How To Get Approved For SBA Loans In 2024 [Step-By-Step Guide]

I was recently invited to speak to a group of entrepreneurs on how to get access to SBA funding, the type of SBA funding products that are out there, whether you are doing real estate, construction, if you are a complete startup, the exact data points needed in order to get approved for this type of funding. I also break down the exact banks and lenders that are issuing the most amount of SBA loans right now. So with that being said, enjoy the video. You have no idea what you signed up for. Get ready to be blown away. You are in the right place. Check this out. Let's start out with the first one, which is one that a lot of us are probably familiar with. We've seen it, but we've never actually understood the term of it. These are Section 7A loans. These are from the SBA. These go up to 5M. The term that you guys are probably familiar with, though, is the Paycheck Protection Program, PPP. That right there was categorized as a Section 7A loan. Now, those PPP loans were a lot easier to get, just like the EIDL, the emergency disaster loans. The reason why they were easy to get is because we were going through a pandemic at the time, and so the government was pretty much just pumping money into the economy as fast as possible. For Section 7A loans, I'll be real with you guys, you're going to have to jump through a couple more hoops than you did when you first got the PPP. It wasn't just applying through BlueVine, going to your bank. It wasn't just going through the PayPal or the Square app and just putting in some information. No, with this stuff, they actually want to make sure that you're running a legitimate business. Over the next couple of sections that I'm going to be giving you, we're going to be breaking down each and every single type of what I call really the main SBA loans that are out there. You're going to want to review this a couple times when we go through it on your own time, because you're going to want to see, okay, which one works best for me and my business and where I'm at. The maximum loan amount for this one is 5Ms, $5 million on here. The maximum offer on the repayment on this one is going to be a 10-year repayment. For equipment and for real estate, you're looking at 25 years, which is typically going to be the common thread with SBA, with some of the other stuff that you'll see, or the useful life of it, meaning if you used it up and you were able to repay it back, let's say in 15 years, then you can just go ahead and repay it back in 15 years. Now, this can be used for construction, expansion, renovation, land or building purchases, can also be used to purchase equipment, fixtures, lease improvements, and as working capital. Minimum score for this, and again, I'm giving you guys baselines, is 640. Now, remember, with every single data point that I give you guys throughout the call, that's not set in stone, because every single business is different. Sometimes, you'll have a business that's just pumping cashflow like crazy, but the credit's a bit more shot, right, since you're personally guaranteeing it, that'll make up for it. And then other times, you'll have a business where they're maybe a bit newer, they're barely cracking 10K a month, but the business owner is sitting at like a 750, they have like 15 years of history on their credit, that'll recompensate for some of that. So it's always a trade-off. So remember, whatever figures I give you, that's more of a baseline of just average of what we tend to see out there. So here's a quick checklist for you guys. Now, I'm not going to hit every single point right here, I'm just going to highlight a couple things. If it's overwhelming, because welcome to SBA, you're dealing directly with the government at this point. So if it's a little bit overwhelming, it's completely different from just walking into a bank, getting access to some business credit lines, getting access to a BLOC, business financial statements. So you have to be able to submit the following to help show that you're able to repay for the loan. You're not typically going to get this and we're going to go through it with banks when you're asking for like a BLOC, most cases, it's going to be capped at a certain amount. So we're looking at no-doc, low-doc, which is app only. But with this right here, so if we're looking at Section 7A loans, like business financial statements, such as the following, a profit and loss statement. I don't know about you guys, but every time I'm speaking to an entrepreneur, unless they're freaking seasoned, they don't have profit and loss statements. And you don't need to drop this in the chat unless you want to. Be real with yourself moment right now, like do you have personal statements and profit and loss statements for your business, like to the T itemized on every dollar going out and every dollar coming in. So check this out. The profit and loss statement has to be current within the last 180 days of the application. Also includes supplementary schedules from the last three fiscal years. Supplementary schedules, also known as like Schedule Cs. Schedule Cs is whenever you're filing your taxes and you have pretty much your expenses going into that form right there. That's what's going to give you essentially your schedules. That's how they pretty much calculate it right there. And then obviously, if you're doing like an S Corp, you have your 1120S. But when it comes to the SBA loans, something else that I want you guys to pay attention to is the projected fiscal statements. This includes a detailed one-year projection of income and finances and explain how, how, how you expect to achieve this projection. It's a lot harder, which is why, like Rad said, a lot of these companies aren't doing it because it's way more moving pieces to actually get a company funded versus just, you know, running a couple of. They actually have to get their hands dirty and work, right? You got to really work. They got to work it. They got to work the deal. It's too much work, bro. They just rather fluff numbers on an app and push it through. This is real work right here. Business licenses or certificates. So you got to be able to be able to provide a copy of original business licenses, certificates, the fact that you're actually doing business with your small business or corporation, a stamp that your corporate seal on the SBA for the loan application form. Like this is, yeah, like we still got some more. Loan application history. This includes the record of any loans that you may have applied for in the past. This is another reason why a lot of people stay away from it. Uh, because if