Get Small Business Loans and Make Your Business Remarkable – We Show You How
Craving funding but the high and mighty banks are saying no? Bad credit does not need to be a dead weight around your company’s proverbial neck. However, it does make it more difficult to acquire a business loan. You can get small business loans, even if your credit is a catastrophe.
Startups at Risk
For a new business particularly, your small business credit will be poor as a matter of course. This is because you just will not have the type of record and seasoning which can make your commercial credit score rise.
And, for this reason, it would make lenders not want to loan your company money.
As a result, loan providers are not going to be too passionate about granting your company a small business loan. This is because they genuinely have no clue if your small business will be able to pay back the loan.
But you are nonetheless, obviously wondering how to fund a company with poor credit.
Get Small Business Loans: Understanding UCC Blanket Liens
Because of this, lending institutions will typically get a UCC blanket lien in case they do give your company a loan.
A UCC blanket lien is a note which is included with your credit report. It says that the lender has an interest in all of your small business’s assets until you repay the loan completely. Therefore, there might be dire consequences if you need to default.
Plus, many of these loans will also require personal guarantees.
Get Small Business Loans: What is an Unsecured Business Loan?
But if a loan does not require a personal guarantee, then your business will normally get unsecured business loans. And those come with excessive rates of interest.
These kinds of small business loans can be short term. So you have to pay them back swiftly. Or they can be receivables financing. So that is where you get a loan based on business you expect to be coming in.
This is because you have unsettled invoices which your clients have not paid to you yet. Or it can be vendor cash advances.
These all come with lending rates which are often 40% or higher.
Get Small Business Loans: Advantages of Unsecured Business Loans
The primary advantage to unsecured small business loans is you don’t need to provide a personal guarantee or accept a UCC blanket lien. If you wind up defaulting on the loan, then your home and other individual assets will not be confiscated. And neither will your inventory.
However, this also implies that you usually have to have strong revenue or a significant amount of time in business. In general, your individual credit must be fair or better. And that’s even without any a personal guarantee requirement.
Get Small Business Loans: Disadvantages of Unsecured Business Loans
It’s all about the interest. According to Nerd Wallet, Kabbage can provide an unsecured business loan – yet the annual percentage rate can be as much as 99%! If you think that’s usury, think again. In Ohio, the usury laws don’t apply to unsecured loans.
Another drawback is that unsecured business loans often mandate that your small business has operated for a minimum of six months. Or you can’t have any personal bankruptcies. Or your business must show a minimal yearly earning amount.
And this means opening your records to your lender. But not everybody will view these as being disadvantages.
If you can meet any of these criteria already, then you most likely won’t see this as a true disadvantage. But if your business is brand new, and you do not as of yet have regular customers and revenue, then you may be locked out of your few remaining options.
And the same is true if you have had personal bankruptcy problems.
Get Small Business Loans
For all of these options, you will always have a better interest rate if your credit score is better than poor. And you will more than likely have more choices, so you can shop around and compare plans.
So, what can you do? Why, you can build business credit, of course!
Building Business Credit
Business credit is credit in a business’s name. It doesn’t attach to an entrepreneur’s consumer credit, not even when the owner is a sole proprietor and the sole employee of the corporation. As such, a business owner’s business and individual credit scores can be very different.
It is a great way to get small business loans.
The Advantages
Considering that small business credit is independent from personal, it helps to secure a business owner’s personal assets, in case of litigation or business bankruptcy. Also, with two distinct credit scores, an entrepreneur can get two separate cards from the same vendor.
This effectively doubles purchasing power.
Another advantage is that even startup businesses can do this. Visiting a bank for a business loan can be a recipe for frustration. But building company credit, when done properly, is a plan for success. It’s a vital way to easily get small business loans.
Individual credit scores depend upon payments but also other factors like credit utilization percentages. But for corporate credit, the scores really merely depend on whether a small business pays its debts on time.
