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Getting a small business loan is typically an easy task; of course, the limiting factor here being just how small it has to be. Typically a sizable loan, which might be what you need in order to start your business, is going to be much more difficult to come by if either your credit is limited or you are just starting out. While you will almost certainly have limited success with a large bank, even if you have been a loyal patron for years, you may want have reasonable success with another avenue: SBA small business loans.
The Small Business Administration is an organization dating back to the Eisenhower administration that guarantees loans for small businesses owned by women, minorities, veterans, the disadvantaged, and any number of other groups. Fortunately, the program has become so extensive that nearly any new business can find a way to qualify for one or more of what are called “Microloan†programs. Microloans are smaller than one would typically encounter with small banks and credit unions (less than $35,000), but luckily there is a bit of a loophole here: if you apply for multiple SBA small business loans in a short period of time (two weeks), you can easily get the equivalent of a larger loan without having any negative repercussions on your credit score. You see, each credit pull that you allow a creditor to execute will have a negative impact on your credit score, but because highly credit-worthy individuals often make multiple credit pulls in short periods of time when looking for a big loan (presumably because they are choosy), the credit reporting bureaus allow all credit pulls made within a two week period to count as though they were one. One can use this to his advantage if you need to make good use of SBA small business loans, and in effect get the same deal that you would at a large bank…except at an even lower interest rate.
