Case Study
Business Funding

$185,000 SBA 7(a) after two bank rejections — here's why we got it done.

HVAC contractor Rafael P. had a 60-day equipment deadline and an offer that would save 30% on a bulk order. He had been turned down by two banks. We restructured the application and got the loan funded in 67 days.

Rafael P. — full case breakdown

RP
Rafael P.
Houston, TX  •  45 years old  •  Commercial HVAC contractor

Rafael's HVAC company had a $185k equipment purchase opportunity — a bulk order that would cut his costs by 30% and let him take on larger contracts. He needed the capital fast and had been rejected by two banks. We helped him understand what lenders actually look at and got the deal done.

Before
The challenge
  • Revenue: $840,000/year, 3 years in business — barely qualified for SBA minimum
  • Rejected by Bank of America: "Insufficient time in business" and "concerns about debt service coverage"
  • Rejected by regional credit union: "Tax returns show inconsistency in net income"
  • Equipment vendor deadline: 60 days — clock was ticking and cash wasn't available
  • Personal credit score: 640 — clean but not exceptional, which was limiting alternative lenders
Approach
The work we did
  • Diagnosed why the two rejections happened: both lenders were looking at raw tax return numbers without context — one bad year was due to a major equipment repair, not a real business decline
  • Prepared a financial narrative document explaining the "anomaly year" with bank statements and contractor invoices as supporting evidence
  • Cleaned up Rafael's balance sheet: consolidated two high-interest equipment loans to improve his DSCR
  • Built a 12-month cash flow projection showing the revenue lift from the bulk equipment purchase (30% cost savings passed through to 3 large pending contracts)
  • Sourced SBA Express lender with 90-day expedited processing and matched application to their specific underwriting criteria
  • Prepared 3 years of clean profit & loss statements and certified financial projections
Result
What happened
$0
→
$185,000
SBA 7(a) loan secured
  • Loan funded in 67 days — met the equipment vendor deadline with 7 days to spare
  • Rate: 7.25% (prime + 2%) — well below the 12–15% terms he was seeing from alternative lenders
  • 10-year term with no prepayment penalty — flexibility to pay down faster without penalty
  • 30% cost savings on equipment order realized in first year; net savings exceeding $40,000

See what this process looks like for your situation.

Rafael's rejection pattern looked like a credit story, but the fix was a packaging and program-matching story. Your funding gap has its own shape — let's look at what program and what application would actually move a lender.

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