there's a big discrepancy between, let's say you paid someone to do it for you. Um, and maybe they didn't know what the hell they were doing and they process it and they push it through. And they were saying, yeah, well, you know, projected, we're looking at, you know, do 700 K this year. And this is how we plan on getting there. And then now you're coming in and now you understand all this information and you're submitting your application and you're saying, well, you know what, let me be modest. I'm probably going to come in at 500. Like, if I'm just being honest with myself, we were coming off of a pretty good season. We're coming off of a pretty good year. I finally got my taxes in order. I finally got myself a CPA. I got my profit and loss statements. It looks like we're going to be coming in at 500 to 50 and 500 is a big discrepancy that that's over a 20. Yeah. Right around maybe a little bit less, maybe about a 15%, give or take 15% difference on the revenue that you're actually putting on the application, uh, income tax returns, which a lot of us like to stay away from. That's why a lot of us also like some of this no doc, low doc stuff. But if I'm being honest with you guys, when you, when you're running a real business, you shouldn't be scared of providing documents. Like I'm just, if I can be honest with you guys, cause I've, I had this conversation all the time. We, yes, we're going to be talking about some no doc, low doc stuff, but we also want to graduate into, Hey, it's okay to show a year of tax returns. Like I've been running my books correctly. My CPA has been running my books correctly. It's okay for me to show two years of tax returns. It's okay for me to show my P and O's like I'm running a legit profitable business versus sometimes we end up playing the small game. Let me see how much funding I could get without having to show any documents. There's a time and a place for it. When we're getting started from my startups, this isn't for you. This is more for my seasoned people that have been in the game for some time. And we're still doing the whole run around of, well, I just want to get this funding so that I don't have to show any documents again. We eventually have to graduate from that because the reason why people stay small, because they're not graduating, it's a Maybe it's time to report a little bit more on your taxes that you're actually doing business the right way, not legal advice, not, you know, not, not a CPA, just like my conviction on certain things that I see sometimes, um, as business owners, you know, and I've been there before where we just don't want to report certain things on there and I get it. But anyways, I digress. Um, so essentially business overview of business history. So you got to be able to provide history that the business and it's about the business and its challenges. So you want to include an to the SBA pretty much stating, Hey, this is where my business is. This is what we plan on doing in the community. This is our projection. This is what we've struggled with. This is how we're going to spend the money that you're going to be giving us. And then like, if you have a lease, you want to be able to provide a copy of the actual business lease or a note from the landlord. And if you wanted to double check all of this info, this was actually copied directly from the website. So this is an herbs, you know, thoughts on SBA. This is an herbs, um, you know, cautionary tale. This is directly like I have an asterisk there per SBA. So if you go on there, section seven, a loan, you look it up the checklist. This is essentially what you're going to find, which I want you guys to brace yourselves for, but it gets juicier. 504 loans. How many of us have heard of these 504 loans with the SBA? Now look before going any further, I'm not down, I'm not downplaying the SBA. I'm not saying that you guys can't go out and get it. I saw some hands in there of people saying, Hey, I've, I've gotten some funding with the SBA. Some programs a little bit easier than others, right? So for my startups, we can breathe a little bit. For those of us that aren't ready to show docs yet, we can breathe a little bit. I got you guys covered. I just want to show you guys two sides of the coin, right? So section 504 loans are really 504 loans with the SBA is if you've ever heard of anyone talk about, Hey, you can buy real estates or you can buy a business or you can buy, um, what's a big one that you see a lot on YouTube, um, storage units with the 504 loan. This is what, this is what they're referring to right here. So there's essentially no maximum like hard max on there, but the threshold is going to be right around that five mil. Now, most 504 loans are going to have a 10, 20 or 25 a year on the repayments that they have. They can be used for long-term. Uh, so long-term, uh, uh, in terms of long-term for fixing assets. So if you have some real estate, if you're looking to refinance yourself outside of, um, maybe if you're looking to maybe refine yourself outside of maybe a real estate project, you can go ahead and take that route. Now I know that we have on there that you can't use it for real estate. The real estate that you can't use it for is for anything that's speculative. So if you have, and that's a fine line because it's almost like, wait a minute, you know, yes, you can use it for real estate, but you can't use it for real estate at the same time. Yes. Here's what we mean by that. You can't use it for things that are speculative. And so if you go and you're asking for a 504 loan and you're saying, Hey, um, I want to buy up half a neighborhood or I want to buy a couple of duplexes, right? Because this area is going to boom. Remember with, with, with, with SBA difference with them is that you always have to tell a story of why you want the funding, which is why that process drags out the way that it does. Right. And so with them is if you want to go in and say, Hey, I want to buy up this neighborhood or, Hey, I wanted to buy up this laundry matter. Hey, I want it to buy up. Let's say, um, this, uh, this, this part of the neighborhood right here. And they see that they run a stress test on it and they see, wait a minute, dude, people are moving out of that neighborhood. Why are you going into it? 504 may not be the route for you. And I know that my real estate investors can like, they feel this because they know how hard it is sometimes to go out there and get money because of these questions that lenders are typically asking, which is why lenders and hard money lenders are always, yeah, I'll give you the money, but it's going to come at 20, 25%. Yeah. I'll