What Are Micro Loan Lenders?

Micro Lenders: A company or organization that offers small loans to businesses that are generally unable to obtain financing from a conventional source. Microlender loans often range from $5,000 to $25,000 at interest rates higher, but not always, than those charged by traditional commercial banks.

Micro loans first started in underdeveloped countries to help the poor become entrepreneurs. The loans were generally small. Today this has all changed. Micro loans are now available throughout the United States and one of their principle groups is women! Because women have had such a hard time getting approved for business loans, the need for micro lending has become a necessity. Many organizations and companies are now providing micro loans to business women on a daily basis. 

From Businessweek:
As Credit Dries Up, More Owners Seek Microloans- The new candidates for this financing alternative have high credit scores and business track records... Their money comes from private donors and sometimes the government. As banks clamp down, says Sara Ignas, a spokeswoman for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a microlending trade group, "our members have seen an increase in demand for loans from those who a year ago could get a bank loan"

The numbers are small but the trend is interesting. Microlenders say they exist to serve those who aren’t served by banks. That has long meant people with poor credit, or not enough collateral, or people in low-income communities where banks don’t have much of a presence. But now that we’re seeing dramatic changes in the banking sector and a tightening of credit, microloans may become a mainstream financing option for very small businesses.

BankRate is quoted:
Micro-creditors are an often overlooked source of capital for the very smallest of businesses, filling the growing need for small business loans that banks and other lending institutions won't touch.

According to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a trade association representing some 450 micro-enterprise organizations, a micro-loan is $25,000 or less made to a company with five or fewer employees. The industry average micro-loan is $12,000...

According to an ACCION study, there are an estimated 13.1 million micro-entrepreneurs in this country, including 2.4 million African-Americans and Hispanics. Of those, an estimated 10.8 million, or 82 percent, have never received a business loan from a bank. Many of them won't even consider a bank loan due to bad or nonexistent credit, lack of collateral, youth, race or the small size of the loan they need...

Repairing Bad Credit may be necessary before applying for that small business micro loan capital.

You can find several United States micro loan lenders at US Business Loan Lenders