When the economy struggles and default rates increase, lending standards can get mighty tough, especially for unsecured micro-loans. Banks may continue to court small business during these times, but borrowing will be an uphill climb. There may be one source of financing, however, that will remain plentiful and accessible even in tough times: the business credit card.
Not too long ago, under these circumstances, small business entrepreneurs did bank on business credit cards for their financing needs, according the Small Business Administrations annual micro-loan study, which tracks trends in loans of less than $100,000. Even during times when traditional commercial lending essentially remain flat, small business loans can grow by as much as 10 percent. This may be an indication of the success of banks small business campaigns, offering as a come-on a plethora of small business credit card packages or perhaps even the better methods employed by credit scoring agencies.
Today, a business owner with good standing in personal credit cards will have no problem gaining approval for business credit cards. Even in those cases where the applicants credit history is less...