Most people spend 40 years building someone else's business. Learn how first-time buyers find a business worth owning, know what it is really worth, make the offer and close, guided by a team that has structured more than $200 million in deals. No startup gamble, no theory, just how a real acquisition comes together and how to make your first real offer.
15 minutes on the phone. We'll look at where you are, what you're trying to buy, and tell you honestly if this is your next move.
100% free. No obligation. Takes 30 seconds.
We will look at your cash, your timeline, and your situation, and tell you honestly whether this is a realistic move for you right now.
What a healthy business looks like, how to tell real profit from papered-over problems, and how much you should actually pay. The part almost nobody explains in plain English.
A clear plan for what to look for, how the money would come together, and what your first real offer could look like, even if you are starting from zero.
Our team has structured more than $200 million in deals and spent years on the side of the table where acquisitions get approved or turned down. We have read the files that got funded and the files that did not. The gap between them is smaller, and far more learnable, than most buyers think.
Almost everyone teaching this shows you how to shop for businesses. We show you how the person writing the check decides yes or no, long before you fall in love with a listing.
Built on the SBA rules that take effect October 1, 2026. Put in the cash you have and see the purchase price it supports, then check whether a deal clears the bank's 1.25x bar.
Start with the cash you can put in. Under the SBA rules in force from October 1, 2026, the bank needs at least 10% of the price from you. A seller note on full standby can cover up to half of that.
These are planning numbers. On the call we look at your real situation and tell you honestly whether this is your next move.
Book a free 15-minute callPlanning tool, not a loan offer. Rules reflect SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 for a first-time acquisition (10% buyer cash, standby seller note up to half, 1.25x coverage on historical profit, $5M maximum loan, 10-year amortization). Every lender adds its own requirements, closing costs and working capital change the numbers, and no financing is promised or arranged by us.
Every number below comes from a published, dated, third-party source. This is the market we help you buy in, and why prepared buyers win.
$8.29 billion in acquisition lending, up 34.6% from the year before, averaging $1.18 million per loan. The financing path we teach is not theoretical. It funded seven thousand purchases last year.
SBA 7(a) loan-level disclosure data, fiscal year ended 30 Sept 2025.Against 2.71% for all other SBA lending. Lenders treat buying a profitable business as safer credit than most of their small-business book, which is exactly why a well-built loan package gets approved.
SBA 7(a) loan-level disclosure data, FY2025.Roughly one in four lost money. That is the honest picture of buying a small business: most work, a real minority do not, and the difference is almost always the homework done before the deal.
Stanford GSB 2026 Search Fund Study, data through 31 Dec 2025.Across 862 funds formed in the US and Canada since 1984. Read the other half honestly: four in ten searchers never buy anything, and it takes a median of about 20 months to get there.
Stanford GSB 2026 Search Fund Study, published 13 July 2026.Around one million are expected to actually sell, roughly $5 trillion in value and about 12 million jobs. More than half of US small-business owners are now over 55.
McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, February 2026.The fastest pace since 2017, on 2,599 closed sales in a single quarter, up 8% from the year before. Prepared buyers win deals because most of the field is not prepared.
BizBuySell Insight Report, Q3 2025.How to read the search fund numbers. Search fund data describes investor-backed buyers acquiring much larger companies with institutional money behind them. That is a different profile from a self-funded buyer using an SBA loan on a smaller business, which is the path most of our members take. Treat those figures as market context.
Sources: Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2026 Search Fund Study, published 13 July 2026, data through 31 December 2025. US Small Business Administration 7(a) loan-level disclosure data, fiscal year 2025. McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, February 2026. BizBuySell Insight Report, Q3 2025. Figures are current as of the date shown and are not updated continuously.
Starting from zero means building demand, systems, and cash flow all at once, and about half of new businesses do not survive five years. Buying means inheriting all three, and inheriting the loan used to buy them. Neither path is safe. They just fail differently.
of new US businesses are gone within five years. Buying an established, profitable one means someone else already carried the riskiest part of that curve.
of completed acquisitions produced a gain for the buyer. About one in four lost money. The difference is almost always the homework done before the deal.
Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics business survival data; Stanford GSB 2026 Search Fund Study.
Fifteen minutes on the phone. An honest read on whether this is right for you, and what your first 90 days would look like if it is.
100% free. No obligation.