Small Business Lenders in Washington, Virginia

Local Washington Business Lenders

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

Other Lending Resources for Washington Businesses

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

Business Loan Advice for Washington Businesses

As a prerequisite to meeting with banks to discuss getting a bank loan, you will need to determine exactly what size loan you will be asking for.

You need to be able to clearly explain your business, explain how much you want to borrow, define how the money will be used, and show how you intend to to pay the loan back to the bank.

Having a business plan is an important prerequisite. If the capital is to for an existing business, you should also have financial statements covering the last three years. You will also need to discuss 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 you cannot repay the loan.

If the business has few assets, you will likely be asked to to guarantee the loan with your personal assets, such as stocks and bonds that you might own or life insurance policies. The banks will look at your personal credit report 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 these banks 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 read up on 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

Gaebler.com is a site that is all about helping entrepreneurs, and we have a lot of resources related to to Raising Money. If raising money is on your to-do list, one article that might be of interest to you is How Equity Dilution Works.