Info a lender will want to see to consider a billboard loan.

1.  Personal financial statement – You will personally guarantee the loan.  Your lender will want to know if you have assets outside of your billboard company to provide support and a source of repayment if things don’t go well.  Lenders call this “having a secondary source of repayment”.

2.  A one page summary of how much money you want and for what.  Be specific.  It shows you are thoughtful and disciplined and that you don’t waste money.

3.  A balance sheet and income statement for your company for the last two years, the interim period of the current year and the interim period of the prior year.  The interim statements are important so that the lender can see current year trends.  Also interim statements help a lender to compute your trailing twelve months performance so that seasonality is taken into account.

4.  A value of your company.  Your lender wants to know that the collateral for the loan is worth more than the value of the loan.  4-6 times gross revenue is a reasonable figure for most 14 by 48 billboard companies.  Be prepared to site the source for your value metric (this blog, www.signvalue.com or www.outdoorbillboard.com).  Your lender will want to see value pegged to a rule set by a third party, not a number picked out of your head.

5.  A one page summary of your signs (location, size, lease term and rate, ad contracts and rate).

6.  A one page management bio for you listing your education and work experience.