If you run a small business, you’re likely seeing a flood of offers for easy-to-get loans – through direct mail, pop-up ads, even TV ads – promising fast money to pay your bills or buy new equipment. But that new world of fast cash can come with some costly catches.
“It’s been the wild west,” said Karen Gordon Mills, co-author of a just-released Harvard Business School study exploring the promise and challenges of alternative small-business lending. The sector has exploded in the last few years as a new industry emerged, referred to as “fintech” (for financial technology).
Typically, to get a loan, a small-business owner needs to provide a bank with tax returns, personal and business financial statements and a pile of other documents and data. “You have to wait weeks or months,” said Mills, who co-wrote the report “Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and the Implications for Regulation” with Brayden McCarthy.
Now, dozens of companies – OnDeck, Kabbage, FundBox, BlueVine, Prosper and the scandal-rocked Lending Club – are eager to lend money to small businesses. In addition, a number of platforms – Fundera, NerdWallet, Quickbooks Financing, Biz2Credit and Lendio – have emerged to connect small businesses with these new lenders.