You’re ready to start your chiropractic practice and you have your business plan in hand, and your landlord is ready to do the build-out, but not until you have a loan.  So, how long will it take to get that business loan?  Well, it depends.  Here is an AVERAGE situation:

You take your business plan to several banks at the same time.  One says “OK, we can do this loan.”  If you’re lucky, they will do it without SBA.  Maybe they will take a co-signer, or you have enough to put down as collateral that you don’t need SBA. 

If you must use an SBA guarantee, the process can take an addiitonal 1-2 months (figure 2 months, to be safe).

If your paperwork is in order and the bank gets in gear, you can probably get a commitment letter within 30-45 days that you can take to your landlord.

If you are paying for some or all of the build-out, you’ll need some of the loan funds disbursed to you.  The bank will put them into a “draw” account for you.

So, if things go well (and they seldom do), you can get loan money within 2-3 months.  I have known people who got their loan within 30 days of applyinng, and I’ve known others who had to go through all kinds of stuff over 6 months!  Who knows?

Remember, I said “AVERAGE.”  One of my favorite sayings is “If you have your head in the freezer and your feet in the oven, on average, you’re comfortable.”

Point is- start NOW - it’s better to have the loan and not need it yet, than to be scrambling to get the loan at the last minute.

good luck

Read all about the startup loan process in Planning for Practice Success.