Evan Norman

@TimLeland Definitely can! We’ve save thousands by having the Amazon 5% back. When you’re going to make purchases anyways and the credit cards are only 1-2% cash back, it makes it worth it in my experience.

Thoughts: Is it worth having additional credit cards for Walmart, Amazon, Target, etc., to get 5% cash back? Annoying to manage them all, but over time, could save a lot?

@sbabmarks Great thread. Emphasis on working capital. Seems absolutely critical. Cash is king. Thanks for the insight!

If you are guaranteeing an SBA Loan, you can't afford to be wrong. I hope this post has provided some value or gets you thinking. If so, please like, share and repost so others may find value as well. @sbabmarks

WSS; Bruce, I want submit an LOI for a business and need your help. The financials look great on an accrual basis, but the tax returns, which are done on a cash basis, do not. Can we go over the structure to see if the deal pencils? Points to consider!

I know someone that bought a very small bank in rural west Texas several years ago. It’s very difficult and takes years because of the regulatory approvals required. Even if you could funnel that much SBA loan volume, it would take a large bank to process it. Happy to make an intro.

It would be cool to buy a bank with folks from Twitter Has anyone on here ever bought one? I could direct about $100 million + in SBA loan volume to a bank which would translate to over 7 figures of net income

@SMB_Attorney I’ve said for years, it should be required for everyone to work for at least a few weeks as a server or restaurant worker. Changes your perspective and appreciation for those individuals immensely.

This morning, I watched a complete jerk yell at a barista over a f’ing coffee order. Some of you have never dealt with a sick loved one, food insecurity or unemployment before and it shows. Your coffee order isn’t a problem; your attitude and perspective is, though. Grow up!

@ClintFiore This analysis is 🔥. Thank you!

Why the "Silver Tsunami" hasn't happened in SMB: 🧵 I came into business brokerage 10 years ago with a promise of a "Silver Tsunami", a demographic wave of Baby Boomer business owners with no succession plan and trillions of dollars of small businesses needing to sell in the next 10-20 years. In theory, it should be the biggest Buyer's Market in History right now! A huge wealth transfer! BUT, the entire time I've been brokering deals it's been much more of a Seller's market than a Buyer's market. Buyers still vastly outnumber Sellers. So what gives? 6 things: 1) There's a "Buyer Tsunami" that's bigger than the Silver Tsunami. All the business schools are teaching about ETA (Entrepreneurship through Acquisition) and pumping out hungry grads looking for deals full-time, aggressively. Also, social media superstars like @Codie_Sanchez and @sweatystartup are turning people onto entrepreneurship at a staggering rate. It's becoming mainstream-cool to leave the corporate 9-5 and go buy or start an SMB. Lastly, more and more small business owners in the Gen X and Millennial cohorts are learning about growth through acquisitions and joining the fray looking for add-ons and building multiple location strategies and HoldCos. Combined- much more Buyers entering the space than retiring Boomers can satisfy the demand for. 2) COVID took out a chunk of Sellers. Many businesses took a big hit and shuttered permanently during 2020-2022. Others survived but gave up hope of selling in 2023-now because they were anchored to their old valuations and can't get back to where they used to be on profitability and haven't adjusted to the post-COVID world. So they're closing or just limping along mortally wounded unable to come to grips with selling for a much lower value. 3) Boomers in general suck at preparing their business' books for Buyers and Banks and making their business' profits provable and their deals bankable. They're oldschool and hate showing profits because they don't want to pay too much in taxes, so they have these decades-old ingrained habits of keeping lackluster records, 'forgetting' to report cash sales, bartering services with their friends, and writing off as much discretionary expenses as possible, making their tax returns and P&Ls look like they don't make any money. Today's Buyers want to borrow and leverage SBA loans and if the business can't easily pass underwriting with its historical tax returns, they're VERY hard to sell. 4) Commercial Real Estate has been appreciating like crazy for decades. Boomers that have Owner-Occupied businesses and want to sell the RE with it have a problem. They paid tens or hundreds of thousands for their building/land and now it's worth MILLIONS. They aren't impacted by it because they paid off the RE long ago and just pay themselves whatever rent they feel like or none at all. But when they want to sell by golly they want the business value AND the appreciated Real Estate at top dollar (often they still want top '21-22 prices before interest rates rose). These RE values are often more than the business can support in rent or debt service. So to get top dollar for the Real Estate, they may have to close or liquidate the business and sell to a different Buyer that can put something else there that is today's Highest and Best Use. Many remain in purgatory unwilling to close their business they love and unwilling to accept offers for the RE that the business can sustainably support. 5) Boomer psychology is an underrated barrier. This generation highly identifies with their businesses. They feel like they are the business, and selling feels like they're losing their meaning, their worth, and even reason to live. They equate selling to "being put out to pasture" which feels like they're one step from the grave. This is making them hold on longer, often until a major health scare or they drop dead, at which point the business is much more likely to be distressed, close and liquidate than able to sell, further compounding the problem for Buyers. 6) Many, in fact MOST, of the Boomer Businesses never were sellable and never will be. More than half of "small business owners" are essentially self-employed. Revenues under $1M, wrapped around the owner's skills, relationships, and lifestyle and don't work without them there working. AND they're only making enough profit to take care of the owner, but not enough to support business purchase debt or hiring a GM to run it. So even if a Buyer wants their lifestyle and is capable of filling their shoes, the value is still essentially $0. These "businesses" all go 💨 poof when the owner retires or passes. If you're a Buyer frustrated with market dynamics seemingly making buying a business an uphill battle, hopefully this helps you understand why. There is hope though! Follow me for deals, read my "How to Find a Business to Buy" thread in my highlights section of my profile for further instructions, etc. You can still win as a Buyer but it's not easy and you need to learn the game and get good at it! I'll keep pumping out content and deals and try to help as best I can! Love you all and wish you the best on your SMB journeys. ♥️

@SBA_Matthias Government job?

