Resources/SBA Market Pulse/Professional Services
Live SBA FOIA Data

SBA Loan Statistics for Professional Services Firms

SBA 7(a) statistics for professional services — median loan sizes, interest rates, acquisition financing, and Two Markets valuation context.

Data as of 2025-09-30 · Based on 4,867 SBA 7(a) loans across 7 NAICS codes

Industry Debt Benchmark

$297,279

Median SBA 7(a) gross approval for Professional Services (FY 2025)

FY 2025

Avg Interest Rate (FY 2025)

9.94%

Acquisitions

9%

Loans (Selected FY)

2,482

+4% vs FY 2024

Loan Purpose Mix

How SBA 7(a) loans in your industry break down by business purpose · FY 2025

Change of Ownership
9%(224)
Startup
28%(688)
Existing Business
63%(1,564)
Other
0%(6)

9% of SBA loans in your sector fund ownership changes — a signal of consolidation and reinvestment activity.

Typical Loan Size

Interest Rate Trend

All-years avg: 11.05% (FY 20242025)

Acquisition Activity in Your Sector

The share and size of Change of Ownership SBA loans signals how active acquisition financing is in your industry.

Acquisition Share

9%

Median Loan

$455,500

Median Rate

9.56%

Median Term

120 mo

12% of acquisition loans involved a franchise brand (e.g. Super 8, Urban Air, One Hour Air).

FY 2025 · 224 Change of Ownership loans · Loan approval ≠ purchase price

Two Markets for Professional Services

Public markets reward scale and liquidity. SMB lending reflects the capital available to businesses your size.

Wall Street

Public companies

EV / EBITDA

EBITDA Margin

Main Street

SBA + SMB deals

SMB Multiple

Median SBA Loan

$297,279

2,482 SBA loans (latest FY)

The spread between these markets is the illiquidity and size discount built into SMB economics.

Important context

SBA loan approvals reflect financing amounts, not business enterprise value. Not all exits or acquisitions use SBA debt — buyers typically combine equity, seller notes, and conventional bank financing.

Data is aggregated and anonymized from SBA FOIA disclosures and Damodaran industry datasets. Public company multiples reflect listed firms and are not direct comparables for most SMB transactions.

See our valuation methodology for how XIT blends FCFF, FCFE, and EV/EBITDA — and why SBA loan sizes are financing context, not a formal appraisal.

What owners should know

Professional services firms — accounting, legal adjacencies, and B2B services — are asset-light, which makes lender behavior the binding constraint on many deals. SBA 7(a) data reveals median approvals, rate trends, and how much lending supports ownership changes versus working capital. Compare FOIA aggregates to public-company multiples before LOI or succession planning.

Frequently asked questions

The hero metric reflects median gross approval for mapped NAICS codes in the selected fiscal year.
Many partner buyouts and small firm acquisitions use SBA-guaranteed debt. Check the acquisition percentage tile for change-of-ownership share.
Rate insights compare loan-count-weighted average initial rates across fiscal years in the dataset.
Public firms reflect scale and liquidity most local practices never achieve. The Two Markets panel shows both benchmarks side by side.
No — use these figures as financing context. XIT blends FCFF, FCFE, and EV/EBITDA with your financials.