Did a few searches on this subforum and was a bit surprised to see there hasn't been a thread about how to secure a business loan.
I'm looking into the possibilities of starting a small business which will be a franchise restaurant. No, it's not one of the big one of the big ones like Burger King. Rather, it's a smaller franchise that I think has potential to grow. A good friend of mine owns one of them already so he's going to be my guide while I'm walking down this path.
I'm looking to get a business loan to get started up and I'm wondering if anyone here has been through a similar process.
Some of the factors that will affect whether I will be able to get a loan or not:
Cons:
- I've never owned a business before so that means I can't use experience as a selling point nor can I put a business up as collateral
- I don't own a house so no collateral there either
- I don't have a big stash of cash ready on hand. If I was truly desperate, I have retirement accounts and stocks I could liquidate but I would prefer not to do so
Pros:
- I have a pretty good personal credit score (above 750)
- I have a steady job that gets me an above average salary which I plan to keep working at while I start my business up.
With all of these factors, what are some of the best paths I can take to secure funding? I'm looking into SBA loans but I've heard those are difficult to acquire. I'm also going to start tapping people in my personal network to see if I can raise small loans from each of these people so that I can use that as liquidity to show banks and other potential loaners that I already have a decent amount of cash on hand. Any other things I should be working at?
I'm looking into the possibilities of starting a small business which will be a franchise restaurant. No, it's not one of the big one of the big ones like Burger King. Rather, it's a smaller franchise that I think has potential to grow. A good friend of mine owns one of them already so he's going to be my guide while I'm walking down this path.
I'm looking to get a business loan to get started up and I'm wondering if anyone here has been through a similar process.
Some of the factors that will affect whether I will be able to get a loan or not:
Cons:
- I've never owned a business before so that means I can't use experience as a selling point nor can I put a business up as collateral
- I don't own a house so no collateral there either
- I don't have a big stash of cash ready on hand. If I was truly desperate, I have retirement accounts and stocks I could liquidate but I would prefer not to do so
Pros:
- I have a pretty good personal credit score (above 750)
- I have a steady job that gets me an above average salary which I plan to keep working at while I start my business up.
With all of these factors, what are some of the best paths I can take to secure funding? I'm looking into SBA loans but I've heard those are difficult to acquire. I'm also going to start tapping people in my personal network to see if I can raise small loans from each of these people so that I can use that as liquidity to show banks and other potential loaners that I already have a decent amount of cash on hand. Any other things I should be working at?