The US Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) Loan Program is a powerful tool that allows entrepreneurial individuals to acquire, expand, or start their dream business with as little as 0-10% down.

Here is a quick SBA 7(a) loan cheat sheet for your reference:

• Down payment: as low as 10% for business acquisitions, and 0% for business expansions, debt refinancing, real estate, and partner buyout.
• Interest rate: 7.25% maximum (WSJ Prime + 2.75%)
• Loan term: 10 years without real estate, and up to 25 years with real estate
• Time to funding: 45-90 days
• Source of down payment: 
  • Cash
  • Home equity line of credit
  • Contribution from outside investor:
    • If the investor will have less than 20% ownership of the business, he/she does not have to guarantee the loan or provide financials
    • If the investor will have 20% or greater ownership of the business, he/she does have to guarantee the loan and provide financials
  • Retirement plan rollover
  • Gift from family member or friend
• Credit score: there are no minimum credit score requirements
• Loan amount: $5,000,000 maximum

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

YourSBA.com offers a suite of loan calculators for SBA loans and other funding sources here. You can automatically estimate your down payment requirement, monthly loan payments, SBA borrowing limit, and more.

See if you qualify for an SBA loan by taking just a few minutes to give us some basic information here. The pre-approval process takes less than one day and does not require a hard credit pull.