How Not to Close in 2026. Hi Reader Here's what my calendar has looked like for two weeks. LOI. LOI. LOI. Sellers want out before the year ends. So they're bending. One seller this month went soft on price. Then they dropped all the talk about getting paid extra for "upside." A year ago, that fight would have dragged on for weeks and ended in a higher price or a standoff. This time it fit inside SBA's rules in one conversation. It's not just one deal. Seller after seller is agreeing to build...
3 days ago • 9 min read
Hi Reader Most buyers hit the same wall. The business checks out. The lender is warm. Then you look at the equity check. Say you need 10% down on a $2M deal. That’s $200K. Where does it come from? Savings you’d rather not touch. A HELOC on the house your kids sleep in. Or investors who want a slice of a company you don’t even own yet. There’s another pile of money most buyers forget. It’s sitting in an old 401(k). It’s called ROBS. It lets you use retirement money as your equity check. No...
26 days ago • 7 min read
Hi Reader Most buyers hit the same wall. The business checks out. The lender is warm. Then you look at the equity check. Say you need 10% down on a $2M deal. That’s $200K. Where does it come from? Savings you’d rather not touch. A HELOC on the house your kids sleep in. Or investors who want a slice of a company you don’t even own yet. There’s another pile of money most buyers forget. It’s sitting in an old 401(k). It’s called ROBS. It lets you use retirement money as your equity check. No...
28 days ago • 7 min read
Hi Reader Say you tell me you have a deal working. Under LOI, lender engaged, diligence starting, and you feel good about closing this fall. I'd be glad for you. Then I'd ask one question that would change the rest of the conversation. "When is your lender pulling your SBA loan number?" Most buyers have never been asked that. It sounds like paperwork. Right now it is the most important date in your deal, and almost nobody is tracking it. On October 1, SBA's new rulebook — SOP 50 10 8.1 —...
about 2 months ago • 15 min read
Hi Reader Let's say you and I are sitting at a bar and you tell me you're determined — actually determined, not LinkedIn-determined — to own a business by New Year's Eve. I'd order us another round, because that's the right kind of crazy. It's doable. I've watched buyers pull it off from further back than where you're standing right now. But then I'd lower my voice a little and tell you what the next five months actually look like. Not the version brokers tell you. The version I see from...
3 months ago • 16 min read
Hi Reader You drafted the resignation email again this week. In your head, at your desk, somewhere between the 11am status meeting and the third Slack thread that didn't need you. You know the first line by heart now. You've never typed it. That's not weakness. That's your gut doing the one job it's good at — refusing to let you confuse wanting out with being ready to be in. Because nobody tells you this: wanting to own a business and being ready to buy one are two different things. The gap...
4 months ago • 8 min read
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...
5 months 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...
6 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...
6 months ago • 17 min read