Category: Business Loans

Restaurant Financing Options Other Than A Small Business Loan

Perhaps one of the most lucrative business ventures these days is a restaurant. Food, being one of man’s basic needs, is something that we simply cannot fail to have. Add to this that certain kind of magic that food has that brings different kinds of people together. Maybe you have also thought about building your own restaurant or perhaps you already have one. The thing is it is not all too easy own and manage a restaurant business. There are lots of things you need to pay attention to like a small business loan here and there that you need to pay plus all the other concerns involving inventory, menu, maintenance, and sufficient cash flows.

Of the many concerns that a restaurant owner has, one of the most challenging appears to be capital. Without sufficient capital, any kind of restaurant, whether big or small, cannot help but simply fail. This is why it is crucial for restaurant owners to have easy access to additional capital – may it be startup or working capital. There are several ways by which additional funding can be acquired and one of the most common institutions that restaurant owners turn to is banks. However, it is not always that a bank will approve a small business loan application.

When this happens, a restaurant owner can seek help from the Small Business Administration or SBA. Compared to banks, the SBA is more lenient when it comes to requirements and a small business application can have better chances of getting approved. But much like banks, the SBA also inspects the business credit profile of the restaurant owner. And if a restaurant owner still has not established a business credit profile or has a poor one, where else can the restaurant owner turn to?

There are now several independent financing institutions that offer alternative restaurant funding options. There are now several forms of restaurant financing available, including cash advances, business lines of credit, unsecured business loans, and credit card factoring. These alternative funding options enable restaurant owners to have better access to the additional capital that they need.

When your restaurant business faces funding challenges, do not give up on your efforts just yet. Even if banks turn you down, it is still not the end. There are still other ways to acquire the additional funding that you need. Try to learn more about your options – a small business loan is not the only answer.

Bad Credit Business Loans Might Be The Answer

Are you concerned about the credit profile of your small business? Has it been stopping you from acquiring additional capital from lenders? These days, this should not be too much of a problem anymore. Small business owners who have poor credit ratings or are starting to build their credit profile need not feel restricted from acquiring additional startup or working capital. Thanks to financing institutions that offer bad credit business loans, almost every small business owner these days can have the chance to grow their business venture. Through this kind of financing option, additional capital should no longer be a big concern that seems to be impossible to resolve.

It is quite true that applying and getting approved for a business loan is no easy task for any business that has poor credit ratings. With banks, this whole task even gets extremely difficult. This is such a common plight for small business owners but the good news is there is a solution. Thanks to bad credit business loans and other options, almost every small business now has the chance to pick up on its slow growth pace.

There are now several financing institutions that offer this kind of option. What is good about bad credit business loans is they are comparatively faster and simpler than traditional loans. Some providers even offer quick online application. This simply means a business owner no longer needs to be physically in an on office to start processing his or her application for a certain loan. There are even some that can have the application results within 24 hours. Generally, funding can be received within 7 days. And depending on the provider, there are no upfront or hidden fees.

These are only some of the several reasons why more and more business people are resorting to this option over traditional loans. Other reasons why business people prefer this option include the fact that bad credit is not a problem, there are generally no application or closing fees required, and these loans are typically unsecured – so no worries about collateral. There are also small business loans for women with bad credit that are quite similar to this new kind of financing option.

It can be quite helpful to learn more about bad credit business loans today. This financing option might very well be the answer to cash flow problems, as well as to additional business capital requirements.

Business Credit Card Debt Consolidation Loans

Starting and running a business of any size is a tough thing to do, and the toughest part of it can be figuring how to make the money last from month to month. Long sales cycles, clients who take their sweet time paying outstanding invoices, and vendors who hound you to pay your outstanding bills can all add up to a pretty serious cash crunch. When that happens you have to float the business somehow, and many business owners end up turning to credit cards. This is true in the manufacturing, the retail, and even the construction world.

