About Business Exchange's Private Broker Network™ (PBN)

Product Monday 2nd of October 2023

The Private Broker Network™ (PBN) is a members-only walled garden marketplace for business brokering and succession transactions. It is intended to be used by large networks of member businesses such as financial planning dealer groups and franchises.

Its purpose is to enable the network to oversee and empower its members to buy and sell their businesses to other owners within the network, but with selective access to the wider public audience of buyers and vendors (via the Business Exchange Network.)

The PBN includes a secure and private web portal under the network’s branding. This portal is the place where network members come to register their needs and list their opportunities, and also acts as their control panel and marketplace for locating and pursuing transactions. Members can:

  • List their businesses for sale
  • Seek to purchase listed businesses as an entry point, or to grow through acquisition
  • Look for and advertise equity partnerships
  • Seek JV and merger opportunities within and outside the group

An extensive and powerful suite of back-office tools is included to empower the network’s M&A team, including:

  • An email marketing system
  • Data-mining engine
  • Multiple audit logs
  • Oversight and reporting mechanisms
  • Specialised Business Development Manager (BDM) logins and tools, built to allow BDMs to recommend opportunities directly to their clients and oversee transactions in support of the M&A team

The PBN runs on the same Gateway Engine that underpins the Business Exchange Network, and it integrates directly with the services and professionals that make up the Business Exchange Network. This means that your PBN members and your M&A team can benefit from connecting with the Business Exchange Network in several ways:

  • Vendor listings on the Business Exchange Network’s web portals can be pursued by your PBN members, allowing you to use your PBN as a vector for growing your member businesses;
  • When you list a business within your PBN (and if you have difficulty finding a buyer within the network) you can reach out into the wider Business Exchange Network to source more buyers – this gives you the opportunity to turn a succession problem into a recruitment opportunity by bringing the new buyer into your group;
  • You can tap the professional expertise of the members of the Business Exchange Network including specialist lawyers and consultants

Business Exchange also offers ancillary services to PBN clients, including:

  • Survey generation, distribution and analysis
  • Professional business brokering services – particularly useful if your group does not currently include a dedicated M&A team
  • Our Smart IM service, which can produce high-quality and consistent IM documents to assist in promotion of listings

Our PBN offering has been used by several ASX-listed companies for the purpose of managing their group members’ M&A requirements.

A variety of pricing options are available, depending on how or whether you wish to spread the cost among your members.

If you’re interested in knowing more please get in touch with Mark Witt CA (CEO Business Exchange) at 1300 722 452, mark@businessexchange.com.au or via our Contact Us page

Mark Witt CA

Mark is the Head of Brokering at Business Exchange with over 20 years experience and 400+ completed transactions


Read more articles

Exploring Mergers and Sell-Down Strategies: Strategic Pathways for Growth and Pre-Retirement

Navigating the evolving landscape of the accounting and financial planning industry requires strategic foresight and decisive action. Mergers and structured sell-down strategies have emerged as powerful tools to drive significant growth, enhance service offerings, secure capital for retiring professionals, and ensure a sustainable future for your firm.

Read More
Unlocking Growth: Lending Insights for Accounting and Financial Planning Firms

Unlock the potential of your accounting or financial planning firm with expert insights into bank credit policies. Discover how to leverage your firm’s goodwill to secure the financing you need for sustainable growth.

Read More
The Role of Equity Participation in Retaining Talent and Productivity

Equity participation - whether through full partnership or employee share schemes - emerges as a crucial strategy for "locking in" key team members and adding deeper meaning to their professional endeavours.

Read More
The Strategic Advantage of Off-Market Mergers for Small Practices

For small practices, off-market opportunities – strategic mergers with larger firms - offer a pathway not just to expansion but to a redefinition of what small practices can achieve when they leverage the right partnerships.

Read More
Pragmatic Strategies for Successful Client Transition in Accounting and Planning Practices

These strategies aim to preserve the relationships you've meticulously built and seek to enhance the practice's growth and continuity post-transition. The focus: keep the client's best interest at heart.

