I have so far looked into numerous outlets geared towards startups and small creative businesses.

My goal is to attain a 75k business loan to buy out C4’s owner, Dustin, of all his equipment. This is an asset acquisition loan, which will be secured by the equipment itself.

Craft3

My first meeting was with Miri Plowman on 5/11/26 from Craft3.

My next steps:

• To apply, I need projections for my business (Crackerdog LLC), which can be based on C4’s profit and loss statements since I will be manufacturing their products. This is best given in as much detail as possible, monthly or quarterly, compensated for annual sales cycles.
  • Miri can help me build the projections, and they have custom templates they use.
• I also need an equipment list, including a materials inventory for whatever will be included in the sale, as those assets will secure the loan. That list should include the new and current value of the machinery.
• Need a business plan
• recommends making a “menu” of products, their sales data, and their costs per unit

Their terms:

• The loan will require that I have 10% of the loan amount in cash. Not as a down payment, but basically as a show of ‘skin in the game,’ that I can cover my own expenses in addition to repaying the loan since the loan will not be able to go towards general business expenses like rent/overhead. So that’s $7500. *BUT I don’t need it upfront, just at closing, so I can start the application process without having that cash right away. That gives me some time to come up with it.
• Loans typically take about 2 months from time of application to signing
• 11% interest rate is what they have to offer me
• 3-7 year repayment term, origin fee of 2% plus $650 for closing costs
• interest-only payments available for first 3 months

My current questions:

• At what point in the application process is my hard credit check run? Will I have final notification before that happens?

BINW

Next up was Business Impact Northwest. I spoke with Gwen Kohl, who is a long-time acquaintance of mine as well, also on 5/11.

Having just spoken earlier with Miri, BINW was very similar. They have a timeline of roughly 6 weeks for their loan applications, and offer interest rates of 11-13%. In her email to me, Gwen said: “key documents you’ll need are 2-3 years of historical financials (if you have them), a business plan, and financial projections based on this new space and equipment.” She recommended I read through the loan application for more detailed information. She also gave me a key piece of advice, which is that lenders do NOT like how it looks if it seems like you are trying desperately to get funding from wherever you can. It will greatly harm my chances to have multiple hard credit pulls. So it’s best, if I’m applying to multiple programs in order to ‘shop around,’ to have those credit checks run in the same week so they won’t have hit my updated credit report yet when different lenders are looking at it.

According to their website, they want:

• personal tax returns
• business tax returns
• personal credit report
• personal financial statement, showing personal assets and debts
• year-end and ytd financials: profit and loss statement, and balance sheet
• debt schedule showing business debt
• business bank account verification
• identity verification
• ownership assessment: business plan and financial projections may be necessary
• house deed of trust for collateral
• collateral value determined (assessed tax value doc?)

Current questions:

• What are the loan repayment periods they offer?
• At what point in the application process is my hard credit check run? Will I have final notification before that happens?

City of Tacoma Small Business Loans

On 5/13, I met with Brieanna Vaughn with the Community and Economic Development Department of the City of Tacoma. The city has three different small business loan programs, none of which are honestly a good fit for me.

• The Microloan program is only for up to 25k, which is roughly 1/3 of what I need.
• The Small Business Gap Loan program is the right funding range, but doesn’t want to cover more than 1/3 of the total project costs, which wouldn’t really work for me.
• The Grow America Fund is too big—loans start at 100k and look for 30% owner financing, so for significantly more/larger than what I’m doing or planning in the immediate future.

Tacoma is also a Kiva Loan site, which offers small loans of up to 15k with 0 interest. It’s a great deal, but again just not enough for what I need.

Assessment

Of the two viable options for me (Craft3 and BINW), the terms at first glance seem very similar. Craft3 has a slightly lower interest rate, but a fairly short repayment term. Using this business loan calculator, I estimated that repaying the Craft3 loan would cost roughly $1285/mo.

Before deciding which route to pursue, I need to know what the repayment terms are for BINW. Right now, even if it is quite a bit more money in the long term with interest, I could sink completely due to cashflow problems if I’m not careful. $1285 plus rent, utilities, supplies, etc puts me at significant monthly overhead.

My next steps are:

• Emailing Gwen to ask about repayment terms for BINW
• Deciding to pursue either BINW or Craft3 as a lender, and reading through their applications in detail so I can get the specifics of what I need from Dustin
• Get an answer from whichever lender to Dustin’s question: how will value of machines be assessed? What documentation do they want to see? Will they be sending someone out?
• Once I decide on a lender, begin working on their application requirements
• Draft a business plan