San Antonio is the second-largest city in Texas, after Houston, but they certainly don’t let that diminish their stature. In addition to being home to 1.5 million residents, San Antonio is also the oldest city in Texas, celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2018.
The last few decades have seen San Antonio grow at a pace far outstripping the Texas and national averages – around 20% per decade since the 80s. In this time, the city has also grown more diverse, both in terms of population as well as economic activity.
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In addition to tourism (a growing industry with the increasing cultural appeal and attractions of San Antonio), the economy revolves around military and government jobs, health care, finance, oil, gas, and petrochemical, manufacturing, and other service sectors.
A significant number of large corporations and multinationals have satellite offices or even headquarters within the San Antonio city limits.
While the appeal of San Antonio for tourists, residents, and businesses alike is undeniable, and Texas in general is an affordable place to start a business, that doesn’t mean it’s always smooth sailing.
There have been plenty of turbulent economic times, both locally and nationally, and many businesses of all sizes can get caught in those shifting tides and fail.
For new small businesses, one of the keys to survival is access to capital, which often comes in the form of small business loans in San Antonio. Of course, small business loans aren’t the only type of small business funding that companies can access.
There are a whole range of credit and loan products that can be valuable tools for small business and entrepreneurial ventures in need of cash to fund their operations.
These include traditional small business loans, alongside things like small business lines of credit, merchant cash advance loans, short-term business loans, and more. For most companies looking for San Antonio loans, these products can be found at both banks and private lenders.
However, it is worth noting that most small businesses tend to find private lenders easier to deal with and more accessible than banks, as we’ll discuss in more detail below.
In addition, we’ll cover the basics of all of the different kinds of small business funding options that are available for modern small businesses. Further, we’ll highlight one of the top private lenders to provide loans in San Antonio and elsewhere in the US: BizFly Funding.
In no time, you’ll be a regular expert on small business funding, and be fully versed in the fundamentals of the different small business funding options that you can put to use for your small business in San Antonio and parts beyond.
Different Types of Credit and Loans in San Antonio
To begin with, it’s important for small business owners to be aware of the different kinds of small business funding options that are available today. Loans in San Antonio are really only just the beginning.
Today’s modern lenders offer a range of different loans and credit products. Each of these options has different durations, qualification requirements, and ideal uses based on their characteristics.
Small business owners can apply for and get approved for multiple different funding options, but knowing how to marry funding with expenses and operational cash needs is the key to getting the funding you need without paying extra in interest or fees.
It’s also worth noting that not every lender will offer a full range of small business funding options. Some may offer only a subset of these options, and the offerings, interest rates, qualification requirements, and other details will naturally vary from lender to lender.
In general, though, the different types of credit and loans in San Antonio that are available for small businesses today include:
- Small business loans, which work as traditional loans, providing a lump sum of cash to small businesses and requiring repayment over time with interest. The period of these loans tends to be a matter of years, and repayment frequency is typically monthly.
- Short-term business loans, which, as their name implies, are like small business loans, but offered over a shorter duration – usually months to a year or two – with a faster repayment rate (usually weekly rather than monthly).
- Small business lines of credit, often compared to a credit card account, which don’t provide you a lump sum of cash, but a facility against which you can borrow on-demand, in the amounts you need for your business. You only pay interest on the outstanding balance, and can re-borrow and repay over and over again, provided your outstanding balance is below your credit limit.
- Merchant cash advances, which give you a lump sum of cash in exchange for which you repay the advance with interest as automated deductions from your credit and debit card sales. Repayment is tied to sales, rather than the calendar, which makes this an excellent choice for companies with highly variable income and sales activity.
- Debt consolidation loans, which are helpful in allowing businesses to tackle their existing debt, consolidating it into a single debt instrument, and often getting a lower interest rate in the process.
- Small business loans for women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses, which help to level the playing field for access to capital.
- Bad credit business loans, with lower credit score and other qualification requirements, enabling even businesses with poor credit or a limited credit history to access the capital they need to fund their business.
Deciding on a Lender for Your Small Business Loans in San Antonio
Once you have a handle on the different kinds of small business products and loans in San Antonio, the next step is finding a quality lender to fulfill your needs.
While you can apply to almost any lender offering small business loans and services, this usually amounts to a decision between either a bank or a private lender.
Most small businesses in need of loans in San Antonio and elsewhere in the US have generally found that private lenders tend to be the better choice, for several reasons.
First, banks tend to only offer secured business loans, while private lenders may offer both secured and unsecured business loans, or just unsecured business loans.
