Prepare to Apply for a Business Loan

Video from our FREE Online Business Course
http://www.myownbusiness.org
Session 9 How to Finance Your Business

Question:
"What is the worst mistake people make when making a loan request?"

Rod Banks
Executive Vice President, City National Bank

Topics covered in this video:
Business loans, financing, mistakes, preparation, using a business plan

There are a lot of mistakes that first time entrepreneurs can make when making a loan request. The first one is not having that business plan: one of the most important tools a start up entrepreneur can have. It will describe your business and tell the banker what your vision is for your company and where you want to ultimately take your company.

Not being able to articulate that vision is another mistake that people have. Someone might say that they want to be in the automotive business but they don't do a good job of explaining exactly what specialty they actually want to be in.

Also I would say having unrealistic financing expectations. A lot of people come in and expect the moon. You've got to realize you don't have that track record yet to present to a banker. So you've got to be realistic.

Lastly, you've got to be professional in how you approach the banker. You really do need to be prepared; you need to think it through and perhaps present your business plan to some friends to let them ask questions about it. So, the more professional you become, the better off you're going to be in that loan application phase.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Start
• starting
• business
• loan
• unsecured
• secured
• collateral
• investment
• lender
• bank
• funding
• financing
• write
• plan
• mistakes
• preparation

[bgargoyle]

Really really good stuff. Thanks.