Business Loan Requirements: What Lenders Check Before They Fund You

Business loan requirements come down to four numbers and a folder: your personal credit score, how long you have been in business, your annual revenue, the consistency of your bank deposits, and the documents that prove all of it.

Everything else a lender asks about hangs off those. Learn where you sit on each one and you can predict, fairly accurately, which lenders will say yes before you spend a week applying to the ones that will not.

The typical baseline across the market is a personal credit score around 670, roughly $100,000 in annual revenue, and one to two years in business (NerdWallet). But “typical” hides a wide spread. The same application can be an easy approval at one lender and an automatic decline at another, and the gap is entirely predictable once you know the categories.

This guide walks each requirement, what the real thresholds are by lender type, and the specific places where a business that runs its own delivery routes gets misread by underwriting.

The Bottom Line

• The four core bars are personal credit score, time in business, annual revenue, and deposit consistency. Collateral and documentation sit on top of those.
• Thresholds vary enormously by lender type. Bank of America asks for a 700 personal credit score; Fora Financial lends to scores as low as 570. Both are lending to small businesses.
• SBA 7(a) and 504 loans generally want 680+, SBA Express 650+, and SBA Microloans go down to around 575.
• Approval odds follow the strictness. Small banks fully approved 57% of applicants, the highest of any lender type, while 22% of all applicants received no financing at all (Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey, 2026 report).
• Lumpy Net-30 revenue is the single most common reason a healthy delivery-driven business looks weak to an automated underwriter.

What credit score do you need for a business loan?

Somewhere between 570 and 720, depending entirely on which lender you approach. And it is your personal score that matters, not your business credit file, for most small business lending.

That surprises owners who have spent years building business credit. Under roughly $500,000, lenders overwhelmingly underwrite the owner. They pull a personal FICO, and they ask for a personal guarantee that makes you liable if the business cannot pay.

The working thresholds:

• Traditional banks: 680 to 700 minimum, with larger commercial banks often wanting 720+ for good terms. Bank of America sets 700; Wells Fargo sets 680.
• SBA loans: 680+ for 7(a) and 504, 650+ for Express, and around 575+ for a Microloan, which is the SBA route that funds startups.
• Business lines of credit: generally 600 to 680.
• Online and alternative lenders: meaningfully lower. Fora Financial, for instance, lends to borrowers with scores as low as 570, pricing the added risk into the rate.

The practical read: below 650, banks and standard SBA loans are unlikely, but online lenders and some SBA Microloans remain open. Below 600, your realistic options narrow to revenue-based products and secured financing, where the asset or the receivable does the heavy lifting instead of your score.

If your score is the binding constraint right now, the faster path is usually a secured product rather than a better unsecured one. A vehicle purchase is the clearest example, because the van itself is the collateral. We walk through how that changes the approval maths in our guide to business auto loan options for local delivery routes.

How long do you need to be in business?

Two years for most banks and standard SBA loans, six months for many online lenders, and day one for a small number of startup-specific products.

This requirement is the least negotiable of the four, because it is not a judgment call. Either you have filed two tax returns or you have not. Traditional banks typically want two or more years of history. Alternative and online lenders will sometimes approve a business open as little as six months. SBA Microloans are the notable exception that will fund a genuine startup.

Time in business works as a proxy for survival odds, which is why lenders weigh it so heavily and why no amount of revenue fully compensates for its absence. A shop doing $400,000 in its eighth month will still be declined by a bank that has a hard two-year rule.

One thing worth getting right: the clock usually starts at business formation or the first tax filing, not when you had the idea or started trading informally. If you operated as a sole proprietor for three years and then incorporated last spring, say so explicitly and bring the earlier Schedule Cs. Some underwriters will count that history. None will count it if you do not raise it.

Annual revenue and deposit requirements

Most lenders want to see $100,000 or more in annual revenue, though the range runs from about $50,000 at the flexible end to $250,000 for some secured bank products.

Business lines of credit commonly ask for $50,000 to $100,000 in annual revenue. OnDeck requires $100,000 for its line of credit. Bank of America’s minimum for secured business loans is $250,000.

But the number underwriters stare at is not on your tax return. It is your bank statements, usually three to six months of them and sometimes twelve, and what they are reading is consistency.

This is exactly where businesses that deliver their own orders get penalized for something that is not a weakness. If you supply twelve cafés on Net-30 terms, your deposits arrive in a handful of large lumps rather than a smooth daily drip. An automated model scoring deposit regularity can read that as volatility, even though the underlying revenue is contracted, recurring, and arguably more secure than a retail shop’s walk-in trade.

