May 22, 2026Guide
How to Prepare for a Business Loan Application
The 60-90 day prep that turns a marginal file into a clean one. Documents, statement repair, credit fixes, and the moves underwriters reward.
Read article
Capital Hub
Insights from the
underwriting desk.
Goliath publishes for the operators we fund — restaurant owners, contractors, trucking principals, retail shopkeepers, medical practice managers. Five years of articles covering MCA mechanics, state disclosure laws, industry-specific capital strategy, and the history of small business lending. Written by people who price risk for a living.
Filter
2026
16 articlesMay 19, 2026Guide
SBA Loans Explained: 7(a), 504, and Microloans Compared
7(a), 504, and microloans walked through line-by-line. Eligibility, timelines, the Preferred Lender Program, and when SBA fits vs when alternatives win.
Read article
May 15, 2026Guide
Business Credit vs Personal Credit: What Lenders Actually Use
D&B PAYDEX, Experian Business, FICO SBSS, and personal FICO — what lenders actually use at each stage, and how to build the right profile.
Read article
May 12, 2026Underwriting
Why Business Loan Applications Get Declined
Underwriters decline more applications than they approve. Time in business, NSF density, deposit trends, stacking, credit gaps — and how to fix each.
Read article
May 8, 2026MCA
Merchant Cash Advance vs Traditional Loan
Factor rates, APRs, holdback math, and timeline. An honest side-by-side of when an MCA actually beats a bank loan — and when it costs you more.
Read article
May 2, 2026MCA
Factor Rate vs APR: How to Compare Funding Offers
Why a 1.35 factor isn't a 35% rate. Worked examples on a $50K advance over 6 vs 12 months, and how to compare offers honestly.
Read article
April 29, 2026Underwriting
What Underwriters Really Look For
From an underwriter's desk: deposit consistency, NSF frequency, end-of-month balance discipline, and the texture inside bank statements that determines your offer.
Read article
April 25, 2026Guide
Cash Flow Management for Small Businesses: A Practical Guide
A 13-week rolling forecast, AR aging discipline, cash conversion cycle math, and the tooling that keeps an operator from running blind.
Read article
April 22, 2026Underwriting
How to Improve Your Business Bank Statements Before Applying
The 30, 60, and 90 day prep that turns a marginal file into a clean one. NSF reduction, deposit cadence, balance maintenance, and what backfires.
Read article
April 15, 2026MCA
What Is Stacking — and Why It Hurts Merchants
How merchants end up paying three or four advances at once, what daily debit compounding does to a P&L, and the consolidation path out before a COJ lands.
Read article
April 12, 2026Guide
How to Recover from Business Debt Without Killing the Business
Mapping the stack, direct lender negotiations, consolidation math, restructuring vs settlement vs Subchapter V — a recovery playbook that doesn't kill the business.
Read article
April 8, 2026Guide
How Fast Can Business Funding Actually Happen?
Same-day, 24-hour, three-day. Where the real time gets spent in a funding deal — and how product choice and document prep change wire timing.
Read article
April 1, 2026MCA
Understanding Daily Remittances on a Merchant Cash Advance
How ACH debits, holdback percentages, true-ups, and reconciliation actually work inside a merchant cash advance — and what happens during a slow week.
Read article
March 24, 2026Guide
Funding Options for Seasonal Businesses
Landscape, ski, holiday retail, attractions. Seasonal-aligned repayment structures, off-season bridge capital, and the lenders who actually understand the model.
Read article
March 18, 2026MCA
How Revenue-Based Financing Actually Works
RBF mechanics, fee structure, percentage of revenue, term length, and where it sits between an MCA and a term loan. The product, demystified.
Read article
March 11, 2026Guide
10 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make When Seeking Capital
Ten mistakes operators make when raising capital — applying when stacked, no statement prep, mixing personal and business, broker shopping, and more.
Read article
2025
5 articlesNovember 18, 2025Strategy
Cash Reserves vs Capital Access: A Strategy for Operators
Cash on the balance sheet costs you opportunity. Capital access you don't use often costs nothing. A real-options framework for setting your reserve target.
Read article
September 12, 2025History
Five Years of MCA Evolution: 2020–2025 Retrospective
A 2020-2025 retrospective: COVID freeze, the broker boom, disclosure laws going live in California, New York, Georgia, and Connecticut, and what's permanently different now.
Read article
May 8, 2025Underwriting
The Stack Test: 7 Signs You're About to Be Declined
Seven specific underwriting signals that predict decline — MCA ACH descriptors, daily debits above 8-10% of deposits, NSF trend, UCC filings, and four more.
Read article
March 14, 2025State-specific
Funding California Restaurants: From the Bay to LA
AB 1228's $20 fast-food minimum, Bay Area $200+ psf rents, predictive scheduling, and how California restaurant operators raise capital in 2025.
Read article
January 22, 2025Strategy
What to Do When a Lender Cuts Your Line of Credit
Why LOCs get cut, what the contract usually permits, how to triage the gap, and how to rebuild the relationship — or the next one.
Read article
2024
8 articlesNovember 22, 2024Disclosure law
State-by-State Guide to MCA Disclosure Laws
California, New York, Utah, Virginia, Georgia, Connecticut, Missouri. Side-by-side comparison of thresholds, required disclosures, registration, and enforcement.
