Can I keep running my business normally while quietly exploring a sale?

Yes, and in most cases you should — there's no requirement to change how you operate the business simply because you're exploring a sale, and continuing to run it normally is actually good for the outcome, since a business that visibly changes course, cuts back, or starts acting differently can unsettle employees, customers, or suppliers even before anything is confirmed.

The nuance is keeping "quietly exploring" genuinely quiet. Confidentiality agreements with any prospective buyer or advisor are the main legal tool for this, but discipline matters just as much — limiting who internally knows, being careful about what gets discussed where, and thinking through what happens if a rumour starts before you're ready. It's also worth being deliberate about decisions that would look odd in hindsight if a sale becomes public knowledge, like unusual spending or sudden changes in how you're compensating yourself, since these can raise questions for buyers later even if they were unrelated to the sale.

If you're at the point of sharing real financial or operational information with a specific prospective buyer, a signed confidentiality agreement, reviewed by a business lawyer, should be in place before, not after, that information changes hands.