The Ohio Department of Development, together with the U.S. Small Business Administration, sponsors the Buckeye State’s Small Business Development Centers. These SBDCs help business owners with marketing strategy, strategic business planning, financial projections, and identifying sources for funding. The Ohio Economic Development Association is a member-based organization that provides advisory services and links to resources for small businesses.

SCORE links its retired executives with small business owners through their offices located in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland.

Ohio has several grants available to small businesses. The Workplace Wellness Grant Program offers grants to employers to initiate programs to improve their employees’ health, and the Workplace Safety Innovation Center helps employers with grants to lessen the frequency and severity of workplace injuries.

Before applying for a loan in Ohio, you’ll need to decide on a business name and set up the structure. You may start as a sole proprietorship in the beginning and only need to register the name of your business with the local county clerk. When you incorporate later on as you grow and add employees, you’ll need to register your corporation or limited liability company with the Ohio Secretary of State.

A lender will be more receptive to your loan request if you present them with a logical plan. Your proposal should explain why you need the loan, what you’ll use the money for, how the lender will be secured, and the schedule on which you intend to pay the loan back. Loan requirements also typically include a minimum credit score and monthly revenue.

The type of loan that you look for depends on why you need the money. Let’s suppose you want to start up a machine shop to manufacture parts for the automobile industry, and you need to purchase a drill press, a metal lathe, a milling machine, and a welder. These are all long-term assets that should be financed with equipment loans that have payments over several years. To finance the working capital of your shop, you can use a short-term revolving line of credit to purchase the raw materials for inventory and support your receivables after you ship the finished products on credit terms to your customers.

Small businesses need more than just the owner’s equity to operate. They will occasionally need loans to pay for the purchases of fixed assets and support temporary increases in working capital. In addition to being proficient at the craft of their trade, small business owners need to sharpen their financial skills and develop working relationships with lenders who can step in to provide the funding to support a company’s growth.

An SBA preferred lender is a lender that’s been approved by the Small Business Administration to administer SBA loans without additional approvals from the SBA. Typically these lenders have years of experience and can approve SBA loans faster than non-preferred lenders.

SBA loans are backed by the government and offer lower interest rates than other types of small business loans. They typically require a minimum time in business of two years and a credit score of 650+.

An SBA 7(a) loan is a form of financing that is partially guaranteed by the SBA. These loans are named after article 7(a) of the Small Business Act of 1953, which launched the SBA and tasked the agency with supporting American small businesses through lending. You can learn more about the SBA 7(a) loan on our blog.