Read article
October 4, 2024State-specific
Texas Trucking Companies: Funding the Lone Star Logistics Industry
Owner-operators vs fleets, factoring landscape, 2021-2024 used tractor pricing volatility, and why traditional bank lending struggles with trucking AR cycles.
Read article
September 8, 2024MCA
Understanding Reverse Consolidation: Mechanics and Risks
What reverse consolidation actually does, when the math works, and the major risks — delayed default, accumulating total debt, and dependency cycle.
Read article
August 15, 2024Disclosure law
Connecticut Commercial Financing Disclosure Law: What Operators Need to Know
CT SB 1032 (PA 23-201) full effect July 1, 2024 — $250K threshold, broker registration, required disclosures, and what makes Connecticut's regime distinct.
Read article
June 25, 2024State-specific
Illinois Manufacturing: Capital for the Industrial Heartland
Capital for the #3 manufacturing state — Chicago metalworking, Rockford machine tools, Caterpillar's adjacency, slow OEM AR, and equipment financing for CNC upgrades.
Read article
April 19, 2024State-specific
Funding North Carolina's Furniture Industry
High Point Market, Hickory furniture corridor, post-NAFTA contraction and reshoring, custom upholstery growth, and the capital cycles operators face.
Read article
February 8, 2024Disclosure law
Georgia's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law (SB 90): 2024 Changes
Georgia SB 90 effective Jan 1, 2024 — $500K threshold, required disclosures including APR-equivalent, applies to MCA, AR financing, factoring, term loans, lines of credit.
Read article
January 15, 2024Guide
How to Read a Merchant Cash Advance Contract Line by Line
Section-by-section: purchase price, purchased amount, specified percentage, reconciliation, COJ, UCC filings, personal guarantee scope, default triggers, choice of law.
Read article
2023
5 articlesNovember 30, 2023State-specific
Funding New York Hospitality: The 24-Hour City
Manhattan $200+ psf rents, Local 6 labor dynamics, liquor licensing capital, 60-90 day buildouts, and why NYC hospitality fits MCA structures other markets don't.
Read article
September 12, 2023Disclosure law
New York Commercial Financing Disclosure Law (CFDL): What Operators Need to Know
New York CFDL effective August 1, 2023 — $2.5M threshold, finance charge / APR / average monthly cost disclosures, broker registration, NY DFS enforcement.
Read article
June 14, 2023Industry
How Funding Brokers Are Compensated: The Fees You're Actually Paying
ISO commissions 4-10% on funded amount, how that gets built into the factor rate, and the disclosure gap that most state laws still don't close.
Read article
March 20, 2023Disclosure law
Utah's Commercial Financing Registration Act: Implications for Borrowers
Utah SB 183 effective January 1, 2023 — the first state to take a registration-first approach. Provider registration, broker rules, and what's required.
Read article
February 15, 2023Disclosure law
California MCA Disclosure Law (SB 1235): A Plain-English Guide
California SB 1235 full effect December 9, 2022 — APR-equivalent disclosure, $500K threshold, the disclosure forms by product type, and DFPI enforcement.
Read article
2022
6 articlesDecember 6, 2022History
How the SBA Pivot Saved (and Strained) Small Business Lending
PPP, EIDL, the fintech approval moment, Community Advantage expansion, and the 7(a) ceiling discussions that reshaped what the SBA does for small business.
Read article
November 4, 2022Industry
Working Capital Math for Restaurants
A real working-capital framework: sales velocity, processor settlement, payroll cadence, COGS cycle, and a sample $1.5M restaurant P&L showing where capital ties up.
Read article
September 22, 2022Disclosure law
Virginia Commercial Financing Disclosure: Rules for Brokers and Lenders
Virginia HB 1027 effective July 1, 2022 — early disclosure regime with broker registration. $500K threshold, broker compensation disclosure, recipient rights.
Read article
August 18, 2022State-specific
Florida Hurricane Season Funding: A Survival Guide for Operators
June 1 – November 30, business interruption realities, why insurance pays slowly, SBA Disaster Loans, and the liquidity prep that decides which operators survive.
Read article
May 30, 2022History
Why Bank Lending Pulled Back After 2008 — and Why It Matters Today
Pre-2008 small business lending volume, the cliff in 2009-2011, Dodd-Frank and Basel III's reshaping of bank economics, and why the alt lending market exists.
Read article
March 15, 2022History
The Rise of Online Lending in the 2010s
OnDeck, Kabbage, Lending Club, Square Capital, BlueVine — the 2010s arc, the WeWork-era capital flood, and the consolidation that followed.
Read article
2021
3 articlesDecember 14, 2021History
What Underwriters Looked At Before 2010 vs Today
Pre-2010 tax returns + collateral framework, the rise of bank-statement underwriting, Plaid/Yodlee infrastructure, and modern fraud detection.
Read article
November 22, 2021History
How COVID-19 Reshaped Business Lending
The March-April 2020 freeze, PPP rollout chaos, MCA reconciliations, accelerated digital underwriting, and what permanently changed in customer expectations.
Read article
September 10, 2021History
A History of Merchant Cash Advances: From 1990s Origins to Today
AdvanceMe and CAN Capital origins, the original credit-card-split model, the post-2008 explosion, ACH model emergence, and the industry's first maturation.
Read article
Take the field
Your next chapter is one
application away.
Five minutes. No credit pull. No obligation. See what you qualify for and decide on your own terms.