Three things help:

• Run every dollar through one business account. Mixed personal and business banking is the most common reason an underwriter cannot verify revenue that plainly exists.
• Bring the contracts. A standing wholesale order or a signed catering agreement reframes lumpy deposits as scheduled ones. Attach them even when the application does not ask.
• Explain the cycle in one sentence. “We invoice Net-30, so deposits cluster around the 15th and the end of month” costs you nothing and pre-empts the objection.

Where the paperwork does not exist, because you are newer or your records are thin, there is a category of product built for that situation. It carries trade-offs you should price before you reach for it. Our breakdown of what no doc business loans really involve covers what you give up in exchange.

What collateral do lenders require?

It depends on the product, and the honest answer is that most small business borrowers pledge a personal guarantee whether or not they pledge an asset.

Collateral requirements sort into three tiers. Asset-secured loans, covering vehicles, equipment and real estate, are backed by the thing you are buying, which is why they carry the lowest rates and the most forgiving credit requirements. Blanket-lien loans give the lender a general claim over business assets without naming one. Unsecured loans pledge nothing specific but almost always require a personal guarantee, and they price accordingly.

Common collateral includes real estate, business equipment, inventory, and outstanding receivables. For a delivery-driven shop, the realistic collateral pool is usually vans and trucks, kitchen or production equipment, and invoices.

The personal guarantee deserves a clear-eyed look, because owners routinely sign it without registering what it means: if the business cannot repay, the lender can pursue your personal assets. It is standard, it is usually non-negotiable under $500,000, and it is the main reason your personal credit score matters so much in the first place.

Which documents do you need to apply?

Have these ready before you start, because the application is rarely the bottleneck. The document hunt is.

• Identity and entity: driver’s license or photo ID, business license, EIN letter, and formation or registration documents.
• Financials: three to six months of business bank statements (occasionally twelve), the last two years of business tax returns, and last year’s personal return.
• Performance: a current profit and loss statement and balance sheet, plus accounts receivable ageing if you invoice.
• Purpose: a short statement of what the money is for and how it gets repaid. For asset purchases, add the quote or purchase agreement.
• Existing obligations: a list of current business debts with balances and monthly payments.

Assembling this once serves every application you make. It is also the cheapest way to speed up funding. The same file that takes three weeks at one lender funds in two days at another, largely because nobody had to chase you for a missing statement. Our overview of fast business loan options and what the speed costs covers which routes reward that preparation most.

Requirements at a glance by lender type

Read this as a map of where to apply first, not as a set of promises. Every lender publishes minimums and then underwrites the whole file, so a strong showing on three bars regularly carries a weak fourth.

Why applications get declined even when the numbers look fine

Because the file contradicts itself, or because the lender never found the answer to an obvious question.

The recurring causes, in rough order of frequency: revenue on the tax return that does not match the bank statements; existing debt the application did not disclose that shows on the credit pull; an industry code that puts the business in a restricted category; mixed personal and business banking that makes revenue unverifiable; and a stated loan purpose the underwriter cannot connect to a repayment source.

Across the market, 46% of applicants received the full amount they requested, 36% received some or most of it, and 22% received none. A partial approval is not a rejection. It is frequently an invitation to come back with a tighter file or a different product, and it is worth asking the underwriter directly which bar fell short.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a business loan with no revenue?

Rarely, and not as a conventional term loan. The realistic routes for a pre-revenue business are SBA Microloans, equipment financing secured by the asset, and personal-credit-backed products. Most lenders treat revenue as the repayment source, so its absence is difficult to work around.

Do lenders check personal or business credit?

Both, but personal credit carries more weight for most small business lending. Under roughly $500,000, expect a personal FICO pull and a personal guarantee even if your business credit file is well established.

How much can I borrow against my revenue?

A common rule of thumb is 10% to 30% of annual revenue for unsecured products, though secured loans can go well beyond that because the asset supports the amount. Lenders also test whether your existing debt payments leave room for a new one.

Does applying damage my credit score?

A single application involves a hard inquiry with a modest, temporary effect. Applying repeatedly across months is what causes real damage, both to the score and to how the file reads.

What if I was declined?

Ask which requirement fell short and apply that answer. A credit-score decline and a time-in-business decline call for completely different next moves. One is fixable in months, the other only with time or a different product category.

Getting your file ready

The requirements are not mysterious. Credit score, time in business, revenue, deposit consistency, collateral, documents. What separates an easy approval from a frustrating month is usually preparation rather than performance.

Pull your personal credit report and fix anything wrong on it. Move all business income into one account and keep it there. Build the document folder once. Write down your four numbers so you can state them from memory. Then pick the lender tier your numbers match, rather than starting at the top and working down through declines.

A business that clears these bars comfortably has options and negotiating room. One that clears them narrowly still gets funded. It just pays more, which is why the preparation pays off best when you do it well before you need the money.