Holiday Closure: Labor Day – Monday, September 7, 2026
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Holiday Closure: Labor Day – Monday, September 7, 2026
Community Initiatives: See what donation drives are happening near you on our Community Calendar. View details →
Article Contributor:
Jonathan Dolphin
President at 21st Century Bank
As much as we’d like to – small business owners can’t know it all. And you shouldn’t have to.
There will always be aspects of your business in which you rely on the insights and advice of the talented people around you to help make decisions. This can be true for marketing, accounting, human resources – even small business financing. Finding and selecting an ideal lending partner is often high on that list.
Anyone can package up a small business, practice or conventional loan, provided your finances are in order, but there are ways to do it right. You deserve the best our community can offer – ideal interest rates, loan programs, repayment terms – and here at 21st Century Bank, we vowed early on to do things right.
For more than 105 years, we’ve supported individuals, entrepreneurs, and leadership teams with tailored banking products and services based on strong relationships – though we’re known throughout the community for being laser-focused on supporting small business owners, often when other banks have let them down in the process.
21st Century Bank has been a leading Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in Minnesota for more than a decade. As a locally owned and operated bank, we’ve identified the areas where we could add more value for our community than the large-scale, national banks. It all comes down to relationships. That’s why we’re in this business, after all.
In the June/July Insights column, I shared insights with readers of Twin Cities Business on how to identify the most appropriate lending partner – and I wanted to take the time to expand upon my recommendations to provide further, tangible value to those in our community needing advice.
To quote Roger Maris, “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation, there is sure to be failure.”
We agree. Around here, preparation is everything. For those starting a business or acquiring an existing one, planning plays a critical role in ensuring you can successfully meet the opportunity in front of you. The same goes for securing a small business loan.
To get the best loan available to you, you’ll want to start the process by personally taking care of the following:
There are templates online that you can use to build your personal financial statement - and outline your credit and debits and pull together other important financial information to have on hand. We recommend doing this before outline business projections - that way you know what you'll need to run the business successfully for a couple months as you work to generate a profit.
As part of this, ensure you gather your down-payment source and amount - something you feel comfortable with.
We encourage you to expand on your roles and responsibilities, instead adding depth in ways you’ve helped advance business, implement new processes or develop strategies. If you’ve made decisions like those an entrepreneur would face, now that’s the sort of thing to document!
We recommend you work to get a credit score of about 700 to ensure the best loan terms. You can work with your financial advisor, or a bank like 21st, on what steps you can take to improve your score.
In this business plan, outline your timeline, key team members, services summary, marketing tactics, profitability opportunities and importantly, how much money you'll need for your personal expenses, as it's common for it to take a couple of months to bring in revenue. This should include projections. The SBA has templates and webinars to support this process.
When you’re done taking stock of your current financial situation and assessing your entrepreneurial goals, you’re ready to find a lending partner. This is a critical part of the process. There are a lot of banks that offer small business loans, but depending on your timeline, you may want to call in experts who know the conventional and Small Business Administration loan programs to ensure seamless and rapid processing of funds.
In part two of this article, I’ll give my advice on how to identify, interview, and select the right lender for your needs.
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