What actually happens inside the six months.
You can't vouch for a process you can't see. Here's the engagement your client walks into, phase by phase, plain enough to repeat over lunch. Every phase exists to prevent the one outcome that burns a referral.
Diagnose the file before the bank does
Banks run 20+ automated compliance checks before a human reads anything. One mismatch triggers an auto-denial regardless of credit score, which is why the industry denial rate runs 77%. So the engagement opens with the Bankable Scan: a 47+ data point diagnostic across your client's personal and business credit bureaus that surfaces every hidden blocker before anything is submitted.
Optimize everything, submit nothing
All 20 lender compliance items fixed, the personal credit profile optimized... inquiry removal, utilization engineering, derogatory cleanup... and banking relationships opened with tier-one banks first. Nothing gets submitted in this phase, on purpose: sending applications early is the one mistake you can't undo.
Sequence the banks, apply live on Zoom
Different banks pull different bureaus and tolerate different inquiry counts, so the wrong order burns approvals. Every application is sequenced by bureau sensitivity and inquiry tolerance, run live on Zoom with your client, with inquiries cleaned up between rounds. Multiple rounds of 0% and low-interest capital, with the refinance exit planned before round one.
Build bankability past the cards
The cards are the door, not the destination. Across the engagement: 10 to 15 real business tradelines reporting, the scores banks actually read (PAYDEX 80+, FICO SBSS 160+), and bank-internal metrics engineered. None of it reports to your client's personal credit profile. The endgame is graduation to real bank lines of credit, term loans and SBA lending at prime-range rates.
SBA · term loans · bank LOCsUNLOCKEDNothing gets submitted until the file can't be auto-denied, and the exit exists before the first dollar does. That's what makes the referral safe.
