You’re not an accountant. You devote your time to making your customers happy and growing your business, not preparing financial statements. But, when it’s time to start looking for a loan, you need to consider how you’ll show the bank you can pay it back. Mainly, you should think about what types of financial statements you’ll need to prepare for a small business loan. Generally, banks...
You’ve spent a lot of time putting together your business plan. You’ve got an excellent package ready to send off to the bank. But maybe you want to make your business plan more professional looking and more appealing to a reader. Particularly, you might be wondering if you can put pictures in your business plan. It is always a great idea to put pictures in your business plan. Images can provide...
Getting started is usually the hardest part of any project. The first time I wrote a business plan, I was pretty overwhelmed. It seemed like such a huge task. I knew that once I got started, the momentum would carry me through. Yet, I wasn’t sure where to start. If you’re wondering where to start when writing your business plan, read on. After writing more than sixty plans over...
You need a bank account for your business, and you know that there are two types of banking: commercial and retail. If you’re just getting started with your business, you may be wondering, “What’s the difference between commercial banking and retail banking?” The difference between commercial and retail banking is that commercial banking offers services for businesses and...
Your business needs a bank. Even if you don’t need a loan, you have bills to pay, receivables to collect, and cash to manage. You know you need a bank, but how do you choose one? When choosing a bank for your business, the most important consideration will be whether you’ll want to borrow money or not. You’ll also want to consider a bank’s fees, convenience...
So, you’ve decided to write your own business plan. You’re ready to start gathering information on your industry and target market, but your Google search results are mostly research firms that want you to pay for their reports. Odds are, if you’ve decided to save some money by writing your business plan, you’re not interested in paying for industry and market data. Don’t worry. There are...
If you want to write a business plan for a bank loan, you have to tailor your proposal for the bank. What’s most important for a bank? Getting their loans paid back. A loan to your business is an investment for the bank. They’re betting that you’ll pay them back, with interest. The bank won’t be in business long if it makes bad investments. The challenge for a bank...
I’ve recently had a few of my SBA business plan clients ask me about the 7(a) loan program and its equity requirements. Many resources on the internet answer this question very ambiguously, usually saying that business owners need to put in adequate equity to qualify for the program. If you want to get a loan through the SBA loan programs, you’re going to need to know how much...
As a business owner searching for funds to start or grow your business, you’ve probably come across the U.S. government’s small business loan programs. These programs are administered by the Small Business Administration and were created to stimulate economic development in the country through business creation. Though there are several programs offered by the Small Business...
A business plan is a lot of work. Between the industry, market, and competitor analyses alone, you’ve got to do a bunch of research and write pages of text. It makes you wonder if a one-page business plan is enough for a bank loan. With some business plans reaching into the hundreds of pages, it makes you doubt anyone is going to read the whole plan. On top of that, if the executive...