give you the money, but you have to, you have to put up 25, 30, 35, 40% LTV loan of the loan that we're giving you on average, six 80 credit score. Uh, we've seen as low as six 60, but ideally you want to be at at least a six 80 again, primarily used to buy businesses and real estate, but you have to be able to show that the real estate is actually going to be profitable. Now this is how it works. You have a private lender. You have the, uh, CDC, no, not the, uh, not the CDC that, uh, you know, issues out, um, health guidelines. I'm talking about the CDC, the certified development of companies, right? So they're like a little third-party company. And then you have business owners us. So the way that it works is, and the idea, which is the light bulb is what you plan on investing that money into private lender is going to cover 50%. Now it's going to be backed by the SBA. Meaning if you go flush, if you default, the SBA pretty much is going to help cover them, right? Which is why a credit union or a bank is able to issue this money to you because it's backed by the SBA. Remember, you're not really getting the loan from the SBA. It's being issued by the bank. And it's being kind of like stamped or PG by the SBA. And so if you default SBA comes after you, not necessarily the bank, but clear this clear, like distinction there, 40% is going to be covered by the CDC, which I'll break down a little bit more here in just a second. And then 10% is going to be covered by you. And I know that it's 10% there. And I know that, um, you know, that's going to give you a guys, it usually ranges between 10 to 20%. It usually ranges between 10 to 20%. So you have to come out of pocket 10 to 20%. So say that we have an investment. That's 600 K at let's say bare bones, 10%. You're going to be coming out of pocket right around 60 K on that investment. Again, you have to be able to justify that it's going to be a good, a good move. You got to be able to justify that you're actually going to be able to cashflow like the whole nine yard, which we've spent way too much time on breaking that down. Cause we have way more to cover, but that's essentially like the gist of it right here. Now, one last thing, the CDC, you'll see them come up a couple more times. Again, if you have no idea who they are, they're essentially a third-party organization that teams up with small businesses pretty much in, in a geographic location. So, you know, and that's nationwide. So inside of New York, inside of Pennsylvania, inside of Florida, inside of Cali. Is that like a CDFI? Is that like a CDFI? Kind of, kind of. Yeah. And so, yeah, kind of. And so they pretty much, so the money funnel, the money funnels two ways, the SBA funnels money to them through the bank. And so the bank says, or the SBA says, Hey, we have these reserves right here. You can go ahead and take 40% of that. They'll go ahead and issue like a stamp on it. And then you also have 50% coming directly from the banks, but both are insured by the, by the SBA. So again, if you default, they're not coming after you, the SBA is. And so what was that? No, you keep going, keep going with your thought and then I have a question for you. No. And so let's, let's say you default SBA is pretty much who you're dealing with. So I'll save everyone some time. Yes. Like all of this, like I mentioned earlier is going to be 100% PG. Uh, what were you going to say? What I was going to say is, is in my opinion, I love SBA loans and the fact that you can have very low interest rate in a very long term. Yes. So that's like a trade-off that's like a trade-off, uh, for, for being able to provide actual documentation. Yes. You get to buy down by being responsible. Yeah. So this is, this is a very big, if you can get an SBA loan, it's amazing. I love it. Okay. The downside is, is this. Okay. Student loans and SBA loans. You can't get them off of a bankruptcy. Okay. So the government loans. So understand that if you don't pay this thing, this thing is going to the casket. Okay. But that's not to make you fearful. This is the best loan. In my opinion, that you can get for your business, the most affordable loan that you can get for your business. And if you can qualify for it, if you can go get it, I would highly recommend it because it's going to be not all money is good money. Not all debt is good debt in a situation like this, a high limit with a long payment term with the lowest interest rate on the market. I'm with SBA. How do you feel about that? I'm with SBA too. I'm with, I'm with SBA too. Um, but like I said, if you can actually show it, that's why some of these methods, you're going to be able to say, okay, I can rock with this one. And then other methods, you're going to say, I may need to sit this one out. Look, if you're not there just yet, you may need to, you may need to sit this one out. If you're more seasoned vet in real estate and you can show perform a performance, you can show trading twelves. You can show, Hey, this is how we plan on going into revamping the property. This is going to be, um, maybe our cap rate, like whatever it is that they need to see 100%. If you're like fresh, this may not be the route for you and that's okay. Uh, so I agree with you 100% that, you know, SBA SBA is the way, because you have way more in terms of how much funding you can get and then you can rinse and repeat the process. Now really quickly, if you are a small business owner, contractor, or investor, and you're looking to get access to additional capital so that you can continue to scale, I will love to connect with you. Go ahead and book a call with my team over on inside inner circle.com. The link is also down in the description. We'll love to connect with you. See where you're at, how much capital you're looking to get and how our plug and play system once bolted on into your business can help you get access to the business funding needed so that you can continue to expand. Enjoy the rest of the video. So my microloans is a bit easier going, right? We're going to be capped out at 50k. Um, and this isn't a goal for existing and startups. Now show of hands, how many of you guys have ever gotten a microloan? Let me know in the chats. One, if you have two, if you haven't microloan might be a little bit easier going because microloans tend to, they tend to favor not just startups, but they're also more for like a little bit more on the minor on the minority community and a bit more on the, on the challenged income side because they just understand, Hey, these, you know, these specific, uh, these specific group of business owners may not be one in the best area to, they may not have all of the