Guides & forms

Get your file SBA-ready.

Two short playbooks for the questions borrowers ask most — “how do I get my credit score up?” and “how do I become bankable?” — plus the standard forms every SBA lender will ask you to complete. Download, read, come prepared.

Playbooks

Guide · Credit

How to raise your credit score — 3 levers that actually move the needle

SBA pricing brackets shift at 680 and 720. If you're close to one, here's where the points come from fastest.

Knock the highest-utilization card down first — you're aiming for under 50%, not zero. Utilization is roughly a third of your FICO score, and any single card maxed out drags the whole file. You don't need to pay everything off. Pick the card with the highest balance-to-limit ratio and bring it below 50% — even moving a $9,000 / $10,000 card (90%) down to $4,500 (45%) can lift you 15–25 points in one statement cycle. Repeat on the next highest. That alone gets a lot of files from the mid-640s to the 680 SBA threshold.
Pay every account on time for the next six months. Payment history is the single biggest factor (~35% of FICO). Set autopay for at least the minimum on every card, line, and loan you have. A single 30-day late can drop a clean file 80+ points; six months of clean payments rebuilds trust fast.
Don't open new credit in the 6 months before you apply. Every new application is a hard inquiry (small ding) and a new account drops your average age of accounts (bigger ding). If you're shopping the SBA in Q1, lock down new applications by mid-Q3 of the year before.

Want us to look at your actual report? Start an application →

Guide · Bankability

How to become bankable — 3 things every SBA underwriter is looking for

“Bankable” means a credit committee will say yes. These three boxes are the ones to check before you apply.

Annual revenue above $400K. $400K is the practical floor where SBA 7(a) starts to make sense. Files below that usually get steered into consumer-credit-driven products instead of bank lending — the placement fee, the time to close, and the documentation lift don't pencil out for a credit committee on a smaller business. The closer you are to $400K, the more your tax returns and bank statements need to agree (no big gaps between the two).
Personal credit at 680 or higher. 680 is the SBA threshold where lender appetite opens up — below that, options narrow fast and pricing gets uglier. We pull the score during prequal so you know where you stand on day one. If you're in the 640s–670s, see the credit guide on the left — moving the highest-utilization card alone often clears the gap.
DSCR of at least 1.1× — with profit you can defend. Debt Service Coverage Ratio = annual cash flow available / annual debt service. SBA banks want at least 1.1× after the new loan — your business makes 10% more cash than the payment costs each year. “Profit you can defend” means the add-backs on your tax return hold up under questioning: owner's discretionary comp, personal vehicles run through the business, one-time bonuses are fine — but you need to point at each line and explain it. Cleaner add-back schedule = higher underwritten cash flow = more files clear committee.

Not sure where your file lands? Run the 60-second prequal →

SBA standard forms

Direct from the SBA. We keep current copies here so you don't have to dig through sba.gov. Your specialist will tell you which ones you need.

PDF · SBA Form 413

Personal Financial Statement

Required for every owner of 20%+ of the business. Lists your personal assets, liabilities, income, and contingent liabilities. Banks underwrite the file from this.

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PDF · SBA Form 1919

Borrower Information Form

The eligibility questionnaire required on every SBA 7(a) and 504 loan. Covers citizenship, ownership, criminal-history disclosures, and conflicts of interest.

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PDF · SBA SOP

SOP 50 10 — 2025 edition

The Standard Operating Procedure the SBA actually uses to underwrite 7(a) loans. The full rulebook — useful when a deal is borderline and you want to know the program's position.

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