brooks

@sbabmarks ‘How much tax fraud is too much tax fraud?’ Is a question all serious searchers must ask themselves 🤣 Appreciate all the war stories this week, Bruce

Yesterday, I shared live with about 32 Searchers this: Off the books cash (yes, I saw this on a Broker’s CIM) is NOT an addback! Remember, the SBA, is the sister of the IRS Unreal😳

@SMB_Attorney I need that glass!

Incredible week! I need a drink, pizza and a nap. Things moving fast. 4 year anniversary month. Closing times / busted deal %s down. 95 NPS. Approaching 400 closed deals / $2 billion in EV. Unthinkable 4 years ago… Already fired up for Monday. Until then… enjoy the weekend!

@kyleumlang And then we went on to win both the national championship and WWII. You’re welcome!

In 1939, rather than playing #2 Tennessee (who was on 23-game win streak & yet to be scored on) in the Cotton Bowl, #1 Texas A&M took a player vote & accepted a bid to the Sugar Bowl to take on #5 Tulane (who had only a 5-game winning streak & allowed 46 pts) #AggieFactThursday

@SMB_HEFF Sounds like a company I screened a few months ago - they can have a lot of customer concentration though with limited moat. Would be interesting to see how this company tackles that.

Fiber Optic installation company in Texas doing $2.5M in ebitda and asking for 3x multiple. Sounds like project based company but would be interesting. Who is in the space and does these deals?

@BenSasse @Mike_Pence Appreciate all you’ve done for Nebraska!

i can still live another 50 years if @Mike_Pence has the courage

@BarbellFi You know how you can tell this isn’t true? Meta does layoffs on Wednesdays…

Our friend is a stay at home mom Husband is an engineer at Meta They’re 34 with 2 young kids Just spent $200k on a home remodel Drained his entire 401k to pay it He got laid off yesterday Mortgage is $3,600/month Car payments are $950/month 6 month severance at least 😬

@guessworkinvest This was definitely the biggest reality check of the week. It was good meeting you @SMB_ash

Number one theme from SMBash 2026 for me: it is objectively harder to get deals done, and deal quality is going down. To paraphrase Jacob Hall: The self-funded search playbook of 2019-2021 no longer works.

@SBA_Matthias @bylinebank @JaredJohnsonSBA @SMB_ash @LisaGForrest Great panel, Matthias - I appreciated all of the insights!

Great joining Matt Dolsky (@bylinebank) and @JaredJohnsonSBA (First Internet Bank) at @SMB_ash to discuss SBA financing in 2026 📸 credit: @LisaGForrest

@JackieHirsch_ @smbash @BluprintBlondie @smblawgroup @KHendersonCo @SMB_Attorney Great meeting you this week, Jackie! Appreciate all of the insights!

Having an amazing time @smbash with @BluprintBlondie watching two famous @smblawgroup attorneys @KHendersonCo and @SMB_Attorney For the record, they are famous because their work is exceptional. Make sure to get their LOI template on the SMBLAW.Group/downloads website.

Excited to take this opportunity to learn about the tactics of ETA from some of the brightest minds in the business!

Congratulations to @bcotten8 👏 winner of the SMBootcamp LIVE Free Seat Giveaway! Brooks is joining us in Tampa for our 20th cohort (May 13-15). 3 days of hands-on, practitioner-led training on acquiring a great small business as quickly as possible and with as little risk as possible. Can't wait to see you there, Brooks. Welcome to the community.

@SBA_Matthias ‘This calendar year’ doing the heavy lifting 🤣

I’m going to change my withholding to zero to give myself a raise and quote this video as evidence in 2027 😂

@SBA_Matthias Curious - do you see many folks come back and restructure debt to handle the balloon?

One of the most overlooked pieces of seller financing is amortization. It just does not get enough attention early in the deal structuring process, even though it can make or break how a deal performs. A question I hear all the time is how much seller financing a buyer should actually take on. The instinct is to focus on the size of the note, but in reality, the structure matters far more than the amount. The reason is pretty straightforward. Banks are not big fans of short amortization periods on seller notes. It raises concerns from a credit standpoint, and more importantly, it puts real pressure on the numbers. A shorter repayment schedule means higher debt service, which can drag down your coverage ratios and potentially derail an otherwise solid deal. In most cases, I advise clients to aim for a ten year amortization on the seller note. It aligns much better with the SBA loan and helps keep the overall debt burden manageable from a cash flow perspective. Of course, not every seller is going to be excited about waiting ten years to be fully repaid, and that is a fair concern. That is where a balloon payment can be a very effective compromise. You still get the benefit of a longer amortization to support cash flow, while the seller has a clear timeline for when they will be taken out of the deal. When you structure it the right way, this is one of those levers that can quietly turn a marginal deal into one that works for everyone involved.

@Sam_Rosati Would love to attend - otherwise see you at SMBash

We’re giving away a free seat to SMBootcamp LIVE in Tampa (May 13–15). $4,500 value. If you’re pursuing ETA / buying a business, this is one of the highest ROI rooms you can be in. 350+ alumni 70+ deals closed $150M+ in transaction value Alumni close deals 2.5x the SBA average (LumosData, Q4 2025) Ray Whiteman won the last one. Want in? Like + comment below. We’ll DM everyone who comments the application link. Submit by Friday at noon. Winner announced EOD.

@Codie_Sanchez I must have missed that on FICO's balance sheet?

You ever think about how people who are 36 trillion dollars in debt are the ones giving you a credit score?

@dealflow_guy Give Manus a try - pretty incredible way to avoid spreadsheets

Admission: I hate excel. I’m hoping AI gets so good it will be an afterthought. And I think we’re quickly approaching that.

@SMB_Attorney LOI

We just released our 2026 Lower-Middle-Market LOI Template. Built from: > 500+ deals > $1.6B+ closed > And the busted ones It’s designed to reduce retrades and increase close probability. If you want the template, comment: LOI We’ll auto-DM you the download link. We’re on a mission to build the #1 LMM M&A firm and the #1 provider of value in the space.

@FranchiseMnA Its an interesting opportunity... Would need to mitigate some quite a bit of risk before close though.

Question for the ETA community: Have a sell-side opportunity that does ~$1.4M EBITDA Seller wants ~3.5x Potential great deal valuation wise Here's the catch: The company is not professionalized, financials are messy, and there are no monthly P&Ls The founder is an immigrant owner-operator that ran the business like he never intended to sell and is very disorganized Revenue comes from the POS system, and “profit” is essentially calculated at year-end by totaling checks written, labor, and whatever is left over He is comfortable providing all bank statements, checks, etc. for a buyer to validate the numbers but they'll have to do some heavy lifting to tie it all out Interesting or a hard pass?

@BFW If you think this is dumb, try watching Mississippi State!

Oh my God Texas A&M. This is the dumbest game in the history of college football.

@sbabmarks I feel like I just looked at this same business 😆

Bruce, I want to get your take on a business that has declining trends. Revenue has been decreasing year over year, but I'm still interesting in buying it. You paid for a QOE why? Just some thoughts before you start to dive in deep.