I realized entrepreneurship isn’t all that it’s made out to be so I decided to apply for a job today

@SBA_Matthias Have you seen Severance on Apple TV? Great show to binge over a weekend.

Best Netflix, Prime or Apple TV shows to binge watch this weekend? 👇

@SBA_Matthias @SMB_Attorney Is this a business idea? Outsource it to me and I’ll get on a plane to Hawaii to spend time liquidating collateral on the beautiful island of Hawaii. 😉

@SMB_Attorney Hard to find banks that want to originate SBA loans in Hawaii Hard to get a portfolio manager on a plane to liquidate collateral if shit hats the fan

A cool $1.5 million in earnings per year in the most beautiful place on earth? Convince me not to buy this business.

@AndyHVandenBerg I’ve worked with Quietlight.com and Acquire.com. Both are great to work with and competent.

Have a friend looking for a broker/banker to help sell their $1.75m ARR SaaS business. Who is the best person for them to work with?

@SBA_Matthias @WalbridgeSMB @jhobfoll Could only join for a few minutes. Timing wasn’t ideal, but I still got several 💎 s. Definitely think you should do them more often!

Thanks for everyone that joined this space. It was great hearing various perspectives and experiences in the search process from @WalbridgeSMB @jhobfoll and others

@SBA_Matthias @sbabmarks Yea this one was full of gold. Part of what I love about @sbabmarks thread’s is they are practical, easy to understand, and have application to searchers at almost every stage of the search process.

Another 💎of a thread from @sbabmarks the SBA 🐐 If you don’t follow Bruce, you’re missing out big time

@ChandlerReedSMB Also, buying that “job” means you’re working for yourself which is immensely valuable and far different than a job working for someone else.

"Don't buy yourself a job" is pretty common advice for people looking to buy a business But sometimes that's the best place to start The lowest-priced businesses are often jobs But they're great for beginners to learn on a small scale before moving to larger deals

@SBA_Matthias @Jake_potter35 @PIONEERCAPADV I’m in!

On Monday, March 4th at 4 pm CST, I will co-hosting a Twitter space with @Jake_potter35 to discuss @PIONEERCAPADV’s initiative to help business buyers that are looking to secure between $500K to $1 million of SBA 7(a) financing twitter.com/i/spaces/1lPKq…

@SBA_Matthias That’s messed up on so many levels. Normally something like this is provided by the government. VGLI can be an option but there are requirements to qualify and there are limits.

I think life insurance companies should be giving veterans exemptions on policy ratings for injuries sustained during duty I’m working with a veteran buyer now who’s policy rating is substantially higher as a result from being in the service I know that we live in a capitalist society which I fully support. You won’t find a bigger capitalist on Twitter than me, but it’s wrong to charge veterans higher premiums for serving our country SMB Twitter family - what are your thoughts on this. Agree or disagree? cc: @SMB_Attorney @Eli_Albrecht @sbabmarks

@stkerr88 @ClintFiore True. But I’m not sure if it’s decline due to neglect or market demand. If it’s neglect, possible yo bring it back with some strategic marketing. If it’s market, then you’re right. How best to determine which it is?

@EvanANorman @ClintFiore Revenue numbers seem like its in decline to me. If its generated 2.8mm in 5 years, that's average 560k/yr. Listing is 295k revenue for iOS + Android though, so implies a pretty big dropoff in recent years.

Screw it, for the next 6 hours, post a link to any business for sale on any marketplace here and I'll reply with what I think about it. 2 Rules: Must be following me and you aren't allowed to delete your tweet after you get feedback.

@jason_howerton What’s his diet like? Magnesium could help. Is he spending time outside? Getting lots of exercise could help as well. Sometimes it’s just a phase but I hope yall get through it. 🙏🏻

My oldest son is REALLY struggling with sleep. He’s about to be 6. It’s just fear and anxiety about being alone in his room. Taking its toll on all of us. Any tips from parents who have been there?

🦁

@SBA_Matthias I’ve always assumed the LOI was formal enough to let them know you’re serious, but still comes with the ability to back out if things don’t look good. Might try the IOI next time if it makes sense

Before sending an LOI to a broker, it’s not a bad idea as a searcher to start with an IOI (indication of interest) How may this be helpful? ✅If you’re in the process of competing against strategic or financial buyers (private equity funds), you can work to determine valuation expectations to ensure that you’re in the ballpark of what the seller is looking for ✅ You can contemplate general deal terms without getting too far into the weeds with all of the legalese (I typically recommend involving M&A counsel at the LOI stage) Searchers that have used IOIs - How were they received by the broker and seller, and did you find they helped with setting expectations at the onset of the deal process?

@lawyer4SMBs Sellers tend to scoff when you propose it in the LOI, but the greater the business dependence on the owner, the potentially larger the seller note. They have to have skim the game to ensure a smooth transition. If they are overly hesitant, I’d be worried about this even more.

Business sellers are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you might get. Especially after closing. Some are helpful, others vanish. Sad but true. So: • Always have a seller note • Clearly set out obligations in contracts • Have ability to enforce