documentation in line just yet. Now this is pretty much the breakdown of it. Average microloan size is about 13k. How about you guys? That doesn't necessarily excite me, right? But again, this is a startup and it's capped out at 50k because they know that you're not going to be able to produce the documentation that they need to provide a, uh, maybe a $1 million loan with maybe like a, like a five or four, right. Or 500k with like a five or four or seven, eight. That's why those go up to five mil because they're asking for way more, you know, way more at that point, they're asking for one of my kids. I mean, I got four to give away, but I want to keep them all right. I want to keep them all. And so terms on this is seven years, but the trend with all of these, for the most part, prime rate and they change. I should have probably had that on the slide deck, bro. I could probably bring it next week. Um, rates on these is usually sits right under 6%, which is one going to be less than 99.9% of all credit cards. Once that intro period is up. And then two, they're usually also those rates are always, are usually better than some of the term loans that you get at banks as well. So something to play around with, right? I know 13k isn't sexy, but, but the prime rate on these is pretty low. Now these can be useful working capital, inventory, supplies, furniture, fixtures, machinery, and equipment, pretty much anything that you're going to be needing for your startup or for your small business. Uh, the only thing that you can't use it for is you can't use these for real estate and you can't use it to pay existing debts. So question. So question, how do they know that that happens, right? How do they, how do they audit that situation? Like for people that may be saying, well, how do they know I'm not using it for this? Or how do they know I'm not using it for that? That's a question there. And then where are people getting these micro loans from? Are they getting it from a credit union? Are they getting a bank? I know this answer, but I want to see what you have to say. And that, that was, that's my question. Like how to get one of these things. Is it micro learns? What I've heard is for a startup, if that's correct, like a one-year-old business. Yeah. One year, um, as new as six months. Wow. You can rock. Yeah. Because a lot of it is going to be heavily dependent off your personal credit score. Six 20 is what you six, six 20 is what you see on there. But again, baseline, you guys, what, what are you gonna do with 13 K? You know what I mean? Like it's 13 K good. Yes. But baseline gives you baseline results. We want better results. So obviously stronger, the credit, the more funding you get. And so the way that they find out, Hey, how you've been using it is you guys remember in the PPP when we had to submit this documentation of how we use the funds and then get it forgiven similar here. Gotcha. They start monitoring. Yeah. Yeah. They start monitoring saying, okay, Hey, how have you been using the funds? And obviously if you're buying it for real estate, they can go back in County records, check deeds. I mean, you know, do we want to get sneaky with the whole trusts and, you know, buying it on the LLC off of my name. But again, now we start kind of going back into the game of we're burning our bridges, right? Remember we can come out of Amex jail. Being an SBA jail is totally different. Yeah. Being an SBA jail might actually put you in jail. So just a heads up. Yeah. Yeah. So that, that, that, that's a literal different kind of jail now with where you can get them. I mean, I have like full slide decks on that. If you want me to give it to them now, or you want them to wait for it. I'm bro. So it's completely up to you, bro. Well, we'll let them wait for it because I got some more to cover with them. Basic requirements, personal tax returns, at least two years. Now this isn't a, again, necessity or necessary to get approved for this loan, but it does help if you already have, remember this is for either the existing business owner or the startup. So basic stuff, personal tax returns, which most of us should have recent pay subs, a list of collateral. If you want it to maybe use that to kind of hedge your way more into a higher amount. The reason why I'll pause it here. The reason why some people may want to put a, an item as collateral apart from one secure in the debt, which means they're going to get qualified for a higher amount is the following. Maybe they have challenged credit. That's number one. Number two is maybe I don't want a UCC filing place directly on my business blanket, blanket filing, which usually happens with the SBA. Maybe I just want that directly on a piece of equipment. So now that frees me up. So when I go out to a bank for some more traditional funding, they don't see an actual lien attached to my file. They see it, or essentially it's just on that piece of equipment. And so now you're able to get even more funding executed outside of the SBA. Little like little side note there that I wanted to give. Business plan, business plan, cashflow projections, contracts, quotes, and purchase agreements. So again, if you're already running that type of business, then you can go ahead and provide that. Existing businesses will also need to document business financials, which may include business tax returns, which again is different from two years of personal tax returns, right? Balance sheet, income statements, business loan lease contracts, business licenses, permits, and a list of current business assets. Again, this is for both parties right here. SBA community advantage. So this one right here was actually a loan pro or a loan pilot program. And it was actually set to expire last year, 2022, but they actually extended it. And they're all the way to next year right before elections. So September 30th, 2024, and they extended this one right here. We get the term loan or a line of credit up to $300,000. Now it hasn't passed just yet, but there is a bill that they've already put in through to Senate to see if they can keep this like on the books with the SBA permanently. But for right now, it's still on a pilot program. So this one right here is time sensitive. So if you're looking at this on the replay up through September 30th, 2024, if you're watching the replay and they've already extended it, then obviously exit out. Or if you're watching the replay and it's already been canceled, then that's why right there. So SBA is going to guarantee 85% of the loans up to 150 K and 75% of the loans greater than 150 K. What that means is let's say if the bank that you go to defaults or you