►EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1) THE "5 HOURS A WEEK" LIE IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE SENTENCE IN M&A: Every CIM has it. Every broker parrots it. And it's almost never true. The seller is probably working full-time AND doing 4-5 jobs in the business — meaning replacing them could cost $250K+ in SDE you didn't budget for. 2) A $300K SDE BUSINESS WITH $250K IN HIDDEN LABOR COSTS ISN'T A BUSINESS — IT'S A TRAP: Do the math most buyers won't. If the seller IS the business, you're not buying cash flow — you're buying a job with debt payments. There's no juice left after replacement costs eat your margin alive. 3) THE MOVE: CALL THE BLUFF IN REAL TIME: Elliott's play is surgical — tell the seller "Great, I'll sit with you for 40 hours next week so we can not work together." Watch how fast the story changes. Stop trusting pitch decks. Start trusting presence. 4) NO-MONEY-DOWN DEAL CLASSES ARE ACCELERATING THIS PROBLEM: The rise of "charlatan" deal courses is flooding the market with buyers who don't know what they don't know — and sellers who've learned exactly what language to use to exploit that ignorance. Throw it all in the trash.