Help for Avoiding Small Business Finance Problems
A note from Stephen Bush: The focus here will be advice about working capital and commercial loans. For over 25 years, my area of expertise has involved business financing and avoiding problems with working capital financing.
Small Business Loans - What to Do When Banks Say No
An overview of some key commercial loan difficulties
I have also written a commercial financing article, "Why Do Some Banks Say Yes When They Mean No?" which describes how some lenders offer commercial loans with terms that they do not expect borrowers to accept. This unfortunate practice produces both confusion and delays for commercial borrowers.
Unfortunately banks are saying "NO" or saying "YES when they mean NO" much more often in the current financial climate (which is bordering on chaos in some locations). Commercial borrowers will need to be more prepared than ever when seeking to obtain new commercial financing. Much like statistics that show job-seekers should be prepared to hear "NO" 25 to 50 times or more before they hear "YES" when seeking a job interview, business owners should anticipate that they will encounter "NO" more often in almost all small business loan circumstances.
Commercial Loan Resources
Business Loan Advice
Reports and articles addressing critical business finance issues such as business opportunity financing and SBA loan refinancing.
- Mixed Signals and Confusion about Small Business Financing
- While lenders have indicated that business lending is proceeding at a normal pace, commercial credit lines have been increasingly reduced or revoked entirely and fewer business loans are being completed in most locations. As a result, business owners are confused by the mixed signals concerning the actual availability of small business financing.
- Working Capital Help
- Strategies for working capital financing and commercial loans.
- Small Business Loans and Bank Rage
- Small business loans are proving to be harder to obtain, and small business owners are increasingly vocal in expressing their displeasure toward banks. The resulting bank rage by commercial property owners has demonstrated that banks are likely to be evaluated by more critical standards in the future.
- Commercial Real Estate Loans
- A guide to strategies for commercial mortgages and commercial loans.
- Merchant Cash Advances
- A guide to working capital financing and commercial funding. Information about merchant cash advance programs and short-term working capital loans.
- Commercial Loans and Guerrilla Financing Tactics
- This discussion is designed to illustrate the feasibility of small business owners adopting some of the guerrilla loan tactics described to obtain essential commercial loans for their business. In the current harsh business lending climate, commercial borrowers will increasingly discover that they need to do whatever it takes for their business to survive.
- Twitter Updates for Business Financing
- Summary of small business finance comments by Stephen Bush on Twitter.
Stated Income Business Loans
Reduced Availability of Stated Income Commercial Loans
A Stated Income business loan is quite different from a traditional commercial loan. Very few traditional banks use Stated Income (no tax returns and no income verification) for a commercial mortgage. Most commercial lenders will perform a thorough income verification as part of their underwriting process.
Business cash advance programs are one of the few remaining approaches to obtain working capital without a thorough business income verification process (although larger business cash advances will generally require financial statements and possibly tax returns).
Commercial Financing Help
The Working Capital Journal Highlights What is Happening and What to Do about It
Publicizing actions being taken by business lenders throughout the United States will contribute to at least two worthy goals:
(1) To highlight controversial bank-lender practices with a view toward eliminating or reducing questionable lending tactics.
(2) To help business owners prepare for many business finance funding changes.
We will periodically update a summary of our findings which can be viewed by clicking on the "Commercial Financing Help" link in the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal.
http://www.working-capital-journal.com
We encourage commercial borrowers to contact us to obtain more information and to describe their own problem-lender stories so that we can share their experiences with as broad an audience as possible.
5 Reasons for Obtaining a Business Cash Advance using Credit Card Receivables
Why Merchant Cash Advance Programs are Being Used by More Small Business Owners
* A business cash advance based on credit card financing is one of the few viable options for reliably obtaining short-term business financing (this has proven especially true during recent months)
* Credit card receivables factoring is available to virtually any business that accepts credit cards in their business transactions (although home-based businesses have more limited access to this kind of commercial financing)
* There is no need for collateral
* Funds can be obtained very quickly
* There should not be any up-front fees or closing costs
The current volatility in working capital financing options has changed how business cash advances should be evaluated by small business owners. Here are three of the key factors behind the rapidly-changing funding environment for small businesses:
First, unsecured lines of credit have all but disappeared for many commercial borrowers.
Second, most banks are now requiring more collateral for business financing.
Third, many regional and local banks are exiting all business lending activities.
Here's my favorite link:
Small Business Finance - Firing Your Commercial Banker
Recognizing when it might be necessary to say "You're Fired" to your banker
Business owners and commercial borrowers are now reluctantly admitting that banks are just not what they used to be. Just like many automobile manufacturers that are now a tarnished and shriveled version of what they once were, it seems like almost overnight most banks have lost our confidence. Candidly speaking, even if their commercial banker is their best friend, small business owners are increasingly realizing that they must look out for their own best interests because it is unlikely that their business banker is up to the task anymore.
If they are being truthful to themselves, most business owners will conclude that they should seek a new banker if keeping the old banker is holding the business back, either by bad advice or inadequate small business loans. This discussion is in no way meant to suggest that all banks are now bad or that all bankers are now bad. In today's complex economy, there are still good banks as well as bad banks. Similarly, there are also good bankers and bad bankers. The true nightmare scenario to confront for most commercial borrowers is when their current banking relationship involves a bad banker working for a bad bank.
We will leave the discussion of good banks and bad banks to another report. Overall we would conclude that if the current situation involves a bad bank and a not so bad banker, the most prudent outcome for a business owner is likely to be firing both the bank and the banker. Sometimes a good banker can be transformed into a bad banker simply by working for a bad bank.
Results are what count for any business, and business owners should not be reluctant to hold their banker accountable for producing inadequate results. For prudent commercial borrowers, firing your banker and your bank has become both a more acceptable and necessary solution when your business is not able to obtain sufficient business finance and working capital help.
Commercial Loans and Working Capital
Business Finance Consulting to Solve Small Business Loan Problems

Business finance consultants that can provide comprehensive advice about current lending difficulties will be helpful for most business owners, but such commercial financing experts are not always easy to find. Without adequate information about what should be done to obtain small business loans in these extreme circumstances, business borrowers are rightfully frustrated and confused. Because of this difficult business financing climate, effective commercial finance and working capital finance advice has become a rare and valuable commodity.
Some very helpful and effective business finance advice is available at no cost, and business owners should usually start any search for help by reviewing such free advice first. Two notable examples of sources available for free online are The Working Capital Journal and The Commercial Mortgages Guide. However, the normal complexity of small business loans combined with a chaotic commercial lending climate is likely to increase the necessity of individualized commercial finance consulting assistance from a commercial financing expert.

Free Commercial Loan Analysis

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