Small Business Loan Success With Guerrilla Financing Options

The necessity of resorting to guerrilla loan tactics has been accelerated by the decreased performance of commercial lenders in providing effective and realistic small business finance programs.

To help commercial borrowers achieve small business loan success in an increasingly hostile commercial banking environment, AEX has published a report that is designed to serve as a short survival guide for business owners when they are seeking business financing. These suggestions should be considered by most commercial borrowers in the early stages of their commercial financing search due to the growing failure of banks and other lenders to provide a normal level of business funding — so while the actions described in this AEX report might be seen as a last resort to be undertaken only when all else fails, we view them as a prudent starting point.

In the current dysfunctional commercial lending climate, business borrowers should not hesitate to do whatever it takes for their business to survive. A link to the AEX "Survival Guide" is provided in the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal.

When to Fire Your Commercial Lender

Since the banking meltdown, most of us are now reluctantly admitting that banks and other commercial lenders are just not the same.

In a manner similar to many automobile manufacturers that are now a tarnished and shriveled version of what they once were, it seems like almost overnight most commercial banks and small business lenders have lost our confidence. In this shifting reality, business owners are now forced to adapt quickly to a changing environment for small business loans. Candidly speaking, even if a business lender is their best friend, small business owners are increasingly realizing that they must look out for their own best interests because it is unlikely that their commercial lender is up to the task anymore.

As if we needed to be reminded that business lending is on life support (lenders and politicians are not likely to ever admit this publicly), the largest small business lender in the country has recently sought bankruptcy as the solution to their own serious problems (CIT Group). Firing your commercial lender has become both a necessary and more acceptable solution when your business is not able to obtain adequate business financing from existing commercial lending sources.

We have published a report to help highlight some of the issues for this critical problem. Please see the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal for a link to this candid assessment about "Firing Your Banker" or other ineffective business lenders.

The Bad Banks and Good Banks

We have published "Good Banks - Bad Banks" to help small business owners find the increasingly smaller number of good banks while avoiding the growing number of bad banks. A link to this report can be found in the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal. As noted in our analysis, commercial borrowers should be prepared to act more aggressively to protect their own financial interests. Each business owner should conduct their own results-oriented assessment of which bank(s) can provide an appropriate level of business financing and working capital help for their unique business situation.