How to Open a Hunting and Fishing Store with Bad Credit?

Have you dreamed of opening up a hunting and fishing store, but worry about funding options due to your bad credit? The good news is that you can achieve your dream of having your own fishing and hunting store thanks to alternative financing options. Reading on, you can learn everything that you need to know about opening your hunting and fishing store including funding options that you can consider.

The Basics of Opening a New Hunting and Fishing Store

Before you can even start applying for business loans, you need to have an idea of what’s involved in opening up a retail store. You need to have a plan, otherwise, it can be incredibly hard to get the funding that you want and need. This section will take a look at what you need to do early on in the process to have better success getting funding and launching a business.

It’s essential that you have a plan in place when you are trying to open up your retail store. One of the biggest pieces of this, which is why having a plan is so important before getting funding, is looking at the costs associated with starting a business. The costs can vary greatly between a bait & tackle shop and a larger hunting and fishing store. For instance, a bait & tackle store has significantly lower costs associated with starting the business up. In some cases, you can accomplish this with only $5,000, which can cover rent, insurance, utilities, and basic supplies needed by this shop. Obviously, larger stores will require much more money to start up.

It's important to do your research to make sure that you have a good plan in place for your startup shop. You need to know a pretty accurate estimate of what anticipated costs will be so that you can get the money that you need for your startup. There are a lot of things to consider here, which is why having a plan when going for funding is so important.

Understanding Startup Business Loans

A startup business loan is a loan that is specifically meant for helping new business owners start-up their businesses. However, the term “startup loans” can be a bit misleading. Unfortunately, these traditional loans aren’t typically meant for people who are just starting up their businesses. In many cases, you won’t even be considered for these types of loans unless you have already established your business and have been in business for between 6 months and a year. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have already opened a store, but it does mean that you need to have created your business entity and it has existed for this long.

After you pass this 6-month – 1-year timeframe, you will become eligible for startup loans. When you have a startup plan in place, this can also make the process of getting funding a lot easier. The money that you can potentially receive for your startup loan can be the capital for your business to cover a variety of expenses to get your business up and running.

The problem is that it can be hard to get traditional startup loans if you have bad credit. By bad credit, this means typically anything lower than a 680 credit score. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t get the loan, just that it’s a lot more difficult to get the loan that you want and need. This is where alternative financing options come in.

Loan Options to Open a Store with Bad Credit

The good news is that even with bad credit, you do have a lot of different options that you can consider and take advantage of to get the funding that you need. This section will look at some of the best options to consider.

• SBA Loan

The Small Business Administration offers loans to small business owners, including startup loans. What’s great about this option is that the government backs part of the loan, which can mean lower interest rates since you will be less risky to lend to. There are a variety of different loan options offered by the SBA, including ones for businesses and business owners with a bad credit score.

• Merchant Cash Advance

If you accept credit card payments, a merchant cash advance is a decent option to consider. These loans are unsecured short-term options, which are based on any future sales that use credit cards. There are no exact repayment terms for these loans, and the company will take a percentage of credit card sales until the loan is paid off.

• Microloans

If you don’t necessarily need a lot of money for startup costs, a microloan can be a good option. These are loans made for people who won’t need as much as some loan minimums are. The average amount for these loans is around $35,000. You should be aware that these loans have higher interest rates, which makes them more expensive than some other options that you can consider.

• Peer-to-Peer Lending

People who have struggled to get loans from traditional lenders can find more luck with peer-to-peer lending options. This is a relatively new approach to funding, where you are matched with direct investors who are willing to lend you the money. You just need to carefully read any terms before you sign them.

• Business Credit Cards

Business credit cards are another option to consider. These do tend to have lower credit limits on them, but there are still good options when you need money fast. You may even find that the interest rates on the business cards are better than what you would get with bad credit at a traditional lender.

Conclusion

Whether you want to open a bait & tackle shop or a full-fledged hunting and fishing store, alternative financing gives you the opportunity to achieve these dreams even if your credit is less than stellar. The advice in this article is meant to help give you the opportunity to achieve your dreams of opening your own fishing and hunting store.