Buying a Small Business
Buying a Small Business in America
Know what you are buying before you pay for it
Edition English
The short version
The United States has no federal register of businesses and no public record of what any business sold for. So the book uses the one record that exists: every SBA loan the federal government guaranteed to buy a going concern — the loans buyers actually use. That’s 40,555 approved purchase loans, fiscal years 2020 to 2026.
Then the law, in twenty-four states, quoted from the statute with the day it was read.
Source: SBA loan-level disclosure, 7(a) program, data as of 30 June 2026. Details in chapters 2 and 4 and appendix A7.
Questions this book answers
- What do people actually pay for a small business, and how far is that from what sellers ask?
- Will the business pay for itself once the loan is paid?
- Whose side is the broker on?
- What do the letter of intent and the deposit commit you to?
- Can the seller’s unpaid sales tax follow the business to you? Which certificate stops it?
- Is what you’re buying already pledged to someone else?
- Do the staff come with the business?
- Does the lease survive the sale? Do the permits and licenses?
- Can the seller open the same business across the street?
- What does the bank require? What are you signing with a personal guarantee?
- What if you’re not a US citizen?
- How long does a purchase take, and what does the deal itself cost?
What’s inside
Part I — What this market is. What an American small business is, what people pay, what sellers ask and leave out, and whether the business pays for itself.
Part II — How a deal begins. The broker, the letter of intent, the deposit, and the money that isn’t the price.
Part III — What comes with the business. Sales tax, liens, staff, the profit you were shown, the landlord, federal permits, licenses, the seller who competes, franchises.
Part IV — Money, time and four real disputes. The bank and its rulebook dated 1 October 2026, the personal guarantee, the seller who stays, buying as a non-citizen, cost and timing, the deal that dies after the bank says yes, and four disputes told in full.
The last chapter is about what the book doesn’t cover and what nobody knows.
Show the full contents
- Part I — What this market is
- 0America's small-business market: what you are walking into
- 1What an American small business actually is
- 2What people actually pay
- 3What sellers ask, and what they leave out
- 4The gap between what is asked and what is paid
- 5Does it pay for itself? The arithmetic nobody shows you
- 6The advertisement is a form, and forms have blind spots
- Part II — How a deal begins
- 7Whose side is the broker on, and how you get to see anything at all
- 8The letter of intent, the deposit, and the line that splits the price
- 9The money that is not the price
- Part III — What comes with the business
- 10The seller's unpaid sales tax follows the business to you
- 11The certificate you have to ask for, and the clock it starts
- 12The rule that was repealed almost everywhere — and the two states where it was not
- 13Is what you are buying already pledged to somebody else?
- 14The staff do not come with the business — and that is not the whole truth
- 15The profit you were shown, and the profit that is there
- 16The landlord is a party to your deal, whether or not he signs anything
- 17The federal permits, and why none of them comes with the business
- 18The license you cannot buy at any price
- 19The seller who opens the same business across the street
- 20Buying a franchise from its owner: the third person at the table
- Part IV — Money, time and four real disputes
- 21What the bank requires, and the rulebook dated 1 October 2026
- 21bOther SBA money, and the free help nobody mentions
- 22The personal guarantee, and what you are actually signing
- 23The seller who stays, and the rule that says he cannot
- 23bIf you are not a US citizen
- 24What the deal itself costs
- 25How long it actually takes
- 26The deal that dies after the bank says yes
- 27Case one: the restaurant that was billed four months after it opened
- 28Case two: the bar that reopened under a new name and inherited four wage claims
- 29Case three: the pickup truck that two people had a right to
- 30Case four: the café on the second floor, and the day the locks changed
- 31What this book does not cover, and what nobody knows
- Appendices
- A1Where the numbers come from
- A2The four shapes, and the coverage they give
- A3The sales tax that follows the seller
- A4What the sale itself costs
- A5Liquor licenses: fees, and the timing to get in writing
- A6Federal permits: which businesses, and do they move?
- A7The market, in one page
- A8Buying by state
- A9The words, in plain English
- A10Proof of coverage
- A11Every source, with its address
- A12What we could not find
- A13The purchase in five stages
- A14Every deadline on one scale
From the book
What sellers ask: the median “from 1,706 priced listings”, among 1,881 listings read on 14 September 2026 (chapter 4).
What buyers borrow to pay: the median “from 4,772 loans approved to buy a business” in fiscal 2026, to 30 June. That is the loan, not the price (chapter 4).
About one approved purchase loan in twelve was never drawn at all: 3,458 of 40,555, fiscal 2020 to 2026 (chapter 26).
Every figure in the book comes with its sample, its source and its date. Appendix A1 lists them all.
What we got wrong
Before printing, we caught fifteen of our own mistakes. The book prints every one of them in chapter 31, with how each one happened.
How corrections workWho it is for
For you if
- You’re about to buy an existing small business in the United States: a restaurant, a salon, a shop, a workshop, a service firm.
- You may finance it with a bank loan backed by the federal government.
- You may not be a US citizen. There’s a chapter for you.
- You want to know what to ask before you sign anything.
Not for you if
- You want to start a business from nothing. This book is about buying one that already trades.
- You want someone to say whether one particular business is a good buy. A book can’t see the business in front of you.
- You want legal advice. The book helps you know what to ask your lawyer. It doesn’t replace one.
Editions
- EnglishBuying a Small Business in America
Know what you are buying before you pay for it
On Amazon
Every edition of this book is available now as a Kindle edition.
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EnglishBuying a Small Business in America
Chapter 0 is a map of the American market: how many small businesses there are, how big they are, and what gets traded. It ends with three questions for your first meeting with any seller.
No email needed.
When something changes that touches this book — a court decision, a law, a figure — it goes into the letter for the countries you follow, at most once a month. Each item comes with its source and date.
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