1. BUSINESS INFORMATION

Company Name
This is of course the name of your company.  If your company is already established then it is the official incorporated name of the business entity.  If this is a startup and you have not yet thought of a name, you may want to think of one before you submit an application – it looks quite odd to underwriters that you have not yet come up with a name even as you are applying for a business loan with them.

Trade Name
This applies to those businesses that have a DBA (Doing Business As) certificate filed with the local county clerk where in they are also doing business under another business name.

Business Phone
As is obvious this is the number registered to your business.  A common background check that underwriters run is to check who the business phone number is registered under and also what address is attached to the phone number.  If this is a personal residence, be prepared to explain that to the bank.

Business Fax 
Same principles as a business phone.  Typically, it is not a good business practice to have the fax number and phone number be the same – it denotes a certainly small mindedness to the underwriter – having a dedicated fax line usually indicated that the business receives a fair amount of faxes enough to warrant it’s own separate fax number.

Business Email
We highly recommend that a business owner / partner at least register a domain name even if they don’t have a website up and running – this way they have the ability to acquire a few email addresses with the business domain name as the extension – john@atouchoftuscany.com sounds much better than joh232@aol.com!

Business Website
Needless to say that when applying for business loans, if you have an established website, even if it only a few pages, you look much more prepared and ready for business.  Even established businesses are able to denote their presence to underwriters and we recommend that setting up at least a basic web site is a very good investment for business owners / partners.

Primary Contact 
This is the point person that will handle all the inquiries about the business loan application.  Typically, this is the president, senior partner or a designated partner.

Secondary Contact 
As above this is the second in command that the bank will contact if they are not able to get in touch with the primary contact if they need something.

Business Address 
A lot of business owners / partners take this very important item of the application for granted and this is usually what lands a lot of them in trouble.  Be honest – if you are a home based business then put down your home address; if you have a shared office space that receives your correspondence that put that address down, if you have a P. O. Box at the post office, it will not work, it is probably better to put down your home office address.  We recommend that you discuss this aspect of your business loan application with the business banker who will be able to shed more light on how the bank views these items in the total application package.

Mailing address 
Here you should put down the address where your mail is delivered – if you are an ongoing business you may be asked to provide proof of location and a utility or telephone bill or lease is the most common document accepted.  Make sure that the mailing address coincides with the actual address on the mail you are submitting as supporting documentation.  One of the most common ways that underwriters catch dubious applications is when the address on the bank statements or tax returns does not match up with the mailing address specified in the application!

Own or Lease
A straight forward question – always remember that the bank can request supporting documentation for any information listed on the application.

Home based business 
Banks nowadays are cognizant of the fact that many small businesses and startups start from their home offices and accommodate for this in their underwriting models – check with your business banker.

Has the business changed name or guarantor in the past year?
Here the bank is looking to see continuity in the ownership of the company.  Very often when lending to existing businesses, they will look at corporate tax returns that show profit distributions to shareholders or partners.  If there has been a change, make sure you mention that and explain that with a cover letter to the file.

Legal structure of the business
This section of the application for business loans deals with the what kind of business entity you have – a corporation, a partnership, a limited liability company, a sole proprietor, limited liability partnership, general partnership or non-for profit or an S-corporation.  You will put down whatever kind of business entity you are currently structured as of course but in the event you have not yet set up your business make sure you speak with a qualified Certified Public Accountant or tax attorney about the advantages and disadvantages of each type of business structure.

Date business started 
This refers to the date of incorporation of the business entity and in the event there was not formal incorporation date then it would be the date when you started conducting business.

State of Incorporation
The state in which your business was incorporated and in the case of unincorporated entities it is the state in which you conduct business or where you plan on conducting business.

Federal Tax Id 
Whenever you set up a separate legal business entity you have to apply to the government for a separate tax identification number for that business entity – this is where you would get a federal tax Id from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  In the event you are unincorporated you would enter your Social Security Number.

Type of Business
In this section of a business loan application the lender is trying to ascertain the industry sector that you are in.  Industry classifications are based on the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) and we at Trident Consultants use the same classifications to identify the exact industry sub-group where our clients business belongs.  These classifications were developed by the government and replace the older SIC (Sector Industrial Classification) codes that were earlier in use.  To learn more about the NAICS codes please visit the census bureau at www.census.gov

Description of Product or Service
Here the lenders want to hear from you and we recommend that you take few catch words to describe what you do.