Can I use an online marketplace instead of hiring a broker at all?

Yes — there's no legal requirement to use a broker to sell a business, and an online marketplace listing is a legitimate way to reach buyers on your own, particularly for smaller businesses where a broker's network may add less value than the fee it costs. Many sellers use marketplaces successfully, especially when they're comfortable handling buyer inquiries, screening, and early negotiation themselves.

What a marketplace doesn't do for you is anything a broker would otherwise handle: qualifying buyers before you share sensitive information, managing confidentiality agreements, negotiating on your behalf, or advising on how to structure and present the sale. If you go this route, build those steps into your own process deliberately rather than skipping them because there's no broker prompting you to — a signed confidentiality agreement before sharing financials, a clear sense of what information to release at each stage, and proper legal documents once you're negotiating seriously. A Treadstone business lawyer can help set up that process and prepare the purchase agreement, whether or not a broker is involved.