St. Joseph, Illinois Small Business Loans

Business Loan Providers for St. Joseph Businesses

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

St. Joseph Bank Loan Tips

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

You need to be able to clearly introduce your business to the banker, explain how much you want to borrow, describe what the money will finance, and show how you intend to to pay the money back to the lender.

Having a business plan is an important prerequisite. If the bank loan is to for an existing business, you should also have financial statements covering the last three years. Bankers will also want to know what collateral you have available to guarantee 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 secure the business 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 meeting with the 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

Take the time to learn as much as you can about Raising Money. For starters, we recommend you read Business Incubators.