NORTHFIELD, Ill. — Is managing your laundry-related loans becoming more difficult? Are you thinking about increasing your loan level or line of credit? If so, you’re not alone. More than a quarter (26.8%) of small businesses plan to increase the dollar value of their loan requests or raise the limit of their line of credit in 2008, according to the latest nationwide Small Business Research Board (SBRB)/Business Today study. This is an increase of 3.5% from the 23.3% of the small businesses that increased their loans or line of credit in 2007.Within the overall group of participants, 14% said they decreased their credit needs during the past 12 months while nearly 40% reported their loans were unchanged. Furthermore, 23.2% said they had no loans or lines of credit.During 2007, the majority of participants (53.1%) in the U.S. poll said they felt that access to credit was unchanged from the previous 12 months while 27.1% said it was “easier.” Fourteen percent described access to credit as “more difficult” and 5.5% indicated that access to credit was “impossible.”While 26.8% will be applying for more credit during the next year, 9.4% intend to reduce their credit needs, and 63.7% will attempt to hold their credit needs at the current level.Overall, small businesses are satisfied with their key lenders as 88% said the fit was “good” or “excellent.” Of the remaining group, 10% categorized the relationship as “fair” while less than 2% said the relationship was either “poor” or their “last resort.”
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