Hawaii small business lenders offer financial tools to support business growth and expansion.
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Biglaw Investor connects you with small business lenders who can help you expand your business, whether through working capital or via acquisition. A small business loan loan is a great way to grow your business—but it can be hard to know where to start. Our small business lenders offer an experience specially tailored to your goals.
Offered exclusively through Biglaw Investor, we make it incredibly simple to find the best loan for your business needs.
I’m an associate at a firm in Houston and used JD Mortgage thanks to your advice! The experience was great—they were super fast and responsive.” —Mary Kate Raffetto Beck Redden LLP
For a JD Mortgage, I had good luck with IBERIABank. [They] made this process very smooth.” —Clint Cowan Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann
Though many view Hawaii as a vacation destination, to the people that live here, it is much more. It is the Aloha State, the Paradise of the Pacific, and an exceptional place to call home. Hawaii, which is about 2,000 miles into the Pacific Ocean away from the U.S. mainland, is an archipelago that’s home to 1.4 million people. Though small, about two-thirds of its population lives on O’ahu, with Honolulu being its capital. With its plantation economy, Hawaii is easily recognized as one of the most important states for its food contributions to the country. It’s also home to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the largest naval command in the world, and of course, some of the best beaches in the world.
Hawaii has a strong tourism industry, one that dominates its economy. There are other businesses here as well, including agricultural organizations, healthcare, and some industrial development. Yet, one of the most important components of the business world in Hawaii is the number of small businesses here. There are 141,460 small businesses located on the islands, according to U.S. Small Business Administration data. Those companies provide jobs for 272,459 people on the islands, making up nearly 20% of the workforce. They are vitally important. Total payroll for those employees is $11,604,560, helping to support many households.
In order to grow and do well, most businesses need access to strong capital reserves. That often means turning to loans to help fund operations, growth, and development. Taking a look at the latest three years of data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, it’s clear to see that these loans are valuable. This data shows 338 small business loans are active in Hawaii, making up a total loan amount of $128,041,830. The average loan size is $378,822.
Those funds could be used for many things, such as building the business’s payroll, supporting new product development, expanding to new locations, exporting to new markets, and much more. Having access to those funds is something that many businesses need.
Anyone considering obtaining a small business loan needs to know how they work. These loans are a type of financing that may be used for a variety of different needs by the company. Many lenders offer them, including private lenders and large banks. These lenders provide the funds to businesses who request them and meet their requirements. Then, the business pays back those funds over a period of 5 to 10 years, with interest. That helps the small business lenders in Hawaii generate income while also helping to support the business’s success affordably.
To qualify for a small business loan in Hawaii, borrowers must show that they are financially sound and have the ability to repay the debt over time. To that, most lenders will look at a number of factors, including:
It is not uncommon for a small business lender in Hawaii to require borrowers to also use the owner’s credit history as a way to determine the creditworthiness of the company. This information can help lenders to have solid insight into how reliable and stable the company is. With that information, the lender can then determine if they should lend, how much they can lend, the type of loan available to the business, and the overall interest rate charged on the loan. Make sure you research loan repayment terms, credit score requirements, and other aspects about the application process for any loans available to a State of Hawaii business owner.
There are a variety of loan types available, and they range widely in terms of how they function. Some are a one-time payment meant for a specific purpose, while others are designed to provide a consistent level of funding on an ongoing basis. Some of the types of business loans you can find in Hawaii include the following:
With access to affordable loans from highly competitive small business lenders in Hawaii, many companies can get the money they need to grow or overcome other financial limitations. Most business owners don’t have access to enough funds personally or through credit cards to expand their operations. Once you’ve gotten over the startup hump for your business needs and can show income, you may be ready for a small business owners loan program. Hawaiian entrepreneurs have no shortage of options for business financing, especially if they can show a history of revenue.