Read More
Exploring Flexible Succession Strategies in the Accounting and Planning Marketplaces

In today's dynamic accounting marketplace, vendors contemplating retirement or looking to scale down their involvement face a landscape rich with opportunities.

Read More
The Business Exchange Network - Transforming Business Brokering

The sun is fast setting on the old way of business brokering. The privileged position of a business broker as a gatekeeper to information and connection is under threat in a world where clients can now find each other via searches on smartphones, LinkedIn etc., and that means the most fundamental adage of business survival applies: adapt, or die.

Read More
The Importance of Allocating Time for Navigating Client Relationships Post-Sale

Client relationships within an accounting practice portfolio are anchored on mutual respect, trust and understanding. They can take a professional lifetime to build. As you near retirement, the onus is on you to ensure a smooth transfer of these relationships to guarantee continued success for the practice.

Read More
Timing is Everything: Guarding Your Practice's Value at Retirement

Retirement, while a celebratory milestone, presents unique challenges for accountants. Successful transition demands a precise strategy to secure the value built up over a lifetime of professional practice.

Read More
Partnerships in the New Era: Navigating the Future with Toffler's Timeless Insights

Beneath the warm glow of a Zoom call, two business partners lock eyes, or rather cursors, and prepare for a brave new world. Their partnership, formed during the great pandemic, has been forged in the crucible of COVID-19. Now, as they brace for an AI-enabled future, they turn to the prophetic wisdom of futurist Alvin Toffler for guidance.

Read More
Capital Partners Versus Banks: A New Paradigm for Financing Expansion in Accounting & Fin Planning

Capital partners are emerging as a potent alternative to banks for financing expansion via acquisition, especially within accounting and financial planning practices.

Read More
Funding Options for Partner Equity Loans: What Accounting Firms Need to Know

The ability to acquire and transition equity within the accounting practice is an ongoing challenge. This is often a result of having to navigate the different financial position and career stage of each partner (and future partners). The more partners in the practice, the more difficult this can become.

Read More
Maximize the Value of Your Accounting Practice: Why Selling to a Doorknock is Not Recommended

Today’s hypothetical for accounting practice owners: Imagine you are seeking to sell your house. Somebody knocks on your door and makes you an offer. It seems legitimate, the buyer has the funds, the terms pass your first inspection. Do you sign on the dotted line?

Read More
Choosing Your Legacy - Thoughts on the Empty Chair

Some practitioners are comfortable with the assumption that they will continue working until the end of their life, what might be considered the 'die at your desk' model. Fair enough, but there are big problems if you arrive at this position by default.

Read More
Merging to Retire - Is this an Option for You?

Succession can take many forms depending on your situation and goals. Considering a merger can give you options beyond a simple all-or-nothing sale.

Read More
Greater Expectations - How to Not Sabotage Your Sale

Selling your business is a high-complexity high-stakes process. Some transactions take months to complete. Some never complete at all.

Read More
Selling Your Accounting Practice - Items affecting Price

Ever since we commenced selling accounting practices in 2001 the normal range of price for accounting fee parcels hasn't varied much from where it sits today which is 70 cent to $1.10 of expected recurring turnover.

Read More
Quest for the Perennial Long Weekend

A long weekend is a welcome break from the weekly routine, a chance to rejuvenate and reconnect with family. Maybe a short trip away from home, fishing trip, weekender or just a chance to put your feet up and forget the schedule for a day. What if this were the norm, not the exception?

Read More
Appointing an equity partner: is it the right succession move for you?

There are many pathways to succession. Many practitioners in the accounting space are choosing to broaden their succession options by appointing an equity partner. But how do you find the right one?

Read More
Accounting Succession - Asking the Right Questions

When I bring up the topic of succession with accountants there is a common theme: "I want to improve my work/life balance and maybe take some equity off the table, but I don't want to retire yet."

Read More