I recently heard a story of a construction company owner who put about $200,000 on his credit card to float the bills associated with a hotel construction project his company was working on. The hotel developers’ other financing fell through, leaving him with $200,000 to pay off at a very high interest rate.

I happen to know that he’ll be fine, but most small business owners in that situation would be hurting badly, and their only recourse to recover from that kind of business credit card debt would be some form of consolidation loan. The question is do those loans even exist?

Yes, they do, and they operate in a similar way to traditional consolidation loans obtained by individuals, with the same goals. Basically anyone going through this process is hoping to have one lender take all their outstanding debts at various interest rates and combine them into a single loan with one lower interest rate.

Obviously that results in one payment, which is small and more palatable compared to the sum of the payments of the loans and credit cards the business owner was dealing with before the consolidation. The whole process is designed to make it possible for business owners to satisfy the requirements of all their outstanding debt, but do so in a way that keeps them from going out of business or worse, filing for bankruptcy.

Credit card debt consolidation for small businesses is not going to be an easy thing for anybody – you’ll have to qualify for the loan, and the lender will have to believe that your cash flow situation isn’t so bad that you won’t be able to make your consolidation loan payments, the same way you’re struggling with your current payments. If you can show a long track record of sales in your business which gives some proof to the lender that things will get back on track for you, the loan will be much easier to qualify for.

Startup Business Loans for Bad Credit

No matter what anybody says, the American Dream is still to own your own business, your own income stream, and your own time. I’ve been a full time entrepreneur for a while now, and as I write this I’m sitting in my office feeling happy and grateful that I have a lot of say in my own financial destiny. But the reality is that starting a business can be an intimidating thing, and getting it off the ground usually requires more cash than most people have.  And if you’ve hurt your credit at some point you might have to see about qualifying for bad credit startup business loans.

The fact is you can still get financing if your personal credit score is pretty low, but you can forget about traditional banks. If they see that your FICO score is below 650 or so, there’s just not much chance they’ll want anything to do with you. To combat your own bad credit, the best place to start is to try to build up some kind of corporate credit. You need to set up an official entity, such as an LLC or other corporation, and immediately apply for some small lines of credit through that entity.

Many credit card providers will have some kind of bad credit credit card for startup businesses. Be prepared for high fees and APR’s, but if you can handle those hurdles you’re going to be able to get at least some kind of credit lines as a business. Even if you get a $300 credit card and start using it for normal purchases, you’ll be on your way to establishing some corporate credit. Down the road you’ll find that local banks, credit unions, equipment manufacturers and other lenders will consider you much less of a risk if you’ve shown some improvement in your personal credit in combination with some corporate credit history.

Here are a few things business financiers will be looking for when deciding whether to give you the startup small business loan you need to get things going:

  • you’ll have to be compliant with a list of 20 different criteria (for example: whether you have a business name, whether you have a business phone number, whether you’re listed with any of the major business review companies, etc)
  • you’ll need three national credit reports – each of them reflecting your credit worthiness
  • up to five credit lines directly from vendors that report to the major credit agencies

Of course there are other criteria, but these are the things to be most concerned about as you try to get small startup business loans. The main thing will be perseverance, as this is the stage where many would-be entrepreneurs get frustrated and quit. All I can promise you is that it will be worth any effort to get your own business off the ground.

Small Business Debt Consolidation Loans and Programs

Usually sometime in the first one to two years of a business’s life it’s going to run into some serious cash flow challenges. This is even true for businesses with a great product whose sales jump up to health levels right away. What many people don’t realize about running a small business is that success can be expensive. Often business owners have to borrow money to stay ahead of demand, and borrowing money often leads to trouble. If a business owner can’t manage her monthly debt service a small business debt consolidation may be her only solution.

A small business debt consolidation loan often behaves in a very similar way to consolidation programs that individuals with too much debt go through. Meaning, the business contracts a company to approach its creditors and begin a negotiation process that results in either a) lower principle balances on the loans, b) lower interest rates on the principle, or c) both.

