You should first estimate how much amount you need in the form of a loan. Whether you want a micro loan, which ranges between $5,000 to $30,000, or bigger amount for buying major assets like building or acquisition of land. In this case you can ask for development financing. If you are in export and import business you can apply for import export loan.

Before applying for any type of small business loan you must verify whether you are entitled to get a loan under U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Program. To get a small business loan you have to do lot of paper work and fulfil many conditions of lender. Lenders avoid taking risk in grant of a loan if your credit worthiness is below their norms. They scrutinize your business plan in great detail to confirm that you are quite capable of running business successfully. Business plan has to accompany personal financial statements, tax returns and many other documents to judge your repayment capacity and reliability.

Many lenders also consider how much personal capital you have invested into your business. They expect that your self investment should be minimum 20% of amount you apply for loan. It is better to be well prepared with all the documents and information in advance to get a small business loan with minimum hassles.

Attributable to the availability of merchant loans, small business owners have been able to get up to $500,000 for their businesses and use it without restrictions.  Even merchants with no collateral and lower credit scores have had access to these funds and they have been able to renew their accounts approximately every three and-a-half months.

According to CNN Money, there are other initiatives in the works, to help boost bank lending to small businesses.  For example, the President will unveil programs that “…increase the maximum amount businesses can borrow through the Small Business Administration’s primary loan program…[and] expand access for smaller banks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a move aimed at spurring more local lending by community banks,” according to CNN Money.

However, in the meantime, small business owners still need access to business cash now.  Moreover, when bank lending does improve small business owners can still use merchant loans if they don’t qualify for bank loans, if they don’t want to endure long waiting periods for bank funds, or even in addition to bank loans.

Merchant loans can be approved in only 48 hours and funded in as little as five business days.  Qualified merchants have owned their business for at least six months, process at least $3,500 in monthly credit card sales, have at least one year remaining on the business lease and have no unresolved bankruptcies.

Get a free online quote today!

Chrystal King writes articles about Merchant Loans , the alternative method of business funding, for Merchant Resources International.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/loans-articles/merchant-loans-are-still-great-alternatives-to-bank-loans-1364674.html