Applying for a small business loan can be a tricky process, as there are several requirements you need to meet in order to obtain one. Those requirements can be confusing, as lenders require everything from business licenses and cash flow history to business plans and personal financial statements. 

Whether you are applying for a business loan from a traditional bank, alternative lender, or credit union,  as a small business owner in need of financing, one of the ways you can untangle the process is to use the following small business loan checklist.  This checklist will help to ensure that you are ready to apply with confidence. Knowing what documents are needed for a business loan ahead of time will keep you organized and possibly help you get a reasonable interest rate on your loan. 

Things to Consider Before Applying for a Business Loan

Before even beginning to collect your business loan paperwork,  there are key factors you should consider:

Why do I need a loan?

This is perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself before applying for a small business loan. Getting a business loan just to have the money you borrowed sit around while you pay interest on it is obviously a bad idea. 

• Ideally, the proceeds of a business loan should be used towards growing your business so that it can increase its revenue. For example, if you need money to develop and market a new product; purchase or upgrade equipment; expand your business by hiring new employees; or adding to your inventory would all be ideal reasons to obtain a loan. 
• There are also financing products, such as working capital loans and business lines of credit, that can help your business operate during the offseason or when there’s a downturn in the economy. 

Can I afford a loan?

Everyone knows that loans carry interest rates, and those rates are, in part, affected by the current interest rate environment. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 10 times in the past year-and-a-half, and that’s going to make the interest rate on virtually every type of business loan you want to take out more expensive. If you can afford to wait, you might want to hold off on getting a business loan until rates drop again. 

What type of lender suits me best?

There are several types of lenders who can provide you with a small business loan. Those include traditional banks, alternative lenders, trade unions, marketplaces, and brokers. Each one comes with pros and cons that you should consider carefully. Some lenders, such as traditional banks and alternative lenders, offer financing products directly, while brokers typically offer you a marketplace of lenders. Also, some will demand higher business and personal credit scores than others, and some can deliver your funds more quickly than others. Carefully consider which one best serves your needs.

Can I get a grant instead?

There are, of course, several public and private business grants available to small businesses – some of which are backed by the US SBA. These grants often have specific criteria for applying. For example, some may be offered to small businesses in certain industries, and others may be offered only to women- and minority-owned businesses. Determine whether you qualify, but remember, applying for these can be a roll of the dice and you’re not guaranteed to win a grant. 

Do I have a plan B?

All small business owners have the best of intentions when applying for a business loan, but life happens, and sometimes it won’t go your way. Before you take out a loan, it’s a good idea to make a contingency plan if things go south and you find yourself struggling to keep up with debt payments. Bankruptcy should be a last resort. Do you have assets you can sell? Do you have a cash reserve that you can draw upon until you get back on your feet? 

Small Business Loan Documents Checklist

Go over this business loan documents list to make sure you are prepared for the sometimes overwhelming process of applying for a business loan. Doing so will simplify and hasten the process of getting the funding you need for your small business. 

Check your credit scores  

All lenders will pull both your personal and business credit reports. You can check your personal FICO scores online for free at the websites of the three main credit bureaus, Transunion, Experian and Equifax. You may have to pay a fee to get detailed reports so that you can check for errors. You can check your business credit score at the website of Dun & Bradstreet, the business credit bureau that is most heavily favored by lenders, for a small fee. 

If your personal FICO and business credit scores are less-than-stellar, you may want to consider taking 6-9 months to improve them so that you can increase your chances of being approved and get a better rate on your loan.

Prove that your business exists

All lenders will require documentation proving that your small business is registered as a tax entity. At the very least they will require your employee identification number, which is issued by the IRS, and proof that your business is registered as a LLC, “Doing Business As” (DBA) company, or an S or C corporation. Lenders will also require proof of identity, pay stubs, and your social security number as well. For an SBA 7a loan or a term loan from a traditional bank, the lists of documents required can be even longer and include items such as business licenses, business lease agreements, proof of equity injection and franchise, and licensing agreements if you plan to franchise your business.

Have a business plan

If you plan to apply for a term loan with a traditional bank or for a SBA 7a loan, chances are you will need to show your business plan. This is a plan that shows how your business is organized and typically includes a market analysis and what niche your products and services fill, how they differ from your competitors, and why you believe your small business will be successful going forward. In short, it details why you believe your business is going to make money.

