The Long View
Exploring how ownership transitions shape people, communities, and what comes next.
When “Skin in the Game” Becomes a Gate
The SBA’s new acquisition rules do more than raise the bar for buyer equity. They also limit how outside investment and seller financing can be used, potentially changing who gets to buy a business and how deals are structured.
Are You Buying a Business or Inheriting Its Debt?
Over the next decade, more than six million baby boomer-owned small businesses will face ownership transitions. Up to five trillion dollars in enterprise value is in motion. The opportunity is real.
So is the debt.
On a recent episode of Ethical Exits, Up & Over Advisors founder Hannah Sandmeyer sat down with Maura Shenker of AllHold Capital, who works at the intersection of economic mobility and ownership design. Maura offered a distinction that every aspiring buyer needs to hear before they sign anything.
"There is no great wealth transfer," she said. "It's a debt transfer."
Understanding why that may be true, and what to do about it, is what this post is about.