United States Charity

Sue Malone asked:


all listening attentively about lenders on the radio, television, newspapers, and the Internet of promises to be “small business friendly”, “small business oriented”, wanting to be your “personal small business advisor” and a panoply of packages taking care of all your business needs. What small businesses really need is money, not personal hand caring services. So is there anyone out there really making small business loans? Yes. If you know where to look you can find one.

You can generally categorize banks into: 1) 10% that are actually making small business loans now and are serious about doing so, 2) 70% who will talk to you directly and indicate they are not making small business loans at this time because of the economy, and 3) 20% that slap you on the back, invite you in, and readily take your application. It is the latter group that gives us the most heartburn. It is not unusual after the initial review of your application papers for a bank represented to signal you have a good chance. Overjoyed, you begin to make plans, including executing contracts and receiving quotes for inventory, raw materials, or merchandise. Two months later, after the fourth loan committee review, you get a call that they have decided not to make the loan. The reason has little if anything to do with credit. It is typically something that was never been mentioned before and after reflection, it seems like an excuse not to make the loan in the first place.

Loan brokers such as myself are victims of the same misleading behavior. I cannot tell you how many banks have looked me in the eye and said: “Sure, we are making lots of loans. For unsecured loans of $75,000 to $150,000, we just need a credit score above 680, in business for over a year and a half, and decent financials. Real estate security is not required. We would love to entertain your applications.” Right.

What they really do is pour over the applications and pick 1 out of 100 that has the following fantasy credentials: a platinum credit score that Bill Gates would be proud of and which could support a small country, gushing positive cash flow, little competition, executed contracts stacked high on your desk, then a booming market niche. In other words, someone who doesn’t need the loan in the first place. You know the old adage: banks only give money to people who don’t need it.

It is simply psychology 101. Banks are filled up with loan officers and they have to show they are busy. If their boss walks into their office and sees nothing on their desk, they might be laid off. They have to show they are busy earning their salaries, which means receiving applications and going through the review process. It’s gotten so bad that the other day we had a client whose grandfather helped found the bank, whose father was best friends with the president, and who had received two successful loans before. Even he was turned down. Nor do they tell you the large SBA commercial loan department job layoffs of employees throughout the nation.

To prevent being too caught in this trap, look your banker in the eye and ask these questions:

1) “Tell me honestly. I don’t want to waste your time or mine. I know the credit crunch is quite depressing and there is really no secondary market. Are you actually entertaining small business loans at this time or should I wait.”

2) “How many small business loans have you personally made in the last 30 days?”

3) “What are the loan terms of the last three loans you made, including interest rate and monthly payments, for the amount of loan I am seeking?”

4) “How long will it take before I get a definitive answer?”

5) “Can you briefly describe to me the process I have to go through to get the final approval? Will you be the one making the final decision? What other people superior to you or committees will make that decision?”

But do not despair. There actually are real live prime lenders out there making small business loans. They just need to know where to look. In the next article I will discuss if such loans are available to startups.

Angelo Drew asked:


Lenders refer to your past financial record before giving you any loan. If you are small business entrepreneur and in the past you have already defaulted on repayments then lenders will hesitate to give you regular loans. Rather, you will have to look for bad credit small business loans.

Bad credit is a situation that may arise on many counts like you may have a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against your name or you may have earlier defaulted in repayment of a loan or applied for a bankruptcy. These occurrences put a question mark over your reliability as a borrower and, therefore, lenders keep you in a separate category. There are credit reference agencies which keep track of your bad credit situations. Lenders usually take the services of these agencies to find out your credit ratings. The better the credit ratings, easier it becomes to get loans. As is obvious, bad credit small business loans involve greater risk and, hence, high interest rates.

Small businesses often stumble due to inadequate resources. Bad credit small business loans may put you on the right track by providing you the much needed funds. Bad credit small business loans may be secured or unsecured. If you are willing to give security to the lender, you can apply for secured one or else you can take unsecured loan.

Now-a-days, lenders understand that a bad credit situation in the past may not be reflective of future events. Besides, bad credit situation may have occurred out of circumstantial compulsions. That is why, now lenders have started offering bad credit small business loans more liberally. You should undertake some research in the market – a little extra effort on your part and you will sail the boat out of trouble. If you want a quick loan processing, apply online and save time.