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There is one thing that makes things difficult, not only in this economy but in all economies, for start up business loans: bad credit. Bad credit puts a very dark stain on your ability to get a loan, and your credibility as a borrower for personal purposes as well. However, there are way to get around it and ways to help get yourself out.
If your credit is not too hot but you need to finance start up business loans, bad credit will basically rule out any possibility of financing that you can get from the big banks. Bank of America, Citigroup and Wachovia will make your loan approval process nearly impossible, but small banks and credit unions will not. They have very low overhead and their interest rates are very competitive, and best of all, their representatives are an excellent group of people that will be higher up on the decision making process and lead you much closer to getting the kind of financing that you need. You may also want to consider P2P lending.
However, if you are tired of this sort of problem, you may want to nip it in the bud and make it easier in the long term to get start up business loans. Bad credit is easy to get into, but it is also not terribly hard to get out of. Getting out of bad credit requires the consolidation of debt into a single loan with a low interest rate (preferably though a non-profit organization), a steady payment of the loans, and an eventual re-development of the system by taking on new loans and paying them off. This is an excellent and time-tested tactic for getting you out of debt and keeping you out.