What this amounts to is the difference between needing to put collateral up for a loan (secured loans), or not (unsecured loans). For small businesses with few assets, collateral might not be a realistic option.
Even when it is available, it can be a massive risk – if you default on a secured loan, you forfeit your collateral to the bank. This can turn a relatively small loan into a major anchor weighing down your business – losing property, plant, or equipment in the process.
The tradeoff is that secured business loans tend to have somewhat lower interest rates, since they are less risk for the lender.
Most small business owners, however, would rather pay slightly higher interest rates in order to avoid the risk of collateral loss, and therefore choose unsecured loans and private lenders.
There’s also a secondary benefit to choosing a private lender and unsecured funding option for your small business loan in San Antonio, and that comes in the form of speed.
Collateral valuation and research typically makes the application and approval process for a secured loan a lengthy endeavor – taking several days to weeks in most cases.
With unsecured small business loans and credit products, this time period can be condensed to a matter of hours, providing much faster funding, and allowing businesses to better respond to changing market conditions and capitalize on new opportunities.
Another point in favor of private lenders is their portfolio of small business funding products. Banks don’t often have the same full range of options that private lenders offer. This is because banks are less likely to offer small business funding in the first place.
They typically see small business lending as a highly risky venture, and are only inclined to take on the most-qualified and lowest-risk business customers.
This means difficult-to-meet eligibility requirements for the loans and credit products they do offer, and rejection of the vast majority of applicants at banks.
Private lenders, on the other hand, are much more risk-tolerant, and have more easily-met eligibility requirements, with a broader portfolio of products available for small businesses.
The net result of all of this is that private lenders tend to be the better choice for most small businesses, with more small business funding options, easier access, faster service, and better results.
Private lender benefits include:
- More easily-met qualification requirements, often meaning less time in business, less minimum monthly revenue, and lower credit scores.
- A focus on customer service and a positive lending experience, with many private lenders focused exclusively on the small business funding market.
- Simpler application and approval process, that is also much faster. Many private lenders offer online applications, and the best provide funding in as little as 1 business day.
- Choosing an unsecured loan from a private lender presents much less risk to small business owners.
- Larger range of options typically offered at private lenders.
BizFly Funding: A Leading US Private Lender for Small Businesses
By now, it should be clear that private lenders are often the better choice for small business loans in San Antonio or anywhere else in the country.
No matter what kind of small business funding you may be considering, the source you choose for your small business loans and funding is important. We encourage you to apply at BizFly Funding, a leader in private lending in the US.
BizFly Funding only offers small business funding options, and is dedicated to serving the needs of the small business community.
With a full portfolio of small business funding options, competitive interest rates, easily-met qualification requirements, and outstanding customer service, BizFly Funding makes it easy for you to get the funding you need for your small business to succeed.
Below, we highlight some of the qualification requirements for some of the most common small business funding products available from BizFly Funding.
Larger loan amounts may have stricter requirements, but these basic eligibility requirements for loans in San Antonio are very accessible for the vast majority of small businesses.
- Loan term of 2 to 36 months
- Minimum 6 months in business
- Credit score of at least 500
- $10,000 minimum monthly revenue
- Loan amounts of $5,000 to $1 million
- Interest rates of 9 to 45%
- Loan term of 6 to 24 months
- Minimum 12 months in business
- Credit score of at least 600
- $10,000 minimum monthly revenue
- Loan amounts of $15,000 to $1 million
- Interest rates of 9 to 45%
- Loan term is variable (repayment is based on sales and not tied to the calendar)
- Minimum 2 months in business
- Credit score of at least 500
- $8,000 minimum monthly revenue
- Loan amounts of $8,000 to $250,000
- Factor rates of 24 to 49%
- Credit line term is variable
- Minimum 6 months in business
- Credit score of at least 650
- $10,000 minimum monthly revenue
- Credit line amounts of $5,000 to $250,000
- Interest rates of 5 to 10%
There’s more to lending at BizFly Funding than simply an expansive portfolio. BizFly Funding is also committed to making lending a more positive and less time-consuming experience for small business owners.
With an online application that takes just 30 minutes for most people to complete, the days of long, tedious paperwork, agonizing waits for approval, and a ton of back-and-forth with a lender are a thing of the past.
After you complete the application, a team member will get back to you within hours in most cases to discuss your funding options. If approved, you can get your cash funds within 1 business day.
This enables you to get the small business loans in San Antonio that you need, quickly and easily, and get back to managing your business. To learn more or to start the application process, visit BizFly Funding online at https://bizflyfunding.com.