Simplify Your Small Business Loan Search

With generous sign-up bonuses and favorable reward rates available, a business credit card can help you establish credit, track business expenses, and grow your business with ease. The best credit cards are reserved for business owners with excellent personal and business credit, but don’t be discouraged if that’s not you. A card with no annual fee that you pay off in full each month could be just what you need to start building up your credit score.

Flexible, convenient, and easy to use, a business line of credit gives your company quick access to revolving credit. And though you may find business credit cards to be equally convenient, you’ll typically see lower interest rates, fewer fees, and more flexible repayment terms with a line of credit.

Like traditional term loans, short term business loans provide companies with the necessary working capital to overcome a financial hurdle, pay off higher-interest debt, or quickly jump on a great opportunity when it comes up. The main difference is that your short term financing will need to be fully repaid soon, usually within two years.

Traditional term loans are large, flexible, installment loans that small businesses can use to achieve any number of goals. Whether it’s a major equipment purchase or an expansion project, getting that extra infusion of working capital is something that nearly every business needs at some point during its life cycle.

Equipment financing and equipment leasing allow you to start using the equipment your business needs to generate revenue and pay it off over time. There are options for all industries, from heavy construction machinery to medical equipment and everything in between. With the equipment itself serving as collateral, you can obtain much lower interest rates than you might see with unsecured business loans.

With a Merchant Cash Advance (or MCA) a lender will buy a piece of your business’ future revenues and you’ll receive the cash advance as a lump sum payment. Payments fluctuate along with your sales volume, so you won’t be stuck with a large payment you can’t handle. Daily or weekly payments are common and are typically drawn directly from the merchant account you use to process debit and credit card sales.

With invoice financing, you are pre-selling your unpaid invoices to another company in exchange for a lump sum payout. The accounts receivable financing service will retain a fraction of the value while they wait for your customer to pay. You’ll get the remaining funds owed when the customer has paid, minus the weekly fees that have accrued while waiting for payment. This can become very expensive, so it would be wise to use invoice factoring only with customers that you know will eventually pay.

A Small Business Administration (SBA) loan is a government-backed loan that can guarantee billions of dollars each year. Under the SBA’s various loan programs, low-cost funds are available for purchasing inventory or equipment, adding to working capital, buying commercial real estate, funding the acquisition of other businesses, or refinancing other debts in some cases.

Personal loans comingle business finances with personal finances, but if you don’t have any business credit history, it may be the easier route. Keep in mind that because personal loans don’t require business documentation, you’ll get access to funds much sooner than you would with a business loan.

With strong personal credit, even first-time business owners can qualify for a loan to help with initial startup costs. Startup funding is available in the form of business credit cards, credit line builders, SBA loans, non-profit microloans, personal loans for business use, and more.