The numbers
As stated by the listing on August 16, 2026.
- Asking price
- $1,250,000
- SDE
- $389,787
- Gross revenue
- $800,968
- Multiple
- 3.21x
- Established
- 2006
- Employees
- 2
Why we like it
A commercial sign shop earns most of its work off events other businesses cannot control: a new tenant needs building signage before it can open, a franchise rollout needs identical storefronts across a market, a rebrand forces every location to swap faces at once. Exterior signs also carry a permit requirement in most Texas cities, and an illuminated sign brings an electrical inspection into the mix, so a shop that already knows how to walk a permit through the City of Fort Worth's process has a real head start over a print house trying to bolt signage onto its offerings. This one has run that process for twenty years with a lean crew of two, doing fabrication and print rather than just design or installation, which usually means it owns the CNC router, the large format printer and the vinyl work rather than farming it out. With a staff this small, the owner is almost certainly touching sales, estimating and probably the permit filings personally, so the first job is figuring out what leaves with that person. The more interesting question is what fraction of the work is new fabrication versus the maintenance cycle: faces fade, vinyl peels, lamps burn out, and a shop that has built a base of repeat relamping and re-skinning work has a second, steadier business sitting inside the fabrication business.
You probably need a licence to run this
Fort Worth generally requires a permit to install exterior commercial signage, and cities often require the installer or contractor to be registered to pull that permit. Illuminated signs bring in electrical connections, which in Texas fall under state electrician licensing through TDLR, so that portion of the work is typically done by a licensed electrician, either in house or subbed out, rather than requiring the owner personally to hold an electrical license. The listing does not say whether any city sign contractor registration is held by the business or by the owner personally, or whether it transfers on sale, which needs to be confirmed before closing.
What worries us
- Owner dependence with a two person staffWith only two employees, the owner is likely doing sales, estimating, design and possibly the permit filings personally, so a buyer needs to know exactly what skills and relationships walk out the door on day one.
- Customer concentration typical of small sign shopsSign shops often live off a handful of repeat general contractors, franchise groups or property managers, and losing even one or two of those accounts can swing revenue hard given the small size of this operation.
- Fabrication equipment and shop lease exposureLarge format printers, CNC routers and vinyl cutters have finite service lives and real replacement costs, and the shop's physical space needs enough clearance and loading access for sign fabrication and install trucks, so lease terms and equipment age both matter.
The callSuits a hands on buyer willing to run sales and estimating personally, not an absentee investor, given the two person staff and owner dependent setup.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $1,186,788 |
| Seller standby note | $65,932 |
| Buyer cash at close | $65,933 |
| Total sources | $1,318,653 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $1,250,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $37,500 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $31,153 |
| Total project | $1,318,653 |
- Monthly payment
- $15,034
- Annual debt service
- $180,405
- DSCR
- 1.42xBANKABLE
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($131,865 against $131,865 required)
- Closing costs estimated at 3% of asking price
- Owner salary of $120,000, loaded
- Rate of Prime + 2.25% = 9.00%
- 10-year term, fully amortizing
- Injection split half cash, half seller standby note
How we would go about buying it
The order matters. Every step below is free until the last one, and each is a chance to walk away before it costs you anything.
- 1
Call the broker, not the bank
The listing is brokered, so the broker is the gate. Ask for the CIM and the last three years of tax returns, and expect to sign an NDA first. Do this before you talk to a lender: no lender will size a loan without the numbers, and the broker will not release them to a lender you have not engaged.
Open the listing - 2
Ask these before you spend anything
Specific to this business, from our read of the listing. The answers decide whether the numbers above survive contact.
- What share of the last three years of revenue came from new fabrication and installation versus repeat maintenance work like relamping, re-skinning or face replacement, and is there a maintenance contract base?
- What permits, registrations or electrical licenses does the shop currently hold with the City of Fort Worth or other municipalities, are they in the owner's name or the business's, and do they transfer on sale?
- Who performs the electrical hookup on illuminated signs, is that done in house or subcontracted, and does that person or relationship stay with the business after the sale?
- What is the age, condition and lease status of the large format printer, CNC router and vinyl cutter, and is any of it financed or leased separately from the business?
- What does customer concentration look like among the top five accounts over the last three years, and are any of them tied to a single franchise brand or general contractor relationship?
- 3
Take it to lenders who do this size
Talk to more than one. Rate is the least of it: the lender who has done fifty of these in Texas will close, and the one who has done two will waste your quarter. Below are the lenders whose typical deal size actually fits this one.
- 4
Structure the offer around the coverage
Our structure clears the floor at 1.42x, and a lender will run its own version with its own add-backs. If the earnings come back lower than stated, the price has to come down or the seller note has to grow. Model both before you make an offer.
Model it yourself
Who we would call
Active Texas acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Live Oak Banking Company
133 loans in TXmedian $825,000median rate 9.00%~20 days to first disbursement
- First Internet Bank of Indiana
45 loans in TXmedian $980,000median rate 9.75%~23 days to first disbursement
- T Bank, National Association
39 loans in TXmedian $1,492,500median rate 9.25%~24 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Texas, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3. Funding speed is the lender’s national median from approval to first disbursement. Names link to our data profile for each lender.
The fine print
The statements this write-up makes about the trade and its rules, as opposed to the figures, were checked against public sources on August 18, 2026. 5 claims were checked.
Run your own numbers
The deal analyzer models price, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SBA terms, with every assumption adjustable.
Open the deal analyzerListing facts as stated by the listing on August 16, 2026, not independently verified. Structure, payment, DSCR, and injection figures are our own computation under the assumptions above, using the Prime rate as of August 13, 2026. Lender shortlist from the SBA 7(a) FOIA file, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology. See an error? Email us and we will correct it.