essentially default on the loan that you have with them, they're going to guarantee 85 on that. And so that means is now it's a wash. So you have to pay the SBA again. You don't have to go and pay the bank again. That's if you default. Remember the main thing with this is, and I know I keep saying default because I don't, I'm not trying to scare anyone, Rad. But the reason why I'm saying this is because if somebody isn't ready for this, this is the last relationship that you want to screw up. Because the way that it escalates, it goes from a default. It goes a default with the SBA. They send you a notice. From that notice, you have 60 days to pretty much repay the amount, especially if you've been dodging them. And then from there it goes to treasury. Treasury department is just another fancy word for the same people that collect our income taxes every year, the IRS. So at that point, you have a lien placed on you by the treasury. That's why that, and that's why I'm really taking my time with the section right here. Take your time, brother. Break it down. Take your time. Take your time. I know it's not the sexiest, guys. Guys, I know it's not the sexiest slide that you've seen, but it is real. And it is going to keep a lot of us outside of that danger zone, right? So 10 years for working capital, equipment, and inventory purchases, same number that we've been seeing up to this point, 25 years for real estate purchases. Lines of credit can't exceed 10 years though. So just a heads up, if you're going for a line of credit with the community advantage, you can't exceed 10 years on it. Funding speed is seven to 10 days on the turnaround time on whether you're approved or not. The distribution on those funds is you're usually looking at around 35 to 70 days. It's a bit, it moves a little bit slower with the SBA. You guys already know how the IRS moves when they're sending you your refund and you're calling them up. SBA is similar to that. But again, when you get access to these funds, the rate that they give you is a lot better. Now, startups with one year or less in operation can be eligible. Again, a lot of this is going to be dependent off how your cash flow is in that first year, how structured you are, and what your credit is looking like. So 600 plus, the reason why I think that this is such a powerful program that a lot of people are sleeping on is because, I mean, baseline credit is 600. I think that the majority of us on here, especially if you've been in business for at least a year, it may be one of those that you might want to consider. Now, you do have to be a for-profit business, obviously, operating here in the States. Borrowers who own 20% or more on the business must personally guarantee. And so downside with this is if you have one to two partners, two or three partners on there, every single person on there, if they own 20% or more, has to pretty much personally guarantee this loan. So, you know, you guys figure that out. If later on you wanted to branch off, do your own thing, you're still held liable for this. So if you wanted to do like a restructure and you wanted to maybe just have you personally guarantee, because you had the stellar credit, this may be the option for you. So that way you can go ahead and PG this. Most lenders, though, might ask for collateral if you're requesting over 50K. And so typically the way that it works, if you don't want it to be collateralized under $50,000, right? If you want to kind of start moving your way up into that $50,000, $100,000, $150,000, all the way up to that $350,000 range, they may request some type of collateral. Now, other than that, everything else is pretty much standard with what you kind of see with the SBA, existing debt schedules, business certificates, business overview and history, business leases, the whole nine yards, right? And of course, tax returns. Tax returns is probably the number one reason why I see a lot of people shy away from SBA loans. I mean, I don't blame them. Why? There's two groups of us. And so I don't blame those of us that maybe our income isn't there just yet. You know what that's like. I know what that's like, right? I don't have numbers to report just yet, but I do have personal credit that can maybe kind of move the needle a little bit more. So I would still at least try giving it a shot, even if the worst thing to tell you is, hey, you've been denied, right? Okay, cool. Now I know what to look for and I know what to build. Now I have a dollar amount that I know I may need to hit, right? But for the other group of us is maybe we've been rocking a little too heavy with some of the business losses. Look, guys, we know the game, right? Five years, you have five years in business, you can have three of those years at a loss. Once you go past those three years at a wash, I understand we don't want to pay taxes. I understand that, you know, maybe we want to kind of play around with their tax return a little bit. I get it. You got a good CPA, you got somebody maybe doing it yourself, somebody who's kind of like playing around with that with you. At one point or another, though, you end up kind of like handcuffing yourself outside of better options from what you have right now. And so that's my thoughts on why. And that's why I say it's two different sets of us. Those of us that, again, are scared to report and those of us that, again, we just don't have enough to report, right? You kind of figure out which side you're on. Express loans, these are term loans or lines of credit up to 500K. These are also 10 years on working capital, equipment, and inventory purchases. Same thing with real estate. 25 years on real estate purchases, lines of credit up to 10 years. Now, the funding speed on this is 36 hours. But from the moment that you actually get the approval to the moment that that money, that line of credit, that term loan, whatever it is that you get approved for hits your bank, you're looking at 90 days. Now, this can be used for real estate purchases, business expansions and renovations. Startups one year or less in operation can be eligible as well. Basic requirements similar to the community, and that is credit at least 600. Under 600, you can apply for up to 150. So if you have under a 600 credit score, you're not going to be able to obviously get up to the 500K. You're going to be able to get up to the 150. If you have over that, then obviously you can qualify for as much as they give you. But you can go and push kind of like the mark on that 500 as close as you can to it. The rest of this is pretty much straightforward. I hope that you guys are seeing a trend with the type of paperwork