After 30 years sitting on the bank's side of the desk, I wrote down what actually gets a loan approved — and what quietly gets it declined. No jargon. No sales pitch. Just the truth about how the decision gets made.
You've built the business. You know the numbers. But the bank speaks a different language — and nobody ever explains the rules before you're sitting across the table hoping for a yes.
You send documents into a process you can't see, and get back an answer with no real explanation.
Most declines are fixable. The trouble is nobody tells you what to fix, or why it mattered in the first place.
What you find online is generic. What you need is what actually happens inside loan committee.
Approved walks you through exactly what a banker looks at, in the order they look at it — and the small details that quietly move a deal from "maybe" to "yes."
"I've sat on the other side of hundreds of loan decisions — and most business owners never get told what actually happened behind the scenes."
Kevin Franzese has spent over three decades as a commercial banking relationship manager, working directly with small business owners from the first conversation through funding. Approved is the plain-language guide he wishes every applicant had before walking in the door.
This isn't theory. It's the same thinking used at the table, written so you can use it before you ever submit an application.
Approved: How Bankers Actually Decide is available now as an instant-download ebook.
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