How it works
A business sold
at auction, in six moves.
Most of what makes buying a business frightening is not the money. It is not knowing what happens next, or which of the things you have signed can still be undone. This is the whole sequence, in order, with the moment each side becomes committed marked plainly.
- Cost to browse
- Free
- Always
- Cost to list
- Free
- Until it sells
- On completion
- 2%
- Of the purchase price
- Jurisdiction
- Ontario
- Ontario law throughout
If you are buying
From browsing to the winning bid
Look, without asking anybody's permission
Every live listing shows the starting bid, the revenue, the earnings, the auction dates and every bid placed so far. No form stands between you and that. What is withheld is the identity of the business, because a seller whose staff and customers find out they are for sale has a different business by Friday.Get verified by proving your funds
Upload proof of funds, or a lender’s commitment showing access to them, and a person at MicroM&A confirms it. That makes you a verified buyer: you can contact sellers, and bid up to the amount confirmed. Nobody else ever sees it.Sign a confidentiality agreement
Every verified buyer can sign the seller’s standard agreement straight from the listing. The seller does not pick who sees the figures. Signing it opens the confidential package: who the business is, what it actually earns, the lease, the staff, the customer concentration. You are bound by it from the moment you sign.Do your diligence before bidding opens
Diligence runs until the seller opens bidding, and you get at least three days’ notice of the date. Use it. Ask about the addbacks, why they are selling, what breaks if the owner stops answering the phone, and take your accountant’s advice. There are no financing or inspection conditions afterwards, because there is no afterwards.Join, then bid in public
Sign the seller’s agreement before bidding opens and you are in. The seller can decline a buyer before then, for a recorded reason. Ask your questions in the auction’s forum, where every buyer sees every answer; private messages close when bidding opens. Bidding runs for ten days. Every bid is public, shown against an anonymous bidder number, and must beat the last by the seller’s bid step. A bid in the last 24 hours moves the close to 24 hours after it, so nobody wins by sniping. Bids cannot be withdrawn.Win, and it is agreed
You signed the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, complete except for the price, when you registered, and the seller signed it before bidding opened. When bidding closes, the highest bid at or above the reserve is written in and the agreement binds you both at that moment. Unless the seller made the sale conditional on the landlord’s consent, it is firm.
“Every bidder bids on the same agreement. Only the price moves.”
If you are selling
From listing to the hammer
Write the listing anonymously
You describe the business, not yourself. The listing carries the region, the industry and the figures; it does not carry your name, your address or your trading name until a buyer has signed a confidentiality agreement.Prove it is yours, and get approved
Upload a document showing you own the business: articles of incorporation, a master business licence, or the deed if the building is included. An administrator verifies you from it and approves the listing before it goes live. Statements behind your figures can follow, but they are needed before buyers get the confidential package.Set your auction terms once
You choose the starting bid, the bid step and, if you want one, a reserve that nobody sees. You open bidding when enough buyers are ready, at least a week after going live and with three days’ notice. You fix the deposit, completion date and what is included. Every bidder bids on those terms, and they cannot change once the listing is live. There is no negotiating afterwards, by you or by us.Vet the buyers, then let the bidding run
During diligence, verified buyers sign your confidentiality agreement and get the same package. Answer their questions once, in the forum every buyer reads. Verified buyers who sign are admitted; if you will not sell to one, decline them with a reason before bidding opens. Then ten days of public bidding, which you can watch but not join, and no private messages until it is over. Once bidding opens the business stays up until the auction is resolved.Hold the deposit properly
The deposit goes into trust with the solicitor you named in your terms, not to you and never to MicroM&A. If the sale falls through, it does not move until both parties sign a direction, which the platform generates, rather than leaving a buyer several thousand dollars down and wondering who to ask.Close with your own solicitor
The moment bidding closes the agreement you signed is binding at the winning bid, and the file goes to the lawyers, with a closing checklist already built: the HST treatment, the price allocation, the landlord’s consent or the title search, the clearance certificates. MicroM&A is not a party to your agreement and never has been.
If the building is included
The business and its premises, together
A business that owns the land and buildings it runs from can sell them in the same auction, on the same agreement. The seller gives the building’s facts (taxes, lot, zoning, condition) and proves ownership with the parcel register or deed; the address is shown to buyers once they sign the confidentiality agreement. The agreement then adds the real property: title searched and conveyed free of mortgages, land transfer tax paid by the buyer, and no financing, inspection or appraisal condition, so have the building inspected and arrange financing for the whole price before you bid.
Where this leaves you
MicroM&A is an online auctioneer and a set of document tools. It receives, records and publishes bids and declares the highest. It is not a brokerage, not a law firm and not anybody’s agent, it does not negotiate, and it does not give legal, tax or valuation advice. Every document it generates is a template built to Ontario convention and says so on its face. Have your own solicitor read the one you are about to sign. On a transaction this size that is the cheapest money you will spend.
The full rules are on one page. Still deciding? The FAQ answers the narrower questions, and pricing is one page.