Banks are willing to work through these negotiations once the consolidation company makes it very clear that the alternative is to have the business owner essentially walk away from the loans, leaving the bank with nothing. It’s a situation where the bank realizes “this is the best we’re going to get, so we’d rather take 40 cents on the dollar than get nothing at all.”

Since the business owner ends up fulfilling something other than the originally agreed-upon loan terms, his or her credit rating will be affected. If the loans are in her own name, her personal credit score will take a dive. If she borrowed the money through her corporation, then any corporate credit she’d established will take a serious hit. If you go through a small business debt consolidation program you’re not likely to be able to borrow any more money for your business for a long time. That’s something to consider before you take on the risk of business loans in the first place.

One thing to consider is that small business debt consolidation loans aren’t for you in the first place. Even if your loans are starting to overwhelm you, a consolidation company may not be able to improve your situation much. For example, if your interest rates are reasonably low, consolidating all your balances to one won’t make a significant difference. If you can’t get a reduction in principle there’s really no point consolidating your business debt, so keep that in mind.

Overall, borrowing money for something as risky as a business startup isn’t something you should do unless you’re very confident the business will be able to make the payments on the loans. Starting a business is stressful enough without having the added worry of not being to keep your payments current.

How to Build Corporate Credit Fast

Anyone with any business experience at all will tell you the hardest part of getting a business going is creating, managing, and sustaining cash flow. Businesses fail when their bank accounts go to zero, period. You might have the best product in the world, but if you can’t keep your cash ahead of your expenses, you’re done. That’s why it’s so crucial to build corporate credit as fast as possible. By the end of this article you should have a little better idea of how to establish a high corporate credit rating.

The first reality of becoming a creditworthy corporation is that older corporations have a much easier time getting banks to lend them money than younger entities. That’s pretty logical – if you’ve been in business less than a year that’s a pretty big indicator to a lending institution that you may not be around for the long term to keep payments on business loans current. So, this is the part of building corporate credit that really isn’t possible to short-cut…unless you’ve got plenty of cash on hand. One thing you can do is purchase what’s called an aged or “shelf” corporation that belonged to another business, and therefore has been on record with the state for longer. Essentially you can buy the age of the previous business. The tough part is it takes cash, and if you had a lot of cash you wouldn’t be looking for fast ways to build up your corporate credit rating would you?

The best advice I can give you when it comes to getting your business’s credit rating up is to begin immediately and start applying for small lines of credit under your corporate name, as opposed to your personal name. If you can get even one small credit card in the your corporation’s name you stand a good chance of getting bigger loans within a few months, or possibly a year. Another benefit of applying for lines of credit in your corporate name is that your own negative personal credit rating (if it is, in fact, a negative rating) won’t slow your ability to get your corporate credit score higher.

Visa, American Express, Chase, and Bank of America are just a few of the major lending institutions who are eager to have new business owners establish their corporate credit history with small business credit cards. Check out their corporate websites to learn more about their individual offerings.

In an ideal world you’ll never need to borrow money as you build up your small business. Hopefully you’ll be able to pay yourself and buy some growth just using the business’s own earnings. Unfortunately most businesses hit several major stumbling blocks during their first couple of years, having credit lines might be the thing that saves your business from failing before it ever really starts.

Small Business Loans with Bad Credit

Many small business owners find that attempting to acquire a business loan with bad credit can be rather difficult. After getting a start up loan a new business tends to lose money in the first year, causing late payments that slide down their credit rating. Searching for more loans for expansion and maintenance becomes a complicated task. Some entreprenuers are able to borrow from friends and family, but many do not have that luxury.

Bad credit can keep a small business from getting a loan from a major bank, but may not be such a hindrance when approaching a small loan company or a private lender. Funding amounts through one of these mediums may be somewhat limited, and a bad credit score tends to cause high interest rates, so anyone seeking a loan in this circumstance will need to plan accordingly and be prepared for these pitfalls.

