Let's talk about Seller Financing- As in, no bank, and Seller Finances most or all of the purchase price of their business to you. It's a spectrum of likelihood. The less bankable the business and the richer and more creditworthy and credible you are as the buyer, the more likely a Seller Financed deal is going to happen. In fact, if you're wealthy and proven, even great businesses that are perfectly bankable and have plenty of other options, might still offer you significant financing and enjoy earning interest from you if your signature is as good as gold. This is partly how the "rich get richer"- people love lending money to people that don't need money. The problem is most people asking about Seller Financing are low Net Worth and unproven (i.e. high risk buyers) and are wanting a high quality deal. That's the lowest likelihood scenario and generally a waste of a broker's time that has a good deal in hand that is bankable and has plenty of high quality Buyer options. Our Sellers usually want to cash out and not carry a bunch of risk after they sell. That's why that quadrant is red. So if you're poor and unproven, you either need to lower your standards and take on a challenging, unbankable deal that's got some "hair on it" (declining trend, owner dependence issues, customer concentration etc. that run off banks and high-end Buyers), OR you need a money partner or investor group to back you financially if you want to take down a higher quality deal. See graph for TLDR version of this.

excel monkeys in shambles right now