Your chances of being approved for an SBA loan are much greater when you have prepared yourself properly. One of the most important things you can do in this regard is to check out the requirements of any bank that you will apply for a loan at, as well as the SBA requirements themselves. When you have this information and you take steps to prepare beforehand, you stand a much greater chance of being approved than you would otherwise. Here are some ways you can prepare yourself to increase your chances of approval.

Build Your Credit Score

The SBA, as well as virtually all lending institutions, will first check your credit score before moving on to consider other aspects of your application. That means before you even bother applying, you should take whatever steps are necessary to remove unappealing lines from your credit history and to boost your credit score as much as possible.

Provide Collateral

If you can offer some form of collateral, you stand a better chance of being approved for a loan. Collateral lessens the risk for any lending institution because if you were to default on a loan, it could simply sell the collateral and recoup at least part of its investment.

Develop a Good Business Plan

Having a good business plan in place shows a lending institution that you are aware of competitors in your market, that you have a strategy for competing, and that you have a business objective in mind for several years out. It will also show a lender that you have taken the time to consider various aspects of your business, and how to make it successful, which will have great interest to them as well.

Gather Up Legal and Financial Documents

All lending institutions will be very interested in your financial documents, for instance, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and other documents. It will be much better for you if you have all these documents at your fingertips, rather than having to retrieve them piecemeal when directed to do so by the lender.

Know the Requirements of Your Lender

Any lender that you go to will have specific requirements for loan approvals, and if you know these ahead of time, you can position yourself to be more likely to be approved. If you walk into a meeting with a lender cold, with no idea of their typical requirements, your whole application could get blown out of the water in the first 10 minutes.

Are you interested in applying for an SBA loan? 

If you’ve been thinking of applying for an SBA loan to boost your small business, we’d like to hear from you. At Simplicity Capital Finance, we look forward to working with new clients applying for SBA loans, and we may be able to help you as well.