A company can go under in two seconds with all the assets gone and the lenders will have to suck it up.
An individual has to struggle with bankruptcy laws for a decade or more to get rid of the debt.
So if I've got 10k to loan, I'd rather loan it to some poor sucker that I then own, rather than to a business that might disappear tomorrow.
> Odd a business would struggle to get something that small.
It being that small is part of the problem.
Your potential ROI for a 10k loan with anything resembling a normal rate is pretty small. There's not much money to be made, which means there's little incentive to take risks.
I should have thought of that as a relative founded a small local bank ages ago. They got bigger and he always talks about how they'd bring in a new loan executive dude and he'd be all "Oh man look at these tiny loans, these aren't cost effective."
And then they'd have to teach him that those tiny loans are how they grow / maintain their business with the local businesses, and farmers. They're small but doing things efficiently, safely (risk wise), but also quickly is how they gain the locals trust and loyalty.
Big banks show up and are all "naw we don't do that" and just don't catch on with the locals.
At least in the areas that their branches operate it has been effective for decades, the locals in those areas really like local banks, other places maybe not so much.
So if I've got 10k to loan, I'd rather loan it to some poor sucker that I then own, rather than to a business that might disappear tomorrow.