Many of our start up business clients at Ethos360.com come to us with basic questions on how to get financing from the SBA. There are a few things to have in your back pocket (and on the tip of your tongue) before going to them in order to increase your chances of getting approved.
1. Know your business inside and out.
You will need a business plan that not only covers all of the details of your business idea, but is also devoid of unnecessary embellishment and hyper extended financial projections. The SBA wants to know what you’re doing and how you’re going to do it. Also, they want to see evidence that you are qualified and capable of executing the tasks outlined in your business plan. The Management Summary of your business plan should detail your experience or at least the experience of the people you’ll have on hand to make up for any lack of qualifications you’ll have.
2. Show that you have invested in yourself and your business.
This seems like an obvious requirement, but a surprising number of people come up against a wall when faced with this. The SBA is not a zero percent down financing solution. You will have to show that you have invested a good sum of your own money, time and effort into the business in order to get the SBA to put up the loan. The SBA will not underwrite 100% of the venture so this means that you will have to not only have collateral for the loan, but will be providing evidence of having previously invested at least 25% to 50% of the asking amount in the business. Read the rest of this entry »
