A 7(a) or 504 application is not a pitch. The lender is not deciding whether your idea is exciting; they are deciding whether the cash flow services the debt, whether you can run the thing, and whether the collateral covers the downside. The plan is where they check the first two.
Underwriters read in a fixed order, and a plan that arrives in a different one costs them time they will not spend. Executive summary, company description, market analysis, organisation and management, products and services, marketing and sales, funding request, financial projections, appendix. That is the order we produce, every time.
Debt service coverage — your cash available for debt service divided by your principal and interest. The floor is not the same for every deal: SBA policy sets 1.10× for a 7(a) small loan of $350,000 or less, 1.15× for an expansion, and 1.25× for a first-time business acquisition or owner buyout. If your plan does not clear the one that applies to you, the file is declined or restructured, and you find out weeks later.
We compute it before you pay, using the threshold that applies to your transaction, print it on the first page, and tell you the size of the gap and which lever closes it: more revenue, lower operating cost, a larger equity injection so you borrow less, or a longer term. We check your equity injection against the SBA's 10% minimum at the same time.
A projection that pays the owner nothing looks better and gets recomputed by the lender, who adds a market salary back and watches the coverage fall through the floor. Our model pays you the amount you say you need to live on, and the DSCR you see already carries it.
We cannot promise a loan will be approved — nobody can, and anyone who does is selling something else. The SBA is a federal agency; it does not approve, endorse or certify business plan providers. What we do is make sure the document does not fail on the things a plan can control.
