When you imagine obtaining small business financing, you probably don’t imagine the word “easy” with it. In the past, financing your business was often a long, drawn-out process that involved lots of paperwork and even more waiting. Now, we live in a digital world that does plenty of business online, which means financers work harder than ever to be fast and efficient. Check out these tips to finance your business more quickly so that you can keep your operation running smoothly.

Know How Long It Takes

The biggest way to get faster funding is to know how long each type of financer takes. This way, you can find something based not only on your needs for working capital but also on how quickly you need it. For example, banks take at least two weeks to fund a loan (not including waiting for the application to be approved) but can take as long as a month. The Small Business Administration and people offer lines of credit usually take as long as a month as well, although they may take as little as a week if you’re lucky. Your fastest options are alternative lenders or cash advance lenders, which take between 24 hours and one week to complete the process. However, keep in mind that the shorter the wait time, the riskier the lender could be.

Know Which Financing Processes Are Easiest

Not all small business financing is created equally. Some of them have terms that are much harder to fulfill than others. If you need easy and fast financing, look into invoice factoring or a merchant cash advance. These are also excellent options if you don’t have solid personal or business credit because they focus more on your income or on your clients’ credit than on your credit score. Bank loans and small business loans will require the most work, as they have lengthy application processes, may require interviews, and take much longer to receive approval and funding.

Research First

The easiest way to finance your business is to do your research first. If you end up using a company that sounds good but isn’t actually good, you could end up in a long mess that requires more paperwork, more financial help and more stress to fix. By putting in time at the beginning of your search for financing, you ensure the rest of the small business financing process is easier, faster, and gives your business what it needs to thrive.