Baltimore, Ohio Small Business Loans

As a prerequisite to contacting lenders for a loan, you will need to determine exactly what size loan you will be asking for.

You need to be able to clearly explain your business, explain how much you want to borrow, walk the banker through the planned use of proceeds, and show how you intend to to pay the loan back to the lender.

Being able to present a well-written business plan is is critically important. If the financing is to for a company that is already doing business, you should also have financial statements covering the last three years. You will also need to discuss what collateral you have available to secure the loan. Collateral is relevant because banks always want to be prepared for a worst-case scenario in which cash flow from the business does not meet your projections.

If the business has few assets, the bank may ask you to to secure the business with your personal assets, such as stocks and bonds that you might own or life insurance policies. The banks will check on your personal credit history in any case, so hopefully you have good credit history -- you may want to get a copy of your credit history prior to meeting with the banker.

Many of these banks participate in the financial assistance programs available through the SBA. Before you sit down to talk with a small business banker, you may want to get up to speed on SBA loans programs to see if you qualify. SBA 7(a) loans, SBA 504 loans and SBA disaster assistance loans may be available to you.

To help you learn more about local small business lenders, here's our list of small business banks in Baltimore.

This is a list of banks outside of Baltimore, Ohio that have provided SBA loans to Baltimore businesses. Some of these may be national banks with local branch locations.

More Advice on Raising Money

Our site is deeply committed to aiding entrepreneurs, and we have a lot of resources related to to Raising Money. If raising money is on your to-do list, we would suggest you read Getting a Small Business Loan.