Fast Business Loans

Every entrepreneur knows that cash flow is going to get a little tight – and less than predictable – at some point in time.

And when that happens the wheels of any business grind to halt.

You’re no longer allowing you to build or grow your operations as quickly as you’d like. You have to ignore opportunities – sometimes once in a lifetime opportunities – just because you don’t have the funding to jump in.

If things get really tight, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for the folks in payroll to get a little nervous. Maybe you can’t pay vendors as quickly, and that relationship sours. Ad campaigns can’t run, and new business won’t come in – making your cashflow problem even worse.

Thankfully, fast business loans are the perfect answer to a cash flow problem.

Not all financing options are created equally, though. Especially when you’re under the gun and can’t knock out as much research as you’d like to before making a decision. When you have to move quickly you have to sacrifice some certain for speed – but you don’t want to dive into financing that saves your short term issues but replaces them with long term problems.

That’s where this quick guide comes into play.

We’re going to highlight the key things you need to consider when researching quick business loans in a hurry. We also break down a couple of alternative funding sources that you may not have been aware of already.

Some of these nontraditional quick small business loans can get you almost instant access to the funding you need. Others work more as a “bridge” solution to get the capital you need NOW while you pursue slower and more traditional lending options.

At the end of the day, with this quick guide, you’ll know EXACTLY what you have to do in order to secure the funding you need – and get it quickly.

Let’s dive right in!

Understand And Realistically Assess Your Needs

There’s no shortage of quick business loans out there.

On the one hand, that’s great news. You’ll have plenty of options to pick and choose form. There’s certainly going to be some financing package that suits your needs right down to the ground. Competition in the industry will help you get better deals, too.

On the other hand, with so many choices out there you’re going to have A LOT of research to tackle in a short period of time. You’re going to have to look into a dozen or more options to verify you’re making the smart move – and everyone is going to promise you that they (and they alone) are the only service you can trust.

With dozens of different lenders promising you the moon and the stars when it comes to quick business loans, finding the perfect one for your needs becomes a headache.

You can speed everything up by outlining your needs and remaining as realistic as possible.

Figure out how much money you need, and how quickly you need it, and stick to that plan like glue.

Sure, most entrepreneurs would love nothing more than to get fast business loans unsecured for hundreds of thousands of dollars if they had the opportunity. But most folks understand that taking out too large of a loan (especially a short-term loan) can cripple their financial flexibility for years to come.

Instead of looking to see how much money you can get out of a fast business loan with bad credit service, only ask for the money you need. And while you’ll want to stretch the repayment term out as long as you can (for financial flexibility), you should have a plan to pay back your loan ASAP.

With a more realistic view you’ll be able to sift through all the easy business loan options out there. You’ll have more clarity regarding the financial decision you making, and that lets you move more strategically as well.

On top of that, you’ll eliminate a lot of the desperation moves that some entrepreneurs make when their back is really against the wall.

When your cashflow is drying up and you have expense to pay with no money to cover them, it’s easy to throw logic out the window and climb on any life raft you stumble across.

Take an hour or two to figure out how much money you need. Work out a that covers how you want to use this money. This is critical to do no matter what, but becomes more important when you’re under the gun.

How Much Time Do You Have Before You Need This Money?

How that you know how much money you are looking for (as opposed to “as much as I can get”), you need to focus on how quickly you really need the financing in place.

There’s a world of difference between feeling like you need funding right now – this minute – because of the stress of business as usual and the reality of needing financing right now – THIS MINUTE – or your business is going to fail without it.

It’s important that you differentiate between these two different kinds of situations.

Thankfully, if you really are under the gun there are a lot of fast business loans out there. Many can get you cash and capital in less than 24 hours.

You’ll always spend quite a bit more money on interest with these loans (and may even pay a financing fee on top of the interest), but opportunities are out there for business owners that need cash now.

If you do have a little bit of time before things are going to fall apart, however, your quick business loan opportunities get a lot more flexible.

With a bit of lead time (a week or two, for example) you can look into small business loans through traditional lenders, term loans, collateral loans, unsecured/secured loans, cash advances, and a handful of different (and more exotic) financing opportunities.

When you get realistic about the amount of time you have to research your opportunities things have a way slowing down a little. The pressure starts to release, you think a little more strategically, and you’re able to find the perfect financing options that you would have overlooked before.

Now that we’ve covered two of the more important questions you have to tackle before you sign up for fast small business loans, let’s dig deeper into the specific financing options out there.

