How Long Do You Need To Be In Business to Get a Loan: Lendio Whiteboards, Episode 4

Just how long do you need to be in business before you can get a small business loan?

In this Lendio Whiteboard, Burke Alder explains how your time in business will affect your chances of getting a business loan.

If you have a credit score of 720 or higher, you’re likely to get a line of credit, a business credit card, or even an SBA loan, even if you’re in the startup phase.

With lower credit, you’re going to probably have to wait a little bit longer.

To find out more, watch the video above or read the transcript below

Transcript:

Welcome to Lendio Whiteboard.

This Whiteboard series is dedicated to the ins and outs of making small business loan simple. Last Whiteboard, we talked about the importance of personal credit in getting a business loan. This week we’re going to talk about Pillar Number Two, which is Business Stages and Loan Options for those stages of your business. Let’s get into it.

When we look at stages of business, we’re going to first look at Idea Phase; Start-up, 0-5 months; Building Your Business, 6 mos.-1 yr; and congratulations to all those who make it to a year in Growing your business, 1-3 years; and to those who are Established, 3 years and beyond. As we look at these stages, there’s going to be specific loan options of business financing options for your business. Let’s get into this. And we’re first going to look at Pillar One again, Credit Score and Time in Business.

So if my credit is above 700, let’s see the loan options for the different stages. We’re first going to start with Business Line of Credit. This is really nice because a line of credit you can draw from; and you’re really going to see that at all the stages if you have good credit across these stages. If you’re also looking for another option, Business Credit Cards.

There have been a lot of great businesses out there that have started from Business Credit Cards. Once again if you have above 700, you’re going to see that. At the Start-up Phase, you will be able to build Business Credit Card. You will be able to, you know, as you approach here all the way to Established. Now if you’re looking for a nice SBA loan, make sure you have some time and it takes some time. People work and even some time in wanting to get this loan.

So it’s all about time. On SBA 7a, you’re also going to be looking across all these loan types. Now as we look at Credit Score below 700, and especially the Idea Phase or even Start-up Phase, you’re really going to have to be trained to Personal Savings, Friends and Family and even Crowd Funding. So really try to secure that line of financing or business loan.

Now as I move past there (Idea Phase – Start-up Phase), my goal really is to hit this 6 months in business (Building Phase) and have a Track Record. When I say Track Record, even with Flow Credit, I’m talking about monthly revenues. So as you hit this track record, you’re definitely going to see more loan options.

But let’s talk a little bit about, “If you have poor credit and you’re past six months, what are the loan options you can see?” So you’re going to see ACH, withdrawal from your bank account; Accounts Receivable or Purchase Order Financing and even Equipment Loan. And there are a lot more loan options than given this. These are probably the top ones people use. But you can actually see how – even if I have poor credit, then I’m really going to have to rely on these innovative financing options to get funding for my business (ACH, AR/PO Financing and Equipment Loan). So today, we’ve really talked about the Stages of Business which is Pillar Two and the Loan Options for those who have different stages of business and their credit scores.

And if you want this to be even, maybe even simpler for you, you can create a free profile on Lendio.com. Once you do that, you’ll see your loan options depending on your stage and a few questions that we ask you. Thanks for stopping by for this Whiteboard. We’ll see you next week.

Other videos in this series:

Episode 1: The World of Small Business Lending

Episode 2: The Four Pillars of Small Business Financing

Episode 3: Improving Your Personal Credit

To find out more your business loan options, click here to get started with Lendio.