Thursday 31 May 2012

The Issue with Getting a Small Business Loan

By John Walters


If you ever ask your typical small business owner, a lot of them might get to the exact same conclusion, which is that lots of banks just are not there for getting business loans in the hands of entrepreneurs at the moment. This is not so much a matter of opinion, I mean there is certainly data to support this plus it's certainly going to depend a lot on the perspective of anyone that you ask. Lending criteria has surely tightened in the last year or so, and for those all set to complain about this, I can provide a suggestion: Stop defaulting on your existing loans and credit lines. After the bailouts, the banks did the very best they could to assess the damage, and they determined that subprime lending was the most important cause of most of their loses. Default rates are at a record high. If nobody is paying back their loans, why would we expect banks to continue lending?

I may be exaggerating a bit, but the point remains. Chances are you're one of the good guys here, and that when you take credit, you pay it off. Do more and help spread the word for everyone else to STOP defaulting on their loans! You will discover that things wouldn't be so bad if we lived in a world where the majority of people made the effort and did what was required to repay their business loans. Everyone has to accept responsibility for this problem: the banks who wrote the loans, the people who took them knowing that they couldn't repay them, etc.

Does that sound very hard? Continue with the repayment schedule, don't take a loan you can't pay back, and be better about managing your money. The part about not borrowing money that you can't pay back is very important. Then there is Murphy's Law. Anything which could go awry, probably will, which is why it is necessary to be super conservative. Economic downturns, consumer spending declining, increasing costs, etc. These things are generally not preventable, and as a result there will always be some level of default on business loans, and loans in general.

There is a bigger issue here, that is just fraud, plain and simple. Too many people are searching for ways to play the system, and even though there is not a lot we can do about that, that is an issue that may change as the economy gets better and people sense that they're getting treated fairly by their banks. With the variety of unsecured and non-recourse kinds of funding available, it has been a little too easy for people to get out of repaying these obligations. The rest of us are left holding the bag: well qualified to receive and repay a loan or a business loan, but unable to get approved.

For anybody who are upset at your inability to get a small business loan (not the defaulters, but everyone else), take solace in knowing that there are alternative small business loans available. There are certain funding sources with lots of capital, just begging to get it out to business people like yourself, because honestly it does more good for them to lend it than it does for the money to just sit there. So borrow money to the extent that you are able, just make sure that you pay it back! Although I can't promise that you'll get a call from Mr. Obama himself, the economy will thank you for your efforts and it's the only way to get better. My last word of advice is, SPREAD THE WORD. If you know other small business owners, tell them who you were able to take a loan from, and hopefully they will follow suit.




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