Small Business Administration Loans

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is a government-backed organization set up to help business owners get their business up and running. They also have financing packages designed to help build and grow new business, too.

The majority of businesses in the United States today are classified as small businesses – and almost all of them can take advantage of lending opportunities that come directly from the SBA.

Compared to traditional local bank or credit union lending programs, getting a loan through the SBA will be a lot faster. These business loan fast approval programs are taken advantage of by thousands of entrepreneurs in the US every year.

Of course, these guaranteed business loans aren’t going to do wonders for those with bad credit or little to no business history under their belts. You’ll need at least a 650 credit score to apply for these loans.

You also need to have a track record in business or your application will be denied right away. In fact, the SBA won’t seriously consider a quick business loan for you unless you have been in business for at least two years.

Short Term Loans

Short term loans have exploded in popularity over the last ten years – and it’s easy to see why.

During the credit crunch right around 2008, the overwhelming majority of traditional banks, credit unions, and other organizations pulled back from offering smaller loans to small businesses. They considered these kinds of loans to be really risky, and since the economy was falling apart at the seams they didn’t want to add more black eyes to their books.

This decision left a vacuum created in the small business lending space. Small business owners still needed financing to grow and succeed, but now banks and traditional lenders were telling them there wasn’t any money available.

Nontraditional, private lenders saw the opportunity, poured into the market, and established a multibillion-dollar industry almost overnight.

Today, these kinds of loans can usually be fulfilled in as short a block of time as 48 hours. Sometimes it’s possible for entrepreneurs to get access to the cash they need inside of 24 hours.

These loan packages work a lot like traditional term loans and follow a similar repayment structure. You’ll be able to take out anywhere between $2500 and $250 in cash and capital with these types of programs, though there are higher interest rates and loan repayment fees attached to this kind of financing.

Usually you’ll have anywhere between a few weeks and a few months – 24 months most – to repay back the full amount of your loan, including all interest and any loan fees.

These kinds of loans are best suited for unexpected and one-off expenses that you hadn’t already planned for. This is not the kind of loan that you want to cover payroll, to cover operating expenses, or to invest in your own products or services.

This is the kind of loan you’d want if you find a revenue-generating opportunity that you would have missed out on otherwise. In this super competitive business environment, you need to leap on any chance to succeed that would have slipped right between your fingertips without this funding.

Short-Term Lines of Credit

Short-Term lines of credit are another popular type of fast business loans entrepreneurs are looking to take advantage of from nontraditional lenders.

The beauty of these loans is that they are usually small enough to give you capital within 24 hours or less, and sometimes (if you visit a lending office in person for your application) you’ll be able to walk right out of those offices with your cash in hand.

These kinds of loans are more financial Band-Aids than anything else, though.

They usually have a hard cap on them of about $25,000 or so, but from time to time you’ll be able to find a lending service that will offer just a little bit more. Because the limits on these loans are so low (compared to options that will give you up to $250,000 or more) you’re a but limited to how you can use them.

You essentially get a line of credit with this financial package, giving you the ability to draw from your total line of credit whenever you see fit. You can also use these funds however you like – something that makes them VERY attractive to business owners that want flexibility from their financing deals.

You’ll only ever pay interest on the amount of money that you draw – not your total line of credit – and once you have repaid whatever you have withdrawn (plus interest), your line of credit will be restored in full again. You can rinse and repeat the process as often as you like.

As long as you keep making payments, of course.

The APR interest rates on these lines of credit can get pretty steep, though. Interest will compound, so do your best to pay off your withdrawn line of credit each month, if possible.

Other Types of Small Business Loans You Will Want to Look into

There are a couple of other easy business loans you want to look into, particularly if you want access to your funding fast and don’t have the most perfect credit history under your belt.

We’re talking about lending opportunities that include:

• Equipment financing programs
• Invoice financing programs and
• Collateral/Merchant cash financing programs

 

All three of these lending opportunities will be able to give you access to funding within a 24 hour to 72 hour block of time. The amount of money you will be able to get with these types of financing packages will be dependent almost entirely on the amount of collateral you are putting up to secure the loans in the first place.

Obviously, you’ll need to have some sort of assets that you can use as collateral (equipment for equipment financing, unpaid invoices for invoice financing, etc.).

The beautiful thing here is that if you do have assets you can use as collateral, you never have to worry about your credit score getting in the way of financing opportunities. By securing your loan with tangible assets or collateral you can essentially write your own check.

Just make sure that you aren’t overextending yourself or you may find your business in more financial hot water then you were in to begin with.