You applied at the bank, went through all the paperwork, waited weeks, and they said no. Or maybe they came back with conditions you weren’t comfortable with like putting up your house as collateral. Either way you can’t get a bank loan for your business in Canada and now you’re wondering what else is out there.

Why Banks Say No

Could be a bunch of different reasons. Your credit score isn’t where they want it. You haven’t been in business long enough. You don’t have collateral they’re comfortable with. Your industry makes them nervous. Maybe your financials are fine but you don’t have a bookkeeper keeping everything organized the way a bank wants to see it.

Sometimes it’s the loan amount. You’re asking for $20,000 or $30,000 and the bank doesn’t see it as worth their time. The overhead for them is almost the same whether you’re borrowing $30,000 or $300,000 so they’d rather focus on bigger deals.

We go into more detail on the specific reasons in our post on why banks turn down small businesses in Canada.

What to Do if You Can’t Get a Bank Loan in Canada

If you can’t get a bank loan for your business in Canada, alternative lenders like Canada Capital fund businesses based on their sales. Your business is generating revenue and that’s what we look at when making a decision. We offer advances on your future receivables with a fixed cost and daily or weekly repayment. No collateral, no personal guarantee.

If you need ongoing access to funds rather than a lump sum a business line of credit might work better. If you want to understand the difference between the two we wrote about it here.

Do You Need Good Credit

Banks treat credit like a pass or fail. You’re above the line or you’re out. We look at it but it’s one piece of the picture. A business doing $80,000 a month in sales with a credit score that’s taken some hits is still a business we’d fund. What your business is doing today carries more weight than what happened on your credit file years ago.

How Much Can You Get

Through our in house funding and partner network we do deals up to $5 million. Most small business deals are well under that but the option exists for bigger amounts. We also do collateral based deals for businesses that want to use assets to access larger funding or different pricing. More on how revenue based financing works on our service page.

How Fast Is It Compared to a Bank

You already waited weeks for a bank to say no. With us most clients hear back within 24 hours. We’ve funded businesses the same day they applied. We’re looking at recent sales not going through three years of financial documents. If you want to know more about how the process works we wrote a full breakdown.

Next Steps When You Can’t Get a Bank Loan for Your Business

You’ve got options. Check out our small business capital page or read about what revenue based lending is and how to get business funding based on sales in Canada. Or skip the reading and apply here.