Clearly Acquired Blog

Expert insights, funding strategies, and practical guidance for securing capital, financing growth, and navigating business acquisitions. Whether you're raising capital for expansion, restructuring debt, or exploring your first acquisition, our blog provides the knowledge and resources to help you succeed.

Growth
April 18, 2025

How to Write a Business Plan for SBA Loans

A well-crafted business plan is critical for securing an SBA loan—it proves your business’s viability, outlines how funds will be used, and reassures lenders about your ability to repay. Your plan should include a compelling executive summary, thorough market research, strong financial projections, and supporting documents like tax returns and licenses.

Read More

Growth
April 17, 2025

Short-Term vs. Long-Term Goals in Acquisitions

When acquiring a business, it's crucial to balance short-term goals like cash flow improvement and operational efficiency with long-term objectives such as market expansion and brand development. Short-term wins stabilize the business, while long-term strategies drive sustainable growth—but both require careful planning and resource alignment.

Read More

Growth
April 14, 2025

How to Use Liquidity Ratios in M&A Deals

Liquidity ratios—like the current, quick, and cash ratios—are essential tools in M&A due diligence to assess whether a target company can meet its short-term obligations. These ratios help uncover potential financial risks, cash flow gaps, and post-deal working capital needs. By comparing them to industry benchmarks and adjusting for integration costs, buyers can better forecast stability during the transition and avoid surprises post-clos

Read More

Growth
April 11, 2025

Private Credit in SMB Acquisitions: 3 Case Studies

Private credit is transforming SMB acquisitions by providing flexible, non-bank financing solutions tailored to real-world challenges like limited collateral, integration costs, and complex deal structures. These case studies show how private credit helped fund a manufacturing company’s growth, a $4.2M tech acquisition, and a software company’s system integration—unlocking operational gains and market expansion. The key takeaway: private credit fills critical financing gaps where traditional loans fall short.

Read More

Growth
April 9, 2025

Clearly Acquired Welcomes Edison Business Advisors as a Preferred Brokerage Partner

Clearly Acquired is proud to welcome Edison Business Advisors as a Preferred Brokerage Partner. This partnership brings a portfolio of high-quality, financing-ready listings, primarily in Florida, from one of the top-performing and most trusted brokerage firms in the region. Together, we’re committed to delivering vetted opportunities and a more transparent, efficient path to business ownership.

Read More

Growth
April 9, 2025

How Inflation Affects SMB Cost Structures

Inflation is driving up labor, materials, and fixed costs for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), putting pressure on profits and making planning difficult. Unlike larger firms, SMBs often lack the resources to absorb rising costs, leaving them vulnerable to shrinking margins and tighter cash flow. To stay competitive, they must adopt smart strategies—like automation, strategic pricing, and tech-enabled financial tools—to control costs, retain customers, and uncover new revenue streams.

Read More

Growth
April 8, 2025

How to Use SBA 7(a) Loans for Business Purchases

SBA 7(a) loans are government-backed loans designed to help entrepreneurs buy businesses with lower down payments, long repayment terms, and flexible uses for capital—including working capital and real estate. To qualify, buyers must meet SBA eligibility criteria, and the target business must show solid financials, clean records, and clear value. Using a platform like Clearly Acquired can streamline the process by connecting buyers to lenders, organizing documentation, and helping identify SBA-friendly businesse

Read More

Growth
April 8, 2025

Automate Your Deal Flow: How Business Brokers Can Connect Clearly Acquired to Zapier

Brokers can now connect their Clearly Acquired account to Zapier, making it easy to automate repetitive tasks and streamline deal flow. By integrating with tools like HubSpot, Gmail, Slack, and Google Sheets, brokers can instantly sync buyer inquiries, trigger follow-ups, and keep their pipeline organized without manual work. This integration helps brokers move faster, stay organized, and close more deals with less effort.

Read More

Growth
April 7, 2025

Common Covenant Breaches in LBOs and How to Avoid Them

In leveraged buyouts (LBOs), common covenant breaches include exceeding debt-to-EBITDA limits, missing interest payments, or executing unapproved transactions like asset sales or dividend distributions. These breaches often stem from revenue shortfalls, poor cash flow, or weak internal controls and can lead to increased lender oversight, tighter terms, or even default. To avoid them, companies should negotiate realistic covenant terms, monitor compliance closely, and maintain proactive communication with lenders.

Read More

Growth
April 3, 2025

How to Assess Culture Fit in Acquisitions

Assessing culture fit during an acquisition is essential to ensure smooth integration, retain talent, and avoid operational friction. It involves evaluating leadership styles, communication norms, decision-making processes, and values using structured tools like scorecards, assessment matrices, and employee surveys. Rather than seeking identical cultures, the goal is to identify differences early and build a plan to bridge them effectively.

