Grants and Small Business Loans for Women – What You Should Know?

In today’s modern world, women are taking rapid strides in all fields including entrepreneurship - though the dream of owning a business can’t be successful without sufficient working capital. Thanks to grants and small business loans for women which are a rapidly growing segment of the economy and helping thousands of young entrepreneurs convert their business’ dream into reality.

Today, there are a plethora of attractive grants and loan options available especially for women – thanks to online alternative lenders and advanced financial tools and technology. Women business owners need to know more about these small business financing options, so they can successfully obtain the loan to grow their businesses.

In this blog post, we’ll share the top grants and loans available to women entrepreneurs and how they can get one.

Eligibility Requirement for SBA Loans

While most women entrepreneurs are eligible for financial assistance from the Small Business Administration, some are not.

If you’re planning to apply for an SBA loan, your business must:

• Operate for profit
• Operate for at least two years
• Have good credit records
• Be engaged in, or propose to do business in, the U.S, or its territories
• Use an alternative funding option, before seeking an SBA loan
• Meet SBA size standards
• Have a strong business plan
• Have adequate collateral
• Share its personal and business bank account statements
• Share its debt schedule
• Share personal and business income tax returns
• Have a personal guarantee

Last but not least – you must be able to show you’re a small business owned women.

As a government entity, the SBA itself doesn’t provide small business loans to women entrepreneurs. Instead, banks and other alternative lenders actually make the loans, and the SBA subsidizes a portion of the loan if the borrower defaults.

That’s the reason; lenders want to work with women entrepreneurs. SBA loans are a great small business financing for women as they’ll get low-interest rates, better terms, and long repayment terms.

Alternative Financing Options for Women

Although SBA loans are one of the most accessible ways for women-owned businesses to get funding, it’s not the only way. Female entrepreneurs have other alternative financing options as well, such as small business grants and loans.

Top Grants and Small Business Loans for Women

Grants:

• Grants.gov
• Innovate HER Challenge
• Girlboss Foundation Grant
• Open Meadows Foundation
• National Association for the Self-Employed Growth Grants
• Ideacafe Grant
• Amber Grant
• Cartier Women’s Initiative Award
• 37 Angles
• Tory Burch Foundation
• The Walmart Foundation 
• GrantsforWomen.org
• Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant Program
• FedEx Small Business Grant
• Visa Everywhere Initiative
• Small Business Innovation Research Program

Loans:

• Government Guaranteed Term Loans
• Micro Loans
• Asset-Based Line of Credit
• Invoice Financing
• Equipment Financing
• Merchant Cash Advance
• Personal Loans
• Non-profit Loans
• Startup Loans
• Hard Money Loans
• Loan Against Securities 

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, despite the inequality that still exists between male and female business owners, there are more small business financing options for women than ever before. Before finalizing a lender and a grant or loan for your business, you need to research and compare different small business loan offers by using an online lending marketplace, so that you can choose a loan that best fits your current financial needs and budget.