Is business loan the only source of finance available to a businessperson? No, there are quite a few methods by which the businesspersons can raise cash for business purposes. Business loans have to compete with government grants, which cost nothing to the entrepreneur. For entrepreneurs who want not to use external sources of finance, they can retain a part of profits to be introduced into business. Again, the entrepreneur has to shell nothing in terms of cost. Therefore, business loan has a tough competition. Hence, for business loan, it is not only optional but also crucial to be available at low rate of interest.

What low rate business loans outscore over the other methods is on the point of faster approval. Securing government grants is an arduous task. There are many procedures to be completed. Even difficult are the prerequisites that need to be fulfilled. The process is made so very difficult that entrepreneurs have to think twice upon taking them. Moreover, the chances of receiving government grants in time are generally low.

Same is the case with retained profits. It is a tough decision to make on the use of profits. There are number of stakeholder of profit. The decision to reap profits into business will be made at the cost of these stakeholders.

Business loans differ from these sources of finance in the sense that it is available as and when the entrepreneur desires. There are several banks and financial institutions operating in the UK, which may be approached for a business loan. If the details mentioned by the entrepreneur in his application form are genuine then he will be approved for loan within a few days of application. Thus, the use of business loans will often be less complex.

In the initial part of our article, we dealt with the cost of business finance. We see that government grants and retained profits are available at little or no cost. So how does a business loan compete with these? A business loan competes with these sources of finance in terms of time. A business loan is advanced for longer terms such as 25 years. During the period, borrower can pay loan through smaller payments every month. The sum charged as interest goes towards compensating the loan provider for the opportunity lost. Moreover, interest rate at which business loan is available is competitive.

Having chosen business loans from the other sources of finance, entrepreneur still has to make a number of decisions. A principal decision relates to the lender to process the loan request. The low rate business loan is largely dependant on the loan provider. Responsible loan providers will often try to advance the best of deals to the entrepreneurs.

If it is becoming a tough task to find a responsible lender then online search will be helpful. An online search involves looking out for loan providers and their offerings through the internet. For beginners, they need to go to any of the search engines like Google, Yahoo, AltaVista etc. On putting the requisite type of business loan in the search box, the search engine will generate thousands of results. The next step will be to search, after studying their offerings, certain number of loan providers, optimally five. These loan providers may be requested for loan quotes, mentioning the terms on which a low rate business loan will be available. Out of these loan quotes, borrowing businessperson can accept a particular quote. A loan provider is thus accepted to process the low rate business loan.

Businesses must however make use of low rate business loans keeping in mind the debt equity ratio. Low rate business loans increase the debt and thereby create disequilibrium in the ratio. Business loans often keep a charge on certain business assets. When larger amount of business loans are used, they may result in ill functioning of the business.