Most business owners slow down after Thanksgiving. Buyers don’t.
That single disconnect is why Q1 quietly becomes the most profitable window of the entire year to sell a business in Georgia.
In M&A, timing isn’t seasonal—it’s financial. And if you understand how SBA calendars reset, how buyer budgets open, and how seller competition drops, you realize Q1 is the moment where sellers gain leverage they rarely get again until the following year.
Below is exactly why.
1. Buyers Don’t Take the Holidays Off—They Gear Up
Thanksgiving to New Year’s is when casual buyers disappear.
Serious buyers do the opposite. They use this window to:
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Review their finances
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Finalize year-end taxes with CPAs
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Reassess career and investment goals
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Prepare capital for January
By the time January 2 hits, the serious buyers are already awake, funded, and aggressively searching for deals.
If your business is listed by then, you get the first wave of “new-year buyer urgency.”
If you wait until spring, you miss it.
2. SBA Calendars Reset January 1st
This is the real driver most owners never hear about.
Every January:
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Banks refresh allocation targets
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SBA 7(a) lending quotas reset
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Underwriting teams clean up backlogs
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New lending incentives roll out
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Loan committees look to deploy capital early
Early-year SBA appetite is always stronger. That means:
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Faster approvals
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Cleaner underwriting
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More flexible terms
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More aggressive lenders competing for deals
By late Q2, banks tighten. By Q3, they pick winners.
If your deal package hits a lender’s desk in January or February, your odds of smoother financing dramatically increase.
3. Buyers Enter Q1 With Fresh Budgets and a Deadline
A buyer’s psychology changes on January 1st.
Fresh budget + fresh pressure = increased urgency.
Owners underestimate how powerful this psychological trigger is. The two groups of buyers who become hyper-active in Q1:
1. Corporate refugees
High-income professionals who promised themselves:
“This year, I’m buying a business.”
2. Strategic buyers
Companies that set an acquisition budget in Q4 and must deploy it by fiscal year-end.
Both groups move fast. Both pay strong multiples.
Both want to close by end of Q1.
4. You Face Less Seller Competition
This is the overlooked advantage.
Every February and March, owners call us saying:
“I waited until things calmed down.”
That delay puts them in the most crowded wave of the year—spring listings.
Fewer sellers in Q1 = more attention, more offers, and stronger terms.
More sellers in spring = diluted buyer interest and tougher negotiations.
When supply drops and demand spikes, pricing power shifts to the seller.
That’s the math.
5. Waiting Until Spring Costs Real Money
In Georgia, valuations are heavily influenced by timing, competition, and lender appetite—not just SDE.
When owners delay listing until March or April, they lose:
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Early-year SBA lending momentum
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Buyer urgency brought on by new budgets
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Low competition among active listings
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Higher valuations due to compressed deal flow
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Faster deal timelines
Every year we see the same pattern:
Q1 deals close faster, smoother, and closer to asking price.
Spring deals slow down and require heavier negotiation.
If your goal is maximizing price, Q1 is not optional—it’s strategic.
The Bottom Line
Thanksgiving isn’t the time to shut down.
It’s the time to get ahead.
If you’re thinking about selling your Georgia business in the next 6–12 months, the smartest move you can make is preparing now so you hit the market in January—right when buyers are hungry, lenders are aggressive, and your competition is asleep.
If you’re ready, or even just considering it, this is the moment to talk.