| Rank | Bank Name | # of Hawaii Loans | Avergage Interest Rate | Average Loan Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Pacific Bank | 78 | 6.05% | $64,668 |
| 2 | Newtek Small Business Finance | 5 | 6.00% | $736,880 |
| 3 | Bank of Hawaii | 4 | 4.44% | $125,000 |
| 4 | Commonwealth Business Bank | 3 | 3.25% | $279,333 |
| 5 | Five Star Bank | 3 | 6.00% | $191,667 |
| 6 | Celtic Bank Corporation | 2 | 6.00% | $1,868,250 |
| 7 | First Hawaiian Bank | 2 | 5.75% | $247,500 |
| 8 | Live Oak Banking Company | 2 | 5.10% | $3,237,500 |
| 9 | Bank of the West | 1 | 6.00% | $350,000 |
| 10 | BankFirst | 1 | 4.50% | $800,000 |
Founded by Japanese American World War II veterans, Central Pacific Bank was founded in February 1954 to meet the needs of the peope3l of Honolulu, Hawaii. Now with locations across many of the islands, Central Pacific Bank can help with business and personal banking needs.
We reached out to Central Pacific Bank to see if there were any advantages to working with them during the SBA loan process. Here is what they told us:
When you’re ready to connect with an experienced SBA loan officer, use our form to quickly match with SBA loan programs based on your specific circumstances.
Newtek offers a number of services for businesses to help them to meet their financial needs. Products such as loans, cloud solutions, IT security, payment processing, payroll, and options when it comes to disaster recovery are available to protect and help a business to thrive and grow.
We reached out to Newtek to see if there were any advantages to working with them during the SBA loan process. Here is what they told us:
When you’re ready to connect with an experienced SBA loan officer, use our form to quickly match with SBA loan programs based on your specific circumstances.
Founded in 1897, the Bank of Hawaii has been offering banking services to its customers for almost 125 years. The Bank of Hawaii offers a number of services, including wealth management, personal banking, business banking, and all aspects of such, including business loans and checking accounts.
We reached out to Bank of Hawaii to see if there were any advantages to working with them during the SBA loan process. Here is what they told us:
When you’re ready to connect with an experienced SBA loan officer, use our form to quickly match with SBA loan programs based on your specific circumstances.
Founded in Los Angeles in 2005, Commonwealth Business Bank now has 10 branches across 3 states with over $1.7 billion in assets. Commonwealth Business Bank is able to offer number of services for its customers, including small business loans and business and personal banking products to meet their needs.
We reached out to Commonwealth Business Bank to see if there were any advantages to working with them during the SBA loan process. Here is what they told us:
When you’re ready to connect with an experienced SBA loan officer, use our form to quickly match with SBA loan programs based on your specific circumstances.
Founded in 1999, Five Star Bank was founded in California. Five Star Bank works primarily with Small Business Administration loans to help businesses succeed as a community business bank, it has a number of branches and locations in different portions of California to meet customers’ needs.
We reached out to Five Star Bank to see if there were any advantages to working with them during the SBA loan process. Here is what they told us:
When you’re ready to connect with an experienced SBA loan officer, use our form to quickly match with SBA loan programs based on your specific circumstances.
Having access to funding is very important, but that is not all that small businesses need in order to thrive. Resources like the following provide an exceptional way for companies to grow their overall financial stability.
The Small Business Administration of Hawaii is a solid place to start. With some offices and a robust online site that offers lots of tools, companies can tap into free information that can help them with business decision making, financial growth, building a business plan, making marketing decisions, hiring and managing employees, and much more. There’s no cost to using these services, and you can use them today online.
Another option is SCORE, an organization that was built for small businesses by successful business experts. The organization has a main office in Honolulu, but it is also possible to tap into a wealth of information on the company’s website. There are free events, webinars, seminars, and lots of interactive tools and resources on the site to use. This can help a business to gain the information and support it needs to grow and thrive even with competition.
If you want to find the best small business loans in other states, click on your state below.
Joshua Holt is a lawyer and founder of Biglaw Investor. He spent 10 years practicing private equity mergers & acquisition law for one of the largest law firms in the country. As part of his practice, he advised small and medium sized businesses on matters ranging from business loans to the acquisitions and divestitures of stocks and assets.
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