Start by working out whether your hurry is about time or about certainty, because the two want different buyers and only one of them costs you money: a fast close needs a funded buyer and a ready data room, not a lower price.
A week of preparation buys a month later
Pull twelve months of bank statements and the last two years of accounts, write one page describing what is included, and list every licence, lease and contract that has to transfer. A buyer who asks for these and receives them the same day moves at a completely different speed from one who waits.
Pick the route with buyers already in it
Speed comes from a standing buyer pool, not from marketing effort. For an online business that is a marketplace: Acquire.com vets buyer identity and funds before anyone can contact you, which removes the slowest part of a private sale. For a business with premises it is a broker who already has buyers looking in your trade and your county.
Screen for the ability to close, not the enthusiasm
The fastest buyer is one with cash or a pre-approved facility and no partners to consult. Ask early how the purchase is funded and what approvals are needed; an SBA-financed buyer is a real buyer and a slower one, and knowing which you have on day one is worth more than any negotiating tactic.
Questions people ask about how can i sell my business fast
Will I get less if I sell quickly?
Usually a little, because you lose competitive tension between buyers. Preparation recovers more of that than haggling does.
Is an auction faster?
It can be, and it is only fast if the documents are ready. An auction with an incomplete data room becomes a slow private sale with an audience.
What slows a sale down most?
Documents that arrive late. Every request a buyer has to chase adds days and, more expensively, doubt; a data room assembled before the listing is the single largest lever on time to close.