How to Get a Business Loan

www.sba.gov

This is a good place to start.

Definitely check out sba.gov. You can get great resources and tips to make sure you have everything in order. It can also point you to grants, especially if your service or product is unique. Also, have a good business plan and show how you will work things through/that you know what you are doing. This makes it easier to get a loan if needed.

Talk to your bank as well as other banks.

Have a solid business plan when you go in. Have good representation with investment counselors, legal and tax counsel. There are several reports required by the IRS quarterly including payroll taxes, etc. Make sure you stay on top of everything and have someone who can answer questions for you and be right.

Personally, we did not want a loan from the bank or private investor because if you take their money, then you are expected to run your business their way. We have friends in our same industry that took loans from the bank and every quarter, they have to report to the bank on sales, profits, forecasting, etc. Bottom line, the bank owns their business.

We self funded our company. We did, however, secure a line of credit for JUST IN CASE needs. Example.. I often will have an invoice for a truckload of material around $50,000 and some companies give me a discount up to 2% if I pay in 10 days. Well, of course, I jump on that. The downside... is that my customer may not take my offer of 1%10, net 30 so I end up waiting up to 3 weeks on my money from my customer.

My banker where our line of credit is located said he has never seen a company like ours have the extended line of credit we do and it not me used to the max. IF I use any of it... it is paid back within a month.

It is a lot of work but it is very rewarding in the end. We are well into our 4th year and the company is gaining equity and has sustained us very well over 3 years. We opted for no salary the first year and put everything into the company to get it stable and secure. Our company covers 100% of our medical expenses and we started a 401K plan through the company this year. The 401K plan is carefully planned along with our tax counsel and investment counsel and is just added benefits to the current retirement plans we already had in place for years. We have our daughter set up on the 401K now and she is an employee as well.

Best wishes!

Talk to your bank. Make sure you have a very well thought out and well written business plan with projections of how much money you will need and earn. Both DH and I have done this in the past and have been successful in getting business loans when needed. If you don't need all of the money up front you can ask for a line of credit instead.