Cedarland Lending, a small-business funding service in Roswell, NM, explains here how a funding request moves: the first call or form, preparing the request, partner review and comparing replies. It covers the usual requirements for a business loan, whether applying affects your credit, personal guarantees, reading APR against a factor rate, and what Cedarland's role is.
Getting a business loan through Cedarland, one step at a time
- Call or send the form. Say what the money will pay for, roughly how much, and when it is needed.
- Short conversation. Cedarland asks about the business, its deposits, existing payments and the timing of the expense.
- Partner review. The request goes to funding partners that handle that kind of need. Each one reviews it against its own criteria.
- Compare replies. Any offers come back to you with the payment, the term and the total cost. Whether to take any of them is your call alone.
Not sure which product to ask for? Start on the six-way comparison, or go straight to working capital, equipment financing or merchant cash advances.
What Cedarland does, and what partners do
Cedarland Lending is a broker, not a lender. It does not make credit decisions, set rates or fund loans. Its job is to understand the request, put it in a form partners can review, send it to partners that handle that kind of need, and help you read what comes back.
A loan broker's value is in the matching and the comparison: one request, reviewed by more than one partner, with the offers set out side by side. The partner that funds the request makes the credit decision and sets the terms.
The usual requirements for getting a business loan
Partners publish their own criteria and they differ. Most look at the same set of records:
- Years in operation and the kind of entity
- Business bank statements, usually the most recent several months
- Annual revenue and how steady deposits are
- Existing loans, leases and advances, and their payments
- The owners' credit history
- For equipment or a purchase: the quote or the purchase agreement
The online form asks for your full name, phone, email and company name (optional), plus picks for time in business, annual revenue and requested amount, and your consent to be contacted. Paperwork follows later, and only when a partner calls for it.
Credit scores and applying for a business loan
Sending Cedarland the form does not involve a credit check by Cedarland. Partners that review a request may check the owners' credit, and some use a soft inquiry first and a hard inquiry only before an offer. Ask each partner which kind it uses before you authorize it.
Must every business loan carry a personal guarantee?
Not all, but many do, especially for smaller businesses without large assets. With a personal guarantee, the owner answers for the debt when the business cannot. The post on personal guarantees on commercial loans explains what you are signing.
Comparing offers: APR against factor rate against total dollars
Loans are often quoted with an interest rate or APR; merchant cash advances use a factor rate; leases quote a payment. These are not directly comparable. Convert every offer into the total dollars you will pay, add any fees, and divide by the months involved to see the real monthly cost.
A clear request gets clearer offers. The post on how to make a business loan proposal shows how to state the use of funds and the repayment source.
Warning signs when comparing funding
- A push to sign within hours, before the contract has been read
- An offer that will not state its total cost in dollars
- Contract terms that differ from what was described on the phone
- Requests to stack a new advance on top of existing daily debits without explanation
More detail on how partner decisions are disclosed is on the disclosures page, and short answers are on the FAQ.
By Cedarland Lending · Updated