Business Loan Greenville, North Carolina

As a prerequisite to contacting banks for a loan, you will need to develop the specifics of your loan request.

You need to be able to clearly explain your business, explain how much you want to borrow, describe what the money will finance, and show how you plan to pay the loan back to the bank.

Having a business plan is an important prerequisite. If the loan is to for a going concern, 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 you cannot repay the loan .

If the business has few assets, you will likely be asked to to guarantee the loan with your personal assets, such as your individual retirement account or pension plan. 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 the banks in our list 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 Greenville.

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If you are new to our site, you should know that we are devoted to helping entrepreneurs, and we have a lot of information pertaining to to Raising Money. If raising money is on your to-do list, we would suggest you read Realistic Debt Financing Options.