Geoff Seiber, president and CEO of FranFund, and his EVP of lending, Bob Hernandez, offer the do’s and don’ts of Small Business Administration funding.
Q: All that red tape with a Small Business Administration loan is intimidating. Any tips on moving easier through the process?
The red tape part is life. You have to live with the red tape whether it’s a conventional or Small Business Administration (SBA) loan.
There is a certain amount of documentation that you have to do with any loan. That scrutiny is even tighter in today’s market than 12, 18, or 24 months ago. A lot of that is based on the sub-prime mortgage market debacle as well as the current state of the economy.
The key with the SBA process is to realize that when people ask you for things not providing them does not mean they aren’t going to ask for them again. When you get your checklist of all the things you have to have, you literally have to have those things. The loans just cannot move forward without them. Read on…