Approvals come from the profile, not the pitch.
Business funding is not one application. It is a sequence of them, in an order, timed against each other, on a file that can carry them. Get the order wrong and a fundable profile still gets declined.
Four things decide it.
None of them are your business plan. This surprises people, and it is the single most useful thing to understand before applying.
Personal credit
The score, but more than the score. Depth of history, mix of account types, and whether anything derogatory is sitting on the file. This is where most declines happen.
Utilization
What you owe against what you have available. A maxed card can cost more points than a late payment, and no letter fixes it. Only paying it down does.
Recent inquiries
How many applications you have made and how recently. Applying everywhere at once is the most common self-inflicted decline, and it locks you out for months.
The entity
Whether the business exists properly on paper. Registration, EIN, address consistency, time in business. Small gaps here stop applications that the credit would have carried.
Order is most of the work.
Lenders read each other's footprints. Applying in the wrong order, or too far apart, or too close together, costs you approvals you would otherwise have had.
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01
Read the file first
Nothing gets applied for until we have seen the current three-bureau report. Anything said before that is a guess, and guesses cost you inquiries.
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02
Clear the blockers
Utilization down, anything genuinely wrong on the file worked, the entity tidied up. This is where most of the calendar goes, and skipping it is why people get declined twice.
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03
Build the bank order
Which lenders, in which order, in which window. Different banks want different things and some have to come before others. You get this in writing before anything is submitted.
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04
You apply, we sit with you
You make every application and every call yourself. We write the script, tell you what each bank asks and what the right answer is, and stay on the line. Nobody applies on your behalf.
What we will not tell you.
An amount, before we have seen the file. Anyone quoting you a funding number on a first call is guessing, and the number is designed to make you sign.
A timeline we cannot control. Bureaus take the time they take. Banks take the time they take. We will tell you what is realistic and then tell you when it slips.
That it will definitely work. Some files cannot be funded right now, and the honest version of this job is saying so instead of taking the money.