BUYER'S BLACK BOOK Issue — Cold Feet, or a Real Signal? (DRAFT v7) Subject: Cold feet, or a real signal? Hi [First Name], It's 9:47pm. You've read the CIM four times this week. You're not looking for new information. You're looking for permission — to commit with both feet, or to walk. Here's the thing about 2026: hesitation costs you the deal. And committing to the wrong deal costs you the year. There's a way through both. Quick note up top before the rest. End of this month, I'm running a...
29 days ago • 14 min read
Hi Reader It's 2am. You've been searching for months. Still no deal. Every seller you talk to thinks their business is worth what it was in 2023. Every bank you call takes three weeks to come back with more questions than answers. Every offer you put in comes back with "we went a different direction." The broker you've been calling weekly stopped returning messages last Tuesday. And the last "live" deal you saw was listed at 4.5x SDE, $50K earnest money, 30-day close, no seller note, two...
about 2 months ago • 11 min read
Hi Reader Have SBA rule changes over the past 10 months gotten your head spinning? If so, you're not alone. They've been busy changing rules and it's been wreaking havoc on deals. That's why I wrote this issue - to give you a the intel on the SBA lending landscape so you can be smarter on your deals. The Short Version I’ve closed or advised on over 170 acquisition transactions. Most of them SBA-financed. And the question I’m getting more than any other right now—from searchers, from...
2 months ago • 17 min read
Hi Reader, Buyer competition is fierce this year. Everyone’s fighting over the same deals with the same playbook. Last issue I introduced the 6C Deal Operating System. Today we’re going a step deeper into deal psychology — because this is where the real edge is. This is your secret weapon. Here’s what I’m going to cover: Why sellers behave the way they do. Why the most common approach to negotiation backfires. And how the 6C system handles what most buyers get wrong. The problem: sellers are...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader I want to say something most people in the ETA space won't say out loud. Most deals don't fail because of price. They don't fail because of structure. They don't fail because the SBA got difficult or the seller's attorney was unreasonable or the lender added a condition at the last minute. Those things happen. But they're not why deals die. Deals die because buyers don't have a system. They're improvising through one of the most complex, high-stakes, psychologically loaded...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader I want to talk about a critical skill you need if you want to be a successful buyer who lands solid deals and, more importantly, actually closes them: "Deal Empathy." Here's what it's all about: Most people think deals fall apart because the numbers don’t work. After sitting through enough closings—and just as many deals that never made it there—I don’t think that’s true. In most failed deals I see, the math was fine. The valuation was defensible. The financing was workable. The...
4 months ago • 9 min read
Hi Reader This is important. If you've been reading headlines, then you need to read this issue. There’s a category of risk most business buyers don’t even realize exists. Not a bad seller.Not inflated add-backs.Not a deal that just “didn’t work out.” This is about buying a business that has been systematically overbilling, misbilling, or fabricating revenue—often for years—without the buyer realizing it. The danger isn’t theoretical.It’s active, growing, and concentrated in specific...
5 months ago • 5 min read
THE MOST DANGEROUS “HELP” IN SMB ACQUISITIONS Every week, a buyer sends me the same innocent-sounding question: “The broker sent over their purchase agreement form. They said it’s standard. They said it’ll save time and legal fees. Should we just use it?” This is not a negotiation question. This is a survival question. And the answer is a hard, non-negotiable: No.Not “probably no.”Not “in some cases.” A 100% NO. Because what you’ve just been handed is the deal equivalent of a Trojan Horse —a...
6 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader Today I’m going to share a deal structure that’s not for every seller—but when it fits, it can unlock opportunities most buyers never see. It’s not some new universal framework.It’s a niche tactic for a specific kind of off-market owner: They’ve built a solid business, but it’s not “broker-ready.” They’ve thought about retirement, but never made a plan. They don’t need a big payday — the house is paid off, the lifestyle’s comfortable. They’re proud of what they built, a little...
8 months ago • 4 min read