How to Get a $100K Business Loan (in 7 Steps)

We polled our viewers about what prevents them from starting a business, and 49% of you cited funding as the main reason. So we decided to dig in to find out how to get a $100k business loan. 

National Business Credit (NBC) is a FinTech company started by Joe Camberato in 2007, and it has helped small businesses get over $2 billion in business loans. We partnered with National Business Credit because they help business owners get the funding they need. NBC has over 97% 5 star reviews on Trustpilot. In addition, they have the following rankings:

• 1 out of 118 Alternative Financial Services
• 1 out of 30 Business Development Services
• 1 out of 246 Non-Bank Financial Services
• 2 out of 103 Financial Institutions
• 3 out of 282 Financial Consultants
• 4 out of 331 Business to Business Services

We’ll share input gathered from the National Business Credit website, discussions with their team, and personal experiences to help you understand why you should talk to the National Business Credit team when pursuing a $100,000 business loan. This is an exciting opportunity to help small businesses get the best business loan rates on the market.

How to Get a $100K business loan

Let’s get started!

Step 1. Build your credit score

You’ll need to make sure you have a good credit score before you apply for a $100,000 business loan. Use Credit Karma to find out what you need to fix to build your personal credit and how much a decision will improve your credit. For business credit, consider using:

• NAV: Similar to Credit Karma for businesses. Paying $40 (rate subject to change) boosts your credit and helps get better loan options as your credit profile improves.
• Divvy: A free financial management platform, payment processor, and credit card provider. They even have a secured credit card for businesses that are building credit.

What credit score is needed for a $100K business loan?

You’ll need a DUNS Number from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to maximize your business credit approval odds. Get an EIN if you don’t already have one. According to Christopher Mondragon, the owner of a $1.4 million cleaning business:

Check out our interview about building business credit with him below:

Until your business score reaches 80, expect lenders to require your personal score and possibly a secured loan before offering you an unsecured line of business credit. 

Fortunately, many of the National Business Credit small business loans don’t require business credit scores. As long as you meet the minimum personal credit score and have cash flow or asset backed loans, you’ll be able to qualify for many of the loans offered through the NBC alternative lenders marketplace.

How hard is it to get a $100K business loan?

The answer to this question varies dramatically based on a variety of factors. One of the biggest factors is whether you have employees or not. The Federal Reserve does a Small Business Credit Survey annually and breaks the statistics into employer and nonemployer firms (link to reports). Based on the 2022 reports, the following conclusions can be made:

• Your odds of getting approved go up when you have more than $100K revenue. If you have employees, they are even better.
• Big banks loan the most, small banks approve the highest percentage, but non-employers tend to go to credit unions and online lenders disproportionately.
• If you want more than $100K, you better have employees. Employers are 10 times as likely to make over $1 million and four times more likely to have over $100K in debt than solopreneurs.

Check out the highlights below:

How to get a $100 k business loan

The requirements vary depending on the lender, but NBC normally requires: 

• $120K in annual revenue
• 6+ months in business
• 580+ personal credit score (some are as high as 700)

Their business loan application is a single page, and they’ll have a business financial advisor assist you with comparing loan options and meeting the requirements for a $100K small business loan.

They even found a way to help small business owners get SBA loans in 45 days and optional bridge loans in less than 72 hours. That’s quicker than any traditional lender that offers $100K business loans.

How much downpayment do I need for a SBA loan?

You’ll need 10% to 30% depending on the loan amount and type of SBA loan, but you can get a bridge loan for a down payment for SBA loans and other business needs. You can also use business assets as the down payment for a secured loan.

Step 2. Consider these business loan types 

We’ll cover nine types of business loans for $100K that you can get at National Business Capital and other business lenders. We’ll include:

• Secured vs unsecured business loans
• $100K term loans
• $100,000 business lines of credit
• Small business loan for mortgaging a building
• $100K equipment loans
• $100,000 secured loans
• Hybridge™ SBA Loans
• $100K merchant cash advances
• $100,000 business loan for franchise startups
• Other Small Business Administration loans

Keep reading to learn more about each $100,000 business loan.

Secured vs Unsecured Business Loans

Until your business score reaches that 80, expect lenders to require your personal score and possibly a secured loan before offering you an unsecured line of business credit. Let’s look at the personal score next.

