The Funding List — Sources of money for small | thefundinglist.com
A full 7(a) process commonly takes 30-90 days end to end; the lender's decision arrives 7-10 business days after your package is complete — and every day of delay before completeness belongs to the borrower, not the lender.
Step one happens before any paperwork: confirm that every owner holding 20% or more of the equity will sign a personal guarantee. This is a program rule, not a lender preference. A co-owner who declines ends the application at the gate, so settle the question in the first conversation, not the last.
Step two is choosing the lender and sizing the request to the program's maturities: up to $5 million guaranteed, with 10-year terms for working capital and equipment and 25 years for real estate. Matching the loan's purpose to its maturity keeps the file internally consistent — a mismatch is a question underwriters will ask, and every question costs days.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Step three is assembling the complete application package. Completeness is the trigger for the decision clock: the 7-10 business day window is measured from a complete submission, not from first contact. Assemble everything before the first upload, and treat any request for additional documents as the only priority until it is answered.
Step four is the decision itself — typically 7-10 business days after the package is complete — followed by closing inside the typical 30-90 day end-to-end window. Prepared borrowers land near the short end; files that drip-feed documents land near the long one.
If the guarantee or the timeline does not fit, the program family has branches: microloans to $50,000 for the smallest needs, and 504 financing for fixed assets at a 50% bank, 40% CDC, 10% borrower split. The comparison at /funding-types-comparison shows where each branch leads.
Further reading