One of the major hurdles that many small business owners have faced in the last few years is that they could not find the financing to grow as much as they might have liked, and as such, they might have suffered some troubling times even after the end of the recent recession. However, with the economy having improved so considerably in the last few years, it seems that many lenders across the country are once again loosening their credit standards and allowing companies access to the kind of loans that can help them to expand.
Many entrepreneurs across the country have likely been far more successful in finding small business financing from lenders of all types in the past few months, especially when compared to conditions seen over the last five years or so, according to a report from The Associated Press. A significant amount of data has come out recently showing just how free lenders are now being with their small business lending and all signs actually point to conditions continuing to ease going forward. In fact, banks are now not only approving more applications overall, they’re also helping to expedite even large amounts of money to get those funds into the hands of companies more quickly.
“The turnaround time is faster,” Andrew Slattery, who owns more than two dozen oil change franchises in North and South Carolina, told the news agency. “It used to take seven or eight months, where now it’s two or three months.”
How strong is the sentiment getting?
More good news for many owners is that banks have largely seen little reason to halt their increases in this type of lending, the report said. Wells Fargo head of small business banking Lisa Stevens told the AP that this kind of lending increased 18 percent over the course of 2013 as company sales and cash flow is improving; consequently, the lender is now offering increases in credit lines without the businesses even asking in some cases, as long as it expects they’d be able to handle the added debt.
Owners worried about their financial health going forward, or their ability to grow, might want to consider the ways in which cutting costs can help them in the long run. For instance, finding more affordable small business insurance policies including those for liability insurance might go a long way toward slashing expenses over the course of a given year.