Financial Statements

Almost all types of lenders will want to see your business’s financial documents that indicate it has a strong cash flow history, including, but not limited to 3-6 months’ worth of business bank statements, 2-3 years of tax returns, balance sheet statements and income statements. 

Run a cash flow analysis

Cash flow is one of the primary indicators that lenders use to understand the health of your business. Being able to show 3 to 6 months of positive cash flow can increase your chances of approval. It can even get you better financing terms for your small business loan. 

Collect your business bank statements 

Your business accounts are another good indicator of your company’s financial health. Generally, lenders want to see a positive daily balance on your bank statements for the past 3 to 6 months. 

Gather  supporting documents for unusually large deposits

Unusually large deposits can act as a red flag for lenders. While the  presence of these deposits can delay finalization of loans, they are not necessarily bad. Many businesses understandably have large swings in deposits and credits to their account. If your business is like that, you can expedite your loan application process gathering copies of your account receivables and future contracts to support these large deposits.

Take care of delinquencies

Many lenders only want to lend to people whom they believe are of high character. This is especially true when you’re applying for SBA loans. As such, if you have any tax liens or are late on child support payments, you should take the necessary steps to clear those up before you apply. 

Resolve any open tax liens

Unresolved open tax liens can hurt your ability to obtain financing. If possible, try to get a payment plan set up on any open tax liens you may have before you apply for a loan. A payment plan on a tax lien, along with a very strong positive cash flow will typically be considered by alternative lenders and even some SBA lenders for loan approval 

Assess any collateral you may have

Before you apply for a loan package, you may want to sit down with a business loan specialist or an accountant to see if you need to put up collateral. This includes real estate, investment holdings, savings and even your car or valuable pieces of equipment you may own. Traditional banks often want collateral if your business credit or personal FICO score is shaky. In rare cases, alternative lenders may ask for collateral. Even if you have good credit, it might be worth applying for a secured bank loan or business line of credit because you may be able to notch a lower interest rate and a higher credit line or loan amount if you put up collateral. 

Get trade references

If your business credit score is borderline, you can boost it by getting positive references from either your suppliers or, if you lease a physical space, your landlord. You can give these references to your credit bureaus and, if you’re using a traditional bank, to the loan officer. Having these could mean the difference between obtaining a loan or getting rejected. 

If you get Rejected

Getting rejected for a business loan isn’t pleasant, but it can be a valuable lesson on how to get accepted the next time you apply. Traditional banks and alternative lenders want to grant you a loan approval because it’s the way they make money. As such, they will be happy to give you a detailed explanation for why you were denied, and, usually, it will take a bit of time to improve your business to the point where you can obtain that business loan.

While every rejection is different, some of the most common reasons for getting rejected for a business loan are:

Your business credit score is not high enough

Some of the ways you can raise your business credit score include:

•  reducing the number of creditors you owe money to
• making sure you make debt payments on time for at least 6-9 months
• having a strong credit mix. 

Other steps include being in good standing with your suppliers and increasing the assets of your business. 

Insufficient time in business 

Traditional banks typically won’t lend to a small business that hasn’t existed for at least three years, while alternative lenders may want to see at least two years in business. If this is the case, hold off on borrowing until your small business has been in operation for a sufficient time. If you can’t wait, see if you qualify for an SBA CDC/504 or SBA microloan, both of which only require 6 months in business. 

Too much existing debt

This is actually a common reason why small businesses get turned down for a loan. If you already have outstanding loans, you can always try to retire them with a new loan. Additionally, if you have a line of credit that is close to being fully drawn, you should take steps to pay it down before applying for a new loan. 

Your cash flow is not strong enough

If your small business’s cash flow is tight (meaning you are spending almost as much money as you are taking in), take steps to fix it by finding ways to reduce your expenditures. 

Your industry is too risky

If your small business operates in an industry in which there are higher than average bankruptcies, or if it operates in what lenders may consider “vice” industries such as gambling, alcohol, or legal marijuana dispensaries, you will most likely get turned down no matter how financially strong your business is. A quick Google search, however, can most likely lead you to legitimate online lenders who specialize in lending to companies in your industry.

