[jriley]

The SBA statistics are sobering. 46 days for application, 24% approval per slides. In my experience, asking for $50k was harder than $350k and a large distraction. Vendor financing and credit cards filled the gaps.

IME if you needed capital, you weren’t approved for capital. If you were cash flow positive with solid income and 2 years of operating history and tax returns, you could put up collateral and refinance at a lower rate.

Over ~5 years I was denied ~5 times, discouraged from applying ~3 times. I was approved once after several years of track record with a co-signer pledging a property with 100% collateral.

That small business (exited 2019) would have really struggled to survive right now. It would also be a difficult time to ask friends, family or spouse to help.

I wish I had a better policy suggestion to offer; it's a hard problem. Good luck to all small businesses out there, I’m pulling for you.

[LeoTinnitus]

I worked with commercial loans and SBA stuff is difficult to get simply because it's hedged on risk. If you need an SBA loan to expand being a landlord and you have a year experience, yeah you might get it. If you just bought a new business and you have no experience with it, you may get denied.

They look for essentially a business plan that has been thoroughly thought out. It sucked for us because we had to report EVERY DAY someone missed their payment until it was paid. The SBA gives a decent rate for what it risks, but they are an unmovable force. You cannot explain to the the situation or what. Follow the terms to a t or get yanked.