documentation that the SBA is asking for. I promise you that if you come back to these sections and you kind of get everything squared away, pay someone if you have to, to get everything like this squared away. You know, I'll be real with you guys. One of the fastest and easiest ways you can do this to get yourself a really good CPA or a bookkeeper that actually understands this stuff and can just kind of like do everything for you and just label it. So that way you know, okay, I have a detailed schedule. I have my, I obviously have my tax returns. I have my existing debt schedule. I have my business certificates because I got that. So now you have your registered agent, right? So now they're helping you out, making sure that your business licenses, your LLC, if you're an S-Corp, all of that, your articles of organization, if you need to amend anything. Guys, building a business is all about building a team. Your CPA is on your team, registered agent or a good attorney is on your team, right? Obviously you guys have a hell of a coach like Rad who can kind of guide you guys through some of the pitfalls that he's gone through. Hey, on this street, turn left. Hey, don't go past that street after 12. Like I've been there, right? And so everyone here is on your team. So you don't have to do it alone. So if it looks like it's overwhelming, it's because you're being exposed to new information and you're starting to see, okay, damn, this is what it takes to run a legitimate business. So this was coming up quite a bit. I would apply for some SBA funding. Like most banks and credit unions in your area, most likely are already partnered with the SBA. Again, I want you to think about when everything happened with the pandemic, your local bank was most likely offering some type of assistance through the SBA because it's gone directly to your banker. I know Wells Fargo was, Bank of America was, Chase. How fast and how good were they at it versus maybe some other places? That's up for debate. But this right here, we're just talking about a traditional SBA. Obviously there's not as many overwhelming amount of people jumping on it because it's within a tight window. Your local bank, your local credit union most likely already has it. So the first place that I would say is ask your local banker. It's going to be the first place. You guys know me and Rad are pretty much identical when it comes to talking about relationships with your banks, relationships with your bankers, relationships with your relationship managers, right? Relationships with your client asset managers. All of those right there, that's who you want to connect with first. So what you want to do is you're going to apply through that lender, through that business banker at your local branch. Again, this is why those relationships are important. Now, I did bring some banks that are offering SBA or the most SBA approvals. And so let's get to it. Yo, check this out guys. Banks that are offering the most SBA approvals, I categorize this literally as the top banks that were offering the most approvals. So it's quite literal. Again, the first place that I still want you to check first is because they probably know more about you and your business than anyone else is going to be your bank and your credit union. But these right here are going to be some good options that I still want you to consider. So you guys let me know, drop an SBA in the comments if we're ready for this quick list I love name dropping. Don't get me name dropping. Let's go. I'm name dropping today, bro. I'm name dropping today. All right, let's get to work. I don't want to hold them up because we got a lot of ground to cover. Live Oak Bank is going to be your first one. Live Oak. Living Oak. As always. They're not ready for this, bro. Bro, listen, their eyes right now are like reindeer. If I could see everybody in this room. I know Eli is like this in Minnesota. He's like this. I know Jerry is like this in Chicago. I know people are lit up, bro. I wish I could see everybody's eyes right now just lit up. Keep going, bro. Check this out. Look, guys, it's a long call. And so if I packed every single piece of data point in here, we'd be here all night. But I say that to say this. I try to give you as many concise data points that you need to get everything off the ground. Get going. Right. But as always, double check just to make sure that they actually lend in your state or in your area. That's like basic elementary. You can just give them a call or go on their website. Right. So that's like the only work that I'm going to have you do outside of what I'm giving you. So Live Oak Bank, Huntington Bank, out of all the ones that I'll give you, I probably categorize this one top three like these guys really have this thing down pack. Ohio's in the house, baby. If you're in the Buckeye State, Huntington Bank, Huntington Bank is definitely going to be one of those that I'm definitely I know that I know that they're out in Cali as well out on the West Coast. So this is definitely one of those banks that especially when it comes to SBA, you're definitely, definitely, definitely going to want to put on your radar. Citizens Bank, believe it or not. Citizens Bank is interesting because with Citizens Bank is you can go right through your business banker and actually you can have you can you can go right through your business banker. Now, for all of these, I'm always going to recommend go in person, like go be a real person, come out of the metaverse for a little bit, go in person, meet these people in real life, because the same way that, you know, you guys treat someone else with respect, they're going to treat you good. And so you take care of them. You come in. Hey, look, this is what my business is right now. This is how it's structured. What am I missing? I want to partner with you guys. It's like it's it works the same way for them. They're incentivized to close that file out. So rather than you being at the mercy of maybe just trying one of these like one off fintech companies online, you're calling a one eight hundred number. You're just a number to them. Go to your bank in person because you're incentivized to close the file out because obviously they're going to get paid. You're going to get paid. And guess who's going to come back to them with friends? You are. And guess who's going to keep taking care of you every time something new comes out or hey, if hey, I didn't know or I'm not sure if you knew this, but you actually qualify for X, Y, Z program. I see it because people in my program constantly have that with relationship managers where they say, dude, I had no idea that I qualified