How often do true cash buyers show up at the sub-$1M level?

May 13, 2025
by a searcher in Texas, USA
We’re in the early stages of planning an eventual exit and would love the community’s insight. This is not a formal sale post — we’re still building and not listing anything yet, but trying to get clarity ahead of time.
The business operates as a DBA under an entity that’s been around for 10+ years. For most of its life, it was owner-operated and brought in ~$100K in profit at most. Over the past few years, we’ve repositioned and scaled operations — it’s now poised to hit $300K+ in profit and approaching a ~$1M valuation ($300-400k yearly profit) based on growth and performance trends.
That said, the DBA itself has under 3 years of formal operating history, so tax return visibility is limited under the current structure.
We’re trying to understand a few things:
1. How often do true cash buyers show up at this sub-$1M level? Or is SBA/seller-financing basically a requirement?
2. With less than 3 years of tax returns for the DBA, what financing hurdles would a buyer face, especially with SBA?
3. Any general advice on how we should plan ahead to make this business more attractive to searchers or acquisition entrepreneurs?
Appreciate any feedback from those who’ve been on either side of these deals.
from Bentley College in Miami, FL, USA
from University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, USA