{"apiVersion":"2026-10-19","data":{"disclaimer":"Educational. Not legal, tax, or financial advice.","resource":{"slug":"glossary","title":"Glossary","audience":"shared","summary":"The words Main Street deals actually use.","citations":[{"label":"SBA 7(a) loans","url":"https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/7a-loans"},{"label":"IRS Publication 544","url":"https://www.irs.gov/publications/p544"}],"body":"This is educational. Definitions here are plain language, not statutes.\n\n**SDE.** Seller's discretionary earnings. Profit plus owner compensation and certain personal or one-time costs, minus a replacement wage when the buyer will not do the job.\n\n**EBITDA.** Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. More common once a company has a management layer and the owner is not the whole adjustment.\n\n**Multiple.** Asking price divided by SDE or EBITDA. Real estate should be stated beside it, not buried inside it, or the multiple lies.\n\n**Add-back.** A cost in the statements that a buyer is asked to ignore. It needs evidence.\n\n**DSCR.** Debt-service coverage ratio. Cash flow divided by the year's loan payments.\n\n**IOI / LOI.** Indication of interest, then letter of intent. The second one is the document counsel argues about.\n\n**CIM.** Confidential information memorandum. The story behind the teaser, after an NDA.\n\n**QoE.** Quality of earnings. A CPA's review of whether the earnings are real.\n\n**Asset sale / stock sale.** What is being bought. See the tax primer. It changes liabilities and taxes.\n\n**7(a).** An SBA loan program often used to buy a small company. The lender decides. NewHands does not.\n\n**Teaser.** The public card. Enough to decide to sign an NDA, not enough to call the largest customer."}}}