Flat-fee legal help for owners selling a business or planning what comes next: sell with or without a broker, get your business ready to sell, or sell to your employees through an Employee Ownership Trust. Ontario-wide, for a flat fee you agree to before any work begins.
Selling a business is the largest transaction most owners ever make, and it usually happens once. It runs on paper: a confidentiality agreement, a letter of intent, a purchase and sale agreement that can run 40 to 80 pages, and the tax, employee, and closing documents around them. Get those right and you're protected for years; get them wrong and the problems surface a year or two later, when it's too late to fix. This practice does that legal work, on fixed fees, for owners across Ontario — part of Smutylo Law+ and its 25 years of Canadian business and M&A experience.
The numbers behind why preparation, not luck, decides how a sale goes — and why most owners sell without a broker.
You've found your own buyer — a competitor, a key employee, a family member. We run the legal side from letter of intent to closing so the deal actually closes.
Flat-fee sale help →Already listed with a broker? We're the deal counsel brokers refer to — fast turnarounds, fixed fees, and no surprises that stall your closing.
Broker-led deal counsel →Selling in one to three years? Buyers pay more, and close faster, for a clean business. Our flat-fee review finds and fixes the legal problems before the buyer's lawyers do.
Sale-Readiness Review →Canada's Employee Ownership Trust rules let qualifying owners sell to their team with a significant capital-gains exemption. New, powerful, and few lawyers know it well.
Employee Ownership Trusts →We act for employee and management buyers too — management buyouts, earn-ins, and EOTs. One side per deal, never both.
For employee buyers →A free estimate from your owner earnings and typical industry multiples, plus a plain look at what moves the number up or down.
Try the free estimator →Take money off the table or bring in a partner without selling the whole thing — selling shares vs. issuing new shares, valuing a minority stake, and keeping control.
Selling a partial stake →Your buyer is a partner, employee, or family member who can't pay all at once. Staged buy-ins, vendor take-backs, and the security that protects you until you're paid.
A gradual, protected sale →No. A broker's job is to find you a buyer, and if you don't have one, a good broker earns their commission. But most sales don't start with a stranger — they start with a competitor who's been asking, a manager who wants to buy in, or your own family. If the buyer is already at the table, what you need is preparation, the right structure, and paperwork that holds up. That's a lawyer's job, and it shouldn't cost a percentage of your sale price.
We work on flat fees, put in writing before we start. And we work alongside brokers every day — they refer deals to us, and we send owners who need brokerage back to them. Brokers are partners here, never competitors.
Practically, yes. Even a simple sale involves a purchase agreement, representations and warranties, tax elections, employee obligations, and third-party consents. Mistakes in any of these follow you personally for years after closing. A broker is optional; competent deal counsel is not.
Yes, and most Canadian owners do, because there are only a few hundred business brokers in all of Ontario. If you already have a buyer, a fixed-fee lawyer-led process covers everything from the letter of intent to closing.
We work on fixed fees scoped in writing before we start: individual quotes for each sale, plus a flat-fee Sale-Readiness Review and a flat-fee Employee Ownership Trust feasibility assessment. You will know the number before you commit, and it will not change without your agreement to a change in scope.
A 20-minute call costs nothing and usually saves owners months. Tell us where you are — buyer in hand, a few years away, or just wondering what your business might be worth.
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