Business loan with no revenue

Published minimums, checked

What to do instead of applying

1. Read the published revenue floors. The lowest in this record is a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year, or ten thousand a month, and it is published by two lenders.
2. Look for lenders that underwrite something other than revenue: equipment finance against a. Look for lenders that underwrite something other than revenue: equipment finance against an asset, or a purchase order facility against a confirmed order.
3. Treat a personal guarantee honestly. Most no-revenue lending is personal lending with a business name on it, and the risk lands on you either way.
4. Ask what the lender needs to see in six months. A no now with a stated condition attached is far more useful than a no with no explanation: it tells you which number to move and roughly how far, and it gives you a reason to come back to the same underwriter rather than start again elsewhere.

The published floors, in full

Bluevine publishes ten thousand dollars in monthly revenue, or a hundred and twenty thousand annually, alongside a six hundred and twenty-five credit score and twelve months of trading. Clarify Capital publishes a hundred and twenty thousand a year with six months of trading and a five hundred score. Advance Funds Network publishes fifteen thousand dollars a month and one year. OnDeck publishes a hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue and a year in business. SBG Funding publishes three hundred and fifty thousand a year on its main loans page and a hundred and fifty thousand on its equipment page. Those are the whole published set, and none of them is zero.

What genuinely funds a business before revenue

Three things do. An asset the lender can identify and resell, which is equipment finance and which is why a new operator can often finance a vehicle when nobody will lend them cash. A confirmed order from a creditworthy customer, which is purchase order finance, and which funds the making of the thing rather than the business. And a personal balance sheet, which is a personal guarantee, a co-signer or a secured personal facility, dressed as business lending. All three are real, all three are available before the first sale, and none of them is a business loan in the sense the search means.

Why lenders draw the line where they do

A revenue floor is not a judgement about ambition, it is the smallest number at which a lender's collection process works. These are short facilities repaid daily or weekly out of trading receipts, and below a certain level of deposits there is nothing to sweep. That is also why the floors cluster so tightly at ten thousand dollars a month across lenders that otherwise disagree about everything: it is roughly the level at which the mechanics function. Understanding that makes the sequence obvious. Get to that level of deposits, keep the bank account clean for three months, and the same lenders become available on ordinary terms.

Common questions

Can a startup with no revenue get a business loan?

Not from any lender in this record that publishes its criteria, because the lowest published revenue floor here is a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. What is available before revenue is equipment finance against an asset, purchase order finance against a confirmed order, or borrowing supported by a personal guarantee.

What is the lowest revenue requirement published by a business lender?

A hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year, published by two lenders in this record, one of which expresses it as ten thousand dollars in monthly revenue. One lender publishes a hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue, which is the single lowest figure here.

Does a business plan help?

With the lenders in this record, very little. Their criteria are bank deposits, trading history and a credit score, and none of them asks for a plan. A plan matters where a human underwrites the file, which in practice means a bank, a community lender or a guarantee-backed programme rather than an online funder.

By borrowing product

• merchant cash advance: what the lenders who offer it actually require
• equipment financing: what the lenders who offer it actually require
• invoice factoring: what the lenders who offer it actually require