The Financial Analysis - In addition to the "Five C's," a prospective lender will use four primary financial statements to make a credit decision.

A Personal Financial Statement - Indicates your net worth. Each partner or stockholder owning a substantial percentage (20% or more) of the business should submit one. A personal financial statement is important to the lender, particularly if you have never received financing for your business before, because it gives the lender evidence of personal assets you could pledge to secure a loan.

The Balance Sheet - Provides you with a snapshot of your business at a specific time, such as the end of the year. It keeps track of your company's assets, or what the company owns (including its cash), and the company's debts, or liabilities (generally loans from others). It also shows the capital, or equity, put into the business. This balance sheet is an example of a statement for a small, hypothetical food manufacturer called F.E.D. Foods Company.

The Profit and Loss Statement - Shows the profit or loss for the year. The profit and loss statement, also called the income statement, takes the sales for the business, subtracts the costs of goods sold, then subtracts other expenses. This is a profit and loss statement for F.E.D. Foods Company.

The Statement of Cash Flows - Presents the sources of cash in your business from net income, new capital, or loan proceeds versus the expenditures, or uses of the cash, over a specified period of time. An example of the cash flow statement for F.E.D. Foods Company is shown below.

It's at this stage that you will appreciate having an effective accounting system. Without this system, you won't know if you are profitable or not, let alone if you are liquid enough to pay for the next order of merchandise. A good system also will help you track your company's growth and anticipate future cash needs.

The Ratio Analysis - Another tool the lender will use is financial ratio analysis. Ratios permit review of a company's current financial performance versus that of previous years. In the same way that a medical checkup tests one's heart, lungs, and changeable factors such as body weight, an analysis of a company's financial performance considers the status, changes, and relationships of critical components of a company's health.

The lender also may use financial ratio analysis to consider how a company is doing when compared to another company. A limitation of such comparative analysis is that different industries are driven by different factors. As a result, the financial ratios of a manufacturer and retailer can be quite different even though both companies may be similarly successful.

Lenders are trained to appreciate both the benefits and limitations of ratio analysis and to consider financial results in the context of the company's "peer group" of similar companies within its industry.