A growing number of small businesses are seeking advice about how to reduce debt and commercial bank financing. Because of serious deficiencies with commercial banking services, a logical and prudent approach for borrowers is to investigate the viable options for debt management and reducing their dependency on commercial debt from bank financing.

In most cases, small business owners are not openly seeking a commercial lending struggle with their bank. The increasing inability of banks and other business lenders to provide adequate amounts of business loans and working capital financing has produced this practical outcome. It seems likely that most businesses have probably viewed their business banking relationships on a loyal and friendly basis over the years. Massive changes are literally forcing small businesses to examine and revise their business financing strategies, much as seen with many other business practices.

Evaluating whether there are realistic alternatives to replace their current bank financing and commercial debt would be one possible outcome for borrowers. Refinancing debt with a new commercial lending source would be a normal and practical result. For one example, exploring business financing options to obtain working capital financing elsewhere would be smart for a business with a commercial line of credit that is about to be eliminated or reduced (as is now happening on a widespread basis).

It will be wise to explore commercial finance alternatives even in situations where owners are not being forced to acquire a new source for their commercial loans immediately. Very little notice has been provided to impacted commercial borrowers in most recent examples of banks which have revoked existing commercial loans.

Small business owners analyzing whether it is feasible to permanently reduce commercial debt and bank financing is another effective business financing option. With this approach, commercial borrowers would focus on reducing their overall debt rather than merely finding a new home for their business loans. This strategy permanently decreases interest expenses when executed successfully. It will probably also improve credit ratings for the business and its owners, and this can improve interest rates on whatever amount of business financing might still be needed.

The strategy of permanently reducing business debt is one which is likely to grow in popularity for commercial borrowers. There is a noticeable trend among businesses as well as individuals to eliminate the services of companies which keep mistreating their customers. A casual review of any number of publications reveals that this kind of mistreatment is rampant among banks lending to small businesses. Since this disturbing trend is especially evident among larger banks, one small business financing option that deserves to be thoroughly evaluated is whether it is feasible to simply find a better and friendlier (and more effective) commercial lender. To the extent that many businesses find that they still need some bank financing, certainly it seems that a worthy goal would be ensure that they find a good (effective) bank to replace a bad (ineffective) bank.