Small business loans have been revolutionary gamechangers in how new entrants and small ventures in the business world used to borrow. Nevertheless, these loans come with detailed requirements that must be fulfilled for easy approval of the advance. Working on a handful of aspects related to your profile can help you improve your chances of getting easy approval.
Doing so may not be difficult if your small business has repaid previous advances regularly without any delay or default as it improves the overall creditworthiness. Now, let’s take a look at some of the factors that can keep you from availing small business finance and how to improve on them.
Things that might reduce your chances of small business loan approval
- Inadequate cash flow
A lack of adequate cash flow may reduce your chances of receiving approval for small business loans. Ample cash flow is not only essential for a business’s smooth day-to-day operation, but also ensures you have enough funds to pay back any credit availed. As small business loans are often unsecured advances, lenders rely heavily on the business’s cash flow to determine its stability for affording new credit.
A low or limited cash flow may thus stint the chances of receiving quick business loan approval. You may thus want to take a quick look at your business’s cash flow and make necessary amends for its improvement before applying for the advance.
- Holding sub-par credit score
Credit score is a 3-digit number that indicates an individual or business’s creditworthiness and financial discipline over the years. Credit bureaus calculate this score based on a range of factors related to one’s habit of availing, using, relying, and/or repaying any loans or advances availed.
The ideal credit score lenders seek when processing unsecured advances like small business loans is 700 and above. If you hold a credit score under this mark, your chances of receiving quick approval for the loan may be reduced. Hence, you may want to adopt corrective measures that improve the score over time and well in advance of applying for your loan. For instance, you can pay dues on time, repay existing loans in full, borrow a balanced mix of credits, apply for rectification of record errors, etc.
- No definite plan for business growth or expansion
A small business loan usually comes with a flexible repayment tenure of up to 5 years, which also means that your business needs to do well in the following few years for easy repayment of the advance. So, lenders will assess your business growth and expansion plans before they lend.
A lack of any such solid plan for business growth and expansion in the short and long term may work against your chances of availing a small business loan conveniently. It is thus advisable that you chart out your future goals and strategies in detail.
- Unorganized finances
If your business’s finances are unorganized, you may have a hard time securing the loan. Some common signs of unorganized finances include poor allocation of resources towards business output, excess burden of debt on business capital, lack of timely payments to creditors, unorganized financial statements, etc. Which is why, you may want to work on the business finances before proceeding to apply for the loan.
- Sending multiple loan applications within a short duration
Multiple loan applications within a short span, irrespective of the borrower type and profile, are an indicator of unplanned borrowing and a credit-hungry nature. This can be viewed negatively by lenders. Also, each application sent for a new loan raises a hard inquiry on your credit profile, which works against your creditworthiness as such inquiries are not considered good by financial institutions for the purpose of lending. It is thus wise to avoid sending multiple applications for small business loans within a short span of say 6 months.
- High credit dependency
Have you ever wondered if your business might be more credit dependent than it needs to be? Yes, this trait can lower your chances of receiving instant approval on your small business loan application.
Due to the easy availability of financing today, small and medium sized businesses often resort to borrowing to raise additional capital. While this fulfills the immediate financing need, it burdens the business with additional repayment strain which might limit the finances to a great extent. If your business has such high dependency, it can reduce your chances of availing additional credit. You may thus want to repay some existing loans in full before applying for a new one.
Other factors that can impact the approval chances for small business loans include the likes of seeking higher credit than required and a lack of necessary documents for loan application. Which means, you must choose the loan amount carefully and arrange all the paperwork before applying for your business loan for faster and improved chances of approval.