Another alternative for the small business owner would be what is called a business cash advance. The requirements to be approved for one of these are not as strict as they are for a loan. When trying for a business cash advance, the applicant must be able to prove that it accepts credit card payments and meets a small minimum requirement for how much is processed in credit card sales each month. Repayments are done on an automated basis according to how you do business, and there is no collateral or personal guarantee required to obtain a cash advance. Similar to a payday loan for an individual, a small business with bad credit may find this to be the most feasible option when looking for a loan of sorts to make an expansion.It is important when running a small business to keep your personal credit score separate from your business credit score. Using the business’s tax ID number to acquire credit, often starting with a business credit card and using it responsibly, will allow a small business to be able to acquire a loan more easily even if the owner has a low score on their personal credit report.

Even with bad credit, there are a few loan options out there for a small business. The most important thing is thorough research and a careful comparison of the most likely alternatives. And, of course, responsible use of any new loan is vital to helping rebuild credit for a brighter future.

Business Loans For Bad Credit to Get Your New Venture Off the Ground

Trying to get a business loan with bad credit is not an easy task. Lenders may see anyone with a credit score less than 650 as a real risk, and may not want to take a chance of not getting their money back. Bad credit is quite common amongst most people, especially if they are young and inexperienced with finances. A business loan is important for the start-up capital along with expansion and maintenance as your company begins to grow. Some small business owners who took out an initial loan may find themselves not being approved for another because of late payments or delinquent accounts. Most lenders and institutions look at an applicant’s personal and business credit history before approving them for a loan. In the end, many business owners try to turn to small loan companies or even friends and family. The problem is, this is really unrealistic and doesn’t offer real solutions.

There are some other alternatives for attaining a business loan. Business cash advances are also available for those that have a poor credit score or payment history. Merchants can attain these advances even with poor credit. Cash advances have many benefits. What many business owners like about this option is the flexible repayment options. This is important in order to not fall behind on your bills. There is no collateral needed. Most lending institutions require applicants to have some sort of collateral if their credit is poor or horrible. So in the end, bad credit is not an issue with attaining a business cash advance.

There are many lending cash advance centers that can be of assistance of acquiring about a loan. These cash advance business loans can amount anywhere between $5000 to $1,000,000! Business owners can get their money in less than 72 hours on some sites. Make sure to do your homework and get reviews online about any lending company before trying to get a business advance loan. Another benefit to these types of loans is that there are no closing costs or other fees. They are often used more in personal businesses.

Another option for getting business loans for bad credit is to use your 401 (k). If you have an account of this nature, you can tap into it to receive a business loan. This can be used as collateral with lending institutions. Not all institutions offer this, but there are some lending companies that provide this option.

Finding a business loan for bad credit can be a hassle, but it is not impossible. Finding the right lending institution with a good background and positive reviews with past customers is the key.

High Risk Business Loans to Keep Your Business Afloat

Running a business, no matter how simple it seems like it should be, is an extremely complicated process. Most of the time you hear people talking about how hard it is to get a business off the ground, and how such a high percentage of businesses fail in their first couple of years of existence. What you don’t realize is that many business struggle just as badly when they experience a little bit of success. Cash flow management is not an easy thing to do, and even business with steady sales find themselves short of money at times, and that’s when high risk business loans may be the only thing that keeps them alive.

A high risk business loan is actually a pretty risky prospect on both sides of the table. On one side you have the business owner who is an extreme cash crunch. They’re not even sure about whether their business will survive, let alone whether they’ll be able to pay back the loan.

The other party is the lender, and they’re extending this credit to what could be a sinking ship with no hope of recovery. You might ask yourself why these lenders would take this chance at all. Well, like all lending situations, they make the loans because they know the statistics of their business. If they charge high enough interest rates, and require enough of a down payment, they’re business can stay profitable.

