Posts Tagged Commercial

Small Business Finance and Commercial Lender Perspectives

The traditional commercial lending role of banks in providing small business loans appears to be growing smaller. Some of the most critical issues likely to be confronted by small businesses involving lenders are summarized in a series of brief perspectives in this report.

“Avoid online applications for business financing” is some candid advice for small business owners desperately seeking new commercial finance funding. This suggestion is a specific attempt to emphasize that it is not prudent to provide confidential business finance information before it is determined that commercial financing is feasible for a particular financial need. Such automated application processes are obviously a convenience for the lender, but this does not translate to a sufficient reason for exposing private business data without knowing more about the small business loan criteria that will be used by the commercial lender receiving the information. An effective substitute for this questionable practice is to have a lengthy and candid individualized discussion with a small business financing expert to determine what the practical commercial loan options are in advance.

“Banks are not the solution, they are the problem” describes the unfortunate reality that bankers are just not what they used to be for most small business finance situations. Hardly a week passes without negative reports about the poor financial health of banks. In one recent report, it was noted that there are now more problem banks (which are banks judged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as being more likely to fail) then anytime in the past eighteen years. Troubled banks have grown from about 300 in early 2009 to just under 800 in the early part of 2010. It is likely for commercial borrowers to have even more trouble getting water from a well that is running dry with financial data like this.

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Small Business Financing and Commercial Loans

It is always advisable to have a detailed understanding of what can go wrong with commercial loans and working capital financing. The five factors described can have negative and long-lasting financial results for small business loans and commercial real estate loans. Business owners should be prepared for these real possibilities.

Most commercial borrowers do not want to experience a worst case for commercial real estate loans and small business loans. There are several elements that we believe will almost always produce this serious but avoidable result when they are all present simultaneously. Understanding each of the issues should enable borrowers to avoid a potentially devastating working capital financing outcome.

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Recent Trends For Commercial Loans

There were both positive and negative developments for business loans during 2007. These will have an immediate impact on business financing strategies for borrowers.

When reviewing commercial loan developments that occurred during the past 12-18 months, there are mixed results when looking at the best and worst trends. Many of the working capital changes that emerged last year have important ramifications for borrowers refinancing or seeking new financing.

A major commercial property investment trend has been some increasing activity due to the current decline in viable residential investing options. This seems to be particularly true for business opportunity situations which do not have a real estate component, an aspect of increasing importance to investors who want to avoid property ownership at this time.

For business cash advance and credit card processing services, the past 12 months have been characterized by significant changes. There were many providers both entering and exiting these business activities. It is of course good news that some ineffective providers were forced to leave this specialized working capital management service area. But the bad news is that there are still many new and inexperienced companies attempting to operate in this complex field.

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