What people ask
Questions other buyers have asked
Most-asked first. Every answer is drawn from Acquiring Minds interviews and cites the exact moments. Don't see yours? Ask it →
- How do buyers de-risk the personal guarantee on an SBA loan?
Buyers use a few different approaches to reduce their exposure to the SBA personal guarantee (PG): 1. Personal Guarantee Insurance (PGI). Braddock Road…
- What a good way to negotiate a personal gaurantee
Buyers have used several tactics to soften the personal guarantee rather than eliminate it entirely: - Limit the guarantee's dollar cap and let it shrink over…
- How do buyers structure seller notes to reduce risk?
Buyers use a few recurring techniques to make seller notes work as risk mitigants rather than just financing tools. The most common approach is forgivability…
- What is an SBA loan?
An SBA loan is a small-business acquisition loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and it's the most common financing tool used by searchers…
- How are seller notes typically used to finance an acquisition?
Seller notes are a common piece of the financing stack in self-funded and SBA-style acquisitions, typically covering somewhere between 10-20% of the purchase…
- How do owners decide when to sell?
Retirement is by far the most trusted reason an owner sells, and buyers across these deals treat it as the "sound, sensible" motivation — George Stern says…
- What are the biggest mistakes first-time acquirers make?
First-time buyers repeatedly stumble on working capital and deal structure. A common one is under-capitalizing the business at close and treating a line of…
- How do buyers think about working capital when acquiring a business?
Buyers on the show consistently treat working capital as one of the trickiest and most consequential parts of a deal—both to understand and to negotiate…
- What is a seller note?
A seller note is financing the seller provides to the buyer as part of an acquisition, essentially a loan from seller to buyer that gets repaid over time…
- How long does SBA underwriting take?
There's no single fixed timeline—it varies a lot by deal, and several examples show why. George Stern's deal moved fast: loan approval came in under 30 days…
- Can a foreigner get an SBA loan to buy a business?
No — as things stand now, anything short of full U.S. citizenship effectively locks you out of the SBA loan program. A recent SOP change (effective March)…
- What do buyers wish they had caught in due diligence?
Several buyers point to specific gaps in their diligence process that came back to bite them—or that they got lucky avoiding. A recurring theme is customer…
- Can you buy a business without an SBA loan?
Yes — buying without an SBA loan is not only possible, it's a well-trodden path, and several different financing structures have made it work. Non-US buyers…
- What is seller financing?
Seller financing is when the person selling a business acts like a lender to the buyer — instead of the buyer paying the full price upfront (often through a…
- What auto repair franchise did the buyers who raised money from friends and family end up choosing?
Jack Foster and Jake McLaughlin chose the Meineke brand, after narrowing their thesis from franchising broadly, to automotive, to auto repair specifically, and…
- What do buyers say about keeping the previous owner on as an employee after closing?
Experiences are decidedly mixed, and buyers often frame it as situational rather than a universal rule. Some structure a real transition period as an employee…
- What happens to employees when a small business is sold?
When a small business changes hands, employee reactions and outcomes vary a lot, but a few patterns show up again and again. Fear and uncertainty are common…
- How do buyers handle customer concentration risk in a small acquisition?
Buyers handle it in a few overlapping ways. First, through diligence: when a seller has concentration in a single customer, the buyer should try to diligence…
- Do sellers usually stay on after the sale, and for how long?
There's no single norm — it varies a lot deal by deal, but a range of arrangements show up. Some sellers stay only briefly: one owner consulted for about a…
- What makes a good first acquisition for a searcher?
A good first acquisition often doesn't need to be big — buying small, learning on that deal, and then stepping up to a larger business is a well-worn and…
- How many years of tax returns do lenders want to see?
SBA lenders generally want to see three years of tax returns, and they'll base forecasted revenue off of those filings. In practice, some deals have closed…
- What is a typical management fee for a search fund?
A typical private equity fund charges a 2% annual management fee on the amount raised, on top of 20% carry — but that's the traditional PE model, not what…
- How do searchers find proprietary deal flow?
Searchers use several direct outreach methods to build proprietary deal flow, rather than relying on brokers: - Cold calling is the method most searchers point…
- Why do deals fall apart during due diligence?
Deals most often fall apart in diligence because the business's real financial performance doesn't match what the seller represented going in. Attorneys…
- How big a down payment does an SBA 7a loan require?
The requirement has actually shifted over time and buyers have found ways to minimize their own cash contribution within it. Historically, and for many of the…
- What does a quality of earnings report cost?
Costs vary widely depending on the size of the deal and how thorough you want the analysis to be. Jarom Wren found a range: a full-service option quoted at…
- What do buyers of small trucking companies underestimate about driver retention?
Buyers tend to underestimate just how brittle the operations are when it comes to keeping drivers on the job. If you overload trucks to maximize revenue by…
- How do buyers of lawn care routes think about customer churn 032615936?
Buyers evaluating this kind of business scrutinize churn very closely as part of diligence. Before issuing an LOI, one buyer described asking sellers for the…
- How do buyers of pool service routes think about customer churn 025592376?
Buyers in this space generally look at churn as a sign of business quality and predictability rather than as a simple pass-through cost. Joe Wynn, for…
- What are the tradeoffs of buying a franchise resale versus an independent laundromat 334613288?
Franchise resales and independent laundromats trade off in fairly different ways than what's discussed here — the podcasts frame the resale-vs-startup tradeoff…
- What is a search fund 420862948?
A traditional search fund is a model where investors pay you a salary and cover your search and diligence costs while you look for a business to buy, and then…
- What are the tradeoffs of buying a franchise resale versus an independent auto shop 121808000?
Buying a franchise resale versus an independent shop mainly comes down to reversibility and support versus control. With an independent business bought via SBA…
- What are the tradeoffs of buying a franchise resale versus an independent daycare 998346000?
Buying an existing franchise resale versus building one from scratch comes with a clear risk/reward tradeoff, and the discussion here treats franchise deals in…
- What are the tradeoffs of buying a franchise resale versus an independent gym 189198574?
Buying an existing franchise (a resale) carries meaningfully less risk than starting one from scratch, but that's really the comparison the podcasts draw out…
- How should a first-time buyer evaluate a commercial cleaning company with high employee turnover 861887000?
A first-time buyer looking at a commercial cleaning target should focus on a few concrete things: Check whether margins are real or squeezed out of people. In…
- What do buyers of car washes underestimate 382026000?
Buyers tend to underestimate how capital-intensive and competitive car washes really are. The category is seen as "over penetrated" with "way too much…
- How do you value a bakery with an aging owner 728399948?
The podcasts don't cover a bakery deal specifically, so there's no direct valuation example to point to for that scenario. What comes up repeatedly, though, is…
- How do you value a dental practice with an aging owner 535113618?
Retiring or aging owners come up a lot as motivated sellers, but nothing in what's been discussed lays out a dental-practice valuation method specifically. The…
- What should a buyer look for in a lease assignment for a restaurant 057351082?
Lease due diligence in an acquisition applies the same regardless of the numbers you've attached to the question, and a few real examples show what to watch…
- How should a buyer think about customer concentration in an HVAC business 044667758?
Customer concentration is treated as a near-universal red flag by these operators, but the right way to think about it is more nuanced than a single percentage…