9 things a lender must see in your business plan.
Print it, then grade any plan against it — ours, one you wrote, or one you paid someone else for. No email address required; the checklist is just below.
Lender Readiness Checklist — 9 things your plan must show
48hourplan.com/lender-checklist
- ☐ The ask, up frontExact amount, intended term, and what the money does — in the executive summary, not buried on page 20. A loan officer should know what you want in the first minute.
- ☐ Company and ownership basicsLegal entity, who owns what, where you operate, and whether you're new or existing (years, current revenue). Lenders verify this against your application — mismatches stall files.
- ☐ Market analysis with checkable sourcesMarket size, growth, and local demand — each number tied to a source the lender can open (industry associations, Census, BLS). Unsourced statistics read as guesses.
- ☐ Named competitors and honest risksReal local and category competitors by name, plus what could go wrong and your mitigation. "We have no competition" is a red flag, not a strength.
- ☐ Products and services with real pricingWhat you sell, at what price, and roughly what it costs you to deliver — enough for a lender to see how a dollar of revenue becomes margin.
- ☐ Management experience mapped to the workNot a résumé dump — a short case for why this team can execute this plan, including relevant industry and operating experience.
- ☐ A use-of-funds table that sums exactly to the askLine items (equipment, build-out, working capital…) that add to the loan amount to the dollar. Round numbers that don't reconcile invite scrutiny of everything else.
- ☐ Three-year projections with monthly Year 1 — and labeled assumptionsA real model, not screenshots: monthly detail for the first year, annual for years 2–3, and every estimate labeled so the lender can see what's fact and what's assumption.
- ☐ Repayment arithmetic: DSCR, break-even, downsideShow the debt-service coverage ratio (many SBA lenders look for roughly 1.25x or better), the break-even point, and a downside case with how you'd absorb it. This is the page the credit decision actually leans on.
Sources: U.S. Small Business Administration, "Write your business plan" (traditional plan sections) — sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan · DSCR convention per SBA SOP 50 10 underwriting standards (verify current thresholds with your lender). Checked August 2026. 48 Hour Plan is an independent document-preparation service, not affiliated with or endorsed by the SBA or any lender; no funding outcome is guaranteed.
Prefer to do this yourself? That's a real option. Free help exists:
SCORE offers free volunteer business mentoring, and SBA-funded
Small Business Development Centers provide free advising nationwide. It takes longer, but it costs nothing — and this checklist works just as well there.
Want all nine, done in 48 hours?
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