Timing a business sale is not market timing. Buyers price the last twelve months and the story of the next twelve, so the question is about your own numbers and your own energy rather than about an economic cycle you cannot forecast.
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When to sell your business: is the line rising?
A business sold into growth is an easy story: the buyer extrapolates. A business sold after a bad year requires you to argue that the bad year was exceptional, which is a much harder sale and usually a cheaper one. If you are within a year of a likely decline, selling before it is worth more than waiting to recover.
Is the dependency reducible?
If you could spend a year taking yourself out of selling and delivering, that year usually returns more than a year of revenue growth, because it changes the multiple. If you cannot face another year, that is also an answer, and it argues for selling now with the dependency priced in rather than deteriorating while you wait.
Are the buyers there?
Consolidation in your trade is a timing signal: platforms acquiring in your sector today may be full or gone in three years. If several are active now and your business fits their criteria, that is a genuine window rather than a sales pitch. If none is active, a process will not create them.
Other questions people ask
Should I wait for a better economy?
Waiting is only useful if your own numbers improve. Buyers price your record, not the national picture, and a year of waiting also ages your equipment, your lease and you.
Is there a bad time of year?
Not materially, though processes started in late autumn often run into a holiday pause. What matters far more is whether the trailing twelve months are ready to be shown.
How early should I start preparing?
A year before you want to be on the market, which is usually two years before you want to be finished.