Charleston, Mississippi Business Loan

Local Charleston Business Loan Sources

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

SBA Lenders for Charleston Businesses

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

Charleston Business Loan Advice

Before contacting banks to get a bank loan, you will need to have a specific plan.

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 your ability to pay the loan back to the bank.

A well-defined business plan is an important prerequisite. If the financing is to for a going concern, you should also have financial statements covering the last three years. In addition, you should itemize 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, you will likely be asked to to guarantee the loan with your personal assets, such as the equity in your home. 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 do your homework 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.

Gaebler.com Advice on Raising Money

Our Gaebler.com site is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, and we have a lot of resources related to to Raising Money. For example, one article that might be of interest to you is Attracting Investors.