The amount being lent in with high risk small business loans depends completely on the size of the business, in terms of sales, and the amount of cash they can put down on the loan. The more they can prove in terms of monthly sales, the bigger the loan they can qualify for.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned anything about credit score with these kinds of business loans. The fact is lenders in these situations don’t usually look at the credit-worthiness of the business owner, they just look at the business characteristics and make their decisions based on whether they think the business can handle the loan.

Business owners who have to use this kind of financing to keep themselves afloat should take it as a serious wake up call. They need to manage growth carefully with an extreme bias toward liquidity. Business ownership and personal finance have this in common – running out of cash is the absolute worst thing that can happen to you.

Poor Credit Business Loans

It takes money to get a business off the ground. How much money? Well, usually more than you think…and more than most banks are willing to lend you. It sounds a little harsh, but if you’re looking for startup capital, bank loans can be a very tough route to financing. Some would say impossible. If you’ve damaged your credit at some point, it’s going to be very very hard to get poor credit business loans.

So, the first thing I’d say about this subject is that if you’re looking for business loans for poor credit, open your wallet and look at Mr. Visa, Mr. Mastercard, and Mr. American Express. Credit cards are really the only poor credit business loan I know of.

Now, if you already have a business up and running – and it has consistent sales – you might have a slightly better shot. Banks are much more amenable to the idea of lending money to a business to help it grow (as opposed to lending for the purpose of getting it started). So, if you have a year or more of sales data, and you can show other factors that will give your business a further sales boost (like a new website or a recently launched direct marketing campaign), it’s possible you’ll get a loan in spite of your credit.

I recently learned about another alternative to business loans for poor credit; they’re called cash advances for business and you qualify for them strictly on the basis of your sales credit card receipts. In other words, when you go to apply for this cash advance, all the lender will want to see is several months’ worth of credit card receipts from your business, and then they’ll basically lend you money against your future sales.

The rates and terms on these cash advances can be a little steep, so you have to ask yourself how bad you need the cash, and how much it will really help your business grow. If this small cash infusion is the last obstacle between you and a growth spurt, I say go for it.

Bad Credit Business Loans

I’ve heard plenty of people say the biggest mistake you could make in starting a business is to go in under funded, and I’d have to say I agree with the sentiment. Most new entrepreneurs’ biggest fear is to start a business and have it go poorly. What they don’t realize is that in many businesses, success (in the form of sales) can be just as dangerous to the business as failure if there isn’t enough cash in the bank. Loans are a great way to get that cash in the bank, but if your credit is no good your only option may be bad credit business loans.

Take for example a manufacturing business. Let’s say the business produces some kind of trailers, and it’s just gotten off the ground. Suddenly, orders start poring in. Great, right? Not necessarily. If the business doesn’t have enough cash to keep up with demand, you’ll quickly upset the customers, harpoon your momentum, and then you’re left standing with what could have been a great business. Your only chance would be to get a business loan with bad credit to float you until your sales receipts put enough money in the bank to keep up with demand.

Now, the good news is you’ll find it easier to get a loan from a bank, independent of your credit status, if you already have a functioning business with some history of sales. Bankers’ wallets start to loosen up drastically once they can see an income statement that has any ink on it at all (turns out bankers are rarely interest in pretending to be venture capitalists).

If yo haven’t started making sales yet, getting a bad credit business loan will be just this side of impossible. I hate to say it so bluntly, but banks don’t like risk, and there aren’t many things more risky than a new business being run by an entrepreneur who doesn’t have a clear sense of what his costs are, or what his cash flow is likely to look like on a consistent basis.

So, if you have bad credit, but a good business idea, I’d start talking to every friend and family with some liquidity and an entrepreneurial spirit. I know no one wants to be ‘that guy,’ but if you really believe in your business you have to be ready to go through some awkward social moments to get the thing off the ground and steaming toward its potential.

