buyer list looks like, split between strategics, private equity, individuals and foreign buyers.
5. Ask whether the listing goes on the BBF MLS, and on what terms.
6. Check the engagement letter for exclusivity length, tail period, expenses and fee schedule.
7. Set the document policy before signing: tracked links, watermarks, no unrestricted downloads.
8. Agree on a weekly written buyer activity report, not just phone updates.

## Comparing the business brokers in Miami

| Firm | Typical deal size | Focus sectors |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cassel Salpeter & Co. | Middle market | Aviation, healthcare, technology, diversified |
| Conexus Capital Advisors | Middle market | Flavour and fragrance, food ingredients, cosmetics |
| South Florida M&A Advisors | $5M to $100M value | Roofing, plumbing, restaurants, insurance, labs |
| VR Business Brokers Miami | Main Street to mid-market | Restaurants, waste management, manufacturing |
| SunBridge M&A Advisors | Main Street to lower mid | Diversified Miami-Dade businesses |
| Amerivest Group | Roughly $100K to $1.4M | Services, restaurants, trades, retail, healthcare |
| Murphy Business Sales Miami | Main Street to lower mid | Restaurants, automotive, landscaping, trades |
| Miami Business Brokers | Main Street to lower mid | Diversified, confidential listings |

## 1. Cassel Salpeter & Co.

Cassel Salpeter is the most established independent investment bank headquartered in Miami, and it is one of the few local firms that also does fairness opinions and restructuring work, which tells you it is used by boards rather than only by founders.

- Deal size: Middle market and emerging growth companies
- Sectors: Broad, with aviation, healthcare and technology among the named specialisms
- Location: 3250 Mary Street, Suite 410, Miami
- Website: [Cassel Salpeter & Co.](https://www.casselsalpeter.com/)
- Notable: Practice spans M&A, capital raising, valuations, fairness opinions and restructuring

## 2. Conexus Capital Advisors

Conexus is the most specialised firm on this list and proof that a Miami boutique can run a global practice. If you own a flavour, fragrance or specialty ingredient business, the buyer universe is a defined group of multinationals and this firm knows all of them.

- Deal size: Middle market, from small companies to major industry players
- Sectors: Flavour and fragrance, food ingredients, essential oils, cosmetic ingredients, aroma chemicals
- Location: Miami, Florida
- Website: [Conexus Capital Advisors](https://www.conexus-ca.com/)
- Notable: Founded in 2000; states over 300 completed transactions and a team of 10 professionals

## 3. South Florida M&A Advisors

South Florida M&A works the band above brokerage and below the banks, running sell-side processes and recapitalisations for owner-operated companies across the tri-county area.

- Deal size: Companies valued between $5 million and $100 million
- Sectors: Roofing, plumbing, restaurants, property management, insurance, testing laboratories
- Location: Cooper City, with Boca Raton and Clearwater offices
- Website: [South Florida M&A Advisors](https://www.southfloridama.com/)
- Notable: States more than 600 transactions worked on; president Russell Cohen states over 25 years of deal experience

## 4. VR Business Brokers Miami

The Biscayne Boulevard VR office covers Miami and Coral Gables inside a network that has been transferring privately held businesses since 1979, and its published listings run into eight figures.

- Deal size: Main Street through mid-market, with listings shown up to $10.5M
- Sectors: Restaurants and food service, waste management, manufacturing, diversified
- Location: 900 Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 501, Miami
- Website: [VR Business Brokers Miami](https://vrmiamicenter.com/)
- Notable: Managing partner Raquel Afriat; network operating since 1979

## 5. SunBridge M&A Advisors

SunBridge covers the Miami submarkets where most local deals actually happen, from Coral Gables and Brickell out to Doral, Kendall and Hialeah, and publishes an average close near asking price.

- Deal size: Main Street through lower middle market
- Sectors: Diversified Miami-Dade businesses
- Location: Miami, covering Coral Gables, Brickell, Doral, Kendall, Hialeah and Miami Beach
- Website: [SunBridge M&A Advisors](https://sunbridgema.com/miami-business-brokers/)
- Notable: States $2.3 billion of transaction value and businesses sold at an average of 96% or more of asking price

## 6. Amerivest Group

Amerivest works the smallest end of the Miami market, which is exactly where visa buyers and first-time owner-operators concentrate. Its closed transactions run from about $100,000 to $1.4 million.

- Deal size: Roughly $100,000 to $1.4 million
- Sectors: Professional services, restaurants and hospitality, construction and trades, retail and e-commerce, healthcare and wellness, technology, transport and logistics
- Location: Miami-Dade, covering Doral, Brickell, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Hialeah and Aventura
- Website: [Amerivest Group](https://amerivestgroup.com/en/miami/)
- Notable: Florida licensed, with recent closings in nurseries, CPA practices, dealerships and HVAC

## 7. Murphy Business Sales Miami

The Murphy office serving Miami-Dade sits in Boca Raton and adds valuation, equipment appraisal and commercial real estate alongside brokerage, which is useful when equipment or a lease carries most of the value.

