Nolan Scott Team

Nolan Scott Team Business Broker and Commercial Advisor with offices in Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The U.S. and China are now recruiting countries into competing AI alliances. Washington is locking down chip supply chai...
09/14/2026

The U.S. and China are now recruiting countries into competing AI alliances. Washington is locking down chip supply chains. Beijing is offering infrastructure and governance. The AI Cold War is no longer a metaphor.

The U.S.-led Pax Silica includes Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Taiwan, the countries that control semiconductor manufacturing. China's W.A.I.C.O. signed 29 founding members including 12 African nations, Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia.

Kazakhstan is the only country in both blocs. Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Vietnam remain swing states.

An estimated $800 billion in Asia-Pacific data center investment is expected through 2030. Today's alignment decisions will lock in technology relationships for decades.

This matters far beyond foreign policy. The tools you use to run your business, the AI models available to you, the cloud infrastructure your data sits on, all of it is being shaped by which side of this divide your country falls on. The U.S. position in Pax Silica means American businesses will have access to the most advanced chips and AI infrastructure for the foreseeable future. That is an advantage, but only if you actually use it. Most small business owners are still running operations the same way they did five years ago while the global competition for AI dominance accelerates around them. The businesses adopting AI now are not just getting more efficient. They are building on the winning side of a technology divide that is hardening in real time.

The SBA just rewrote the rules for acquisition loans. Starting October 1, first-time buyers need 1.25x debt service cove...
09/11/2026

The SBA just rewrote the rules for acquisition loans. Starting October 1, first-time buyers need 1.25x debt service coverage, up from 1.15x, and projections no longer count. Only historical cash flow clears the bar. That's from SOP 50 10 8.1, issued August 14.

Read it as a seller: a business with three clean, provable years just became scarcer and more valuable. A business whose story depends on next year's numbers just got harder to finance.

The Sale-Readiness Scorecard shows you which one you are, in five minutes: https://www.nolanscottteam.com/scorecard

Hawaii households owe twice their annual income. Georgia households owe 1.42x. Tennessee sits at 1.37x, right at the nat...
09/10/2026

Hawaii households owe twice their annual income. Georgia households owe 1.42x. Tennessee sits at 1.37x, right at the national average. The difference is almost entirely mortgages.

Mortgages make up 75% of all U.S. household debt. States where home prices outran incomes the fastest now carry the heaviest burdens.

Idaho at 1.91 and Utah at 1.82 were affordable a decade ago. Rapid migration changed that math quickly.

D.C. and New York rank lowest not because they are affordable but because fewer people there own homes. Low debt from low ownership is not a win.

Georgia and Tennessee sit in a productive middle ground. Homeownership rates are above average, meaning residents are building equity, but debt ratios have not stretched to the levels seen in overheated Western markets. That balance matters for local economies. Households carrying manageable debt still spend at local businesses, still qualify for car loans, and still have capacity to absorb a rate increase without pulling back. Markets where households are leveraged at 1.8 or 1.9x income are one economic shock away from contraction in consumer spending.

America has 14.5 million vacant homes and a housing shortage at the same time. That sounds contradictory until you under...
09/09/2026

America has 14.5 million vacant homes and a housing shortage at the same time. That sounds contradictory until you understand what vacant actually means.

Georgia's vacancy rate is 10%, right at the national average. Tennessee sits at 10% as well. Neither state has a glut of empty housing sitting idle.

Maine leads at 21% and Vermont at 19%, but both are inflated by seasonal and vacation homes that are not available to year-round buyers.

Nearly 4.7 million of those 14.5 million vacant units are seasonal or recreational properties. Another 2.6 million are rentals between tenants. Fewer than 800,000 are actually listed for sale.

Low vacancy in Georgia and Tennessee confirms what every other data point has been saying. Demand is absorbing supply. Homes are not sitting empty because people keep moving in. That tight market supports both property values for real estate investors and revenue stability for businesses that serve homeowners and renters. Property management companies, home services, landscaping, HVAC, pest control, and cleaning businesses all perform better in low-vacancy markets because more occupied homes means more customers on a recurring basis.

09/08/2026

Every brokerage in Atlanta will tell you they are the best. I wrote down a test you can run on all of us in one phone call instead: who works the deal, how the price was built, what happens when financing shrinks, and whether you get real reference calls.

Then I answered the test for my own firm, in public, with our name on it.

https://www.nolanscottteam.com/post/best-business-broker-in-atlanta

Prime is 6.75% today, and rate futures on CME FedWatch say it's headed up, not down.Every SBA buyer looking at your busi...
09/08/2026

Prime is 6.75% today, and rate futures on CME FedWatch say it's headed up, not down.

Every SBA buyer looking at your business borrows at Prime plus a spread. The lender doesn't care what you think the business is worth. They care whether cash flow covers the payment.

That's why we run the SBA Affordability Model on every deal under $5M before it goes to market. The asking price has to survive the lender's spreadsheet, or the deal dies in underwriting.

Do the math before the meeting. The lender certainly will.

Every state in America gained residents from abroad in 2025. Even after a historic 50% national slowdown, Georgia still ...
09/07/2026

Every state in America gained residents from abroad in 2025. Even after a historic 50% national slowdown, Georgia still added 42,600 people and Tennessee added 18,000. That is growth you cannot manufacture domestically.

Florida and Texas led with 178,700 and 167,500 respectively, combining for 27% of all international arrivals.

Georgia ranked 9th nationally at 42,600. The 20 smallest-gaining states combined still added fewer people than New York alone.

Every person who arrives needs a haircut, a dentist, a mechanic, a tax preparer, an insurance policy, and a place to eat. International migration is not an abstract policy debate for local business owners. It is 42,600 new potential customers walking into a Georgia economy that was already growing from domestic migration. That compounding effect is what separates markets with durable revenue growth from markets that plateau. Businesses in Atlanta and Chattanooga serving growing populations have a structural tailwind that businesses in flat or declining markets simply do not. Revenue tied to population growth is the most defensible kind there is because it does not depend on marketing spend or market share gains. More people just keep showing up.

09/06/2026

The 7(a) quote you sign is not the quote that funds. Most SBA acquisition notes float against Prime, and Prime moves the day the Fed does.

For buyers: how to stress test a deal at the current quote plus a point before signing an LOI, what the October 1 SBA rules change, and why a hiking cycle quietly favors the prepared buyer.

https://www.nolanscottteam.com/post/buying-a-business-when-rates-are-rising

The market isn't just pricing one hike.As of 8/30/2026, CME FedWatch shows the market putting 88% odds on rates being hi...
09/04/2026

The market isn't just pricing one hike.

As of 8/30/2026, CME FedWatch shows the market putting 88% odds on rates being higher by December than they are today, with the most likely landing zone above 4% into 2027.

Every one of those hikes raises the cost of the money your buyer uses to pay you.

Sellers who list into cheaper money get better offers. That's not opinion, it's DSCR math.

If a sale is anywhere in your three-year plan, the planning starts now.

Spent last Thursday at City Winery for CCC Confluence, and the panel was worth the visit.Thanks to Ken Lankford, James R...
09/03/2026

Spent last Thursday at City Winery for CCC Confluence, and the panel was worth the visit.

Thanks to Ken Lankford, James Reid, Cesar Contreras, Kris Bennett, Krut Patel, Raven Thompson, and Marc A. Hershberg for being candid about the market rather than selling from the stage.

Christopher Maier, MBA and the CCC team keep raising the bar on these. Always good to be in the room.

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30309

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