SBA loans in Indiana: what was approved, and who it was approved for

Indiana against the national figures

In the middle of the distribution, Indiana looks like the country. The median approval was $150,000, the middle half of loans ran from $50,000 to $406,200, and the median term was 120 months. Rates were national too: a median of 10.24%, with the middle half between 9.04% and 10.99%.

The median lands on a line that matters. On a standard 7(a) loan SBA guarantees 85% of loans of $150,000 or less and 75% above that, so about half of Indiana's approvals sat at or below the higher-guaranty line. Not all of them carried it: SBA Express, which goes up to $500,000 with a 50% guaranty and lets the lender use its own credit process, took 37.3% of approvals, and an Express loan carries the 50% guaranty whatever its size. The rest went through a standard 7(a) review.

The tail is where Indiana stops looking like a small-loan market. One loan in ten was larger than $1,322,000, and 341 loans, 11.9% of the total, were $1 million or more: fleets, hotels, buildings and companies changing hands. Only 13.1% of Indiana loans were fixed-rate; SBA loan rates explains how the variable-rate caps work by loan size.

Trucking leads the list, and it borrows differently

Restaurants top the SBA list in many states. In Indiana the largest industry by loan count was long-distance truckload trucking, with 137 loans, ahead of full-service restaurants (119), limited-service restaurants (116), hotels and motels (65) and residential remodelers (64). A state built around interstates and distribution centers produces a lot of small carriers.

A trucking loan is an equipment loan first. Lenders value tractors and trailers at what they would fetch in an orderly sale, not what was paid (see OLV vs FMV), and fleet age and mileage decide how much of the loan the equipment covers. SBA allows up to 10 years for equipment, or 15 if its useful life supports it, but no lender stretches a term past what a used tractor can bear.

Cash flow is the second test, and freight is cyclical. A lender reads two or three years of a carrier's returns rather than lending on the best one, and asks who pays: a carrier hauling mostly for one shipper or broker has a concentration question to answer.

SBA will not refinance a factoring agreement. An Indiana carrier that factors its invoices needs a different route out of it before an SBA loan can help.

Many small fleets sell their invoices to a factor. The usual way out is a conventional or asset-based line against receivables: asset-based lenders typically advance 80% to 90% of eligible receivables, and invoices more than 90 days old are typically ineligible. See lines of credit for trucking companies and the long-haul trucking data page.

Hotels and the real estate underneath them

Hotels and motels ranked fourth with 65 loans, and they pull Indiana's loan sizes up. A hotel loan is mostly a real estate loan: SBA allows up to 25 years on the real estate share, and the lender will want an appraisal, the franchise agreement if the property is branded, a costed plan for any renovation the brand requires, and occupancy by month to see whether earnings are steady or ride on a few busy weekends.

Indiana owners also used SBA 504 for 305 loans at a median of $620,000. 504 finances owner-occupied real estate and long-life equipment, typically 50% from a bank, 40% from a Certified Development Company and 10% from the borrower (15% for a new business or special-purpose property, 20% for both), and the borrower must occupy at least 51% of an existing building. For a hotel, a plant or a truck terminal, compare it with a 7(a) loan: SBA 7(a) vs SBA 504, and the hotels and motels data page.

Manufacturers and suppliers: earnings across a cycle

Indiana has one of the most manufacturing-dependent economies in the country, and the northern part of the state builds most of America's recreational vehicles. Suppliers to RV and auto plants see orders rise and fall with those industries, so a lender will ask which year is normal. A peak year used alone gets discounted; show the slow year too, and what the owner cut to protect cash.

Suppliers also tend to sell most of their output to a few plants, and a lender will ask what happens if the largest moves a program elsewhere; customer concentration and debt covers how lenders size around it.

For an established manufacturer, SBA is often not the best loan. Receivables, inventory and machinery are collateral an asset-based lender can advance against, and a borrowing base grows with sales. Inventory typically advances at up to 85% of net orderly liquidation value, or roughly half of cost, and borrowing bases commonly cap any single customer at 20% to 25% of eligible receivables.

Buying an Indiana company with SBA

Indiana lenders approved 347 acquisition loans, 12.1% of the state's total, at a median of $675,000 and a median rate of 9.25%, about a point below the state's overall median. Size explains much of the price: above $350,000, SBA caps a variable rate at the base rate plus 3%, against plus 6% between $50,001 and $250,000. Many sellers are founders ready to retire; see buying from a retiring owner.

The rules are federal. A complete change of ownership needs equity of at least 10% of total project costs. A seller note counts for up to half of that only on full standby, with no payments for the life of the SBA loan; a note that pays is debt and counts in debt service. SBA prohibits an earnout to the seller, and where the amount financed, less appraised real estate and equipment, exceeds $250,000, it requires an independent business valuation that caps the loan.

Those rules tighten on 1 October 2026, under SOP 50 10 8.1: a change of ownership must show 1.25x debt service coverage on historical results; financial due diligence is required on every change of ownership, with a quality of earnings report at $3 million or more excluding real estate; the loan amortizes over no more than 10 years except the real estate share; and the seller may consult for up to 24 months instead of 12. How SBA 7(a) loans finance an acquisition covers the whole structure.

Building an Indiana file

167 lenders approved an Indiana 7(a) loan in the period, and they are not interchangeable: some lend mostly on equipment, some on hotels, some on franchise units, some only through Express. Transparent's lender book holds 1,800+ lenders, including 278 that write SBA 7(a) and 504, 244 that write equipment and 235 that write asset-based loans and lines, so an SBA request and its conventional alternatives can be priced on one file.

The core SBA documents are two to three years of business and personal tax returns, a P&L, balance sheet, debt schedule with copies of notes being refinanced, and a personal financial statement for each 20%+ owner. Indiana files are stronger with the industry's own evidence:

• Carriers: a fleet list with year, mileage and lienholder for each unit, and revenue by shipper or broker
• Hotels: the franchise agreement, any brand-required renovation plan and monthly occupancy
• Manufacturers and suppliers: revenue by customer for three years, and an AR aging if a line is in play
• Acquisitions: the target's latest full year of figures, never an older year, and the letter of intent

Once those documents are in, Transparent builds the full lender package, a financing model, lender presentation, blind teaser and underwriting memo, in a day; built by hand, the same package takes at least a week. Transparent charges nothing before a loan closes, and on SBA loans the lender pays Transparent. See the package.