How a Marquette, MI Business Funding Request Moves From the First Call to a Partner's Decision

Funding partners each write their own requirements, so no list fits every offer. These records answer the questions a partner may raise in a first review:

• bank statements for the most recent months, showing deposits and the balance pattern
• the business's start date and its annual revenue range
• recent business tax returns, or the owner's personal returns when the business income is reported on them
• every loan, lease or advance already running, and what each costs per month
• the quote, invoice or payroll figure behind the amount needed

For a business without a bookkeeper, the list is worth starting early. In 2023, 770 of the 1,655 employer establishments that County Business Patterns counted in Marquette County, MI, or 46.5%, had fewer than five employees.

1. First contact: a call to (906) 240-5339 or the request form, with contact details, time in business, revenue band and amount range.
2. The need: a conversation with Cloverbrook about what the money pays for, when, and how it comes back.
3. Records: the documents from the list on this page, gathered for the partner review.
4. Matching: Cloverbrook picks partners whose products line up with what the money is for, and the request goes to them.
5. Review: each partner reads the records, may check credit and may ask follow-up questions.
6. Any offer: the amount, rate or factor, term and fees in writing, for the owner to accept or decline.

Underwriting is the review in stage five. Its length and depth depend on the partner and the product, so no timeline is promised here.

The six funding types are explained one by one, and the question page covers collateral and time in business.

A business can have credit files with commercial credit bureaus that are separate from the owner's personal credit. Suppliers, card issuers and funding sources may report payment history to them. A funding partner may look at the business file, the owner's personal file, or both.

• order a copy of the business's own file and check the name, address and start date
• look for accounts that do not belong to the business, or late payments that were paid on time
• ask the bureau to correct errors before the request goes to partners
• check the owner's personal credit report too, since a partner may ask for a personal guarantee

Part of qualifying is showing that the payment fits the cash the business already brings in. A funding partner may compare a new payment with the deposits on the bank statements.

In an invented case, a builder's statements show average deposits of $61,400 a month and existing equipment payments of $3,250. Layering an invented $38,000, 36-month loan at a 10.75% annual rate on top puts another $1,239.58 on each month.

Taken together in that invented case, the payments rise from 5.3% to 7.3% of average monthly deposits. Deposits are not profit, so the builder can also show the costs that come out of them, such as lumber, crew payroll and insurance.

• time in business and a revenue range that a partner's product fits
• statements with steady deposits and few overdrafts
• current debts that are paid on schedule
• a clear use for the money, tied to a quote or a payroll figure

A request for an operating business does not always need a formal plan, but a short one helps when the money pays for growth, such as a law office hiring an attorney before the new caseload bills. A partner may ask for it.

• what the office does now, with its revenue for the last two years
• the hire, the start date and the salary the loan helps carry
• a month-by-month estimate of the new attorney's billings and when they are collected
• the loan payment set against that estimate, month by month
• what the office would do if billings arrive later than planned

Plans are read for their assumptions. An estimate that shows its basis, such as the billings of the attorneys already on staff, gives a partner something to check.