Straight-talk breakdowns of the levers that decide whether a commercial loan works for you or works against you — written by a former commercial banker who now works for the borrower.
The new SBA rulebook takes effect October 1, 2026. Standard 7(a) processing for every acquisition, Quality of Earnings required at $3M+, new coverage floors (1.25x for acquisitions, 1.15x for expansions), and one real win for buyers. A former banker's plain-English breakdown of what actually matters for your deal.
Read the full breakdown →Your bank offers a 15-year amortization. A different bank will go to 25. Neither is right at face value — the answer comes down to rate environment, cash flow, and your tolerance for a payment you can't reduce later. Here's how I'd think about it if it were my own father's business.
Read the full analysis →It's not that your deal is bad. It's that the bank's box is full. Concentration limits, product hobbyists, quarterly appetite shifts — the real reasons deals get declined have almost nothing to do with the borrower. Here's what the decline letter isn't telling you.
Read the full analysis →More insights coming: the questions your banker never brings up, going to your own bank first as a mistake, how to tell if your SBA lender is a specialist or a hobbyist.