[JasonP]

Jason,

The truth is that you are going to have to manage your merchant's expectations based on your level of knowledge of the industry. It's one thing for the merchant to make a specific dollar amount request, but if his profile doesn't qualify him for said request, then it's your job to inform him of what he does qualify for and explain how the process works. At that point, either the merchant can accept what he qualifies for or walk away from the table.

- A traditional bank will not approve him for a loan as you said he lacks any type of collateral and he's a start-up, which I assume means he's been operating for less than 6 months, is that correct? He probably can apply for a personal loan and/or make credit line increase requests.

- On the alternative side there might be a couple starter merchant cash advances that he could take, but he will not get anywhere close to $250,000. I would say that he might get about $20,000 if he's less than 6 months in business.

- Are you sure he has no collateral at all? No pre-owned real estate, equipment, luxury cars, antiques, arts, commercial accounts receivables, jewelry, or gold? If he has any of the tangible items, then he could qualify for a low tier asset-based loan program where they would do a short term deal with an approval amount of a particular percentage of the LTV of said items. Or, with the receivables, he could do some A/R factoring.

But that's pretty much it. Take this information back to your merchant to "educate" him on the process at hand.

Thank you John, you have been very informative and a true professional. People like you are very rare, keep up the good work. I am not a broker I am the merchant ( Businesses owner).