How to buy a business with no money is a real question with a narrow honest answer. The price can be funded without the buyer's cash if a lender takes most of it and the seller carries the rest as a note; what cannot be avoided is the working capital the business consumes in its first weeks and the closing costs the deal itself generates. This page shows the stack that gets the buyer's cash on the price to zero, what it does to the monthly payment, and the two lines it leaves untouched.
The stack at zero
On the acquisition cost calculator, a $450,000 business with an SBA 7(a) lender at 80% and a seller note at 10% leaves $45,000 of the price for the buyer. Move the seller note to 20% and the buyer's cash on the price is zero. That is the whole mechanism: the seller becomes a lender for the part the bank will not fund, on a note paid from the business after the keys.
What zero costs every month
A larger seller note is a larger payment. At 6% over 5 years, $90,000 of seller note costs $1,739.95 a month against $869.98 for $45,000, so the year's debt service rises from $68,731.68 to $79,171.32 and the coverage from $90,000 of earnings after the buyer's pay falls from 131% to 114%. The sheet shows the trade instantly, which is why it is run before the offer.
The two lines that never reach zero
Working capital and closing costs are paid on the day regardless of how the price is funded. The worked example carries $40,000 and $25,000, so the buyer with no money on the price still brings $65,000 to the keys. Some lenders will fund part of the working capital inside the note; the 7(a) program's maximum loan of $5 million leaves room, but the payment rises with it.
Questions people ask about how to buy a business with no money
Will a lender accept zero from the buyer?
Most want to see some of the buyer's own money in the deal, and a seller note the bank counts toward the buyer's side helps. Treat zero as the negotiating end of the range, not the plan.
Is a seller note common?
Common enough that the calculator has a line for it. Sellers accept one when the buyer is credible and the alternative is a lower price; the note also keeps them interested in a clean handover.
What does Pro add to the sheet?
It keeps every stack you try beside the target and the offer it produced, so the lender sees the version you settled on rather than the one you remembered, for $14 a month.