One roadmap, one guide, one workbook for every kind of SBA deal — and the CFO in your corner the whole way.
An SBA loan means a multi-week document chase most first-time borrowers walk into blind. This is the place that walks you through it — start with the free roadmap for your kind of deal, then pick up the guide and the workbook — a live Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) file — that does the real work: fill-in templates that build your projections, your personal financial statement, your schedule of liabilities, your use-of-funds, and your credit summary on your own numbers. Built for the borrower, and for the brokers and lenders who would rather send a prepared client than chase an unprepared one. Pick your deal.
You found a business to buy and need to finance the purchase — the recast, the coverage, the package.
You're tired of paying a landlord and want to own your space with about 10% down, across two loans.
You need capital to grow, want to refinance costly debt, or are buying out a partner.
Your cash needs rise and fall with seasons, contracts, or growth — and you need a line of credit, not a term loan.
You're weighing a franchise and need the real numbers behind the brand — and the financing to open it.
The workbook is a live Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) spreadsheet — you type your own numbers and the formulas do the math, instantly. The business plan is a fully editable Microsoft Word (.docx) template you make your own. These are the dynamic foundation you build your deal on — not a paper guide to read, and nothing to handwrite.
You're tired of the paper chase too. Unprepared borrowers cost you weeks of back-and-forth on incomplete files. Put your name on these roadmaps and tools and send your clients here — they come back lender-ready, and the relationship stays yours.
Co-brand the SBA tools with your name →Everything above is built for the borrower to do themselves. Alongside it the Institute sells the same work as an engagement to third parties: credit write-ups and spreads, debt service coverage recomputed from source documents, SBA eligibility and SOP review, loan packaging, borrowing base and collateral verification, covenant testing and monitoring, and portfolio file review. Fees are fixed, quoted in writing from the document list before work begins, and never contingent on the credit decision.
SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, in force since October 1, 2026: a change-of-ownership 7(a) loan with a purchase price of $3 million or more needs a quality of earnings report from an independent provider, ordered by the lender. It must include a proof of cash for the trailing twelve months and the last two fiscal years, and the lender uses its earnings for debt service coverage. A report the seller commissions does not qualify.
Read against the SOP as published. Effective date October 1, 2026; read October 5, 2026. Both clocks are stated because the SOP is revised — verify the current text for any specific file.
Three deep-references every SBA borrower should read before committing paper — program selection, personal-guarantee mechanics, and (for franchise borrowers) the Directory itself.