‘More Support At Local Levels’ Important For Small Businesses: Co-Founder of SMB.co, Joe Brown Posted on January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant (small.news) — On Dec. 17, 2025, our small.talk series continued with Joe Brown, Co-Founder of SMB.co. Silver Lining Founder and CEO Carissa Reiniger spoke with Joe about the current state of small businesses and why SMB.co was started. Q: Why did you guys start this? A: Mike Britton and I have been in small businesses our whole lives. We got into startups and tech, which has been part of our journey. Small businesses have been a culmination of everything in our careers. I started my first one back in college. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. To be honest, it was an outfitter shop, and I wanted to hand-paint axes and sell canoes. I was going to school for firefighting. Fast forward 10 years, and I have sold a few different businesses in my lifetime and started a product studio where we built tech for other small business owners. Locally, here in Cincinnati, we built the website for Cincinnati Music Academy and the Nature Center. That’s why we started SMB. We wanted to build something that we wished was around when we decided to sell our own businesses. We recognize that there are plenty of companies that will fight over the couple of businesses around the U.S. that make more than 10 million in revenue. But nobody’s really serving small business owners that. We want to make sure that these owners understand the value of their business so they can make strategic decisions that make sense for their local communities that they serve. Top Stories Two Mexican Banks Direct Capital Toward Renewable Energy and Nuevo León’s Small Businesses Two of Mexico’s active commercial lenders announced financing initiatives in the final days of July targeting distinct but strategically significant sectors of the economy — renewable energy infrastructure and small business growth in the country’s leading industrial state, reports Mexico Business News. New Zealand Labor Unveils $1.56 Billion Small Business Package — With a Significant Trade-Off at Its Core New Zealand’s Labor Party has released a small business policy package — costed at $1.56 billion over four years — as part of its 2026 general election platform, reports Business Desk. Krista Monson on Curiosity, Courage, and Turning a Life Well Lived into a Living Legacy On August 5, 2026, Krista Monson, Founder of Sincerely Yours, joined our small.talk to share how a career spanning dance, theatre, Cirque du Soleil, and Madison Square Garden led her to her most personal work yet — helping people preserve their life stories as living memoirs. Q: What do you hope we see happen in the next 10 or 20 years? A: Over the next 10 to 15 years, there’s plenty of research around it, but there’s anywhere from five to 15 million or trillion in small businesses that need to exit in the next 10 years. Unfortunately, the national average is like 20%. Only 20% of businesses that go on the market successfully sell. So, even if all 10 trillion dollars worth of those small business owners were going to sell tomorrow, only 20% of them would end up selling. The biggest issue that we see is really like valuation and helping an owner really understand what their expectations should be, and then helping buyers make sure, you know, there’s like a middle ground that we believe that our best estimates valuations that we’ve been providing to buyers and sellers really help align both parties on. Q: What’s your hope in that amazing thing you’ve built? A: We hope that we can continue to build a company where, if we win, owners win. And if owners win, we win; it should be the exact same formula, and it’s not competing values in that sense. We love partnering with folks like Silver, and specifically this partnership with Silver. What I’m excited by is the fact that we will not only be able to help them value their company, but actually give them a directive on like optionality. So we will not only be able to help them value, but also help them grow the business for an exit that they can be prepared for. Q: How much does the business valuation cost on your platform? A: Free. Q: What’s your financial model? A: We charge a 1% close fee. So only upon success, if we can’t help you find the right next person to take over the business, you don’t owe us anything. Q: What do you think is the smallest transaction we might see in 2026? A: We have one for 20k right now. We might end up helping some owners transition some of their family businesses to family members, that might end up being like loan-based 100% seller financing. There are deals of all sizes. Q: What are you most worried about for small businesses? A: We just want to make sure that this great transfer of wealth does actually happen right now. There’s a risk that 80% of it won’t. So we want to make sure that it does successfully happen like everybody wants. Q: What’s the opportunity for small businesses? A: Two big opportunities I see for small business owners, there is way more free support, like SMB. Gives a free valuation to help you understand the value of the business and helps you realize the value of your life’s work. Plus, making sure that you can find the right next person to take over a local legacy. That is the largest opportunity. The second largest is finding more people that are willing to support small business owners in an equitable way and making sure that we can actually build a larger base of advisors for these owners. We need a larger community of those advisors. Q: If you have a Magic Silver Wand and you can wave it and make anything happen right now for all small businesses in the world, what would you use your Magic Silver Wand for? A: I would give them all free money if I could. Put money in their bank to help them hire more employees. More support at a local level is important, and having a team around makes it a lot different than operating as a sole entrepreneur. Do you want to shop small? Check out our new buy.small Marketplace! Latest Stories
Two Mexican Banks Direct Capital Toward Renewable Energy and Nuevo León’s Small Businesses Two of Mexico’s active commercial lenders announced financing initiatives in the final days of July targeting distinct but strategically significant sectors of the economy — renewable energy infrastructure and small business growth in the country’s leading industrial state, reports Mexico Business News.
New Zealand Labor Unveils $1.56 Billion Small Business Package — With a Significant Trade-Off at Its Core New Zealand’s Labor Party has released a small business policy package — costed at $1.56 billion over four years — as part of its 2026 general election platform, reports Business Desk.
Krista Monson on Curiosity, Courage, and Turning a Life Well Lived into a Living Legacy On August 5, 2026, Krista Monson, Founder of Sincerely Yours, joined our small.talk to share how a career spanning dance, theatre, Cirque du Soleil, and Madison Square Garden led her to her most personal work yet — helping people preserve their life stories as living memoirs.