Negocios Now

18 Diciembre 2008 Marzo 2012 NegociosNow El Especial NegociosNow www.negociosnow.com From page 18 your projected operating expenses. Go right on down the line – including your insurance figures – where did you get those figures? If you're renting, do you have a document that details the term, renewal options and the X amount of dollars per month? All of that informa- tion supports your projections. A lot of people fail to have supporting infor- mation. And that is what the lender is looking for in a business plan. Not only is the lender looking for numbers that look good, but do the numbers look realistic. I usually tell a small- business owner that when you put your projections together, don't just give the lenders the standard two-year projec- tions – give them three different sets of projections, the most-likely-case sce- nario, the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario. This will show the banker that you have really given this a lot of thought and that you are ready for any kind of hiccups or glitches. Again you need a very well thought-out plan. But I would not give the banker the detailed plan initially, give the banker a summary plan; and let the banker know you have more detailed informa- tion if needed. We have resource partners that offer counseling and business plan assistan- ce, through SCORE and Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) located across the United States. Here in Illinois we have most of our SBDCs located at local colleges. SCORE, also offers Spa- nish workshops on Saturdays. You can find locations for SCORE or an SBCD on our website at SBA.GOV. So again SCORE and SBDCs are good resources for a small-business owner to develop their business plan. NN: What other advice do you have for small-business owners? RE: Do not feel that an SBA loan can be overwhelming. It is simple to apply for an SBA. A small business owner does not have to come to SBA first – go straight to a bank. The len- der will then submit the request for a guarantee to the SBA. We will typically respond to the lender within five to seven working days. If it's one of our expedited loans programs, such as the Express Loan Program, we'll probably give the answer to the bank within 48 hours. So, again, the small-business owner doesn't have to come to the SBA – he can go right to the lender. A tip is that the small-business owner needs to talk to the right person at the bank regarding SBA lending. We have publis- hed on our Web site a list of our active lenders here in the state of Illinois (for example.) On that list not only will you see the name of the lending institution but you will also have a contact name and a telephone number. Many times I have had people come to me and say, "I went to XYZ Bank and they told me that they do not do SBA lending," when in fact that bank was one of our top SBA lenders. That may happen if you talk to the wrong person about SBA lending. That person may not be knowledgea- ble about SBA lending or they may not realize that their bank does SBA lending. That's especially true with very large institutions. A community bank is probably a good option too, but I recommend going to your bank of account first, before you go anywhere else, even before you go to our list on the Web site. I also recommend that once you are able to find an lender willing to look into an SBA loan and if they have any questions, feel free to give them my name and number and I'll be more than happy to talk to that lender and let them know more about the eligibility process, structuring process, or whate- ver it is that they need to know in order to complete the application for an SBA guarantee. As far as application deficiencies, be open-minded when given advice. A bank may tell you that you don´t have the necessary management capabili- ties, and instead of you being resistant – listen to what people are saying – maybe what you can do to correct this is to hire someone with management expertise coupled with a management contract. Or if they tell you, you just don't have enough equity; see if you could find other investors to help you build up equity. Basically you need to listen to the lenders and counselors. You need to see if you can correct any deficiencies the lender has mentioned and not take it as personal criticism. So, stay open-minded and think about the changes that are necessary in order have a successful business and to get a lender to extend you a loan. Cortesía Speaking about SBA 504 loans David Frank, president of SomerCor, think it is a good option for small business owners who want to access to capital. "We are seeing more and more owner-user transactions flow the way of 504 loans. It's simply the cheapest source of capital in the marketplace today. Who wouldn't want to lock today's rates for the next 20 years, right? More than ever, the owner-user market is using SBA 504 to get commercial real estate deals over the finish line. SBA 504 is helping this market along the recovery path without a doubt."

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