01
The 7 zero-down structures
Seller financing, standby notes, SBA stacking, lease-to-own, earn-outs, and two structures most advisors never mention — each with the math worked out.
Seller note
Standby period
SBA 7(a) stack
Earn-out
2026 Rules Edition
The Zero-Down Acquisition
Seller financing and earn-outs — without a bank.
Creative AcquisitionsVol. I
The flagship playbook
The Zero-Down Acquisition
Seller financing and earn-outs — without a bank.
Buy a $1M+ business. Use zero of your own cash.
$67$97Save $30
Instant download — nothing ships, nothing to wait for
Read it tonight, use it on the next call
30-day refund, no questions asked
Read this if
“I want to buy a business”
You are ready to own something that already makes money. You just do not have a lump sum sitting in a bank account, and every path you have been shown starts with one.
- You have run the numbers on listings you had no way to fund.
- A broker asked for proof of funds and you went quiet.
- You keep waiting on a down payment that never quite arrives.
Upgrade to The Wealth Vault — $197
All six playbooks instead of one. Bought separately they come to $432.
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Sound familiar?
The business you wanted sold last month. To someone with less money than you.
You are not short of ambition, and you are not short of ability. You are short of one thing — a lump sum — and every path anyone has ever shown you starts with already having it. So you wait. And the price of the thing you are waiting for climbs faster than the account you are waiting with.
- You have opened a listing, run the numbers, seen that it works, and closed the tab because you had no way to fund it.
- A broker asked for proof of funds and the conversation quietly ended there.
- Your bank wants two years of operating history in an industry you have not entered yet.
- The only businesses priced where you can reach are the ones nobody else wants.
- You have read the popular acquisition books and every one of them assumes a bank eventually says yes.
- None of them tell you what to do in the ten seconds after a seller says he will not carry paper.
- You are five years into saving a down payment that has moved twice while you saved it.
- Someone you know bought a business last year and you still do not actually understand how they paid for it.
The gap was never money. It is structure — and structure is learnable in an evening.
A worked deal
How a $1.2M business gets paid for without your cash.
This is the HVAC acquisition worked in full in Chapter 7 — every dollar of the purchase price, and exactly where it came from.
01
Purchase price agreed
The number on the listing, after diligence moved it.
$1,200,000
02
Seller note, 10-year
Half the price carried by the seller at 6%, on standby for the first 24 months.
$600,000
03
SBA 7(a) tranche
The bank funds what the seller will not, secured against the assets.
$420,000
04
Earn-out on EBITDA
Paid out of profit the business has not made yet.
$120,000
05
Seller equity roll
The seller keeps a minority stake, and stays motivated through the transition.
$60,000
06
Your cash at close
Every dollar came from the asset, the bank, or the seller.
None of it
Chapter 7 walks the whole timeline — LOI to close in 91 days — with the covenant pack that caps your downside if the business misses.
The gatekeeper path
20% cash down
Perfect credit and W-2 income
A bank that sets your timeline
Thirty years of saving first
Permission from someone else
The zero-down path
The seller carries the paper
Structure instead of cash
You control the timeline
A closing this year
The asset pays for itself
28pages
7deal structures
12seller scripts
$1.2Mworked deal
Chapter by chapter
Built to be used, not shelved.
02
Find the seller who will carry
How to source retiring, burned-out, and motivated owners who care more about a clean exit than a cash-at-close number.
Seller sourcing
Motivation signals
Broker questions
Off-market
03
The offer scripts
Word-for-word language that frames zero-down as the seller best exit — not as a discount request. Twelve scripted lines that move the call from price to structure.
12 scripts
Objection handling
LOI language
Term sheet
04
Close and protect
The due-diligence checklist, deal memo templates, and the covenant pack that keeps your downside near zero when the business underperforms.
14-doc diligence
Deal memo
Covenant pack
100-day plan
05
The Plan B chapter
Five alternative structures for when the seller flatly refuses to carry: revenue-share notes, royalty notes, contingent value rights, holdco equity rolls, and retention deferred comp.
Revenue share
Royalty note
Contingent value
Equity roll
Everything you get
What lands in your inbox, and what each piece does for you.
✓
The 28-page playbook (PDF)
Long-form and phone-readable, so you can work it on the drive to a seller meeting.
✓
7 zero-down deal structures
Each with the math worked out, so you know your cash at close before you make the offer.
✓
12 seller-conversation scripts
Word-for-word lines that move the call off price and onto terms.
✓
A worked $1.2M HVAC acquisition
LOI to close with the real timeline, so you see the whole shape of a deal once before you live it.
✓
LOI and term-sheet starter language
Hand your attorney something to redline instead of paying them to start from a blank page.
✓
The earn-out covenant pack
Buyer-side protections in plain English, so your downside is capped before you sign.
✓
14-document due-diligence checklist
Everything your lender and attorney will ask for, assembled before they ask.
✓
The Plan B chapter
Five alternative structures for the day the seller flatly refuses to carry.
The room you are actually in
You are ready to own something that already makes money. You just do not have a lump sum sitting in a bank account, and every path you have been shown starts with one.
What changes for you
Four moments this earns its keep.
1
Stop waiting on a down payment
Structure replaces cash. You negotiate terms instead of saving for five more years.
2
Walk into seller calls with language, not hope
Twelve scripted lines move the conversation from price to structure in the first ten minutes.
3
Know your downside before you sign
The covenant pack and diligence list are what protect you when the business misses its numbers.
4
Have an answer when the seller says no
The Plan B chapter is the part every other acquisition book skips entirely.
What readers say
Why this works.
★★★★★
[PLACEHOLDER — replace with a real buyer quote before publishing]
— [Buyer name], [city]★★★★★
[PLACEHOLDER — replace with a real buyer quote before publishing]
— [Buyer name], [city]★★★★★
[PLACEHOLDER — replace with a real buyer quote before publishing]
— [Buyer name], [city]Placeholder testimonials. Replace with real, verifiable buyer quotes in the product PDP Content metafield before publishing.
Common questions
Before you buy.
No. The playbook is written for a first-time buyer and assumes you have never read a P&L for a deal before.
No. Every financing decision and every seller decision belongs to them. This teaches structure, language, and diligence — not outcomes.
Yes. Seller financing, earn-outs, and standby notes are standard M&A instruments. The playbook covers how each one is documented.
Instant PDF download after checkout. Readable on phone, tablet, or desktop. No shipping, nothing to wait for.
30-day refund, no questions asked.
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The gap was never money. It is structure — and structure is learnable in an evening.
The Zero-Down Acquisition — $67