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Is the Restaurant Brokerage Business Seasonal? Written By: Mel Jones
I’m often asked if there is seasonality to the buying and selling of restaurants. The answer always surprises many people.
After being in the business for a number of years, there certainly is a seasonality of when buyers start buying. The prime selling/buying season tends to be September through March. For example, in 2008/2009 SellingRestaurants entered in 109 contracts during those seven months while from April to August we entered into 28 contracts. This ratio is pretty consistent year-over-year.
The natural next question is why the seasonality? And of course, all one can do is speculate why people don’t buyer restaurants from April through August and start buying from September through March. But there are many competing factors pulling at the buyer’s attention and drawing it away from buying a business.
First, April brings taxes. Most people tend to wait until the last minute to prepare their taxes and for about a month, they are consumed by the work load and by turning that red number on Turbo Tax to a green number.
Second, spring brings the beautiful weather and people focus on enjoying the weather after a long winter – except those southern California folks who are always the sun!
Third, spring is when all those graduations, parties and weddings consume ones spare time.
Fourth, the kids are out of school, mom is going crazy, and it’s time to do the vacation thing - it is easier corralling cats then trying to manage a child’s social affairs during the summer.
Finally, school session comes back on line during August and the parents find themselves with more time to focus on buying a business.
So if you own a restaurant and you’re thinking of selling, now is the time to put it on the market. Give me a call at 800-576-3615 and I’ll gladly go through our program with you and what has made our business model superior to anything in the market place.
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