Selling your business in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat
Southern Alberta's two cities and the communities around them count about 7,800 business locations with staff. Alberta owners are planning ahead: 31 in 100 businesses more than 20 years old plan to sell or hand over ownership within ten years.
How we sell a southern Alberta business
We help owners navigate the sale of their business: we prepare it, take it to buyers and keep the process moving, and you make the calls.
A price range up front
Your free sale plan sets out what your business could sell for and how we would market it. You owe nothing for it.
A package from your own figures
We turn your financial statements into a confidential package, so serious buyers can judge the business without knowing it is yours.
Club buyers get a head start
Buyers in our Buyers Market Club hear about each new business seven days ahead of any public listing.
Nothing that names you
Your name and your numbers go only to buyers who have signed our confidentiality agreement.
Your decision, every time
You choose the buyer, weigh every offer and pick the closing date.
No fee until closing
Nothing upfront. We are paid a success fee when the sale closes.
What Alberta asks of you when you sell
These are provincial rules, the same in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and the counties around them.
WCB Alberta
Before any of the price is paid, your buyer asks you for a WCB certificate showing it has no claim against you. A buyer who goes without one can become liable for what you owe WCB, up to the fair market value of what they bought.
The provincial workers' compensation law, section 132
GST
Alberta charges no provincial sales tax, but GST applies. When a sale qualifies, you and your buyer can elect on Form GST44 not to have GST apply to it.
The CRA's election form
Your staff
Alberta's Employment Standards Code treats employment as continuous when a business is sold, so your staff keep their years of service with the new owner.
Employment Standards Code
Your lease, land or building
A lease or land in the sale is a real estate matter, and a licensed commercial realtor handles that part of our deals. To register a land transfer, Alberta charges $50 plus $5 for every $5,000 of the land's value.
RECA; the province's land titles fees
A liquor licence
AGLC does not let a licensee sell or transfer a liquor licence. A sale that changes who controls the business cancels the licence, and any sale of 5% or more has to be reported to AGLC and approved before it takes effect.
The AGLC handbook for licensees
Food permits
Alberta's Food Regulation says a food permit is not transferable, so your buyer applies for their own.
The provincial food regulation
Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and the towns around them
Business locations with employees in each community, from Statistics Canada's count for June 2026.
Lethbridge and area
- Lethbridge3,883
- Lethbridge County352
- Coaldale343
- Picture Butte222
- Coalhurst76
- Nobleford65
The Lethbridge metropolitan area as a whole: 4,961.
Medicine Hat and area
- Medicine Hat2,334
- Cypress County318
- Redcliff230
What your buyer files with the city
The two cities treat a sale differently, so the closing plan differs too.
Lethbridge
A Lethbridge licence can move to a new owner who meets its qualifications; the City asks you to call Regulatory Services at 403-320-3074 before you transfer or close the business. A general licence costs $193 a year for a Lethbridge resident and $774 for anyone from outside the city.
Medicine Hat
A buyer of an existing business needs a new licence and proof of the sale, usually the bill of sale naming the business, the buyer and the seller. Tell Planning and Development Services when you sell so your file is closed; fees already paid are not refunded.
How long it takes
Lethbridge usually issues a licence in 7 to 10 business days, and Medicine Hat processes a typical new one in 5 to 15. Either can take longer when zoning or building approvals are needed.
The location
In Lethbridge, Development Services has to approve the location under the Land Use Bylaw, whether the business runs from a commercial space or a home.
What is a southern Alberta business worth?
The price of a small business usually comes from a year's earnings times the multiple buyers pay in that industry. Our free estimate applies your industry's average multiple from published sales (North American sales data) and shows a range. Our free business valuation page lists every industry's range, and our guide covers how many times profit a business is worth.
Southern Alberta owners we help
We sell all types of businesses, in every industry. Across these nine communities the largest groups with staff are shops, health care, construction and the trades, professional services, and repair and personal services. Farming runs deep here too: 178 cattle operations and 176 crop farms with staff, 93 of them grain and oilseed growers. For the province wide rules, read how to sell a business in Alberta.
- Shops
- Health care
- Construction and the trades
- Professional services
- Repair and personal services
- Restaurants
- Cattle and crop farms
Questions southern Alberta owners ask
Can my Lethbridge licence pass to my buyer?
Does a Medicine Hat licence transfer?
What happens to my liquor licence?
Who sees my business first?
How is your fee paid?
See your business's likely price range and how we would sell it, in a free sale plan.
Want to talk it over? Call 778-760-8081 and ask for a Senior Deal Advisor.
Sources
- Business locations with employees by community, June 2026: Statistics Canada, table 33-10-1176-01, census subdivisions (Lethbridge 3,883; Lethbridge County 352; Coaldale 343; Picture Butte 222; Coalhurst 76; Nobleford 65; Medicine Hat 2,334; Cypress County 318; Redcliff 230; together 7,823, of which 7,504 have 1 to 49 employees), the Lethbridge census metropolitan area (4,961), and for the nine together, cattle ranching and farming (178), crop production (176) and oilseed and grain farming (93).
- Self employed people by age, 2021 Census, the Lethbridge census metropolitan area and the Medicine Hat census agglomeration: Statistics Canada, table 98-10-0593-01 (14,120 self employed, 5,275 of them aged 55 or older: 37.4%).
- Plans to sell or transfer within ten years, Alberta, third quarter 2026, businesses more than 20 years old: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, table 33-10-1196-01 (31.3%).
- Licence rules: City of Lethbridge, "Business Licences"; City of Medicine Hat, "Business License".
- Section 132 of Alberta's Workers' Compensation Act, RSA 2000 c W-15, as current on 18 December 2025, and section 5 of the Employment Standards Code, as current on 26 November 2025.
- Real estate in a business sale: the Real Estate Council of Alberta's bulletin on business brokerage; land transfer fees from the province's land titles fee schedule in force since 1 October 2026.
- Liquor: section 2.5 of the AGLC handbook for liquor licensees. Food: section 10 of Alberta Regulation 31/2006, the Food Regulation.
- GST: the Canada Revenue Agency's election form, GST44.
Succession Market publishes this page from Kelowna, British Columbia. It is general information, not tax or legal advice for a particular sale. Updated .