Video: How to Prepare for a Business Loan Application

In this video, Pursuit Vice President Paola Garcia reviews six steps every business owner should take when preparing for a loan application. Learn more about what you can do now to increase your chances of approval.

Step 1: Take time to prepare for the loan application

  • Ensure your bookkeeping program is in order
  • Make sure you’re up-to-date with your business and personal tax filings
  • Check your personal credit report, and immediately report any errors
  • Update the executive summary on your business plan

Step 2: Know your industry and competition

  • Develop talking points on your business’s competition as well as your operations and business cycle
  • You’ll instill confidence in your lender by demonstrating that you’re forward-thinking and prepared

Step 3: Tell a story with your financials

  • Walk your lender through your business’s financials, and use the information on your tax returns to tell a story about your business.

Step 4: Get ready for your loan interview

  • Treat an interview with a lender like a job interview
  • Demonstrate your organizational skills and thorough knowledge of your business
  • Be ready to address any critical or crisis periods that your business experienced, and discuss what happened and what you did to overcome it.

Step 5: Determine how much you need and why you’ll need it

  • It’s a major red flag for lenders if you just say, “how much can you give me?”
  • Do the work to show how you got the the amount you need, and tell them how you will use the loan

Step 6: Complete and review the loan application

  • Submitting an incomplete or inaccurate application shows a lender that you’re disorganized
  • Go through the application multiple times, and ask a trusted colleague to also review it

 

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