for, let's say, this equipment finance program. I thought that I just qualified for some zero percent business credit cards. My dude, zero percent credit cards and credit stacking is like so surface level. It's so surface level. There's a complete don't say that too loud. The gurus will hear you. It's the surface level. It gets the party started. But we want to know. But we want to keep the party going. Right. And that that that's what we're showing you guys today. Citizens Bank, Wells Fargo. I know how we feel about them. I know how I feel about them, guys. But use the banks for what they are. I'm not here to be friends with banks. Right. We have a relationship with them. I know that maybe there's certain areas that they may not be treated right. But let's at least get up and get some funding out of them. Let's get a bag out of them. And let's put that money to work so that we can go back and pour back into our communities. Right. And so I'll put kind of like politics aside and I'll put my emotions aside to keep the business going. And I'm going to get and I'm going to get what I can out of it. Right. Celtic Bank is going to be the next one. Is that on Boston? Is that on Boston? Northeast. Yeah, they are. Of course, Boston's in the house. So let me ask you a question. If people aren't in these geographic areas, can they do a foreign filing to get these SBA loans? It depends how you're filing it. That's the issue. Because remember, you're going to need all that documentation to show that you've been doing business. Good point. OK, you know what I mean? So but because remember, the tax returns ultimately shows like the schedule breakdown. And you got state taxes. You see how the SBA is a lot sharper than just going to a bank. Yeah. So with them, play a little bit on the line with the rules because you're able to. That's why I'm giving you different options. Right. That's what I said. Check your local bank first. Most remember, the banks is not necessarily the one that's issuing the funding. Yes, they're giving you the money, but it's the SBA that's that's guaranteeing it for them. If they default, hey, we'll take care of it. Right. So that's why every bank is like, OK, cool. So you mean to tell me that if Rad was going to let one of you guys borrow twenty dollars, I'll tell him, Rad, whoever you let borrow twenty dollars, bro, if they don't pay you back, let me know. Like, I'll come after them for you. I'll be the bad guy. Right. Rad is like, I'll bet. Twenty dollars. Cool. And obviously banks, they work off of the interest. Right. Cool. I'll leave it at, you know, four percent interest. I'll make some money off of it. If they default, I don't got to chase them. They don't have the government backing those loans, man, because they never meant to bail them out. SBA. Hey, they didn't pay. OK, cool, bro. I got you. Big bro stepping in. I'll go ahead and take care of them. Keep doing what you're doing with the credit cards. Keep doing what you're doing with whatever you're underwriting in-house. I'll take care of it. That's how this works. That's why banks want to issue this stuff out. SmartBiz. So I keep hearing about them. Talk about them. SmartBiz is actually the number one online lender with with SBA loans. And so this would be where I would go. Like if you're going to go with a like a fintech type of company, I would check out SmartBiz specifically for SBA. They're actually really sharp with SBA. So if you guys wanted my my two picks, Irv's two draft picks, so to speak, I like SmartBiz. Obviously, I can't leave this guy out. Citizens Bank, because they're just they're they're powerful. And then Huntington. Those would actually be my top three picks right there. So so so talk SmartBiz and talk Huntington Bank, because we know citizens, but like talk Huntington and talk SmartBiz. Let's go deep with them. So the reason why I like Huntington Bank is because they're actually they're the direct lender. And so they're not selling your file off to someone else saying, hey, define what a direct lender is for people because I don't think they know what that is. So the direct lender is let's say that you went to RAD for twenty dollars and then RAD is a direct lender. RAD pretty much has his essentially RAD's a bank. And so RAD can give you that twenty, twenty five dollars right there on the spot versus if RAD is an indirect lender, kind of like some of these fintech companies where they have to go into the bank or they have to pretty much shop the loan around. He'll say, hey, Irv. Hey, Irv. Hey, Shane, as an example. Hey, Shane. Hey, Jerry. We're the actual banks. Hey, I have this fantastic profile that I want you to take a look at. And then I'm taking a look at it. No pass. I don't want it. Somebody else is taking a look at it. Shane is taking a look at it. No pass. I don't want it. Jerry takes a look at it. Yeah, I'll take it. So now he's going to make obviously an origination fee on it. He's going to make like a finder's fee on it. And so now the amount that you're actually pretty much having to pay on the amount that you were lended starts to go up because now there's a third party involved. Now, that's basic arbitrage. Nothing wrong with that. Right. Right. But if you want to go directly to the source, this would be the route that I would go. I'd go directly to the source. If I'm if I as a business owner, I'm trying to keep my costs down. That's why I'm giving you guys actual banks, not third party lenders that you can just Google. And that's a bar, guys. That's a bar. He's giving you direct lenders. Smart biz. All right, let's talk. Is there a play with Huntington Bank that people don't know about? You see, I'm trying to think of I had any slide decks on them outside of SBA, maybe their business line of credit, but I think the most that I've seen with that is thirty five K. The most that I've actually five K, thirty five K, thirty five K, bro. The most the most Ohio, the most special with smart biz is they're going to be more of an online provider. And so if it's one of those where you're like, man, I don't really have any of these banks that are talking about near me. That's why I gave you let me at least give them like an online provider that they can take a look at that's been underwriting heavy. Again, they're ranked number one specifically for online SBA programs that they've been pretty much getting people funding for. And so they're going to be that pick for you. So let's say I want to go to smart biz. OK, and let's say I want to get an SBA loan. Right. So how long are we talking about getting the funding to my account? How much of the process and paperwork is it with that type of