Read More

Growth
April 2, 2025

Aligning Values In Family-Owned Business Acquisitions

Buying a family-owned business requires more than analyzing financials—it demands alignment with the company’s deeply rooted values, traditions, and relationships. Emotional ties, informal practices, and strong community connections can complicate the transition, so buyers must prioritize cultural fit, stakeholder trust, and heritage preservation. Success hinges on blending modernization with respect for legacy—using structured tools, expert guidance, and thoughtful leadership planning to ensure a smooth and respectful handoff.

Read More

Growth
April 1, 2025

Vendor Due Diligence Checklist

A Vendor Due Diligence Checklist helps businesses assess the financial health, operational capacity, legal compliance, and security protocols of their suppliers before entering or continuing a partnership. It ensures vendors are reliable, minimizes risk, and supports informed decision-making using structured evaluations and ongoing performance monitoring.

Read More

Acquire Quality. Fund Growth. Close with Confidence.

As an AI-driven Business Acquisition Marketplace and Financing Platform, we are on a mission to simplify and accelerate the MainStreet to MidStreet lending and acquisition ecosystem.

We specialize in technology that supports price discovery, identity verification and financial qualification, and buy-side tools to help searchers source and manage deal flow, make offers, secure lending/financing solutions, and close with confidence.

illustration of team with digital platform

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions by users that are looking to buy businesses on Clearly Acquired:

How can I show business owners I'm a legitimate buyer and that I'm interested?

With a Clearly Verified account, you can instill confidence in other users, brokers and sellers that you are, who you say you are, when you "verify" your identify.  This is the key to instilling confidence in the users on the platform,  gaining traction and getting instant access to financials, supporting data and insight to quickly move to making an offer or moving on.   This will save you months of wasted time and expedite the closing of a sale.

How are my finances verified?

Using financial technology the Clearly Acquired Platform safely and securely verifies your finances, to help sellers understand your closing capability and help lenders expedite your financing. Additionally, the buy-side deal room will help you get your documentation in order, to prepare you for the debt and equity financing you will need to close your acquisition.

Can I get in touch with advisors to help support me in this process?

The Clearly Acquired team is here to support you on your business acquisition or business sale journey. That said, the platform is designed to connect you with a community of users, who are identify verified, which include: investors, lenders, advisors, brokers, consultants, and other buyers who are looking for partners.  

What is a Deal Hub?

The Deal Hub is the central repository for all transaction-related activities on our business acquisition platform. It serves as a secure and organized space where buyers and sellers can access critical information and manage the entire acquisition process efficiently. The Deal Hub is divided into two main components: the Data Room and the Deal Rooms.

Data Room: The Data Room is a secure, virtual storage space where sellers can upload and share essential documents related to their business. This includes financial statements, legal contracts, operational reports, and other due diligence materials. Buyers can access these documents to conduct thorough evaluations and make informed decisions. The Data Room ensures that all sensitive information is protected and only accessible to authorized parties.

Deal Rooms: The Deal Rooms are dedicated spaces for each business listing where buyers and sellers can collaborate and negotiate terms. Each Deal Room is equipped with tools for real-time communication, document sharing, and tracking the progress of the deal. This streamlined environment facilitates transparent and efficient interactions, helping to expedite the acquisition process and ensuring that both parties are aligned at every stage.

The Deal Hub's comprehensive and secure infrastructure simplifies the complexities of business acquisitions, providing a seamless experience for all users involved.

What is Plaid?

Plaid is a financial technology company that provides a secure and seamless way to connect and interact with financial institutions. It enables applications to access users' financial data with their consent, facilitating a wide range of services such as identity verification, account authentication, and transaction history retrieval. Plaid's robust API infrastructure ensures high security, reliability, and compliance with regulatory standards.

By integrating Plaid, Clearly Acquired can offer a secure, efficient, and reliable method for identity verification, building trust among users and ensuring the integrity of the acquisition process.

I am new to the idea of business acquisition, where can I get more information on how to get started?

Make sure to check out our Educational Course on Business Acquisition that is offered in our paid plans for buyers: From Purchase to Profit: Mastering the Art of Business Acquisition.

This Membership Course for buyers is designed to empower individuals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to navigate the business acquisition process successfully. Whether you're a first-time buyer or an experienced entrepreneur, our course equips you with the tools and insights needed to make informed decisions and achieve your acquisition goals. Join us and embark on your journey to buying a business with Clearly Acquired.

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Create Your Account. Get Verified. Start Searching.

1

Create an account

Every day, lenders, investors, brokers, and sellers come to Clearly Acquired looking for qualified operators like you. Creating an account and getting verified helps you stand out and build trust.

2

Build your profile

Build your profile to get matched with capital and opportunities. Showcase your expertise and resume, to connect with the right capital and acquisition partners—making every opportunity count.

3

Search & Connect

Browse Verified listings, source off-market deals, & manage deal flow with powerful tools to underwrite opportunities, and connect with capital to streamline the entire acquisition and funding process

Join the Clearly Acquired Search Community

Create Your Profile & Get Verified for Free