The numbers
As stated by the listing on August 17, 2026.
- Asking price
- $715,000
- SDE
- $275,000
- Gross revenue
- $940,000
- Multiple
- 2.60x
Why we like it
A live event needs sound, light and a screen that works, and none of that arrives on its own: someone has to spec the gear, truck it in, rig it, run it during the show and strike it before the venue turns the room over. Middlesex County sits inside the Boston corporate and higher-education belt, which stacks a calendar out of quarterly all-hands meetings, university conferences, hotel ballroom weddings, and the December run of holiday parties that most AV shops treat as their busiest stretch. This company sells production services against that calendar, and the work lands as revenue per booked event rather than as a subscription, which is why the top line can look lumpy month to month even when the year totals hold up. The first thing to check is how much of that calendar actually lives in the owner's head: in a shop this size, the person who answers a 4pm call the day before load-in is usually the same person who knows which vendor has a spare line array, and if that relationship and know-how do not transfer, the calendar thins out fast. The equipment itself takes a beating against a weekly setup and strike schedule, so the inventory a buyer inherits is really a second, quieter negotiation sitting inside the first one, over what still has useful life left in it.
No personal licence needed
AV production is not a licensed trade in Massachusetts and there is no state credential the buyer personally must hold to own or operate the company. Some venues require certified electricians or riggers for specific installs, but that work is typically handled by staff or subcontractors rather than the owner, so a buyer without an AV background can run the business by hiring or retaining technical crew.
What worries us
- Owner-held relationships and technical knowledgeVenue contacts, planner relationships and on-site troubleshooting expertise often sit with the owner in a shop this size, and the listing does not say how much of the client calendar is personal to them versus institutional to the business.
- Seasonality and event-driven revenueStated revenue and cash flow are seller-reported totals across a calendar year, but live event work clusters around wedding and conference seasons and year-end corporate parties, so monthly cash flow is likely uneven even if the annual figures hold.
- Equipment age and replacement needCameras, lighting rigs and sound gear get loaded, run and struck on a weekly basis, and the listing gives no detail on the age or condition of the current inventory, which affects how much capital a new owner needs to put in soon after closing.
The callSuits a buyer with event industry contacts or sales instincts willing to run point on client relationships, not a passive owner hoping the calendar fills itself.
Our calculations
Our standard SBA 7(a) acquisition structure applied to the asking price. Assumptions below.
Sources
| SBA 7(a) loan | $676,504 |
| Seller standby note | $37,583 |
| Buyer cash at close | $37,584 |
| Total sources | $751,671 |
Uses
| Purchase price | $715,000 |
| Closing costs (est.) | $21,450 |
| SBA guaranty fee | $15,221 |
| Total project | $751,671 |
- Monthly payment
- $8,570
- Annual debt service
- $102,836
- DSCR
- 1.37xBANKABLE
- Injection check
- Meets 10% ($75,167 against $75,167 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 $940,000 in stated gross revenue comes from the top five clients or venues, and are any of those relationships tied to a personal contract with the current owner?
- What is the age, condition and estimated replacement cost of the current AV equipment inventory, and is any of it leased or financed separately from the sale?
- How many crew members working events are 1099 contractors versus W-2 employees, and does the business have exclusivity or non-compete arrangements with any of them?
- What is the revenue split between corporate events, weddings, conferences and other event types, and how does that split fall across quarters?
- Is there a booked pipeline of future events at the time of sale, and do any existing venue or planner contracts transfer to a new owner?
- 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 Massachusetts 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 1.37x, 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 Massachusetts acquisition lenders whose typical deal size fits this one.
- Rockland Trust Company
46 loans in MAmedian $260,000median rate 7.00%~15 days to first disbursement
- Live Oak Banking Company
26 loans in MAmedian $957,500median rate 9.00%~20 days to first disbursement
- Webster Bank National Association
21 loans in MAmedian $335,000median rate 9.25%~36 days to first disbursement
Loan counts and medians are that lender’s change-of-ownership loans in Massachusetts, 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. 2 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 17, 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.