The "silver tsunami": a generation is selling
Baby boomers own a huge share of America's small businesses, and they're aging out. This demographic wave, nicknamed the "silver tsunami", is the single biggest force in the small-business M&A market right now.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Boomer-owned businesses expected to transition (next decade) | 2.3 to 3 million | Project Equity [1] |
| People employed by those businesses | ~32 million | Project Equity [1] |
| Annual revenue generated by those businesses | ~$6.5 trillion | Project Equity [1] |
| Estimated business assets transferring as boomers retire | ~$10 trillion | Industry estimates [1] |
| Retiring owners without a formal succession plan | ~50% | Exit Planning Institute [1] |
| Firms McKinsey projects viable for sale through 2035 | ~1 million | McKinsey [1] |
Roughly half of retiring owners have no succession plan, and a third of owners over 50 say they can't find a buyer at all.
Read that last line twice. The bottleneck isn't businesses for sale, it's qualified buyers. That's the market Acquisition Ace exists to fix, and why who ends up owning these businesses is one of the defining economic questions of the decade.
SBA 7(a): the acquisition financing engine
Most first-time buyers finance a business with an SBA 7(a) loan, often with as little as 10% down. That program is lending at historic levels:
Three straight quarters above ~$8.6 billion made FY2025 the most sustained run of high 7(a) volume since the SBA began tracking in 1991 [2]. And because more than half of all 7(a) loans are under $150,000 and 80%+ are under $500,000, this is overwhelmingly a Main Street, small-deal program, exactly the size of business a regular buyer can acquire. See how the money stacks up in our SBA 7(a) acquisition guide.
What small businesses actually sell for
Marketplace transaction data gives the clearest picture of real-world prices and multiples:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Median sale price | ~$350,000 |
| Median cash flow (SDE) | ~$165,000 |
| Median sale multiple | ~2.7× SDE |
| Average multiple, all industries (2025) | ~2.5× SDE |
Source: BizBuySell Insight Report transaction data [3]. Multiples vary widely by industry, from ~2.3× for restaurants to 4×+ for laundromats and car washes. See the full industry multiples database and our valuation calculator.
The one-sentence takeaway
A record number of profitable businesses are hitting the market at accessible prices, financed by a booming SBA program, and there aren't enough trained buyers to absorb them. That gap is the opportunity.
Why 2026 is a buyer's moment
- Supply is surging. Millions of boomer businesses, half without a succession plan, are looking for a buyer.
- Financing is flowing. SBA 7(a) is at record volume, and rates have eased from their peak (see current SBA rates).
- Prices are reasonable. Median deals at ~2.7× SDE remain far cheaper than starting from zero or buying a franchise.
- Competition is thin. A third of sellers can't find a buyer, trained buyers face far less competition than in real estate or startups.
Want the playbook? Start with How to Buy a Business, then run a deal through the deal scorer.
Frequently asked questions
An estimated 2.3 to 3 million boomer-owned SMBs are expected to transition ownership this decade (Project Equity). They employ ~32 million people and generate ~$6.5 trillion in annual revenue.
The median small business sold for about $350,000 on ~$165,000 of SDE in early 2026, roughly a 2.7× multiple (BizBuySell Insight Report).
The fundamentals favor buyers: record supply from retiring owners, record SBA lending, reasonable multiples, and a shortage of qualified buyers. See is 2026 a good time to buy.
Sources
- [1] Boomer succession / "silver tsunami": Project Equity (business transition estimates, employment, revenue); Exit Planning Institute (succession-planning gap); McKinsey (firms viable for sale). Summarized by Old National Bank and Project Equity (2026).
- [2] SBA 7(a) lending volume: SBA 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports, FY2025, via SBA Open Data; quarterly analysis via iBusiness Funding (2025).
- [3] Sale prices & multiples: BizBuySell Insight Report transaction data (Q1 2026); industry multiples aggregated by Sundance Financial and East Coast Advisory (2026).