Hang in there – if your idea is truly sound the money you need will find it’s way to you!

Bad Credit Small Business Loans

I’m an entrepreneur myself, and I have a real passion for seeing small businesses succeed. You always hear the statistics that say that 90%+ of small businesses fail, but you rarely hear why. I can tell you that small businesses fail much more often due to lack of cash flow than any other reason. That’s why small business owners spend so much time looking for bad credit small business loans.

The tough part is the fact that small business loans with bad credit don’t really even exist. At least not in the sense that you’re probably thinking of them. Think about it – small business financing is really tough to come by even if you have stellar credit and a successful business running already. Banks are just very leery of giving loans to small business that are just trying to get their legs under them.

Small businesses do have other opportunities for financing though. An up and coming resource is called business cash advances. Here’s what you need in order to be a good candidate for a business cash advance:

1. Your business has to accept credit cards (not just credit cards, but that has to be one of the forms of payment you accept).

2. Your business has to have some revenue, usually at least $1,500 to $2,000 in monthly receipts.

3. You must be able to provide a history of your sales receipts, specifically credit card receipts that go back the previous three months.

4. Your business needs to already have celebrated its first birthday.

If you qualify for a small business loan with bad credit (or business cash advance) you’re going to be able to essentially borrow up to a million dollars against your future sales, depending on your current sales. In other words, they’re not going to lend you $500,000 if your business is only doing $5,000 per month in sales.

These cash advances sound great, but how much do they cost, right? I don’t want to be paying credit card interest on these programs.

Of course you don’t, and I can’t say for sure how much interest you’ll pay. I’m sure most of the finance companies who provide these services charge a percentage of the cash advance, and they probably offer some kind of discount on higher amounts.

The best part of these cash advances is they’re totally unaffected by any bad marks on your credit score. These folks run their business strictly on the basis of your gross monthly receipts, and this is the closest thing you’re going to get to small business loans for people with bad credit.

Business Loans for Poor Credit

Starting the business is the American dream. Well, it’s my American dream. It has been since I was a young kid – probably 12. I want to run my own shop, manage my own time, and have my customers be my only boss. There’s only one problem. Starting a business takes cash – cash I don’t have. So my options are to borrow money from friends, family, or the bank. My credit is no good and my friends and family are just as broke as me – so I have to hope I can find a bank that offers business loans for poor credit.

One thing is for sure – if a bank is going to lend me any money at all given my damaged credit, I’m going to have to make a pretty compelling case that I’m not a huge credit risk, even if that’s what the statistics say about me. I think if I put the right pieces together I’ll be able to get the poor credit small business loan I’m looking for.

Number one, I need a rock-solid business plan. Before I walk in to that loan officer’s office I’m going to make very sure I have my plan and my presentation nice and polished. I’ll be able to show him that I have a product for which there is a sizable market, an intelligent and efficient plan for getting the word out about my product, and conservative but encouraging projections of cash flows during the first 12 months I’m in business. Of course I can’t elimiate all the risk the bank is taking by giving me a loan, but I’ll show them I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make my business work – I’ll give up food, sleep, and a social life in order to watch my baby grow.

Of course it won’t be easy. The vast majority of traditional banks have no interest in giving business loans with poor credit. They’re looking for people with an immaculate credit history, collateral, and even a business that’s already cash flowing before they’ll be willing to lend a single dollar.

That’s why if you’re in the same situation as me you might want to consider looking for a private lender. It won’t be easy, but if you can find a person with some decent liquidity and an entrepreneurial spirit you may find they’ll be willing to take a  calculated chance on you and lend you the money to get off the ground. At the same time, they may not see the benefit of lending you the money (since you’re considered a credit risk). If they really believe in you and your product they may only want to give you the money as an investment and take a percentage of the business in return.

However you raise the money for your business (whether it’s through a poor credit business loan or an investor), never give up on your dream. America needs more committed entrepreneurs to help our economy thrive in the long term.