3 Things I’d Do To Buy a Great Business in 2026

This Week in ETA:

Searchers: As we head into the new year, many searchers are hoping that 2026 is the year they acquire a business (and we hope that for you, too). This post details how a well-executed SBA 7(a) acquisition can go from underwriting to close in ~10 weeks, but that’s only part of the journey. Finding the right business typically takes 6-18+ months, and moving from LOI to close another 2–4 months. Put together, you start to get a large (and daunting!) range of 12-24 months. While there’s no “silver bullet,” there are some “golden BBs” to make your search faster:

1) Cast a wide net in deal sourcing. Avoid over-constraining your search by geography or industry, and be willing to refine criteria as you learn. Use multiple sourcing channels - brokers, off-market opportunities, and direct outreach like calling and letter writing - to maximize deal flow.

2) Make personal connections with sellers of good businesses immediately and repeatedly.
Send them handwritten letters. Meet them in person as quickly as you can. Hang around the hoop if they choose another buyer (that deal has a ~50% chance of falling through, and you want to be the backup they call).

3) Be the buyer who can move fast when the right deal appears. Line up your deal team in advance. Loan broker or lender, QoE provider, equity partners, legal counsel, etc. - so you can execute immediately when the right opportunity comes along.

Investors: Looking ahead to 2026, I put together a few predictions for where Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition may be headed (with the full expectation that at least some of these will be wrong). Check out the comments, others have shared some great predictions as well. And feel free to add your own!

Partner Perspective:

Eli Albrecht, Albrecht Law - The Myth of the “Absentee Seller”

One of the most persistent myths I see in lower-middle-market M&A is the idea of the “absentee seller.” In theory, the owner sells the business, hands over the keys, and disappears. In practice—especially in sub-$3M EBITDA deals—that almost never happens. Sellers are often deeply embedded through customer relationships, institutional knowledge, and daily decision-making. The right response isn’t to avoid these deals, but to price and structure them honestly. Below are a few tools I regularly use to manage seller dependence and protect the buyer. I have written about these in more detail here. 

• Transition Services: Require the seller to keep showing up post-close. This should be a binding covenant in the purchase agreement, with ~3 months included and longer periods paid hourly if needed.

• Holdback / Escrow: Withhold a portion of the purchase price to ensure a clean transition.

• Deferred Consideration: Earnouts or forgivable notes can align post-close performance, though they add complexity and seller skepticism.

• Rollover Equity: A powerful alignment tool that keeps the seller invested and often benefits both sides economically.

• Restrictive Covenants: Strong non-competes, non-solicits, and confidentiality provisions are essential protection.

Taken together, these tools balance incentives and accountability to bridge the gap between the myth of an absentee seller and the reality of seller-dependent businesses.

Plus:

• We won’t be posting a newsletter next Friday (12/26), but we’ll be back on Friday 1/2/2026! Thank you for reading TWIETA, and we wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous holiday season!

Question:

Hit reply and tell us - What other predictions do you have for ETA in 2026?