How much can you borrow to buy a business? Up to $10M with SBA backing.
Since July 4, 2026: up to $5.0M for the business itself, and up to $5.0M more for its building and heavy equipment, up to $10M combined on one deal. But the ceiling is not your number. Here is what actually sets it, without the jargon.
Free 30 minutes. Bring a deal or just a plan, and leave with your real number. Reviewed against the July 2026 rules.
Two loans, up to $10M combined
The government backs two kinds of loans for buying a business. One buys the business itself: the name, the team, the customer list, and cash to run it. The SBA calls it the 7(a), and it goes up to $5.0M. The other buys real estate and heavy equipment at a long fixed rate. That one is the 504, and it carries its own $5.0M.
Until July 3, 2026 both had to squeeze under one $5M cap, so the building crowded out the business. Since July 4 they stack: one deal can carry up to $10M combined. If the deal includes property, here is exactly how stacking works, and certain manufacturers can go further on the equipment side: the manufacturer rules explained.
Most buyers do not need the maximum. The useful question is not "what is the ceiling" but "what will a bank approve for THIS business." That number comes from three things.
Three things set what a bank will approve
First, what the business earns. The loan gets paid back out of the company's profits, not your salary, so this is most of the answer. Banks want the business to earn at least $1.25 for every $1 of yearly loan payment. A deal that barely clears that bar on optimistic math dies when the bank's accountants trim the numbers, so a safe deal is built to 1.40 or better on earnings that hold up.
Second, your down payment. Plan on roughly 10% of the total project in cash. On a $2M deal that is about $200K. If you are short, the seller can carry part of the price on terms banks accept, but the rules on that are strict and checked line by line. How much cash you need, in detail.
Third, you. Your experience, your credit, and whether your story makes sense for this business. You do not need to have run a company before, but the bank has to believe you can run this one. Industry experience, management history, and a sane transition plan all count.
What that means in real dollars
Say a business earns $500K a year after the owner's pay is normalized. At today's rates, earnings like that comfortably cover the payments on a loan in the low millions while keeping the cushion banks want. Add your roughly 10% down payment and a seller carrying a slice, and a buyer with $250K to $300K of cash is credibly shopping for a business in the $2M to $2.5M range. The same math scales up: strong earnings, clean books, and a building in the deal are how purchases reach into the $5M to $10M territory the new rules opened up.
Every real deal moves around these numbers, which is the point: the business's earnings set the loan, and the quality of the paperwork decides whether the bank believes those earnings. That second part is where deals actually die, and it is fixable before you ever make an offer.
Get your number before you go shopping
Walking into a broker conversation knowing your range changes how you get treated, and knowing the closing-order rules keeps a good deal from dying at the bank. Sixty seconds with the Stack Check gives you a first read on a live deal. A one-page deal teardown (PDF) shows you what our written reads look like.
How much can I borrow with an SBA loan to buy a business?
Does the bank lend on the business's earnings or on mine?
How much of my own money do I need to put in?
Want your real number, not the ceiling?
Thirty minutes, free. We run your cash, your target size, and the earnings math, and tell you straight what a bank is likely to approve and what would make the number bigger.
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