Truforte Business Group

Truforte Business Group has been brokering the sale of Florida businesses since 1994, which puts it among the longer-tenured firms operating in a state that now claims 3.5 million small businesses and generates more new business applications than any other in the country.

Headquartered in Fort Myers with branch offices in Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Jacksonville, Truforte covers the length of Florida's business sale market, handling transactions from $100,000 up to $25 million across dozens of industries.

Selling or buying a business in Florida is not the same as doing it in most other states. Florida has ranked first in new business applications nationally every year since Q3 2014, and the pace has not slowed.

 Between March 2023 and March 2024 alone, the state saw 111,346 establishments open and 94,744 close, a net gain of 16,602 businesses. Small businesses drove 77.4% of Florida's net job creation over that same period.

That volume creates both opportunity and noise. There are a lot of businesses changing hands, which means buyers have choices and sellers have competition.

The median time to close a business sale nationally held at 170 days in 2025, according to BizBuySell market data.

That's nearly six months from listing to closing, during which confidentiality, deal structure, and buyer qualification all become daily concerns for the owner trying to run a business while also selling it.

3.5MSmall businesses in Florida

$350KMedian U.S. business sale price, 2025

170 daysMedian time to close a deal, 2025

94%Businesses sold at asking price, 2025

Southwest Florida, where Truforte's corporate office sits, has its own particular momentum.

The region posted $1.6 billion in commercial real estate transaction volume in 2025, up 14% from 2024, and commercial land sales surged to nearly $170 million in Q4 2025 alone.

That activity reflects genuine developer and investor conviction in markets like Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral, and the surrounding counties where Truforte has its longest-established broker relationships.

The core work is business intermediary services: confidentially marketing businesses for sale, identifying and screening buyers, negotiating terms, and guiding the transaction through closing. 

The confidential piece matters more than it might sound. A seller who lets word slip to employees, customers, or competitors that the business is for sale can damage the very value they're trying to capture.

Truforte markets listings without identifying the seller until a buyer has signed a non-disclosure agreement and been qualified.

The firm's service breakdown:

The E-2 visa category deserves a note. Florida draws significant international buyer interest, particularly from entrepreneurs seeking an E-2 treaty investor visa, which requires purchasing and managing a substantial U.S. business.

Truforte flags listings that qualify under E-2 criteria, making it easier for foreign nationals to identify appropriate acquisition targets without sorting through listings that don't meet visa thresholds.

Business owners often anchor their expectations to what they want rather than what the market supports. A business generating $200,000 in annual owner benefit is not automatically worth $1 million. 

The actual multiple depends on sector, transferability, customer concentration, lease terms, equipment condition, and whether revenue is recurring or project-based.

In 2025, the national average cash flow multiple for sold businesses was 2.7x, up 3% from the prior year.

That means a business with $158,950 in median cash flow traded at roughly $430,000.

But that's a national median across all sectors. Restaurant businesses, service businesses, and manufacturing businesses each carry different multiples, and Florida's specific market conditions shift those numbers further.

Truforte provides an opinion of value as a starting point for sellers. This is not the same as a certified appraisal, but it gives owners a grounded number to work from before committing to a listing price.

Overpriced listings sit. They accumulate time on market, and time on market itself becomes a red flag for sophisticated buyers who ask why nothing has sold.

Florida, California, and Texas consistently dominate buyer interest on the major business-for-sale platforms.

That's good news for Florida sellers in terms of demand, but it also means buyers have plenty of choices and brokers need to do real qualification work, not just collect inquiries.

A buyer screening process typically covers:

• Financial capacity, including liquid capital available without liquidating retirement accounts
• Industry experience and operational background relevant to running the target business
• Realistic timeline and motivation, which distinguishes serious buyers from window shoppers
• Financing plan, whether cash, SBA loan, seller financing, or a combination

SBA 7(a) loans remain the most common financing vehicle for small business acquisitions. Banks reported $7.2 billion in new small business loans in Florida in 2023 alone, and the SBA has periodically updated its programs to make acquisition financing more accessible.

Truforte provides information on SBA loan structures and connects buyers with relevant lenders, which shortens the path from an accepted offer to a funded closing.

Truforte's five offices cover distinct markets within Florida. Southwest Florida (Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral, Collier County) is the firm's home territory, where it has the deepest broker relationships and longest track record. 

The Sarasota office covers Manatee and Sarasota counties. Fort Lauderdale reaches into Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade. Orlando serves Orange, Lake, Seminole, and surrounding Central Florida counties.

Jacksonville covers the northeast, including Duval, Clay, Putnam, and St. Johns.

Each of these markets behaves differently. The Tampa region, which falls within reach of the firm's Florida network, recorded 1,093 business transactions with a median sale price of $350,000.

The Orlando region shows median revenue of approximately $750,000 for businesses listed for sale, suggesting a higher-revenue business mix.

 Lee and Collier counties, Truforte's backyard, have significant service-sector and hospitality activity driven by a large retirement and seasonal population base.

The firm's listing catalog is wide. Current and recent listings include restaurants and cafes, landscaping companies, auto repair shops, construction contractors, medical spas, dental labs, cleaning companies, pool service businesses, HVAC firms, and retail stores. 

Price points across active listings range from under $60,000 for small owner-operated businesses to well over $400,000 for established service companies with documented owner benefit.

A few examples from current listings illustrate the range:

• A Christmas and landscape lighting company in Collier County listed at $428,000 with $196,757 in owner benefit
• A pizza shop in Pine Island listed at $239,000 with $197,713 in owner benefit
• A specialty cafe in Fort Myers listed at $179,000 with $21,119 in owner benefit
• A pack-and-ship business on Fort Myers Beach listed at $59,000

The variance in owner benefit relative to asking price matters. The lighting company is priced at roughly 2.2x owner benefit.

The cafe is priced at nearly 8.5x, which reflects either a pricing strategy, an asset-heavy business, or the expectation of growth.

Buyers who understand multiples can evaluate listings quickly. Those who don't often either overpay or pass on good deals because the numbers look unfamiliar.

One of the more practical services Truforte offers is exit strategy consultation for business owners who aren't planning to sell in the near term but want to maximize value when they eventually do. 

This is different from listing a business. It's about identifying what buyers actually pay premiums for and building those characteristics into the business now.

Common pre-sale improvements include:

• Documenting systems so the business can run without the owner present daily
• Reducing customer concentration, where one client accounts for a disproportionate share of revenue
• Cleaning up financial records so three to five years of profit and loss statements clearly show performance
• Extending or renewing leases before going to market, since a short lease creates buyer risk

Owners who do this work before listing typically see better multiples and faster closes.

Those who skip it often find the due diligence process surfacing problems that kill deals or force price reductions.

The transaction process, from first call to closing, generally follows the same sequence regardless of business type:

The 170-day median close time is an average across all deal sizes and sectors. Smaller, simpler businesses move faster.

Larger deals with real estate components, multiple employees, or complex licensing requirements run longer. 

Truforte's role is to keep each stage moving, flag problems before they become deal-killers, and act as a buffer so that the natural friction between buyers and sellers does not derail negotiations.

Truforte Business Group occupies a specific and well-defined position in Florida's business brokerage market: a statewide firm with 30-plus years of local deal experience, five regional offices, and a transaction range that covers most of the small and mid-market. 

For Florida business owners considering a sale, or buyers looking for established operations in a market still generating more new businesses than it closes, Truforte offers the infrastructure and market access that most individual owners cannot replicate on their own.