Small Businesses Seeking Fast Cash Turn Away From Traditional Lending

By Karen Axelton

Small business owners in a hurry for funding are increasingly reluctant to apply to banks for financing for their small businesses, the Merchant Cash and Capital Small Business Finance Survey found. According to the study, many small businesses are not bothering to apply for financing from traditional lenders because they didn’t think they’d be able to qualify. Others were reluctant to apply again after having been turned down for financing in the past.

The study polled entrepreneurs who had applied for a merchant cash advance from Merchant Cash and Capital, a merchant cash advance provider, and found that 42 percent of respondents who had applied for their first merchant cash advance did so because they didn’t think they could qualify for a traditional bank loan.

More than half (57 percent) of those surveyed said they had applied for a small business loan in the past. However, a whopping 76 percent described the process of getting a small business loan from a traditional lender as either “difficult” or “extremely difficult.” And of the 57 percent who had previously applied for a small business loan, 80 percent said they were either declined or had withdrawn their application.

Merchant cash advance companies such as Merchant Cash and Capital provide unsecured financing for businesses including restaurants, retail, service, legal, medical, franchises or ecommerce businesses. The money can be used to cover needs such as inventory, cash flow, expansion, overdue payments and more.

The survey found that small business owners typically use merchant cash advances for short-term needs, including purchasing inventory, payroll, paying taxes or bills, and marketing. Financing expansion was another popular use for the funds.

Clearly, when small business owners are seeking sources of capital quickly, they aren’t looking to traditional lenders as often as they used to. “It’s no surprise that small businesses are suffering from an extreme lack of available financing from traditional lenders and their tight qualifications,” said MCC President and CEO Stephen Sheinbaum in announcing the survey results, “but the depth to which the problem has gone should be of great concern.”

Image by Flickr user myphotosshare blogspot (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Capital Access, Raising Capital, Small Business, small business, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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