Loans are an important source of start-up funding for small and home-based businesses. However, obtaining loans from banks, government programs and other financial institutions is not always easy. Sometimes, the process feels like going through a needle, more so if you have the following characteristics:

1. You have poor personal credit history. Poor credit could make it difficult or temporarily impossible to achieve your dream of getting bank financing for your startup business. Banks and other lending providers look for good personal credit history when reviewing business loans. In fact, it is one of the first things that a bank looks into when reviewing loan applications.

Alas, a poor credit history cannot be repaired overnight. In the United States, a poor credit history can haunt you for seven years — and for 10 years in the case of tax liens and Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcies. If your credit history is less than perfect, it may be worth a shot to include a note in your loan application explaining what you’ve done to rectify some of the black marks in your credit history.

Read full article by Lyve Alexis Pleshette