- Deal size: Main Street through lower middle market
- Sectors: Restaurants and food service, automotive, landscaping, painting, pet grooming, dry cleaning
- Location: 433 Plaza Real, Suite 275, Boca Raton, serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
- Website: [Murphy Business Sales Miami](https://murphybusiness.com/miami/)
- Notable: Part of a network of over 140 offices across the United States and Canada

## 8. Miami Business Brokers

A local intermediary firm running strictly confidential processes, with most listings never published. That approach suits an owner in a tight trade community more than one who wants maximum exposure.

- Deal size: Main Street through lower middle market
- Sectors: Diversified
- Location: Miami, Florida
- Website: [Miami Business Brokers](https://miabusinessbrokers.com/)
- Notable: States that many listings are never published for confidentiality reasons

## Which Miami buyer type fits your business

| Buyer type | Usually targets | What they focus on |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Individual SBA buyer | Under $5M purchase price | Owner transition, lender qualification |
| E-2 or EB-5 visa buyer | $150K to $3M | Visa qualification, job creation, documented books |
| Latin American family buyer | Any size | US operating footprint, currency diversification |
| Private equity add-on | $1M to $5M EBITDA | Fit with an existing platform |
| Private equity platform | $3M+ EBITDA | Growth runway, reporting quality |
| Strategic acquirer | Any size in sector | Customers, contracts, port and airport access |

## Why you need secure document sharing in a Miami sale

A Miami process is rarely local. If your adviser contacts twenty private equity groups, a dozen strategics and a set of family offices in Bogota, Sao Paulo and Madrid, forty parties may sign NDAs and expect documents they will never collect in person. Diligence pulls customer and distribution contracts, freight forwarding and carrier agreements, customs and import records, supplier terms, immigration-related filings where a visa buyer is involved, payroll, and every Miami-Dade licence and lease you hold. Emailing a confidential information memorandum widely leaves you with no way to withdraw it and no record of where it went.

The parties asking for those files are frequently competitors trading out of the same warehouses. Import-export, distribution, marine services and building trades in Miami-Dade are dense and interconnected, and the most likely buyer for a Doral logistics business is another Doral logistics business, or a family office that already owns one. Your supplier terms and your Latin American customer list are the two documents those parties most want to see, and thirty of the forty who sign an NDA will never bid.

The cost of a leak is local and immediate. Word that a business is for sale reaches drivers, warehouse staff and account managers quickly in a market this tightly connected, and the account manager who owns your Bogota or Sao Paulo relationships is exactly the person a competitor will call first. Customers renegotiate or hedge with a second supplier, a landlord in a tight industrial market gains leverage over the lease assignment you need at closing, and a franchisor hearing it secondhand slows the consent. Email attachments cannot be recalled, cannot be watermarked, and tell you nothing about who actually opened them.

## Data room for Miami M&A

![data room for a Miami business sale](https://img.papermarkassets.com/upload/file_35DtVER7SdS1G6unRE8unv-papermark-data-room.png)

_Folder-level permissions let an adviser open the general file to forty buyers and contracts to two._

A **data room for Miami M&A** is the permissioned workspace where your adviser stages the diligence file and runs a cross-border buyer list through it at once, without any of them seeing what the others see. This is what advisers mean when they ask whether your documents are ready.

Papermark is a secure, fully customizable, and developer-friendly data room for modern dealmakers, built for exactly this: a **secure data room** that keeps the sensitive parts of the file locked while the process runs. NDA agreements sit on the link itself, so a buyer signs before the CIM renders. Dynamic watermarking burns each viewer's email and the timestamp onto every page, the most effective deterrent against a document being forwarded through a group chat. Granular file-level permissions release the general folder to everyone while customer contracts and payroll detail stay locked to the parties still standing after bids.

Page-by-page analytics also tell your adviser where to push. When one sponsor spends twenty minutes on the customer concentration pages and another has not opened the file since day two, the follow-up list writes itself. The audit log gives you a permanent record of every view, download and permission change, which matters when your buyer list crosses borders.

The [Data Rooms plan](https://www.papermark.com/pricing.md?view=datarooms) is **€149/month**, or **€99/month billed annually**, with a 7-day free trial, and includes 3 team members, unlimited data rooms, unlimited documents, a custom domain, dynamic watermarking, NDA agreements, and granular file-level permissions. Open a [secure data room](https://www.papermark.com/data-room.md) before the teaser goes out and reuse it through diligence.

### Why Papermark as a data room provider for Miami M&A

Most virtual data rooms were built for bankers and priced for them. Papermark is a **secure data room for modern dealmakers**, and it is more customizable and more branded than any other VDR on the market.

