A small business loan is one of the most treasured commodities in the business world. It is still very hard to get despite the claims and promises of banks, credit unions, and other lending institutions that they want to help American small business to survive and grow. In fact it sometimes seems that banks and other lenders want to see small businesses fail and only support those that survive the battle for customers, revenues, and finances during their first two years.

Getting a small business loan is most difficult during these first two years, when most businesses face a myriad of challenges involved with not only opening their doors, but hiring and training staff and meeting the demands of customers, clients, suppliers and vendors. The main reason that the banks use for not granting many loans during this period is like the same reason that a student can’t get a job coming out of school. They don’t have the experience.

The other major reason behind that first reason is that the banks think that many small businesses are simply too great a risk to offer them a small business loan. On that front they do have a point. The majority of small businesses open and close their doors for good during that first year and from the banks’ perspective they don’t want to risk losing their investment during this period.

But after a small business survives those first two years of struggle the banks are much more accommodating. By then the business not only has experience and has proven its capacity to overcome adversity, it also has a track record of being in business. This will include having a financial statement or income tax return prepared twice as well as a record of how well they have been paying their bills to other businesses, suppliers and vendors.

The banks are able to access this information by doing a business credit check from any one of a number of business credit reporting agencies. They can also access a company’s payment record by reviewing their Paydex Score which is available from business reporting company, Dun and Bradstreet. Whenever there is an application for a small business loan, all lenders will review this information before even looking at the rest of the loan application.

If all the business credit checks and reports come back okay the banks and other lending institutions may look further into the business requesting a small business loan and this often includes a personal financial check on the owners or operators of the company. They may ask for business references to follow up with and they may even ask for a personal guarantee or collateral before granting a small business loan.

Agencies like the Small Business Administration can assist small businesses to obtain a small business loan since almost all of the monies provided to small businesses are guaranteed by them even before the bank loosens up its money strings.