Where To Borrow For Small Business Credit

If you operate a small business, there may be a time that you need small business credit to help expand your business or make purchases for the day-to-day operation of your business. It is always important to know what types of resources are available for small businesses when it comes time to apply for loans or lines of credit.

Your Local Bank

For many small businesses, the most logical place to apply for small-business credit is with their local bank. Dealing with your local bank always has certain advantages; however, there are times when choosing a local bank for small-business credit needs may not be the most appropriate.

Your local bank knows you, and you probably even maintain your business checking and savings account there. Keep in mind,  however, that local banks tend to be more restrictive and have additional, more restrictive requirements for small businesses. Because they are very familiar with you and your business, your local bank may not be willing to grant loans or lines of credit if your average account balance is not high enough to warrant the loan.

Small Business Oriented Lenders

While many conventional banks are not geared towards making loans for small businesses, there are some banks that deal exclusively with small-business customers. Large banking companies like American Express and Citibank have entire divisions devoted to small and middle sized businesses and their credit needs. Therefore, these types of lending institutions can normally help streamline the business credit application process and offer different loan products that can help you purchase inventory, buy needed equipment or vehicles for your business as well as provide short-term bridge loans in times of reduced revenue or sales.

Small Business Shopping Clubs

If you're searching for relatively small amounts of business credit, for amounts less than 10,000 or $15,000, you may want to consider shopping warehouse clubs in your area because they can offer small business credit lines and financing for many of their small-business members. Furthermore, the requirements for these types of credit lines are usually a little more lenient than with larger business oriented banks, finance companies or lenders.

Applying for credit with warehouse shopping clubs usually involves only filling out a short application. Once the application is filled out, the customer service desk can generally give you an approval within an hour or so. Therefore, if you apply for the credit line before you start your shopping, the credit line should be approved (or in some cases denied) before you check out. If your credit line is approved, you will probably have instant access to the line and will be able to use the credit line to pay for your purchase that day.

There are many sources for small-business credit available, and most of them simply require some research and investigation on your part. Therefore if your small business needs credit lines or loans to expand and grow, you may want to research as many potential loan options as possible. Your favorite search engine will probably turn up thousands of results that will help you in finding loans and lines of credit for your small business.