Business loans come in various forms. One of the most common is the one with the short term. Having to deal with a bank in order to get it is a major downside and extremely annoying for people, especially when they need those loans quickly.
But what if we told you there are plenty of alternatives to these business loans? That’s right. Instead of going through the seemingly never-ending process of asking a bank for help, you can try out any of the following methods.
The Alternatives to Business Loans
P2P Lending
P2P stands for “Peer-to-peer”. This is an umbrella-term for online services that match potential lenders with borrowers in need of money. The process is quite fast, so you won’t need to wait too much to get the funding you require.
With P2P lending, you can get as much as $500k, which is by no means a small sum. The loan is usually repaid in full in 5 years. That’s not that long a term. It means this qualifies as a short-term loan. P2P lending is among the most efficient and quickest alternatives to business loans.
Mind that the loan you’d get through this method will certainly be secured, so see whether or not you have an asset valuable enough to serve as collateral. The size of your company matters a lot when you’re looking for a good collateral. If there’s nothing too valuable on it, it will be more difficult to secure and to get.
Direct lenders
Direct lenders are companies that activate on the Internet. They provide pretty much the same type of business loans as banks do, but they do it much faster. In this case, too, the maximum sum you can borrow is in the range of $500k.
The term, however, is usually shorter, so you’ll have to pay back that sum within a couple of years from the moment you’ve taken out the loan. This is great since you won’t be burying yourself in debt, provided you’re good with money and you don’t start missing on payments all over again.
Direct lenders are extremely easy to find. All it takes is to Google “small business loans” online and you’ll find a ton of results, subsequently potential lenders. Just make sure you don’t end up on a fraud site and get your identity stolen.
Private investors
It never hurts to try out your luck with private investors. The best thing about getting funds from them is that they usually don’t require to be paid back in money. They will accept shares or positions in your company.
There is a major disadvantage to this, too: sometimes, these investors end up making more money than the business owners themselves. The shares they get lead to outstanding profits.
Also, if they get the right to make decisions on behalf of the company they’ve funded, you could lose leadership in your own firm, which is by no means something desirable. Weigh your options carefully.
Factoring
Believe it or not, many people have no idea that factoring exists, let alone what it is. Factoring is a funding method in which you sell your unpaid invoices to a factor and get the money on them quicker.
The factor will then collect all the money on those invoices and get his investment back. It’s one of the fastest ways of getting funds when you need them most. Moreover, the money you get from those invoices is not a loan.
It’s your money, and you get it a little quicker than you would by waiting for customers to pay those invoices. This makes it one of the safest funding methods, too. Factoring companies can be found on the Internet with the utmost of ease.
Before you choose to go with this alternative, familiarise yourself with how factoring works in the first place. You might get a better deal if you do a little more research instead of opting for the first factor that comes your way.
Business loans are okay, but banks can make it almost impossible for some people to get them. As you’ve discovered in this article, you’ve got plenty of other options. If you’re turned off by a bank, you can always choose to go with any of the 4 methods above.
Also, keep in mind that business loans can come from other sources, as well. For more information, call us for a free consultation and get some vital advice from our professionals.
All things will clear out once you’ve been helped by someone that has been in this industry for a long time. Now you won’t need to be saddened by the fact that a bank wasn’t willing to help you: other institutions/people will.