Small Business Term Loans

You can get a term loan, which is a lump sum payment upon approval, and then make monthly payments for the duration of the loan. On average, you can expect a $100,000 loan amount to include loan payments of $8,833.33 per month for 12 months or as low as $883.35 monthly payment for a 10-year business loan at 6% interest. Exact terms will vary based on your credit score, interest rate, lender, and other factors. Learn more about NBC term loan options.

Business Line of Credit

A business line of credit is one of the most flexible loans you can get. It operates similar to a credit card where you are allowed a maximum amount and you pay interest on the amount you use. You can continue to use the remaining financing as you pay lines of credit back. This is ideal for most small businesses that have different pay periods. Go apply for credit lines or check out their video below:

Equipment Financing

These business loans are for getting equipment you need to operate your business. As long as you have decent credit, you can get equipment financing fairly easily. Get an equipment loan from National Business Credit (as long as you have a 650 FICO or six months in business and $120K annual revenue). If you don’t pay the loan, the equipment gets repossessed and sold.

Asset Based Lending

SImilar to equipment financing, you can use the following assets to secure business funds:

• Purchase Orders: When you have ongoing purchase orders of over $100,000, NBC helps you get the cash to fulfill the order and the invoice gets paid directly to the lender who takes their cut and sends you yours. Doesn’t require collateral, minimum credit scores, or time in business.
• Accounts Receivable: Get up to 80-90% of accounts receivables and invoice factoring as cash upfront (as long as you have more than six months in business and $40K+ monthly receivable accounts). You can even choose which accounts you want to use invoice factoring to get a $100K loan for business.
• Inventory: These require collateral in the form of existing inventory but can help you buy more inventory or pay other expenses.
• Real Estate: Use existing land and buildings to secure a business loan to expand your business.
• Bonds, Stocks, and Crypto: NBC does not specifically mention these as an available loan type, but some lenders offer such loans. Be careful because cryptocurrencies and stocks are highly volatile. If the market drops below a certain level, the online lender may require additional funds or liquidation of the assets.

These secured business loans are unique because they don’t require a minimum credit score or time in business. They normally have much higher monthly earning expectations. NBC says that many lenders expect $50,000 to $100,000 per month to qualify for a secured business loan using these methods.

Make sure to read the terms carefully because most lenders require the assets to be valued at somewhere between 50% and 95% of the value depending on the assets. They don’t normally consider credit and time in business when offering these secured loans. Lenders might have minimum revenue requirements. Plus the assets get repossessed and sold if you don’t pay the loan.

Some of the asset-based loans will take a percentage of your daily revenue.

Merchant Cash Advances

Merchant cash advances provide a loan in exchange for a percentage of your daily sales to pay off the loan. They may have higher rates, but can be helpful for increasing your gross profit margin if you are in an inventory-based business or want to scale subscription-based models quickly. They are also easier to get with bad credit because the payment is fully automated. They are also one of the lowest threshold loans. 

You can get between a $10K and $5 million merchant cash advance with no personal guarantee or minimum credit score as long as you have been operating for at least six months. Hear more about it directly from Joe below:

Franchise Financing 

Franchises are a common way to start a business if you want to skip the phase of figuring out business processes and start a recognized successful business model. Small business loans for these companies are easier to get in higher volumes because the lenders already have data on the success of the businesses.

The lender you use may require down payments, secured loans, or other requirements for a $100K startup business loan. Learn more about NBC’s franchise loan options.

Commercial Mortgage Financing

You might want to consider a commercial mortgage from National Business Capital if you are looking to buy commercial real estate.They are available in 15 to 25 year mortgages with values of $500K to $10 million, but they’ll help grow the net worth of your business. They’ll also help you qualify for a $100K asset-based business loan in the future. Many of these are backed by the SBA, which means they are small business loans with low interest and long term payments.

What’s required for a National Business Capital Commercial Mortgage Loan?

You can get commercial mortgage financing from National Business Capital if you have:

• One-page application
• Three months bank statements
• Over two years in business
• $250K+ annual revenue
• 620+ FICO score (lower may qualify in some scenarios)

Small Business Administration Loans

National Business Capital helps you find SBA (7)a and 504 loans and helps you remove some of the pain points of meeting the requirements. To qualify for these loans you need the items in the table below:

Find out how to get a 100K business loan with National below: 

In addition, they have found a way to reduce the time to approval from 180 days to 45 days. Keep reading to find out how.

