Selling your business in Nanaimo and on the Island
From Duncan to Campbell River and across to Port Alberni, the 13 towns on this page count about 10,500 business locations with staff. Their owners are seasoned: at the last census, 43 in 100 self employed people across these areas were 55 or older.
How a sale with us works on the Island
We help owners navigate the sale of their business. We do the preparation and the legwork; the decisions stay with you.
Start with a range
Your free sale plan puts a range on what your business could sell for and lays out how we would sell it. There is nothing to sign.
Your numbers, told clearly
We build a confidential package from your own financial statements, so a buyer sees how the business earns without seeing who you are.
Club members look first
Members of our Buyers Market Club get every new business first, for seven days, before it can be shown publicly.
Names only after a signature
No buyer hears your name or sees your figures before signing our confidentiality agreement.
You hold the pen
Which buyer, which offer, what terms and what closing date: each one is your call.
Paid when it sells
There are no upfront fees. Our success fee comes at closing.
What BC asks of you, from Duncan to Campbell River
Provincial rules, the same in every Island town.
WorkSafeBC
Anyone buying a firm's assets is told to call WorkSafeBC first, because unpaid premiums can put a lien on those assets. That clearance comes by phone or fax, not online, so ask for it well before closing.
WorkSafeBC's guidance for asset buyers
PST and GST
Your buyer pays PST on taxable assets such as equipment, never on goodwill, and can take stock for resale free of it with a PST number. Expect them to want a PST clearance certificate, and ask your accountant whether Form GST44 lets you both leave GST off the sale.
The Province's PST page; CRA, GST44
Your staff
Under section 97 of BC's Employment Standards Act, a sale does not break your employees' service: the buyer counts their years with you and takes over your duties to them under the Act.
Employment Standards Act and its guide
Land, a lease or a building
Real estate in a sale, such as a lease or a building, goes to a licensed commercial realtor in our deals. Registering a transfer of title with the LTSA costs $83.82.
BCFSA; LTSA fee listing
A liquor licence
A sale means a liquor licence transfer, started by you in the province's portal and paid by your buyer, $330. The place can stay open while it is processed, and the licence stays your responsibility until the branch calls the application administratively complete.
Liquor licence transfer steps
Island Health permits
BC's Food Premises Regulation does not let a food service permit change hands, so your buyer applies for their own through Island Health.
B.C. Reg. 210/99, section 8
From the Cowichan Valley to Campbell River
Business locations with employees in each town, from Statistics Canada's count for June 2026.
Nanaimo and Lantzville
- Nanaimo3,730
- Lantzville206
The Nanaimo metropolitan area as a whole: 4,399.
Oceanside and Port Alberni
- Port Alberni600
- Parksville540
- Qualicum Beach303
The Comox Valley and Campbell River
- Campbell River1,414
- Courtenay1,229
- Comox495
- Cumberland160
The Cowichan Valley and Ladysmith
- North Cowichan958
- Duncan473
- Ladysmith254
- Lake Cowichan100
What your buyer files with the town
Each town licenses its own businesses. Here is what the two largest ask of a new owner, and how a trade keeps working across the Island.
Nanaimo
A Nanaimo licence belongs to the person it was issued to and cannot be transferred, so a new owner of an existing business submits a new application. Licences run to December 31, and the City asks buyers to check zoning with its Planning and Development department before they buy or sign a lease.
Courtenay
When the owner changes, your buyer files a new application and picks that change among its types. Licences cover the calendar year, and the City takes applications through its online form only.
Trades from town to town
A contractor, a trade, a cleaning service or a pest control business that travels to clients can add one mobile business licence for 12 Island towns, from Duncan and Ladysmith up to Campbell River and across to Port Alberni. It sits on top of a standard licence from one of them: $170 a year through Nanaimo, $150 through Courtenay.
Working into Nanaimo
A business based elsewhere that works in Nanaimo needs a non resident licence from the City, or the shared mobile business licence from a town that takes part.
What is an Island business worth?
What a buyer pays comes down to two things: what the business earns in a year, and the multiple buyers pay in its industry. Our free estimate takes your industry's average multiple from published sales (North American sales data) and turns your earnings into a range. Every industry's range is on our free business valuation page, and our guide on how many times profit a business is worth explains the multiple.
Island owners we help
We sell all types of businesses, in every industry. Across these 13 towns the largest groups with staff are health care, shops, construction and the trades, professional services, repair and personal services, and restaurants. The Island adds its own: 147 forestry and logging businesses with staff, and 43 wood product makers. BC's rules for the whole province are in our guide on how to sell a business in BC.
- Health care
- Shops
- Construction and the trades
- Professional services
- Repair and personal services
- Restaurants
- Forestry and logging
- Wood products
Questions Island owners ask
Does my Nanaimo business licence go to my buyer?
My trade works in several Island towns. How does a buyer stay licensed?
Do you work in Victoria too?
Who sees my business, and when?
What do I pay?
Get a price range for your business and our plan for selling it, free and with nothing to sign.
Or pick up the phone: 778-760-8081 reaches a Senior Deal Advisor.
Sources
- Business locations with employees by town, June 2026: Statistics Canada, table 33-10-1176-01, census subdivisions (Nanaimo 3,730; Lantzville 206; Port Alberni 600; Parksville 540; Qualicum Beach 303; Campbell River 1,414; Courtenay 1,229; Comox 495; Cumberland 160; North Cowichan 958; Duncan 473; Ladysmith 254; Lake Cowichan 100; together 10,462, of which 10,066 have 1 to 49 employees), the Nanaimo census metropolitan area (4,399), and for the 13 towns together, forestry and logging (147) and wood product manufacturing (43).
- Self employed people by age, 2021 Census, the Nanaimo census metropolitan area and the Parksville, Courtenay, Campbell River, Duncan, Ladysmith and Port Alberni census agglomerations: Statistics Canada, table 98-10-0593-01 (28,800 self employed, 12,355 of them aged 55 or older: 42.9%).
- Licence rules: City of Nanaimo, "Update Existing Business Licence" and "Get a Business Licence", and Business Licence Bylaw 2021 No. 7318, section 8.2 (consolidated 2 March 2026); City of Courtenay, "Business licences", with the towns that share the mobile business licence.
- The licence Island trades share: the Province's list of mobile business licence partnerships, updated 21 September 2026.
- WorkSafeBC: its guidance for asset buyers on clearance.
- PST and GST: the Province's page for anyone buying or selling a business (updated 31 July 2026), and the Canada Revenue Agency's election form, GST44.
- Employees: BC's Employment Standards Act, section 97, read with the Branch's guide to that section.
- Real estate: the BC Financial Services Authority's note on business sales, and the LTSA's fee listing from 1 April 2026.
- Liquor and food: the regulation branch's steps for a liquor licence transfer, and B.C. Reg. 210/99, section 8, current to 27 October 2026.
Succession Market publishes this page from Kelowna, British Columbia. It is general information, not tax or legal advice for a particular sale. Updated .