Don’t Get Frustrated

Remember, when applying for a business loan, patience and weighing the pros and cons of different lenders are often the keys to getting the funding that you need to help your business grow. Go down the checklist of items that you need to take care of in order to be ready to apply, and carefully consider the pros and cons of the different types of lenders out there so that you can get the financing that is exactly right for your business. 

Life is a process of trials and errors, and there’s probably no one for whom that statement rings more true than a small business owner. This statement especially applies when small business owners apply for loans to gain much-needed capital to ensure their businesses grow or to smooth out their cash flows. What if, however, a lender denies your application for a small business loan, even though you thought you took all the necessary steps to obtain that financing? 

First thing’s first: while getting a business loan rejection is frustrating and disheartening, you need to keep a positive mindset. If your business loan was declined, don’t look at it as a failure, look at it as one of the many lessons you will learn as you run your business. There are specific steps you can take to make sure you get approved the next time around – and it might not take as long as you think. 

The following are steps to take after you’ve been rejected from a business loan and how you can improve your situation to increase your chances of approval on your next attempt.

Talk to Your Lender

The first thing you should do after being rejected for a small business loan is try to get into the mindset of the lender. 

Small business lenders – be it traditional banks, alternative lenders or credit unions – make money by giving loans and collecting interest and fees on those loans. Therefore, whenever a small business applies for a loan, they want to be able to approve it. So, if you do get rejected, give them a call, and they will be happy to give you the specific reasons why your application was rejected. 

Also, keep in mind that lenders are in the risk business. The simplest and most general reason that you, the small business owner, gets rejected for a loan is that the lender does not have enough confidence that you will be able to pay back the loan and believe that you represent too much of a risk of default. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding how risky you are as a borrower, and again, the lender will be more than happy to tell you which criteria you didn’t meet.

Improve Your Credit Scores 

When you apply for most types of business loans, the first two items the lender will look at are your credit reports – for both your personal credit score and your business credit score. One of the most common reasons small business owners get turned down for loans is that their credit scores aren’t high enough. 

You can find lenders that are willing to give loans to those with poor credit scores, but they charge exceptionally high interest rates. So,  if you’ve been turned down for a business loan because of your credit scores, it’s worth it to take the time and effort to take steps to improve those scores to avoid paying high interest rates. 

Some steps you can take are:

• Check your credit reports. You can easily access your detailed, personal credit reports through the three main credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and Transunion, and you should check your business credit score through the most commonly used business credit bureau, Dun & Bradstreet.  Check for any errors that may be dragging your score down. Remember, in 2022 it was found that on average, 1 in 5 people had errors on their reports. You may have to pay a small fee to gain access to your reports, but it’s worth it in the long run.
• Make sure you have at least 6-9 months’ worth of on-time payments towards your existing debts. This includes payments towards business and personal credit cards and any other debt your small business may have. Nothing hurts your credit score more than a history of late payments on your debt. 
• Pay down existing debt. Credit utilization (the amount of debt you have on your credit cards or business lines of credit vs. your credit limit) is factored heavily into your credit score, so if you can, take a few months to bring that number down. 
• Get another credit card. This might seem counterintuitive at first as you may be thinking, ‘The last thing I need is another credit card.’  However, getting another personal or business credit card (but not using it!) will decrease your credit utilization and can boost both your personal FICO and business credit scores.  BUT, note that this will only help in some situations and it may take some time for you to see the positive impact.  Getting a new card can initially lower your score due to the hard credit pull by the card issuers. In addition, a new card can lower the average age of your accounts.  However, the longer-term gain may just be what you need to tip the scales in your favor!
• Get trade references. If you have good relationships with your suppliers, you can try to convince them to write letters to your credit bureaus stating such. These letters are called trade references, and they can boost your business credit score as most business credit bureaus don’t initially factor that into your credit report. 

