Off Market Deal: 32-Year Bow Tie Business (Fully Remote, Run from Anywhere)

This Week in ETA:

Searchers: We have an exclusive lead on a 32-year old e-commerce website specializing in bow ties. Though it’s smaller than our typical off-market lead at $111K EBITDA, there is lots to be excited about: it has a strong reputation (they designed former President Obama’s inaugural bow tie), loyal following, straightforward operating model, and the ability to be run from anywhere.

The owners are looking to retire and want a stellar new owner/operator to continue to build this beloved business. If you’re interested in learning more about this well-established business with reliable sales in a niche market, click here to sign an NDA and review financials. If you’re interested in discussing a purchase with the owner, please fill out this form.

Investors: The Small Business Administration (SBA) has made a consequential change that investors can’t afford to miss. Under updated guidance, only U.S. citizens may hold ownership in an SBA-financed business. Green card holders and all other non-U.S. citizens are now explicitly excluded from any equity interest, regardless of size or control. This materially impacts deal structures and investor pools and needs to be addressed upfront.

Partner Perspective:

Caleb Basile, QoE Prep

When you’re in the middle of a deal, the choices you make about diligence matter — and one of the biggest forks in the road is deciding between a Proof of Cash and a full Quality of Earnings (QoE) analysis. Many buyers think of these as interchangeable, but they serve fundamentally different purposes. A Proof of Cash is great if your only goal is to confirm the numbers actually exist — matching bank activity to reported revenue and expenses. That’s important, but it’s only the beginning.

A Quality of Earnings goes deeper. It starts with the same reconciliations, but then asks something different: Are these earnings repeatable and worth paying for? A QoE helps buyers understand risk, normalize performance, and avoid overpaying for one-time or unsustainable earnings — which is something a Proof of Cash simply isn’t designed to do. We look at trends, working capital behavior, and the sustainability of seller adjustments, and we help frame an adjusted EBITDA that actually supports valuation conversations.

So if you’re trying to decide which path fits your deal, or you want to understand how this fits into a broader diligence strategy, you can learn more in this article. We’d love to be a resource as you conduct financial diligence on your deal - reach out here.

Plus:

• In addition to its ownership change for investors, the Small Business Administration has made a consequential change limiting ownership in SBA-financed businesses exclusively to U.S. citizens. Green card holders and all other non-U.S. investors are now prohibited from holding any equity interest. More here.

• A new Yale SOM analysis digs into how ETA CEO demographics and backgrounds correlate with financial outcomes, highlighting which traits tend to show up more often in top-quartile results. While the data focuses on exited deals rather than self-funded searches specifically, it offers useful signals for how investors and searchers might think about risk, credibility, and odds of success—read the full paper here. A couple things I thought were interesting: 1) Partnership structures often outperformed solo searchers, 2) CEOs with an MBA strongly outperformed CEOs without them, but 3) Demographics shape distributions but don’t guarantee performance.

Question:

Hit reply and tell us - Have you been impacted by the SBA’s recent changes? If so, how are you adjusting your strategy?

P.S. - Share Your Buy Box:

If you’re a searcher, let us know your buy box! We see a lot of proprietary deals and love to bring right-fit searchers in on them.