Hybridge® SBA Loan

In case you are applying for an SBA loan, NBC has mastered the process of getting SBA business loans. $100K is fairly easy to accomplish. In fact, they can help you get the loan early with the Hybridge® SBA Loan program. This program requires a 685 personal score and can help you get funding in less than three days. This is how the process normally looks:

Check out their video to learn more about how the Hybridge® SBA Loan works:

Step 3. Choose a lender to service your business loan for 100K

There are at least 15 different types of business loans to choose from with over 687 different lenders. That is a lot of options when you start to compare lenders that offer a business loan of 100K. That’s why we recommend starting your search with National Business Capital. They have relationships with over 75 companies offering secured and unsecured loans. 

That means you fill out one application and get the most competitive interest rates and loan terms from 11% of the business loan providers. 

If you want to look at other traditional banks, online lenders, and other financial service providers, remember to take your time and thoroughly research the options. Yes, it’s a lot of work.

Traditional Banks vs Online Lenders

In addition to the bank statements that National Business Credit requires, you’ll also need the following requirements to get traditional bank loans:

1. Business financial statements
2. Business legal documents
3. Business’s credit history
4. Business plan
5. Two to three years of annual sales 
6. Personal guarantee for the bank’s financial protection
7. Personal bank account 
8. Legal documents
9. Up to 180 days to get approved

On top of that you might get a higher interest rate because you didn’t shop around for the best deal. Just to give you an idea how interest rates work, one basis point (1/100th of a percent) will impact the total interest paid by $10 each year per $100K borrowed.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but 2022 experienced a 3% increase in a $100K loan’s interest rate. Over a 20 year loan, that’s an extra $60K.

Keep reading to learn how to prepare your financial and legal documents when you apply for a loan.

Step 4. Prepare documents

You’ll need to provide most lenders a stack of documents for them to establish how to approve your business loan. $100K isn’t that much in the long term, but you’ll need to provide:

• Documentation of personal and business taxes
• Cash flow statements
• Profit and Loss (PNL) statements
• Documentation for all businesses and personal loans
• Any legal proceedings that haven’t been updated yet. 
• Business plan
• Vendor and client contracts

Unless you are applying for specific business loans that require all these, NBC just uses your bank statements to verify the earnings. The alternative lender makes it way easier and normally approves 90% of $100,000 business loans.

Step 5. Update Your Business Plan

Another key step in the consideration for how to get 100K business loan approval is updating your business plan. If you haven’t created a plan yet, check out our planning blog or watch the video below:

You’ll want to update:

• Your business timeline (sometimes referred to as a roadmap)
• The organizational structure 
• Five year forecast
• Anything that had material changes

You only need to do this for SBA loans if you are applying with NBC, but banks, credit unions, and other lenders will require the business plan to get a startup business loan.

Step 6. Apply for the Business Loan

Now you just need to fill out the application. Provide all documentation and respond to any loan requests the loan originator makes. NBC’s application is super easy and takes a couple of minutes to be considered for all their potential loans. Depending on the loan you choose, you’ll have to provide other documents based on the loan term.

With traditional lenders, this process may take six months or longer, but you can get most of the following business loans in a week or less through NBC:

• $10K Business Loan
• $25K Business Loan
• $50K Business Loan
• $100K Business Loan
• $200K Business Loan
• $250K Business Loan
• $300K Business Loan
• $350K Business Loan
• Startup Business Loan
• Hybridge® SBA Business Loan

Step 7. Invest in Growth

Once you have been approved for the loan, it’s time to start investing in growth. Check out our blog about growing a business for ideas.

Try our $100K business loan calculator

If you want to calculate interest on loan amounts, check out our loan payment calculator. It will work for any amount. You can change the:

• Type of loan 
• Loan amount
• Loan term
• Interest rate
• Compounding schedule
• Down payment

It will calculate the total interest on your loan and the amount of each payment.

Create a copy of the business loan calculator below for your own use:

Business Loan Calculator

Keep Growing Your Business!

We hope you’ve found this guide on getting a $100K business loan helpful. You might also want to consider how to get a 200K business loan. The steps are the same, and most lenders will approve up to $200K fairly easily. As long as you can afford the payment, the extra cushion will be helpful.

What would you do with your $100K business loan?