 

Reconsider Your Financing Options

A term loan from a traditional bank isn’t the only way to get the capital you need for your small business, nor are traditional banks the only types or lenders out there. There are financing products in which lenders don’t put as heavy of an emphasis your credit scores, such as:

• Secured loans. A secured bank loan or business line of credit will emphasize credit scores less since they are backed by collateral. 
• Equipment loans. Equipment loans use the equipment being purchased as collateral, so your credit scores typically don’t have to be as high as they would for a standard business loan. 
• Small Business Administration (SBA) microloans and  504 loans. These types of SBA loans are backed by the SBA and are often geared towards younger small businesses, women- and minority-owned small businesses and small businesses that operate in underserved communities, so lenders typically don’t heavily emphasize credit scores when approving these loans. 

Also, if you’ve gotten a loan rejection from a traditional bank (especially for a SBA 7a loan, which has very high standards) because your credit scores are borderline, you may want to try applying with an alternative lender. Alternative lenders often have simpler business loan applications and are more willing to approve borrowers with borderline credit than traditional banks. 

Improve Your Cash Flow

Almost every type of lender will want to see several months worth of bank statements for your business, as well as several years of tax returns in order to gauge your cash flow history. Cash flow is simply the money flowing into your small business vs. the money that’s flowing out. In some cases, you could get rejected for a loan if your cash flow isn’t strong enough. 

In this case, you may want to seek ways to improve that cash flow, but it may be a painful process. The most immediate way to improve your cash flow is to curb your business expenditures. This may mean letting some employees go and curbing excessive business expenses such as trips, business meals, cutting down on low-selling inventory, etc. Doing so could very well get you approved next time. 

Improve Your Business Plan

Traditional banks often require you to present your business plan, especially if you are applying for an SBA 7a loan, which has strict borrowing requirements. If you’re seeking a loan to expand and grow your business, you need to convince the lender that you are going to increase your revenue stream. This is where a business plan comes in handy. 

A detailed business plan tells a lender that you’ve done your research about the market your business operates in, why you believe your business has an edge on its competitors, and how you plan to make money. A convincing and detailed business plan can mean the difference between an approval or a rejection. You can find business plan templates online, and many of them are free. 

Take an Inventory of Your Assets

If your credit scores are borderline, a traditional bank or credit union may ask for a personal guarantee for your loan, which often means putting up collateral. Collateral can include any investment accounts you may have, personal items of high value or even the deeds to your house or car. Keep in mind that these assets can be seized in the event that you default on your loan payments.

Of course, putting up collateral presents a high risk to you, the borrower, but it does have potential rewards. Collateralized loans or business lines of credit can notch you a higher borrowing amount and lower interest rate, as well as cut down on fees and required balloon payments. In essence, collateral can dramatically cut the cost of capital on your loan. 

Try to Expunge Your Record

While it’s rare, small business owners may get rejected for a loan because many lenders want to do business with people of “high character.” This means that if you’ve made a mistake in the past and have been convicted of a crime, late on child support payments, or have an IRS tax lien on your finances, lenders will consider this a red flag and you may get rejected for a loan. If this is the case, you may want to speak to your attorney to see if you can get your record expunged, and get caught up on any child support payments or back taxes you may owe. 

Don’t Give Up

We all know the line made famous by The Godfather: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” 

This is precisely the case when you’re turned down for a business loan. If you do get rejected, don’t take it personally, and don’t give up. All a loan rejection means is that you need to take steps in order to get approved next time so that you can get the funding you need to improve your small business. Follow the above outlined steps to improve your situation so that, next time, you can get the funding you need to enhance your small business. 

If your small business is ready to obtain financing, that means you should be in a great position – your sales are flowing, your earnings are consistent, and you’re ready to expand your business’ footprint. Before you do take out a business loan, however, it’s crucial that you decide first whether taking on debt is truly advantageous to your business, and which lending product is best to meet your goals.

Should You Take Out a Loan?

One of the most pressing questions you need to answer before taking on any new financing is: how well-equipped is your business to take on new debt? To answer this question, you should complete a comprehensive checklist regarding your business:

#1 Do I Even Qualify for a Loan?

Different types of loans require different qualifications, but you should first make sure that your business meets certain requirements from lenders. Your minimum FICO score should probably be in the 680 to 700 range for certain financing products such as a term loan, although alternative lenders such as Kapitus may require slightly lower scores, depending on which financing vehicle you are applying for.

