The goal of a search is not to close a deal. That sounds obvious. But the longer you search, the easier it is for “find a great business” to slowly become “find a deal I can get closed.” This can result in being too emotionally invested and thinking about the value of a business all wrong. First, you get emotionally invested. You've spent months on the deal. You've built a relationship with the seller. You've spent money on diligence. You can picture yourself running the business. Walking away gets harder with every step. We saw a version of this recently. A deal was nearly to closing when new information materially changed the economics of the business resulting in the need for renegotiation. By that point, everyone had invested significant time in getting the deal done. Renegotiating meant resetting expectations with a seller who was starting to want much more out of the transaction and was anchored to an amount of cash that was unreasonable for what the business would like moving forward. As terms continued to move, there eventually wasn't a transaction that worked for both sides and we all had to walk away. The other trap is letting the financing determine what the business is worth. This can be particularly easy with SBA financing. Instead of asking, “Is this company worth 5x EBITDA?” the question becomes, “Can I make the debt service work at 5x?” The financing tells you whether you can pay a certain price. It doesn't tell you whether you should. This is one of the reasons I think having a strong foundational education in ETA is so important. When you're deep in a deal, you need a framework that helps you separate the fundamentals of a good business and a good acquisition from the emotional pressure to get something closed. SMBootcamp is one of the programs for building that foundation and learning how to make those decisions. We're co-hosting an SMBootcamp in Denver this October, and if you're early in your search or looking to strengthen your fundamentals, I'd recommend checking it out. DM me if you are interested! Getting to close is exciting. Buying the right business on terms that still make sense is what actually matters.