iscoverWith so many Baby Boomers set to retire in the coming decade, advocates have said there is an urgent need to follow America’s lead and ensure profitable businesses do not get swallowed up by private equity or the big of town.
US-style small business loan scheme needed in face of looming ‘silver tsunami’
20 October 2025
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9 minute read
Recently, a Queensland-based accountant set up an online petition, calling on the federal government to set up a US-style loan scheme for small businesses, which garnered nearly 1,300 signatures.
The US Small Business Administration, established in the 1950s, guarantees a new buyer’s loan, reducing the bank’s risk. According to the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman’s (ASBFEO) report, Small Business Matters, over one in five (22 per cent) of Australian small business owners are aged 60 or over.
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Coraggio, one of Australia’s largest groups of private business owners, has joined the call for the federal government to introduce a similar scheme Down Under, given that selling existing businesses in Australia will become a “major issue” in the next decade, “as hundreds of thousands of businesses go up for sale as the ‘silver tsunami’ seek to retire”.
“Some will hand over to a younger family member, but many are likely to go unsold and close causing significant strain on the economy,” the group said.
Coraggio chief executive Richard Skarzynski said that the guarantee should also go one step further by providing funding for successful applicants to educate them in how to manage rapid growth, so that the economy realises the direct benefits provided by the loan guarantee.
“Providing this type of loan structure is vital for business transition but there is no point in providing this mechanism to enable generational business acquisition if these new owners do not have the skills to maintain and grow the business,” he said.
“Business owners want to be sure that the company they have built – probably over many decades - is going to be in good hands.”
“That means the new owner should be surrounded by a strong advisory board of business leadership peers to ensure the funding is well directed to further grow these businesses and realise the dreams of the new owners and build the economy,” Skarzynski added.
“It’s a low-cost mechanism, and with this educational attachment becomes a low-risk, low-cost investment for the government that provides the greatest return. It’s the fastest and lowest-cost way to grow the economy.”
In some cases, he continued, there will be a succession plan to pass the business on to a son and/or daughter, but added that this is not an option for all professionals. Moreover, it can be difficult for younger or less-established buyers to secure loans to buy a business.
“If these small businesses can’t be acquired, they will either shut and disappear or private equity funds will swoop in, pay very little for them and roll them up into a national business and put the prices up for the industry which is their payback,” Skarzynski noted.
He said many older owners run small businesses in regional and rural areas and “if they exit without successors, the towns risk losing essential services and economic stability”.
“We need to value self-employment.”
“Yes, it can be a hard slog, but it can also be very rewarding with the right advice both financially and personally.”
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