How to Find a Business Loan
When trying to find a business loan, there are a few paths you can take. A cursory Google search will bring up many search results, but it’s important you know what you’re looking for. For example, a company that appears to be a lender may actually just be a marketplace. So by applying with them, your info is getting sent to multiple lenders in order for them to compete for your business. Other places might also appear to be a lender, but really they’re a broker – and that has it’s own costs associated with it (i.e. more expensive money because the broker layers in their fees). So how do you find a business loan?
Review, Compare & Save
Review LendingBuilder’s Assessment of Lenders
First, we advise you to do research so you can review existing options. You can do that here on LendingBuilder, or numerous other websites that do exactly what we do. Most websites offering fair, unbiased information will be monetizing their traffic in one way or another. So it’s important you take it at face value and read their editorial guidelines. But by and large, websites like ours are extremely helpful in your quest to finding a business loan.
Compare Options in Light of Competition
If you read a good review about a company, say National Funding, you might be pretty impressed. But when you compare National Funding to a company like OnDeck, you may think twice about which is the better option. And that’s not a knock on National Funding or OnDeck – many only qualify for one and not the other. But if you have good credit (i.e. 650+), many options will be available to you. It’s important that you compare all option if you’re lucky enough to have them.
Also it’s important to note, there are two things you want to compare
- The product offering itself against others. How does a Kabbage loan stack up against Fundbox’s term loan? Or how does National Funding’s merchant advance stack-up against Credibly’s? Read the comparisons that are out there.
- The company itself against competition. How do the customer service reviews compare or differ? What does Glassdoor say about their management? Typically, if a company has bad employee reviews, it will have bad customer reviews. So make sure to check both. You can look at Glassdoor, TrustPilot, and Google Reviews for this.
Save Money: Find a Business Loan with the Best Rates
Once you’ve researched, reviewed and compared options, choose the best one for you. If you’ve done your homework, you should have a pretty clear idea as to what the best option will be. As a quick rule of thumb, the higher a lender’s credit score requirement, the cheaper the money will be. This is almost always the case, so keep that in mind while shopping.
Not sure where to go? Try to find a business loan through a marketplace.
If after you’ve done your research, reviews and comparisons, you still don’t know where to go, try a marketplace. Marketplaces like Become, LendingClub and SuperMoney pit lenders against one another, which brings prices down. How are they able to do this? Algorithms – complex matching engines that, based on the minimal info you submit about yourself and your business, match you with the “best fit” lender. LendingClub has the most stringent of marketplace requirements, and the funds come from an individual, not an institution (i.e. it’s a peer-to-peer lending platform, but drives costs down nonetheless). Marketplace lenders like Become and SuperMoney are also able to offer best market prices for loans, because they don’t take early as big of a cut as a broker would. They pass those savings on to you.
Can I find a business loan even if I have bad credit?
Having poor or insufficient credit is often a problem, but with a few of our partners, it shouldn’t be. Through the right platform, you can still find a business loan that fits your needs, although a word of warning, it may be expensive. We would suggest you try Become or SuperMoney, as they have options that do not have a minimum credit limit, so your chances of getting a deal are better than if you randomly applied for a pre-approval somewhere.
