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When getting a business loan, small steps are usually the best to take. A carefully crafted business proposal, along with a good selection of potential lenders, is the winning combination to getting the small business loan that you deserve.
A good business proposal is comprised of five components: a strong introduction, a history and mission statement of the business, a strong plan that shows how and why the money will be spent (and how and why it will yield a positive return), a detailed market analysis and a disclosure of asset holdings. Each one of these should build you to a common goal: demonstrating to the lender that the large sum of money he is leaving in your hands is, in fact, a good investment. At each step you want to capitalize on a very specific aspect of the business model: the intro demonstrates your character, the history and mission statement explains who is involved and what the operation is, the plan shows the organization’s strategy, the market analysis explains the conditions, and the financial assets show security in the event of a worst-case scenario. The more assured you can make the lender that his loan is safe, the better chance you have of getting a business loan.
Small banks and credit unions are excellent places to go to make your sales pitch. They tend to have very little overhead so their interest rates tend to be lower, and the loan representatives are much more flexible and have some decent authority in the decision-making procedure. Try and find your bank through word of mouth; the best qualities in a lender are usually not advertised.
When applying for a business loan, small businesses may be a bit of an underdog, but at the same time they are also very flexible and can get away with many things that big businesses can’t.