lender online? It's all the same. Yeah. Yeah. Everything that I gave you, it's all the same. Now, it may look different. It may look different because obviously, you know, the way that they set up some of these some of these websites is you're kind of clicking here, you're clicking there, you're uploading here. So it's a bit more itemized. It's easier to follow. But the paperwork is essentially the same. Yeah, the paperwork is essentially the same. What makes it a little bit maybe easier going is smart biz. And I think I may have them on my radar later for one of the slides. I don't I don't remember. But the other thing is they're not focused on a bunch of other products like their bread and butter is SBA. So it's not like it's not like with Chase. Yeah, I had them on there just because they're they're a freaking big bank. Right. Right. But with smart biz, they're mainly focused on SBA. That's where they make the majority of their money. So the incentive for these lenders to offer SBA is that they're getting it's almost like section eight housing or section housing when it comes to housing where they're getting they're getting backed by a government agency in some capacity. So if somebody defaults on the loan, they're going to get some of that money recouped with the government. Right. And they're at risk is less because the government is backing the loan. Is that correct? Pretty much. Nailed it. OK. Yeah. Nailed it. I have Chase on here. Like I said, only reason I have Chase on there is because a lot of us obviously know Chase. We're familiar with Chase and Chase is like on every street corner across America. So that's why I had them on there. But again, nothing special in terms of outside of what we've seen, like just because you go there, it means that automatic approval. But it's one of those things that if you've been banking with it for some time, if you already have a banker, that's obviously going to help you out because they can really walk you through that process. Remember that banker, that relationship manager is a part of your team the same way that a CPA is, the same way that a coach is, the same way that a registered agent is or your attorney, that banker is a part of your team because they want to see you win, because obviously if you win, they're going to win. They're going to look like, you know, like the big dog inside of their office. SBA express loan case study and some data points. I brought you guys like a real life one, Southend Capital. I'm not sure if they even know about Southend. Do they know about Southend Capital or no? I don't think they do. Do you guys know about Southend Capital? Put yes or no in the chat. Let's see. Be honest. We love honesty here. All right. I do. No, no, mostly no. Let's talk about it. That's fine. Well, we got we got Southend Capital right now. They are a division of these guys right here. We're going to be speaking a little bit more about divisions today and what that means, especially when you're going into funding. But this is essentially like an actual case study right here. So twenty five K. Didn't require our collateral bank statements, tax returns or financial. Remember the caps that remember the caps that we talk about now, I want to go back to it. Remember, it's SBA express loan. Remember, we talked about a couple of different loans, right? This is important because if maybe you're wanting over 50 K, then at that point, OK, we'll trade you a little bit more. If you give us some type of collateral, we'll trade you a little bit more. If you can actually show a tax stock, we'll trade a little bit more. If you can show some bank statements. Right. So it's all about a trade off. That's always some people, you know, if you got it, give it to them, because one, you're going to be able to get a lower rate because now they trust you and because you look more structured. And then second, you're going to be able to walk up with some more funding. Or if you say, you know what, I don't need as much funding right now or like I'm just not structured. I'm not at that level yet. Let me get what I can right now. I get it. You're good. That point, South and Capital, again, if they got them in your area, same day funding with them, which is pretty damn fast, if you ask me. That's amazing, guys. That's amazing. That's same day funding. Remember, the bigger the amount, obviously have to wait a little bit, like anything else. Right. But normally with business, normally with business loans or credit. Right. I mean, you know, this is usually 24 to 24 to 72 hours that that that money's already in your account. Yeah. On a business on the credit. And so same thing with terminals. It's pretty fast. Again, with this business must be established for two years. So that's like the tradeoff that we're talking about right here. 720 or more on the credit score. They're going to pull for experience. Remember, this is for pretty much virtually a complete non-PG, a real non-PG. So these are the actual tradeoffs, not some of the stuff that you see online as a non-PG. And when you look at it, you're like, damn, there's way more than I. You know, I need a way more things than I thought I did. Well, this is a real non-PG, but I'm showing you pretty much all the things that you actually need to have in line. Most businesses. This is not personally guaranteeing. You're saying that South End Capital, two year old business, seven SBA loans are going to guarantee. Yeah. SBA loans are personal guarantees for sure. OK, so South Capital, is that geo restricted or no? Most well, if it's so you have this division right here. So, I mean, if you guys have Google, you can just go ahead and search up right here. Division of Sterns Bank. And then they're inside of that umbrella. But keep in mind that for South End Bank, South End Bank would need to be in your area or at least in your state, because remember, it all goes back to you providing tax docs. Got you. It's a little bit different with SBA. We're going to get a bit, you know, a little sexier with some of this non-PG stuff with traditional lending. But with SBA, you kind of got to play by the rules with these guys. Bro, you're on fire right now. Holy smokes. Like you're dropping some crazy stuff right now. I hope people are picking up what you're throwing, bro. So you have it. Thanks so much for watching. Again, if you are a small business owner, contractor or investor and you're looking to get access to more working capital and you want to have that plug and play system bolted on into your business, go ahead and book a call over on InsightInnerCircle.com. Other than that, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.