Getting access to small business loans

[strangbad]

I just got my incorporation papers through, Im going into bizness with some compadres doing notary and process serving. It aint super sexy work at all, but it's a cash cow. Getting a loan has been challenging, tho, since we're just starting out and we don't have a resume of having run a biz before. Anyone here self employed? What do you do? Ever take out small business loans? Im wonderin what it takes to convince a bank to make the loan...

[Trauma-san]

I would challenge you on why you even need a loan.  A loan has to be paid back; a loan is debt.  If you're starting a business, the last thing you need is debt hovering over the business making it harder to turn a profit.  You are insisting on saddling yourself and your company with interest payments.... that's not a wise decision.  A notary and process serving business could be ran out of your kitchen with virtually no overhead and almost 100% profit.  Getting a loan would be a huge mistake in my opinion.  The reason the bank doesn't want to give you a loan is because you don't need one, and you have no concrete way of paying it back.  Both of those are the same two reasons why you shouldn't get one in the first place!  The bank is doing you a favor. 

[jeromechickenbone]

Yeah, I mean what do you need the loan for exactly?  How much do you want?  You need to have a hard plan of what it is you'll need to effectively run your business, come up w/ a budget, and then decide if you need a loan or not.

If you're gonna be a notary, you really shouldn't need much money at all.  Whatever the fee is associated to be official in your state, a stamp, and some forms of advertising.  Maybe press up some business cards or something and deliver them all over town, anywhere that would use notaries like title companies, etc.  It couldn't cost more than a G or 2 at most.  And if you're desperate for that sum of money, I'd tell you to just get a credit card anyway.

I wouldn't go out and try to lease up space or anything, like dude said you can run that straight out of your house.

A huge mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is thinking way too big and not being able to maintain it.  Start small and humble and go from there. 

[Jip]

you need a business plan to show how you plan on paying back the bank?

[AboveTheLaw]

A huge mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is thinking way too big and not being able to maintain it.  Start small and humble and go from there. 

True above all else in the beginning stages

[maryoz]

My cd duping hustle is working out pretty nice, and I needed a loan that could basically get us to advance our operations. The loan was basically a down payment on a higher income. That's what any loan should be: a gateway to making all that money back, and the interest and then some more still. Anyhow, The banks tripped on the business plan a bit, but I once I showed I was paying bills, different story. I've had a virtual phone service through Gotvmail for two years, for example, which invoices say I'm running an 800number with 5 extensions with a nice volume of calls coming through. Right there I have it spelled out I'm doing biz. Plus all my vendor invoices I've paid on. Not all banks ask for this stuff, some only care about your credit, but it helps to show. Most important, show them the Rakims: any accounts that you've paid in full especially for your biz.