Get the SBA Loan, Buy the Business — The Baratelli Institute

What the lender needs to believe

Everything the lender asks for is evidence for three beliefs. Give them the evidence.

An SBA loan lets you buy a business with as little as 10% down — once the lender believes three things. Most first-time buyers lose months, or the deal, because they can't make that case in the form the bank needs. This package makes the case for you.

It cash flowsThe business already throws off enough to cover the loan — proven from the seller's own tax returns, then forward.

You're in itYour 10% equity injection is structured correctly, including the seller-note rule that trips most people up.

The price is fairThe valuation supports what you're borrowing — and flags when a third-party appraisal is required.

What's inside

An 18-tab workbook built to SOP 50 10 8, and a guide that assumes you know nothing about SBA loans.

A real month-by-month, 3-statement model — P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet for 36 months, balancing to the penny. It answers the one question an annual projection can't: how much working capital do you actually need?
Historical debt-service coverage — recasts the seller's last three years to prove the business already covered the debt, the way the SBA underwrites it.
Sources & Uses with the rules built in — checks your 10% injection, the standby-seller-note limit, the program maximum, and computes the FY2026 guaranty fee.
Business + global DSC, valuation, collateral, post-closing liquidity, use of proceeds — every section a lender's credit memo contains.
A 30-second Deal Screener up front, and a one-page Credit Summary at the back your loan officer can file as-is.
The guide — Get the SBA Loan, Buy the Business: eleven plain-English chapters, a "what's current in 2026" briefing, and a full glossary of every SBA term.

One number pays for it

This isn't priced against other spreadsheets. It's priced against what the alternative costs.

A loan packager charges $2,500 to $10,000 to build this by hand. One business that doesn't run out of cash in month three because you sized the working capital right. One deal that closes because the package was complete and the lender said yes. Any one of those, once, returns the price many times over — and you keep the model for the next deal.

How it compares

There's free, there's cheap, and there's expensive. This is the gap in between.

Option	Cost	What you get
Free templates (SBDC / SCORE)	$0	Generic projections; not acquisition-specific, no SBA-rule checks, you must already know how it works.
Online projection templates	$30–$150	A projection, not a lender package. No equity-injection or standby checks, no guaranty-fee math, rarely a true balancing model.
SBA loan packager / broker	$2,500–$10,000+	The real thing, done by hand — expensive, and on their schedule.
This package	$349	The packager's deliverable, productized: a balancing monthly model, the SOP 50 10 8 checks, and a guide that teaches you the whole process. Self-serve and immediate.

Who it's for

First-time business buyers — the core: the package and the plain-English guide to build it.

SBA lenders & BDOs — hand it to borrowers; a clean file is less work for you.

Business brokers — give it to buyers and close more of your listings.

CPAs & advisors — a ready model for the client who's buying a business.

Attorneys — understand the financing your client's deal turns on.

Search funders & self-funded searchers — the underwriting model, ready to run.

For business brokers, SBA lenders & loan officers

Your buyers ask the same question every week. Hand them the answer — with your name on it.

The financing package the buyer can't build is what stalls your files and kills your deals in escrow. This guide and workbook turn an unprepared buyer into a fundable one — Sources & Uses, the monthly forecast, DSC, and the lender-ready Credit Summary. Business brokers protect the commission a blown financing contingency would cost them; loan brokers and BDOs unclog a pipeline of half-built forecasts.

Everyone in the chain only gets paid if the deal closes. A buyer who quits at the financing step out of intimidation takes your payday with them. Keeping more of those buyers in the process raises the percentage of your deals that actually close — which is the whole point.

Co-brand it free. Put your name, photo, and number on the tool and hand it to every buyer — your relationship, our math. Referral arrangements for paid packagers; brokerage, franchise, and association licensing available.

Become a partner →

Get the complete package

Sold as one — the guide and the workbook together. The guide is not sold separately.

The Complete Package

$349

The guide plus the 18-tab workbook — the monthly three-statement model, historical & global DSC, Sources & Uses with the SOP 50 10 8 checks, the guaranty-fee calculator, valuation, collateral, the Deal Screener, and the lender-ready Credit Summary. Single-user license, updates within the edition.

Buy the package →

Annual updates subscription (new SOP, fees, and rate caps as they change): $99/yr. Lender, broker, and firm licensing — including white-label — available; contact the Institute.

Questions

Is this a guarantee I'll get the loan?: No. It's a preparation tool: it builds the package and tests your deal against the current SBA rules, but only your lender makes the credit decision. What it does is get you to the lender's door with a complete, correct package in the language they speak — which is most of the battle.
I've never done this before. Will I understand it?: That's exactly who it's written for. The guide assumes no prior knowledge, every term is in the glossary, and each chapter points to the matching tab in the workbook.
Are the rules current?: Yes — built to SOP 50 10 8 (effective June 1, 2025), the 2026 rate caps, and the FY2026 guaranty-fee schedule. The fee and rate inputs are editable so the model stays current, and the update subscription keeps pace as the SBA changes them.
Does it replace a loan packager?: For a clean deal, largely yes. For a complicated one, it gets you 80% of the way and gives your packager or lender a head start — and saves you most of the fee either way.

Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Authored by Philip A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA — former public-company CFO, corporate controller and treasurer, and family-office CFO. The model and the guide he built to help a friend buy his first business.

Get the package →