Where to Buy a Business in Vermont
The Opportunity
Buyable Businesses
2,695
0.2% of the U.S. total
Per 100k Residents
415.6
#48 of 51 states by buyable count
SBA Acquisition Loans
70
$52.5M since FY2020, 16 of them in FY2025
Median SBA Loan
$269k
FY2020 through FY2025
Vermont holds 2,695 businesses a searcher could realistically buy across the trades this site covers: establishments with 5 to 99 employees, big enough to have something to sell, small enough to finance. That is 0.2% of the country's buyable market and ranks Vermont #48 among the states. The number that decides a search, though, is not the state total but where inside the state those businesses sit.
The Deepest Counties in Vermont
Nobody searches Vermont. They search a metro they can drive across to meet an owner. These are the counties with the most buyable targets in the covered trades, Chittenden deepest among them.
| Chittenden | 786 | 29.2% |
| Rutland | 211 | 7.8% |
| Washington | 209 | 7.8% |
| Windsor | 186 | 6.9% |
| Windham | 166 | 6.2% |
| Bennington | 133 | 4.9% |
| Franklin | 105 | 3.9% |
| Addison | 93 | 3.5% |
| Caledonia | 75 | 2.8% |
| Lamoille | 68 | 2.5% |
What Trades Run Deepest in Vermont
- Full-Service Restaurants448 buyable
- Limited-Service Restaurants294 buyable
- Gasoline Stations with Convenience Stores265 buyable
- Child Care Services175 buyable
- Offices of Dentists170 buyable
- Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars118 buyable
Each trade's pricing, licensing, and diligence live in its Industry Buy Guide. The financing side is in Vermont's SBA acquisition-lending profile. The same counts industry by industry across every state are in Where the Businesses Are, and several of these trades restrict who can own at all: the Ownership & License Rules table names which.
Before You Close in Vermont
The transferee in a bulk transfer of a business whose owner collects Vermont trust taxes notifies the Commissioner in writing at least ten days before taking possession or before payment, whichever is earlier, whether or not either side believes any tax is owed. Without that notice the consideration carries a first priority right and lien for the transferor's taxes, may not be paid over, and the transferee is personally liable. Vermont publishes this under 32 V.S.A. section 3260, and what releases the buyer is the Department of Taxes' Notice of Escrow, which the department also calls a tax certificate or clearance.
Read at source on legislature.vermont.gov. Most states run a version of this rule and the wording decides what a closing has to do, so treat it as the question to put to a lawyer in Vermont rather than as the answer. What every state requires is one table.
Next Door to Vermont
Nobody buys a state. These are the states Vermont touches, with the buyable businesses each holds in the same 36 trades.
- Massachusetts27,394 buyable
- New Hampshire6,072 buyable
- New York64,697 buyable
Method & Source
Buyable counts are establishments with 5 to 99 employees in the 36 covered trades, summed from the Census County Business Patterns (2023). A county total is a lower bound: Census suppresses cells thin enough to identify a single business, and a trade we have not written a guide for is not counted. SBA figures are change-of-ownership 7(a) approvals (FY2020 through FY2025), approvals rather than closings.