When Kelly Kolterman went to Bank of America (BAC) for a small business loan late last year, they sent her to her local Small Business Development Center. The owner of Redondo Beach (Calif.)-based JalaClothing, which specializes in yoga-inspired apparel, worked with the SBDC to develop a loan package and then got referred from one banker to another. Finally “one of those bankers knew of a friend who was involved in the startup” of SmartBiz, a six-month-old company that bills itself as the nation’s first online SBA loan application.
For Kolterman, stumbling onto the company’s website was like finding the Holy Grail: “It was awesome, fast, convenient, and they offered great rates,” says the entrepreneur, who applied, qualified, and got $25,000 for clothing production in less than a month. She was particularly impressed with the website, which features a sliding scale that shows exactly what the interest rate, term, monthly payment, and fees are for different loan amounts.
“We want to be extremely transparent with the borrower, so we list our 4 percent upfront fee and show how it is taken out of the disbursed funds that go into their bank account,” says Evan Singer, general manager at SmartBiz. The company, in partnership with Sacramento-based Golden Pacific Bank, specializes in SBA loans ranging from $5,000 to $150,000; terms are 10 years at 6 percent to 8 percent interest, with no prepayment penalty.
SmartBiz boasts an online application process that requires fewer documents-it forgoes the traditional business plan and income projections, for instance-and says it can deliver conditional loan approvals in 30 minutes and fund loans inside a week. The algorithm it developed includes baked-in SBA underwriting criteria, Singer says.
The difficulty of developing an automated process has kept companies from making such options available online. “It’s hard,” Singer says. “What we are very good at is taking complicated lending processes and making them easy with technology. Our algorithm contains triggers that can automatically decipher the candidates that are qualified for the SBA loans.” This means companies that have been in existence for at least two years, have adequate cash flow to support loan payments, have no liens, and are in good standing with their creditors. Under SBA guidelines, collateral is required for loans from $25,000 to $150,000; under $25,000, no collateral is required.
If SmartBiz catches on, it has the potential to help both established small business owners desperate for low-cost capital and banks seeking new customers.
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