Everyone knows how tough it can be to obtain small business loans! Hell, my Uncle Frank is a well established small business owner and he wanted to branch off into the restaurant business, but he just couldn’t secure a loan for it! Pretty gruesome huh? But he learned from his experience and he’s taught me a thing or two about applying for small business loans.

Tips For Small Business Owners

Here are some tips you can use in order to secure your small business loan.

• Be very clear about the reason for your loan. You need to show a very good, very legitimate reason why you want someone else’s money, otherwise they won’t part with it. Also, be logical about your demand, your lender will consider the scale and expertise of your business area before they grant you the loan amount.

• The next thing to keep in mind is that everyone who is lending you money is doing so because they want to make money off you, so you must concentrate on a detailed account of how you plan on returning the loan money. Eg, specify that you will use your profit money to repay the loan.

• Put in your business plan as well and make sure that it is a logical one which is darn good. The business plan will give your lender an idea about your abilities as a businessman and will also give your lender an idea about the management and any other pertinent information.

• Reassuring the lender is very important, especially for small business loans. So do give a detailed account of the security you will be able to provide to your lender. Think about it, if you can’t offer them some security, then why should they?

• Include your financial statements of the past three years too. These must be clean and the information provided by you should be accurate and legitimate. Also get your tax advisor to put his signature on it, or, if that’s not possible, your account can do the needful too.

• In order to boost the security aspect of things, you can put in your principal financial statements, this will definitely help.

• Reports of creditors and debtors.

• You should also put in the latest set of management accounts. Keep in mind that your business should be like an open book. It might seem intrusive at times, but remember, you’re the one in need of money!

A Word Of Advice

Before you approach your lender, think about all the shortcomings in your business proposal that your lender might come across. Try and get into the head of your lender. A good idea would be to pretend that you are your money lender. Think about whether you would give your money to someone with your business plan. If not, why so? Try and eliminate all the glitches in this manner. Small business loans are not the difficult to handle, one must know the right technique, that’s all!