The Process
Growing small business credit is a process, and it does not happen automatically. A company needs to actively work to develop company credit. Having said that, it can be done readily and quickly, and it is much speedier than developing individual credit scores.
Merchants are a big part of this process.
Doing the steps out of order will lead to repetitive denials. Nobody can start at the top with corporate credit.
Corporate Credibility
A company must be credible to credit issuers and merchants. Therefore, a small business will need a professional-looking web site and email address, with site hosting bought from a supplier like GoDaddy.
And company phone numbers should be toll-free (800 exchange or comparable).
A corporation will also need a bank account devoted purely to it, and it must have every one of the licenses essential for operating. These licenses all must be in the particular, accurate name of the company, with the same company address and telephone numbers.
So note that this means not just state licenses, but potentially also city licenses.
Working with the Internal Revenue Service
Visit the Internal Revenue Service website and get an EIN for the small business. They’re totally free. Choose a business entity such as corporation, LLC, etc.
A business can begin as a sole proprietor. But they should change to a variety of corporation to decrease risk and make best use of tax benefits.
A business entity will matter when it involves taxes and liability in the event of a lawsuit. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and taxes. Nobody else is responsible.
Starting Off the Business Credit Reporting Process
Begin at the D&B web site and get a free DUNS number. A DUNS number is how D&B gets a small business into their system, to produce a PAYDEX score. If there is no DUNS number, then there is no record and no PAYDEX score.
Once in D&B’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s websites for the company. You can do this at https://www.creditsuite.com/reports/. If there is a record with them, check it for correctness and completeness. If there are no records with them, go to the next step in the process.
By doing this, Experian and Equifax will have activity to report on.
Trade Lines
First you ought to build trade lines that report. This is also known as vendor accounts. Then you’ll have an established credit profile, and you’ll get a business credit score.
And with an established business credit profile and score you can start getting more credit.
These sorts of accounts tend to be for the things bought all the time, like outdoor work wear, ink and toner, and office furniture.
But to start with, what is trade credit? These trade lines are credit issuers who will give you starter credit when you have none now. Terms are oftentimes Net 30, rather than revolving.
Hence if you get an approval for $1,000 in vendor credit and use all of it, you must pay that money back in a set term, like within 30 days on a Net 30 account.
Details
Net 30 accounts have to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts have to be paid completely within 60 days. In contrast to with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you must pay back what you borrowed or the credit you used.
To begin your business credit profile the proper way, you should get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting agencies. Once that’s done, you can then make use of the credit.
Then repay what you used, and the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.
Vendor Credit Makes Sense
Not every vendor can help like true starter credit can. These are vendors that will grant an approval with a minimum of effort. You also want them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.
Monitor Your Business Credit
Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and take care of any mistakes as soon as possible. Get in the habit of taking a look at credit reports. Dig into the particulars, not just the scores.
We can help you monitor business credit at Experian, Equifax, and D&B for a lot less. Update the info if there are inaccuracies or the details is incomplete.
Disputing Inaccuracies
So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to contest any inaccuracies in your records. Errors in your credit report(s) can be taken care of. But the CRAs often want you to dispute in a particular way.
Disputing credit report errors commonly means you specifically spell out any charges you dispute.
A Word about Building Business Credit
Always use credit smartly! Don’t borrow more than what you can pay off. Monitor balances and deadlines for payments. Paying off in a timely manner and in full will do more to boost business credit scores than virtually anything else.
Building company credit pays off. Good business credit scores help a business get loans. Your loan provider knows the small business can pay its debts. They know the small business is authentic.
The small business’s EIN attaches to high scores, and lending institutions won’t feel the need to require a personal guarantee.
Business credit is an asset which can help your corporation for years to come. Learn more here and get started toward establishing corporate credit.
Get Small Business Loans with Better Business Credit!
If your small business can hang on till your credit – either business or individual or both – improves, then your options will significantly improve, too.