- **Security first.** SOC 2 Type II, granular file-level permissions, dynamic watermarking on every page, and NDA agreements that sit on the link itself.
- **Open source and self-hostable.** The codebase is public, and Enterprise can run it in your own environment, which matters when a buyer's IT team asks where the documents actually live.
- **Branded and white-labelled.** Custom domain and full white-labelling, so the room carries your firm's name rather than a vendor's.
- **AI and MCP.** 57 typed MCP tools over the Model Context Protocol let Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or your own code drive the room, plus a REST API for everything else.
- **Chat with your data room.** Papermark AI answers questions across the room and the documents in it, so you are not scrolling a folder tree to find one clause.
- **Built for Miami deals.** Permissions are set per file, so the sensitive parts of the file can stay locked to final bidders while the general file stays open.

## Did not find the right business broker in Miami?

If your company sits outside these firms' bands, or you would rather test the market before signing an exclusive, the alternative is approaching buyers directly with an attorney and a CPA supporting you.

If none of the eight above fits, the [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors) lists every firm we have researched by city and by industry, with deal sizes and sectors side by side. Filter to **Miami** to compare these against each other, or widen to a nearby metro if the local bench is thin.

## FAQ

### How much do business brokers charge in Miami?

Main Street brokers handling businesses under $1M charge 8% to 12% of the sale price, with the smallest deals at 12% to 15%. Above $2M, expect a Double Lehman success fee plus a $5,000 to $25,000 monthly retainer.

### Do business brokers need a licence in Florida?

Florida does not issue a standalone business broker licence, but business opportunity brokerage falls under Chapter 475, so most Miami brokers hold a real estate licence. Stock sales run through a FINRA registered broker dealer, so ask which registrations a firm carries.

### Can a foreign buyer purchase my Miami business?

Yes, and a large share of Miami buyers are foreign. E-2 treaty investor buyers typically look at businesses from about $150,000 upward, while EB-5 requires a much larger investment and job creation, so ask your broker how many cross-border deals they closed last year.

### Do Miami business brokers charge an upfront fee?

Main Street brokers usually work on success fee only. Lower middle market advisers charge $2,000 to $10,000 a month at the smaller end and up to $25,000 for a full investment banking engagement, generally credited against the closing fee.

### What is my business worth in Miami?

Most small businesses trade at 2x to 4x seller's discretionary earnings, and IBBA Market Pulse has put the median small business sale near $350,000 at roughly a 2.7x SDE multiple. Businesses worth $5M to $50M trade closer to 6x to 7x EBITDA.

### Why do cash-heavy Miami businesses sell for less?

Because a buyer can only finance what the tax returns show. Unreported revenue is worth zero to an SBA lender, so a business with $400,000 of documented earnings and $200,000 of undocumented earnings sells on the $400,000, not on $600,000.

### How long does it take to sell a business in Miami?

Six to twelve months from engagement to close is realistic. Due diligence alone runs 30 to 90 days after a letter of intent, an SBA financed deal under $5M adds 45 to 60 days, and a visa-dependent buyer can add several months more.

### Do I need a business broker to sell my business?

Not legally, but a single unsolicited buyer creates no price competition. A broker-run process typically puts four or five credible parties on the table, and a 10% commission is small against that spread.

### Which Miami industries attract the most acquirers?

Trade and logistics around PortMiami and Miami International Airport, healthcare practices, construction and building services, hospitality and marine businesses see the deepest buyer pools. Specialty niches also travel: Conexus Capital Advisors runs a global ingredients practice from Miami.

### What is a CIM and when do buyers get it?

The confidential information memorandum runs 20 to 40 pages covering the business model, financials, customers and growth plan. Buyers see it only after signing an NDA, which is why advisers deliver it through a tracked link.

### What documents do I need to sell my business?

Three years of tax returns, current financials, an add-back schedule, revenue by customer, your lease, an equipment list, every licence and a staff roster. Diligence adds another 40 to 80 requests, which is why sellers stage a data room first.

## Related resources

- [M&A advisors database](https://www.papermark.com/ma-advisors) with every firm we have researched, by city and by industry
- [Best virtual data rooms](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-virtual-data-rooms.md) for comparing providers before you go to market
- [Papermark data room](https://www.papermark.com/data-room.md) for sharing your CIM and diligence file securely
- [M&A due diligence checklist](https://www.papermark.com/blog/m-and-a-due-diligence-checklist.md) covering what buyers will request
- [Selling to private equity](https://www.papermark.com/blog/selling-to-private-equity-yes-or-no.md) for owners weighing a platform or add-on deal
- [Letter of intent in an acquisition](https://www.papermark.com/blog/letter-of-intent-acquisition.md) explaining the terms you will negotiate

---

_Markdown version of [this article](https://www.papermark.com/blog/best-ma-advisors-miami) for AI agents and LLMs._
_More Papermark content: [llms.txt](https://www.papermark.com/llms.txt) · [full index](https://www.papermark.com/llms-full.txt)._