Selling your business in the Fraser Valley
Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and the towns up the valley to Hope count about 12,700 business locations with staff. Construction and the trades are the largest group, with 2,043, and the valley also has 964 farm, forestry and fishing businesses and 779 trucking firms with staff.
How we help a Fraser Valley owner sell
We help owners navigate the sale of their business, from the first estimate to the day it closes. You decide; we do the work.
A free plan comes first
Before you commit to anything, a free sale plan gives you a price range and the steps we would take to sell.
A package built from your books
Your own statements become a confidential package that lets a buyer judge the business on its numbers.
Seven days for the Club
Registered buyers in our Buyers Market Club see each new business a week before the public can.
Confidential until signed
A buyer sees your name and your figures only once our confidentiality agreement is signed.
Every call is yours
You choose who buys, on what terms and on what date.
Our fee waits for closing
You pay nothing upfront; the success fee comes from the sale.
What BC asks of a Fraser Valley seller
Provincial rules apply the same way in Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and Hope.
WorkSafeBC
WorkSafeBC can hold a lien on a firm's assets for unpaid premiums, and it asks anyone buying assets to contact it first. Your buyer requests the clearance for an asset purchase by phone or fax.
WorkSafeBC on asset buyers
PST and GST
PST applies to the equipment and other taxable goods in the sale, not to goodwill, and your buyer can take resale stock without it. A PST clearance certificate protects your buyer, and Form GST44 can keep GST off a qualifying sale.
BC's PST rules for a sale; GST44
Your staff
Your people keep their years of service when the business is sold: section 97 of BC's Employment Standards Act has the new owner honour them.
Employment Standards Act, section 97
Farmland, a lease or a building
Land, a building or a lease in the sale is real estate, and a licensed commercial realtor handles that part of our deals. Moving title to your buyer costs $83.82 in LTSA registration fees.
BCFSA; LTSA fees
A liquor licence
A liquor licence reaches a new owner only by transfer, and only while it is current. You begin in the provincial portal, your buyer pays the $330 application fee, and you can keep serving while it is processed.
How a liquor licence moves
Fraser Health permits
Your buyer needs their own food service permit, because BC's Food Premises Regulation does not let one transfer. Mission tells food businesses and care facilities to contact Fraser Health.
Food premises regulation; City of Mission
Abbotsford to Hope
Business locations with employees in each city and town, from Statistics Canada's count for June 2026.
Abbotsford and Mission
- Abbotsford7,315
- Mission1,208
The Abbotsford and Mission metropolitan area as a whole: 8,538.
Chilliwack and up the valley
- Chilliwack3,658
- Kent232
- Hope222
- Harrison Hot Springs54
The Chilliwack metropolitan area as a whole: 4,226.
What your buyer files with the city
Each city handles a new owner its own way, and Chilliwack sets a deadline.
Abbotsford
Licences are not transferable. Your buyer makes a new application, your licence is cancelled, and issuing takes at least two to three weeks. Ask the City to cancel yours, or the renewal notices keep coming.
Mission
A new owner applies for a new licence. Before signing a lease or buying a unit, a buyer can book a free meeting with City staff about zoning, inspections and permits.
Chilliwack
Here a licence can transfer. A buyer of the controlling interest applies to the Licence Inspector within 60 days of the purchase, and a licence not transferred that way is no longer valid.
Trades across the valley
Contractors, construction professionals and health care workers who visit homes can add a mobile business licence for $250 a year, on top of their home city's licence, and work in all 11 municipalities that take part.
What is a Fraser Valley business worth?
Most small businesses sell for a multiple of a year's earnings, and the multiple depends on the industry. Our free estimate starts from your industry's average multiple in published sales (North American sales data) and gives you a range. The ranges for every industry are on our free business valuation page, and our guide explains how many times profit a business is worth.
Fraser Valley owners we help
We sell all types of businesses, in every industry. The valley's largest groups with staff are construction and the trades, health care, shops, repair and personal services, trucking and warehousing, and farms. Among them are 430 animal farms, 232 of them poultry and egg producers, and 421 crop growers with staff. Our guide on how to sell a business in BC covers the province's steps.
- Construction and the trades
- Health care
- Shops
- Repair and personal services
- Trucking and warehousing
- Farms
- Poultry and eggs
Questions Fraser Valley owners ask
Does my Abbotsford licence go to my buyer?
Is Chilliwack different?
We work in towns all along the valley. What will a buyer need?
Do you sell farms?
What does it cost to sell with you?
Learn what your business could sell for and how we would sell it. It starts with a free plan.
Or call us at 778-760-8081 to talk it over with a Senior Deal Advisor.
Sources
- Business locations with employees by city and town, June 2026: Statistics Canada, table 33-10-1176-01, census subdivisions (Abbotsford 7,315; Mission 1,208; Chilliwack 3,658; Kent 232; Hope 222; Harrison Hot Springs 54; together 12,689, of which 12,211 have 1 to 49 employees), the Abbotsford and Mission (8,538) and Chilliwack (4,226) census metropolitan areas, and for the six together, construction (2,043), agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (964), truck transportation (779), animal production and aquaculture (430), poultry and egg production (232) and crop production (421).
- Self employed people by age, 2021 Census, the Abbotsford and Mission and the Chilliwack census metropolitan areas: Statistics Canada, table 98-10-0593-01 (27,300 self employed, 9,170 of them aged 55 or older: 33.6%).
- Licence rules: City of Abbotsford, "Business Licences" and its amendment application; City of Mission, "How to Start a Business in Mission", "Business Licences" and Business Licence Bylaw 3964-2007, section 7.1; City of Chilliwack, Bylaw No. 1484, section 17 (consolidated 6 December 2022).
- Mobile licences: BC's mobile business licence page, updated 21 September 2026.
- Clearance: WorkSafeBC on clearance for anyone buying a firm's assets.
- Tax: BC's PST rules when a business is sold, last updated 31 July 2026, and GST44 at the Canada Revenue Agency.
- Staff: section 97 of the Employment Standards Act, and the Branch's interpretation.
- Land and leases: BCFSA on business sales that include real estate; the LTSA's fees dated 1 April 2026.
- Liquor and food: how a liquor licence moves to a new owner; the food premises regulation, 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 .