By John Kasapi | Founder, Salon for Sale

I had a barbershop owner come to me with a pretty straightforward request.

He wanted to sell his business.

He wanted a good price.

And he didn’t want the staff, customers or competitors knowing it was on the market.

Fair enough.

If you’ve spent years building a barbershop, the last thing you want is rumours flying around that you’re selling up.

Staff start wondering whether their jobs are safe. Customers get concerned that their favourite barber is leaving. Competitors might see an opportunity to start approaching your team.

Suddenly you’re spending half your day answering questions about a business you haven’t even sold.

So, for this particular owner, discretion wasn’t simply a preference.

It was one of the most important parts of the whole sale.

And we managed to sell the business without the sale becoming public knowledge.

Here’s how we approached it, and what other barbershop and salon owners can learn from the experience.

First, you don’t have to tell the whole world you’re selling

I think some business owners assume that once they engage a broker, their business is immediately going to appear online with a great big FOR SALE sign hanging over it.

That doesn’t have to be the case.

There are different ways to market a business.

Sometimes we’ll approach suitable buyers privately.

Sometimes we’ll advertise a business without identifying exactly which business it is.

In this instance, we used the second approach.

Rather than advertising the precise suburb and details that would identify the shop, we described the general area and the opportunity.

That allowed us to generate interest without handing everyone the identity of the business.

It’s a fairly simple concept.

Give prospective buyers enough information to determine whether they’re interested, but don’t reveal sensitive details until you’ve established that they’re genuine.

Of course, confidentiality can never be absolutely guaranteed. A business can sometimes be identifiable from a combination of details even when the name is withheld.

That’s why the marketing needs to be considered carefully from the beginning.

Not everyone who asks about your business is a buyer

This is where things get interesting.

Anyone can enquire about buying a business.

That doesn’t mean they have the money.

It doesn’t mean they understand the industry.

And it certainly doesn’t mean they’re the right person to take over what you’ve built.

I’ve dealt with plenty of people over the years who love the idea of buying a salon or barbershop.

But when you start asking practical questions about their experience, funding and what they’re actually looking for, it’s a different conversation.

For this sale, we acted as a filter between the owner and prospective purchasers.

We spoke with interested parties, considered their financial capacity and made sure confidentiality agreements were in place before giving access to sensitive business information.

We weren’t interested in showing the business to everyone.

We wanted to find somebody who could buy it.

And in the end, we found an experienced operator who already owned a barbershop and understood how the industry worked.

That’s an important distinction.

A confidentiality agreement is only part of the job

A signed confidentiality agreement is useful.

But it’s not a magic shield.

You still need to control who receives information, how much they receive and when they receive it.

Think about what exists inside a typical barbershop or salon.

You have financial records, employee details, appointment histories, supplier arrangements and sometimes years of customer information.

You can’t simply hand all that over to somebody because they’ve sent an email saying they’re interested.

In the early stages, a buyer may only need a summary of the business, its approximate location, general performance and operating structure.

More detailed information can be provided when the buyer has been assessed and the transaction has progressed.

There are also privacy obligations to consider when sharing personal information. The Australian Government’s business-selling guidance specifically highlights the need to comply with applicable privacy laws and provide accurate information to purchasers.

In other words, discretion doesn’t mean hiding material facts from a genuine buyer.

It means sharing the right information, with the right people, at the appropriate stage.

What about inspections?

This is another area where sellers get understandably nervous.

Imagine you’re operating a busy barbershop and somebody you don’t recognise walks in, starts inspecting the fit-out and asks a lot of questions.

Your staff are going to notice.

And some will probably put two and two together.

For this transaction, inspections were coordinated privately and with the owner’s circumstances in mind.

We wanted the buyer to properly understand the premises and the opportunity without creating unnecessary disruption.

That meant being deliberate about who attended and how visits were arranged.

The goal was simple.

Let the owner keep running the business while we worked through the sale.

After all, the business still needed to operate successfully, whether it sold that week, that month or further down the track.

Finding the buyer was only half the challenge

Once we’d found the right person and agreed on the transaction, we still had a few things to work through.

There was landlord approval.

There were the practical arrangements around transferring the business.

And there were questions about how the incoming owner intended to operate it.

We helped coordinate the landlord process and worked with the buyer on business planning and cash flow projections as part of the transition.

That support mattered.

A buyer can genuinely want a business and still need help navigating everything required to complete the purchase.

In my experience, deals are often won or lost in these final stages.

Finding someone interested is one thing.

Keeping everything moving until settlement is another.

When should you tell your staff?

This is one of the most personal decisions an owner makes.

For many salon and barbershop businesses, staff relationships are incredibly close.

Some people have worked together for ten or twenty years.

Naturally, owners worry about how their team will react.

In this particular sale, the staff introduction was deliberately arranged close to settlement, and the business was able to transition without the extended period of uncertainty the owner had feared.

It worked for that transaction.

But I wouldn’t suggest that every business should follow exactly the same timing.

Employee arrangements and obligations need to be properly considered, including any applicable consultation, notice, entitlements and transfer-of-business requirements.

The Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance on businesses changing owners is a useful reference, and owners should get appropriate employment and legal advice for their circumstances.

The important thing is to have a communication plan rather than allowing staff to find out through speculation.

So, how did it end?

The landlord approved the transfer.

The buyer completed the purchase.

And the seller was able to move on with the business’s reputation intact.

There wasn’t a public spectacle.

There wasn’t a drawn-out advertising campaign revealing the identity of the business to everyone in the industry.

We found a suitable buyer, controlled the information, managed the transaction and got it settled.

For this owner, keeping the sale private was just as important as achieving a satisfactory financial result.

And that’s a lesson I’ve carried into plenty of other transactions.

Is a confidential sale right for every salon or barbershop?

Not necessarily.

Some businesses benefit from being advertised widely because they need to reach a larger pool of buyers.

Others may have a strong enough network of potential purchasers that a more targeted approach makes sense.

And sometimes, a combination of private introductions and anonymous public marketing is the right answer.

It depends on the business.

The asking price, location, profitability, buyer profile and owner’s circumstances all play a part.

What I wouldn’t recommend is choosing a marketing strategy before understanding what you’re trying to protect and who is likely to buy the business.

A confidential campaign still needs a proper plan.

It isn’t simply a matter of removing the business name from the advertisement and hoping for the best.

Thinking about selling, but not ready to tell everyone?

You can start looking at your options without making a public announcement.

You can understand what the business might be worth.

You can discuss potential buyers, your preferred timeframe and how the sale could be handled.

And you can do all of that before deciding whether you’re ready to proceed.

I’m John Kasapi, founder of Salon for Sale. I specialise in helping owners across Australia sell hair salons, barber shops and beauty businesses.

If you’re thinking about selling but want to keep things private, that’s a conversation I’m very happy to have.

No pressure. No public announcement. Just an honest discussion about your options.

Speak with John about selling your barbershop or salon confidentially.