Limevale Lending, a small-business funding broker in Trenton, New Jersey, takes a request from a first call to a lending partner's answer in four steps. We learn the purpose, check the records, route the request and help you read any offer. Limevale is a broker, not a lender; partners decide and set rates and terms.
Broker and lender: two separate roles
A lender, or a funding provider for a merchant cash advance, puts up the money, reviews the business, approves or declines and sets the price. A broker handles none of those tasks. A broker learns what the business needs, prepares the request, sends it to partners that fund that kind of need, and helps the owner understand what comes back.
Limevale Lending is a broker, not a lender. We cannot approve anything, and we cannot change a partner's terms.
Step 1: a call about the purpose
You call (609) 359-4306, or fill in the short form (name, email, phone, business name and three quick range picks) and we call you. The first questions are simple: what will the money pay for, when is it needed, and how does money come into the business? Those three answers usually rule out half the options.
Step 2: matching the route
We set the purpose against the six routes: working capital, term loans, lines of credit, inventory financing, equipment financing and merchant cash advances, which are not loans. Then we list the documents a partner is likely to want, so nothing is a surprise.
Step 3: what partners review
- Business bank statements, to see deposits and balances
- Tax returns and financial statements, mainly for longer terms
- Existing loans, advances and liens
- Entity status and name, checked against state records
- Owner credit history, in most cases
- For equipment or stock: quotes, invoices and stock records
The partner chooses what to request and how to weigh it. Records that agree with each other move faster than records that need explaining.
Step 4: reading an offer
Loans are commonly priced with an interest rate or APR. Merchant cash advances are priced with a factor applied to the amount advanced, and they have no APR in the usual sense because they are not loans. Comparing a rate with a factor directly misleads. Instead compare:
- The total amount you will pay or remit
- How often money leaves the account, and how much each time
- How long until it is finished
- What early payoff saves, if anything
- Security, liens and any personal-guarantee clause
We go through this with you, but the decision to sign is yours.
Red flags in any funding pitch
- Anyone who promises approval before reviewing your records
- Pressure to sign before you have read the agreement
- Requests for an upfront payment before any offer exists
- An agreement that leaves the total cost unclear
- A provider that will not explain how collection works
If you see these from anyone, including a broker, stop and ask questions. Free advisers are listed in our Mercer County, NJ help guide, and the owner questions page covers more ground. How we work with partners is set out in the broker disclosures.
By Limevale Lending ยท Updated