There are many options available for the small business owner that will allow them to provide their business with the credit and financing necessary.
There are specific and measurable strategies and benefits to using business credit to build your business faster and cheaper than without business credit. The old adage is, "the banks will only give it to you if you don't need it." The key is to maintain at least twice as much business credit as you need to hedge against any slow times or to be liquid enough to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. It's not easy for most people to raise $250,000 or more for a small business to expand but if you understand the options available and take the steps necessary it can easily be realized.
The most important thing about obtaining large amounts of business credit is to have an officer of the company, with impeccable credit, personally guarantee the loans. If this isn't possible, you will still be able to access a significant amount of credit but the process it will not happen overnight. For those small business owners with no credit or bad personal credit there are still options to access quick financing, one being bringing on a silent partner to do nothing but guarantee the financing. Make sure and run this by professional counsel before trying to implement.
The easiest business credit to obtain is business credit cards and the majority of which have phenomenal promotional deals such as 0% for 12 months or 2.9% for life, just for example and it is very possible to have access to $50,000 to $150,000 in revolving business credit in within a short period of time. There are even cards that will easily hand out $25,000 and allow you to balance transfer that amount into your business checking account so during the promotional period you have free access to these additional funds.
Traditional banks also offer two other widely used business credit options, the line of credit and equipment financing. A line of credit is similar to a credit card with the only difference being that you have cash access to 100% of your available credit. The best part of having at least one line of credit is that you can write yourself checks and not pay the fees that are typically associated with credit cards. Depending on the age and financial state of your business you can qualify for anywhere from $10,000 up to $1,000,000 in a cash access line of credit, think of the possibilities. These are typically thought of as unsecured financing because there is typically no collateral or equity that secures the financing.
The second type of bank financing is called equipment financing, which is can be thought of as secured financing for things that a business needs to operate. The best thing about this type of financing is that banks are much more lenient as to the amount of funds they will approve your business because the funds are secured by the equipment you purchase. So whether you need a printing press, a new lawnmower or in some cases a new company car this financing option might be for you.
No matter what, you need to have good personal credit in order to secure the highest form of business credit. If you are building business credit to obtain this same financing without a personal guarantee I suggest you work on perfecting your personal credit at the same time. You will be happy you did when you are trying for those $1MM lines of credit.
