►EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE TAX RETURNS SAY $0 EBITDA — YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A MILLION: That's the opening act of every SMB deal. Thirty to fifty pages of messy tax returns, redactedpages of PDF bank statements, and the worst financials you've ever seen. Welcome to due diligence on Main Street. REBUILDING AN INCOME STATEMENT FROM BANK STATEMENTS IS A TRAP: Deposits look like revenue, withdrawals look like expenses — except some are balance sheet items and some are add-backs, and if you can't tell which is which, your EBITDA number is fiction. 40-80 CHECKLIST ITEMS, 500 PAGES, ZERO SHORTCUTS: Payroll to income statement, depreciation to taxes, CRM to revenue. The more rigid and comprehensive your reconciliation, the fewer surprises after close. Most buyers half-ass this step and pay for it later. STEP FOUR IS YOU, ON YOUR KNEES, PERSONALLY GUARANTEEING EVERYTHING: Your house, your life savings, your wife's trust — bet on your amateur analysis of a financial stack you've never seen before and don't know how to interpret. That's where every DIY buyer ends up. STEP FIVE COSTS ALMOST NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT YOU'RE GUARANTEEING — SKIP IT AND MEET STEP SIX: Hire a professional. The QoE fee is a rounding error next to your personal guarantee. Skip it, and step six looks exactly like step four: you in the corner, fetal position, crying