Banks and SBA lenders look to your business plan as assurance that your business will have the means to repay the loan as agreed. These loans, especially those through the SBA, are often given with favorable conditions, including repayment terms of many years. As a result, it is imperative that your plan accurately demonstrate your business has a high likelihood of succeeding for the long haul. As opposed to investor plans which focus on demonstrating rapid growth, SBA/bank loan plans should show slower, realistic, sustainable growth.

In addition, these plans tend to focus more heavily on the owner(s) financial history than regular business plans. Your personal credit worthiness is heavily taken into consideration for two reasons; to demonstrate that you are likely to be financially responsible with your business and, in most cases, you will be expected to personally repay all or part of the loan even if the business fails. Regular business plans do focus on the qualifications of their funders but, not as heavily on their personal credit history.

SBA/Bank loans focus on being risk adverse, and as such it is better to under promise and over deliver. The goal here is to show very attainable, realistic business projections. It is also imperative to demonstrate all foreseeable risks have been considered and can either be avoided or that the business is likely to be able to withstand them. In contrast, investor plans have more tolerance for risk to produce a quicker and higher return on investment.

No two businesses are the same, and no two potential lenders are the same. That is why at SBC, we create fully customized SBA and Bank Loan business plans with the appropriate audience in mind.