Thinking about selling?
What is my brokerage worth?
It depends on what a buyer is able to do with it. Here is how we look at it.
The commission book
The renewal base
Referral relationships
Software, data and brand
The people
What reduces value
- Customer concentration above 10% in one account.
- Commission not disclosed to customers.
- Contracts placed through a chain of intermediaries.
- Unresolved supplier disputes.
- Missing letters of authority.
- Staff on no restrictive covenants.
As a rough guide, a book-only buyer will pay a discounted multiple of outstanding commission, while a whole-business buyer will pay that plus goodwill. The difference between the two is often the larger figure.
Get an indicative value range
It is a short form, your range appears on screen straight away and there is no obligation.
Our indicative value form asks about your business, your numbers and your book, with a note against every question explaining why it matters to the figure. A founder prepares your range personally.
Why now: regulation, MHHS and the market
Regulation is coming
In October 2025 the government published its response to the consultation on regulating third-party intermediaries. It confirmed that Ofgem will be appointed regulator for TPIs, with rule-making, monitoring and investigation powers and a registration requirement, when parliamentary time allows. Ofgem estimates there are around 3,000 TPIs and there is currently no complete list of them. The cost of regulation is to be recovered from the sector.
What this means for a small broker: registration, conduct rules, reporting, complaint handling to a regulated standard, and a compliance cost that falls hardest on the smallest firms. Aggregators with a compliance function absorb it. A three-person broker does not.
MHHS changes what customers expect
Market-wide half-hourly settlement moves every meter to half-hourly data. Customers will expect their broker to use it: consumption visibility, capacity right-sizing, tariff analysis. Procurement-only brokers without data tools will find renewals harder. Tritility published a whitepaper on this in 2026 (see Resources).
Supplier terms are tightening
Commission caps, longer payment profiles, tighter credit and stricter conduct requirements from suppliers. Cash flow for small brokers is getting harder.
Buyers with real money are few
Many acquirers in this market fund the purchase from the book they are buying, which is why sellers are offered a third on completion and the rest over two years. Tritility has funding in place to proceed. Offers are not conditional on finance.
None of this means you must sell now. It means the value of a small independent broker is more likely to fall than rise over the next three years, and the number of buyers able to pay properly is small.
Signs it might be time
- You are spending more time on compliance, supplier admin and chasing commission than on customers.
- Supplier tiers you used to qualify for are out of reach.
- Your best salesperson could leave and take the business with them.
- You have had an approach and did not know how to value it.
- You want to keep working with customers but not run a company.
- You have a referral network, a tool or a brand that is worth more in a bigger business than in yours.
If two or more apply, a conversation costs nothing.
Answer a few questions and, once you have registered and signed the mutual NDA, see an indicative range straight away.
Register for the Secure Area and sign the mutual NDA. Clearbook does the contract due diligence, so the questions we ask you are few and specific.
Have a confidential conversation with us
Thirty minutes with our acquisitions team, with an NDA first if you prefer. We will not contact your customers, staff or suppliers without your say-so.