Buying a Smartstyle franchise: SBA acquisition loan data

What this tells a buyer

• Price range to expect. Loan size tracks purchase price. Half of Smartstyle resale loans landed between $277,500 and $711,250.
• Lender experience exists. Stearns Bank National Association alone has financed 17 Smartstyle resales.
• Guaranty. The SBA guaranteed 75% of the dollars lent here.
• What the file leaves out. The SBA file does not record franchisor transfer terms or fees.

How Smartstyle compares

The median for Smartstyle resale loans is $482,500, well above the $288,600 median for beauty salons and below the $645,250 median for all SBA-financed acquisitions nationally.

The middle half runs $277,500 to $711,250, against $283,000 to $1,465,000 nationally; the median term is 10 years, the same as the national median; the average initial rate is 7.32%, below the 7.76% national average.

Seasoned loans were charged off at 2.2%, below the 3.1% rate for beauty salons and below the 3.5% rate for all acquisition loans.

Loan size distribution

Most Smartstyle resale loans (89%) were under $1M, and the largest single band is $350K to under $1M at 57%, against 33% of all acquisition loans.

Bands are fixed dollar ranges chosen for comparison. They are not SBA program limits.

Lender concentration

Stearns Bank National Association made 37% of Smartstyle resale loans, and the top three lenders together made 78%. 3 of the 11 lenders involved made three or more. Only 3 lenders have repeat experience here. That is a rough guide to how many banks have seen this kind of deal before.

Recent activity

No Smartstyle resale loans were approved in FY2025 and FY2026, the last two complete fiscal years.

Financing a Smartstyle resale: what lenders financed

The median SBA 7(a) loan for a Smartstyle resale was $482,500 across 46 loans (FY2018 to FY2026). Stearns Bank National Association, Live Oak Banking Company and BankUnited, National Association have financed the most Smartstyle resales. Of 46 seasoned loans (FY2018 to FY2020), 2.2% were charged off, 38% lower than the 3.5% average for all SBA acquisition loans.

Smartstyle acquisition loans by year

How often do these acquisition loans fail?

Of the 46 Smartstyle acquisition loans approved from FY2018 to FY2020 (the seasoned cohort, every loan at least about five years old), 1 have been charged off by the SBA, a rate of 2.2% by loan count and 2.1% by dollars. 32 have already been paid in full.

For comparison, the charge-off rate across all SBA 7(a) acquisition loans in the FY2018 to FY2021 cohort is 3.5%, so Smartstyle is 38% lower than the acquisition-loan average. Non-acquisition 7(a) loans (every other stated purpose) approved FY2018 to FY2021 charged off at 6.2%.

"Charged off" is the SBA's final loss action on a defaulted loan after collection efforts. It lags default by a year or more, which is why only older cohorts are measured. It is not the same as a delinquency rate, and loans still outstanding can still fail. See charge-off in the glossary.

How lenders classify Smartstyle

Lenders code each loan to a NAICS industry. For Smartstyle the codes used were:

Related

• All Beauty Salons acquisitions
• Florida acquisitions
• Texas acquisitions
• Ohio acquisitions
• Stearns Bank National Association
• Live Oak Banking Company
• BankUnited, National Association
• All franchise brands

Brand name as recorded by lenders in the SBA file: "Smartstyle" (franchise code S2274). Figures are aggregates of public SBA data and are not provided or endorsed by the franchisor.