Lenders will also want to see how strong your company’s business plan is; how long you’ve been in business; what your plans for growth are, and the consistency of your cash flow in order to gauge whether you have the ability to pay back the loan.

If you’re not sure whether you qualify, you should speak to a lending officer at the institution you are seeking to borrow from, who can walk you through the steps in which your business needs to take in order to qualify for a loan.

#2 Why Do You Need a Loan?

Ideally, you are seeking to borrow money to expand your business and increase revenue, and hopefully, that increased revenue will offset the cost of capital for your loan as well as enable you to make monthly loan payments.

As we all know, however, we’re currently not living in an ideal economic environment, as small businesses are still struggling to make ends meet in a turbulent economy. Fortunately, there are a variety of financing products to choose from that can provide much-needed cash for all sorts of reasons. Some of these are:

• The development of a new product or service which you foresee increasing sales.
• Opening a new office or facility.
• An emergency such as a collapsed roof or crucial machinery breaking down in which you need emergency cash to keep your business in operation.
• Getting immediate cash for invoices.
• Increasing your inventory to meet high demand.
• Meeting off-season expenses.
• Purchasing new equipment.

Once you’ve decided the reason you need financing, you can examine several distinctly different financing products that can meet your needs.

#3 How Strong is Your Cash Flow?

After credit score and business longevity, lenders will want to see your business’ cash flow – the net balance of cash that’s moving in and out of your business on a regular basis. If you’re borrowing to finance the development of a new product, for example, and sales of that product don’t end up being as strong as you thought they would be, a lender will want to know if you’ll still be able to make monthly installment payments on the loan you took out. This is what a strong cash flow will indicate to them.

There are several ways to improve your cash flow if necessary – you may want to examine ways to cut unnecessary spending, optimize inventory management, hound customers to pay their invoices and improve your cash flow forecasting. Your loan approval could very well depend upon the strength of your cash flow.

#4 Is the Price Right?

Anytime you borrow money, be it through a business credit card, a mortgage or a term loan, you are going to have to pay a cost of capital. This can be the interest rate associated with a term loan, the APR on a business credit card or line of credit, or the costs associated with invoice factoring or revenue-based financing. Whatever financing instrument you choose, it’s crucial that you ask the lender the total amount you will be paying back over time.

It’s also just as crucial to shop around for lenders and consider which ones may be offering the best terms, and which ones can offer you a quick turnaround.

Traditional banks often have more stringent borrowing requirements, while alternative lenders often are  more expensive but will typically offer a quicker turnaround time on your loan with fewer requirements.

Something else you should consider – the Fed has just hiked the overnight rate by a half percentage point – that’s after a quarter-point hike last month – so some loans are going to be even more expensive than they were at the beginning of the year.

#5 Are you Willing to put up Collateral?

Depending on your credit score and other factors, some lenders may require you to put up collateral or even a personal guarantee. Collateral would include the liquid assets of your business such as your equipment, business savings and/or investments and future invoices.

Some may even want you to give a personal guarantee that you’ll pay back the loan by putting up some of your own assets as collateral, such as your house or your personal investments, in case you default on the loan.

Putting up collateral may increase your risk in taking out a loan, but keep in mind that lenders really aren’t interested in seizing your assets – they would much rather see your business succeed and for you to pay back the loan in a financially healthy manner. Therefore, when you’re taking a loan, it’s imperative that you sit down with your lender and carefully go over the terms of collateral and the exact steps that will be taken should you default.

Carefully Weigh Your Options

Before you take out a business loan, it’s always a good idea to consider other ways to raise money besides going into debt. Crowdfunding, asking for outside investments, borrowing money from family are other options. If you do decide to take out a loan, carefully consider the above questions and decide which loan will help your business the most and which would be most cost-efficient.

Building and running a small business is hard. It takes conviction, leadership, sound management and, every so often, a much-needed injection of financing. In both good and lean times businesses are often faced with the decision to pursue some type of financing. However, applying for and acquiring small business loans and alternate financing can often be daunting – even if you’ve done it before. And traditional lenders do not make that experience easy.

The good news is that getting financing doesn’t have to be this hard. We help thousands of small businesses everyday and want to share secrets of getting good financing options quickly. So, we have compiled a simple checklist of actions you can take to make the process fast, simple and easy.

