Social networking is extremely useful for finding “unlisted” businesses and “pre-market” businesses.
Unlisted businesses are businesses that are for sale but aren’t listed on business-for-sale web sites. Instead, they’re marketed with highly targeted direct mail campaigns to specific buyers. Almost all large businesses are marketed this way.
Pre-market businesses are businesses where the owner is thinking of selling but hasn’t yet hired a broker. Pre-market businesses are attractive because they often can be bought at a lower price. That’s because the seller doesn’t have to pay a broker’s fee and there’s no competition from other buyers to drive the price up.