# Guides and articles

> Guides to buying a Florida business — screening, financing, SDE and valuation multiples — computed from live listings, plus articles on what happens to businesses listed for sale.

Source: https://www.mainstreetdiligence.com/blog/

# Guides & articles

Everything published here, in one place.

## Guides

These are recomputed from every active Florida listing each time the site builds, so they do not carry a publication date — they carry the date of the crawl behind them.

## How the screening works

What every listing is checked against before it reaches you, the five-step path through the site, and what we deliberately refuse to claim.

## How much cash do you need to buy a business?

What $25K through $500K actually reaches once the equity injection and debt-service coverage are both applied. Counted, not a rule of thumb.

## What is SDE? Seller's discretionary earnings explained

The number every listing leads with, what goes into it, where it gets inflated, and the real distribution across every active Florida listing.

## What multiple do small businesses actually sell for?

The "2 to 3 times SDE" rule describes about half the market. Here is the whole distribution, by industry, and what actually moves a multiple.

## Florida market data, by county and industry

Prices, owner earnings, multiples and financeability for every county and industry with enough listings to say something meaningful.

## Articles

## Two SBA rule changes that decide whether you can buy a Florida business this year

Green-card holders lost SBA eligibility on 1 March. On 1 October the coverage ratio on an acquisition loan rises from 1.15x to 1.25x. Both changes are already final, and neither is being explained clearly to buyers.

August 19, 2026