However, as you get ready to apply for a small business loan, you should consider the following questions carefully to be sure you are not surprised by any unforeseen requests or adverse decisions from lenders.

Six questions every business must ask in 2020 before applying for a small business loan | Download PDF

1. Should you apply for a small business loan?

While a small business loan is a great way to reduce the pressure on cash flows, you could have viable alternatives for relieving cash flow crunch like selling debt owed to your business and renegotiating contracts to allow for longer payment terms. Also, make sure you have considered all alternate sources of financing including friends and family.

2. Is a small business loan good for your business?

Understand the effect of repayment of small business loan on your cash flow. A loan does not change the fundamental working of the business. It strengthens a fundamentally sound business and quickly breaks a business that is fundamentally unsound.

3. Can you qualify for a business grant?

Unlike loans, you don’t have to pay back grants. Before applying for a small business loan, see if you qualify for a federal or private small business grant. However, grants can be highly competitive and may not fit your financial time horizon.

 4. What types of small business loans are there?

There are over a dozen types of small business loans and alternative financing options for small business. The most popular options are government-backed SBA loans, revenue-based financing and factoring. Download this eGuide to learn more about different types of small business financing.

5. When should you apply for a small business loan?

Apply only once you have determined that a business loan will help strengthen your business, and you understand the different types of financing options like Small Business Loans, Revenue Based Financing, Factoring, and Equipment Financing. Each of these options have unique requirements so make sure you understand them well before speaking with a lender.

6. Should you work with a small business loan broker?

Brokers are a great resource to get offers from multiple lenders. However, many online marketplaces like Kapitus, will get you offers from multiple lenders without the additional broker fee which is borne by the borrower.

Small Business Loan Application Checklist| Download PDF

1. Run a quick cash flow analysis on your business account

Cash flows are one of the primary indicators that lenders use to understand the health of your business. Showing 3 to 6 months of positive cash flow can get you approved faster. It can even get you better financing terms for your small business loan. You can learn more about cash flows and ways to improve them in “How to Prepare Your Small Business for Cash Flow Needs.”

2. Collect at least 3 months of bank statements

Your business accounts are another good indicator of your company’s financial health. Generally, lenders want to see a positive daily balance on your bank statements. Remember, a well managed cash flow will directly improve your bank accounts.

3. Identify unusually large deposits to your bank accounts and gather supporting documents to help explain them

While presence of unusually large deposits can delay finalization of loans, they are not necessarily bad. Many businesses, like construction companies, can easily explain their presence on the bank statements. Some businesses understandably have large swings in deposits and credits to their account. If your business is like that, you can expedite your loan application process and get really good terms on your small business loan by providing a copy of your account receivables and future contracts.

4. Get a copy of your free credit report and make sure there are no red flags

A strong personal credit goes a long way to assure any lender about the fiscal responsibility of the person running the business. You can get a free copy of your credit report from annualcreditreport.com. If you find any incorrect information on your credit report, contact each credit reporting agency (Experian, Transunion and Equifax) immediately to correct the issue. Keep in mind that while small delinquencies are understandable, lenders are uncomfortable with statements that show delinquencies on child support or recently dismissed (not discharged) bankruptcies.

5. Reduce the number of lenders to whom you owe money

Too many lenders pulling money from the business can create severe strain on its cash flow. Lenders want to know that the money they provide will help grow your business and not put additional strain on its daily operations. You may want to wait to finish your current loan obligations before going back to the market to raise more capital.

6. Resolve any open tax liens

Unresolved open tax liens can hurt your ability to obtain financing. If possible, try to get a payment plan on any open tax lien. A payment plan on a tax lien is far better than an open unresolved tax lien.

7. Get three business references

Trade references help to establish authenticity and credibility of your business. If you rent commercial space for your business, make sure that the landlord is one of your references.

8. Have tax statements handy when applying for a large sum

Lastly, businesses contemplating borrowing large sums over $75,000 should get a copy of their last year tax statement and business financial statements.

Obtaining small business loans doesn’t have to be a daunting process. Use this checklist before applying for a business loan or alternate financing and get the funds your business deserves.