Boost your chances of getting your loan application approved with a well-crafted business loan request letter.
May 11, 2022 6 min readWe are committed to sharing unbiased reviews. Some of the links on our site are from our partners who compensate us. Read our editorial guidelines and advertising disclosure .
Have to submit a business loan request letter as part of your loan application? Not sure how to get started?
We don’t blame you. These kinds of letters aren’t as common as they used to be. While online lenders don’t usually ask for small-business loan requests, some traditional banks and credit unions still do. And if you apply for an SBA business loan (a loan backed by the US Small Business Administration), you’ll need a small-business loan request as part of your loan application package.
No matter which lender you’re applying with, this guide will help you write a strong business loan request letter―and to get the business loan you need.
Writing a loan request can feel overwhelming. After all, it’s not an everyday part of being a small-business owner. What do you say when applying for a bank loan? How do you write a business proposal for your loan application? What’s your lender even looking for in a business loan request letter?
That’s why we suggest starting your request writing process with the easy bits: formatting.
You’ll want to begin your business loan request with some pretty standardized formatting that includes your contact information, the date, your lender’s contact information, a subject line, and a greeting.
Typically, you’ll want to format the beginning of your small-business loan request roughly like this:
First and last name
Business’s phone number
Business’s address (this one is optional)
Lender name (or loan agent’s name and title, if you have one)
Contact information for your lender or loan agent
Obviously you can simply plug in the relevant information for most of this. Easy peasy, right?
You’ll really only have to come up with your own subject line and greeting. But don’t overthink it. Something like this will work just fine for your subject line:
Likewise, keep your greeting simple. “Dear [lender]” or “Dear [loan agent]” will do quite nicely.
Got all that? Then you’re ready to get into the actual loan request.
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Before you dive into the meat of your loan request, you should give a brief summary of your letter. Just write a short paragraph that says why you’re writing and what you want.
So you’ll probably want to include the following details:
No need to get fancy with this. You’re trying to condense the most important information into one or two sentences.
For example, your summary might look something like this:
As you can see, you don’t need much detail here. You’re just giving the reader a quick overview of what’s to come.
And now that you’ve given them that preview, it’s time to get more in depth.
Not a confident writer?Remember, your lender isn’t here to grade your writing. Try to use good spelling, grammar, and punctuation―but don’t stress about crafting beautiful sentences.
Your next section should add more detail about your business. You’ll want to include information like this:
Now, keep in mind that you’re not trying to give your reader an encyclopedic history of your business. Instead, you’re trying to show that you have a well-established business―one that’s solid enough to deserve a business loan. So focus on relevant details that show your business’s maturity.
You can keep this section as short as a few sentences or as long as a few (brief) paragraphs. Just make sure you leave plenty of room for the next two sections.
After discussing your business, it’s time to explain why you need a bank loan.
That means you’ll want to offer some details about how you plan to use your business financing. For example, you can talk about the employees you plan to hire, the building you want to expand, or whatever else you intend to do with your term loan.
Take note, though, that you also need to explain why your loan request makes sense. Because your lender doesn’t really care that you want a loan―it cares whether or not it makes sense to lend to you. You need to convince your lender that you have a good plan for your loan―one that will make it easy to repay the money you borrow.
Try to answer questions like these as you write this section:
Dig into your business plan and projections to find some good stats. Explain how hiring those additional employees will increase your revenue by a certain percentage or dollar amount. Break down how opening that add-on to your restaurant will allow you to seat a number of additional customers, and how much revenue you expect that to bring in.
The more specific you can get, the better. Because again, you’re trying to convince your lender that you’re borrowing as part of a thoughtful business plan―not just because you want some cash.
And take your time with this part. In most cases, this section and the next one will form the meat of your business loan request letter.
