Stearns Bank (SBA lending)
At a Glance
A credible additional term sheet, and worth a first call on smaller deals that the acquisition-specialist banks pass over.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products; no fee to engage. Rates are quoted per deal and not published. FOIA-based FY2025 acquisition-lender roundups place Stearns in the top ten by volume; treat third-party rankings as directional.
- Best For
- A competing term sheet on standard acquisition deals, and smaller loans where its streamlined small-dollar product reaches deals specialist acquisition banks often will not prioritize
- Track Record
- A nationwide Preferred Lender with one of the larger 7(a) practices in the country.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Nationwide.
- Approval Authority
- Says it holds SBA Preferred Lender status, so it can approve the loan itself rather than sending the file to the agency for a second look.
- An FAQ accordion at the foot of the SBA page carries it, and answers the question in the plainest words any of these thirty use: the designation means the bank approves and closes without going to the agency.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- Publishes no floor. Most of this shelf gives a ceiling that is really the agency's own cap, and no minimum at all.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, handled remotely.
- A business-acquisition loan page carrying the product, its uses and its terms, sitting under a front page about the bank's small-business lending generally. Neither names a search or the person running one.
- Practice Lending
- A practice lending program that names buying a practice.
- Its optometry and veterinary pages offer practice loans for acquiring a practice, construction, expansion and real estate beside an equipment finance team; neither prints a figure.
- Published Terms
- A streamlined small-dollar 7(a) product for the loans bigger banks skip.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Where Its Loans Went
13 of its 23 change-of-ownership loans in the ranked industries went to one: Couriers and Express Delivery Services.
- Couriers and Express Delivery Services13 loans
- Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers5 loans
- Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings5 loans
Counts cover FY2020 through FY2025, from the SBA's loan-level file.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- SBA Preferred Lender: credit decisions made in-house rather than routed through the SBA
- Nationwide reach with a long-standing SBA practice beyond any single region
- A streamlined small-dollar 7(a) product through its lending division, covered by trade press, serving the underbanked small end
- Top-ten 7(a) acquisition volume in FY2025 FOIA-based roundups
Cons
- No dedicated searcher or acquisition practice page, so expect to explain search-style structures
- Acquisition lending sits alongside large equipment-finance and small-dollar businesses; its acquisition share is not broken out publicly
- No published rates or timelines to hold it to
What Searchers Say
Known in SBA circles as a high-volume, technology-forward 7(a) lender, with trade-press coverage of its small-dollar lending push. Searcher-community discussion is thin relative to Live Oak or Byline; sentiment is roundup-level rather than firsthand.
How to Approach
Stearns Bank (SBA lending) is a bank, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A prequalification on you and the target, often from the first email.
- A full application and the bank's own underwrite of the deal.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline, commonly two to four months.
What It Weighs
- Whether the business's cash flow covers the debt with room to spare.
- Your experience relative to the business you are buying.
- Your equity injection and how clean the financials are.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you call. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Show where every dollar comes from and goes. Sources & Uses Builder