How to Sell a Staffing Agency in New Brunswick

New Brunswick's staffing industry sits at an inflection point. The province's aging population, combined with labor shortages in healthcare, skilled trades, and seasonal industries like forestry and aquaculture, has made staffing agencies genuinely valuable assets to buyers right now. Unlike a decade ago, there are multiple types of serious buyers actively looking in Atlantic Canada for recurring-revenue businesses like yours, and they're willing to pay for predictability.

Who Is Buying Staffing Agencies in New Brunswick

The buyer landscape for New Brunswick staffing agencies has shifted. You'll see interest from three distinct groups. Regional private equity firms based in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec are building staffing platforms and actively acquiring smaller agencies to consolidate. Search funds, which are typically investors 5-10 years out of business school looking to acquire and operate a single company, are increasingly active in Atlantic Canada because valuations are more reasonable than in major metro markets. Independent sponsors and smaller investment groups without formal fund structures are also pursuing add-on acquisitions to larger staffing platforms they already own. Most of these buyers are targeting agencies with $500,000 to $3 million in annual EBITDA, with clean customer bases and predictable contract work. They care deeply about your customer retention rate, employee turnover, and whether your revenue comes from a few large clients or a diverse mix. A buyer won't care that you've been in business 20 years if 60% of your revenue walks out the door when one customer leaves.

What Your Business Needs to Look Like Before You Go to Market

• Three years of audited or reviewed financial statements, plus a detailed breakdown of gross margin by customer and by service line. Buyers will spend weeks verifying that your EBITDA is real and defensible, not inflated by related-party transactions or unsustainable pricing.
• A customer concentration analysis showing what percentage of revenue comes from your top 5, top 10, and top 20 customers. If one customer represents more than 15% of revenue, expect the buyer to discount your valuation or require an earnout tied to customer retention.
• Documented evidence that your business does not depend on you personally to generate revenue or maintain client relationships. If you are the face of every major contract, you have a 'key-man risk' problem that will reduce what a buyer will pay.
• Clean contracts with all major clients showing terms, renewal dates, and any change-of-control clauses. Buyers need to confirm that your contracts survive the sale; some staffing agreements require customer consent to change ownership.
• An organizational chart and details on your management team's tenure, responsibilities, and whether you expect key people to stay post-sale. A buyer acquiring the business assumes they'll need to retain your operations manager and account managers.
• Normalized owner expenses for the past three years. If you've been expensing a personal vehicle, country club, or family travel, buyers will add some of that back to EBITDA, but you need to document it clearly.

Valuation: What Multiple Should You Expect in New Brunswick?

Staffing agencies typically sell for 4 to 6 times EBITDA in the Canadian market, with New Brunswick generally tracking at the lower to middle end of that range compared to major urban markets. A well-run agency with diversified customers, low employee turnover, and gross margins above 25% could justify 5.5 to 6 times. One with concentrated revenue or thin margins might trade at 3.5 to 4.5 times. The difference between a $1 million EBITDA agency at 4 times versus 5.5 times is $1.5 million in sale proceeds, so the multiple matters enormously. What moves the needle up? Long-term customer contracts, recurring work (as opposed to one-off placements), a professional management team in place, and geographic or vertical diversification. What compresses multiples? Customer concentration, seasonal revenue swings, high placement turnover, and reliance on you as the owner. New Brunswick agencies typically command a small discount to Ontario or Quebec comparables because the market is smaller and buyer competition is less intense, but that gap has narrowed as consolidators recognize that Atlantic Canada has genuine demographic and labor-supply advantages.

The Selling Process, Step by Step

• Week 1-2: Engage an M&A advisor with specific experience in staffing or professional services. This person should have existing relationships with PE buyers and search funds active in Atlantic Canada. They will help you prepare a confidential Information Memorandum (a polished 20-30 page summary of your business, market position, financials, and growth). Do not attempt to shop your business without this document.
• Week 3-4: Prepare your data room. This is a digital folder containing three years of tax returns, corporate documents, customer contracts, employment agreements, insurance policies, and any pending litigation or regulatory issues. A well-organized data room signals professionalism and accelerates due diligence.
• Week 5-8: Your advisor identifies and approaches qualified buyers. In New Brunswick, expect 8 to 15 serious prospects within the first month. Your advisor will reach out under confidentiality, qualify buyers' interest and funding capacity, and manage exclusivity periods (typically 60-90 days for a small buyer pool).
• Month 2-3: Initial buyer meetings and management presentations. Interested buyers will meet with you and your team, tour your office, and ask detailed questions about customer relationships and operational processes. Have your operations manager and finance person ready to explain how work actually gets done.
• Month 3-4: Financial and legal due diligence. Buyers will hire lawyers to review contracts and verify customer consent to change of ownership. They will hire accountants to recast your financials and confirm EBITDA. Be prepared to answer granular questions about how you book revenue, manage payroll, and allocate overhead.
• Month 4-5: Term sheet negotiation. The buyer makes an offer: price, payment structure (cash at close versus earnout), any seller financing, and post-close adjustments for working capital. Your advisor negotiates on your behalf. Earnouts tied to customer retention are common; expect 10-20% of purchase price at risk.
• Month 5-6: Purchase agreement negotiation and final closing. Lawyers document all terms, representations, and conditions. You'll typically sign employment or consulting agreements confirming your role post-close. Plan for closing 6-12 weeks after a verbal agreement, assuming no material issues emerge during due diligence.

Common Mistakes Sellers in New Brunswick Make

• Waiting too long to get serious about transition planning. If you're the primary relationship manager for your biggest customers, buyers see a massive risk. They will either discount your valuation significantly or pass entirely. Begin introducing customers to your management team 6-12 months before you plan to sell.
• Hiding or minimizing customer concentration risk. Buyers always discover it. If you try to obscure that one customer is 40% of revenue, the deal falls apart in due diligence and your credibility is destroyed. Be direct and upfront; let your advisor help you frame it.
• Failing to document your process. If your staffing workflows, pricing logic, and customer service procedures exist only in your head, you look unprofessional and unscalable. Write them down. Buyers want evidence that the business runs without you.
• Not normalizing expenses before marketing. If your business has been paying for 30 hours a week of your spouse's work, or subsidizing a corporate retreat, document it clearly upfront. Buyers will adjust anyway, but doing it proactively builds trust.
• Choosing an M&A advisor who doesn't understand staffing or the Atlantic Canada market. A generalist advisor will miss industry-specific nuances, undersell your customer stickiness, and waste time with unqualified buyers. Spend time vetting your advisor's experience and existing buyer relationships in your sector.