The typical timeline
Initial conversations and NDA: two to four weeks. Information sharing and an indicative offer: two to six weeks. Heads of terms: a fortnight. Due diligence: four to eight weeks. Legal drafting and completion: four to eight weeks.
A direct sale to a single motivated buyer sits at the shorter end. A brokered process with several bidders takes longer.
What actually takes the time
Not the negotiation — the retrieval. Finding contracts, reconciling figures, getting landlord consent, waiting on a third party's solicitor in August.
Preparation done before you start is time removed from the middle, when everyone is tired.
Plan for eighteen months
If you want to be out by a particular date, start twelve to eighteen months earlier. That gives you a year of tidy accounts, a working management layer and no pressure to accept a weak structure.
Owners who plan get to choose their buyer. Owners in a hurry get chosen.