The SBA has released a study on the credit patterns of small business. 80% of small businesses reported using credit of some sort for their businesses. 56% of credit outstanding was through banks. This stresses the importance of understanding how to secure a loan and how to manage a banking relationship.
An interesting finding is that women and minority entrepreneurs were more likely to fund their businesses with credit cards. This is a high risk strategy, as this creates a high rate of interest and personal exposure to any failure. It is an important policy question to examine why the pattern of borrowing is different for these groups.