Business owners should anticipate that many commercial lenders will provide an online application for commercial loans and business cash programs on their website. It is important that business borrowers understand how to proceed in their search for viable working capital financing and why it is not in their best interest to submit an online application for small business loans.

Commercial borrowers should avoid submittals of application forms for commercial loans until after specific lender interactions. Business owners should especially avoid online applications for business cash advances and business loans, and this commercial funding article will describe how and why to avoid the online application trap involving commercial loans.

Business owners and commercial borrowers will consistently find an almost limitless supply of internet sites for commercial loans. Most business cash advance websites will include some version of an online application. Here is a four-step process for avoiding the unwise use of applications for business loans.

The first step is to avoid the initial temptation to submit a commercial loan application online. It does appear to be convenient for a business borrower to apply for business financing online. Perhaps some business owners are attracted to the anonymous nature of the online business finance application because they have been previously annoyed by sales tactics and evasive answers in loan discussions.

Many commercial lenders have contributed to the pervasiveness of online business finance applications in large part because they are fearful of losing some competitive advantage by not having this capability. However in attempting to match their competition, business lenders and brokers are sacrificing the best interests of their commercial borrower clients by facilitating the online application approach for commercial loans.

The second step is to understand why it is essential to avoid an online business finance application. Submitting a commercial loan application via a website is equivalent to blindly sending a resume to a company seeking employment without any prior discussions or research. What makes an online business loan application even more risky and inadvisable than the anonymous resume example is the usual inclusion of tax identification numbers and other sensitive business data on a commercial funding application document.

There are several key problems associated with an online business finance application. First, there are always potential security breaches during transmission (as well as before and after transmission). Second, there is a significant loss of control by the commercial borrower in the use of their social security number or business tax identification number for checking credit (since many online business finance application processes will result in checking credit before any personal conversations occur). Third, most commercial loans are simply too complex to initiate by an oversimplified automated process. If we can use a brief sports analogy, starting the commercial mortgage loan or business cash advance process with an automated application is tantamount to the kickoff of a football game occurring without any pre-game warmups, coaching pep talks or the traditional coin toss. The easy and convenient approach simply omits too many preliminary and essential steps.

The third step is to replace an online business loan application process with a better approach. The simple and pragmatic solution to the business finance application dilemma is to insist on preliminary personal discussions with an experienced advisor before submitting any form of commercial finance application. A suitable and ethical commercial lender will not ask a commercial borrower to submit any application until the borrower has completed a thorough discussion with the lender confirming that business financing is appropriate for a specific business situation.

Of course it should be anticipated that some commercial lenders and brokers will attempt to minimize the potential problems associated with an online business finance application. Instead of dealing with such a business financing advisor, commercial borrowers should seek out one of the relatively few commercial loan advisors willing to emphasize a conversational and individualized approach to commercial funding for a business owner.

The fourth step is to explore additional resources that will facilitate a better understanding of complex business finance issues. The Working Capital Management Guide and The Commercial Real Estate Financing Guide are two examples of business financing resources that will provide strategies for many problematic circumstances dealing with small business cash management.