Fiscal Year 2025
265
Loans Approved
$144M
Total Value
Montana runs on small businesses more than any other state. In 2022, 66.3% of Montana’s private workforce was employed by a small business, the highest share in the country according to the SBA Office of Advocacy. Many of those companies have one owner, a few employees, and a bank relationship that goes back decades. That works fine until the owner wants to buy out a partner or put up a shop building, or retire and sell the business to someone else, and the bank turns out to do very little SBA lending.
7aSavvy is an SBA 7(a) loan broker that matches Montana entrepreneurs with lenders that already fund their kind of deal. Buying a fly shop in Missoula, a machine shop outside Billings, a motel on the way to Glacier, or a dental practice in Bozeman are four different credit conversations. The lender that is right for one of them is often wrong for the other three, and we sort that out before your file goes anywhere.
An SBA 7(a) loan is made by a bank, credit union, or other approved lender, and the U.S. Small Business Administration guarantees part of it. The SBA does not write the check. That guarantee is what lets a lender approve a solid Montana business that would not pass a strict conventional loan review, such as one with limited collateral or a lopsided revenue year.
SBA 7(a) Loans for Montana Borrowers
Montana is a big state with a small SBA lending market. Lenders approved 265 SBA 7(a) loans for Montana projects in fiscal year 2025, worth about $144 million in total, or roughly $543,000 per loan on average. That was up from 214 loans and $102 million a year earlier. Over the life of the program, Billings, Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, and Kalispell have produced the most 7(a) approvals, but good deals also come out of Havre, Lewistown, Glendive, and Dillon, where local bank branches may not have anyone who writes SBA loans on a regular basis.
Montana SBA 7(a) loans are most often used to buy an established business from a retiring owner, purchase or build the building a business operates from, add equipment, refinance eligible debt onto better terms, or put working capital in place ahead of the busy season.
Most owners start by walking into their local bank and hoping it goes well. We call that rolling the dice. With 7aSavvy, you describe the deal once, and we take it to the SBA 7(a) lenders, local and national, that are actively closing loans of a similar size and for a similar purpose in your industry. You get a short list of real options instead of guessing.
Uses of SBA 7(a) Loan Proceeds in Montana
Montana borrowers put SBA 7(a) financing to work on most of the things that move a business forward:
- Buying an existing business, including partner buyouts and purchases from retiring owners
- Purchasing the commercial building a business occupies
- Equipment, from commercial kitchen lines to service trucks and shop machinery
- Ground-up construction, remodels, and tenant buildouts
- Refinancing eligible business debt
- Working capital, inventory, and expansion into a new location
One loan can cover several of these at the same time. A buyer taking over a Kalispell restaurant can finance the business, the building, and a new kitchen hood in a single SBA 7(a) loan instead of juggling three separate notes from three separate lenders.
SBA 7(a) Loan Industries in Montana
SBA 7(a) loans reach almost every corner of the Montana economy. Over the years, retail, construction, food and lodging, personal services, and manufacturing have been among the heaviest users of the program in the state. Common Montana borrowers include hotels and motels, restaurants and bars, outfitters and guest operations, contractors and trades, medical and dental practices, auto repair and trucking companies, agricultural support businesses, retail shops, and professional service firms.
Industry fit matters greatly. Having a lender that understands an industry and how its financials look can be the difference between approval and denial. Some larger, more conservative banks avoid certain industries altogether. As an SBA loan broker for Montana businesses, 7aSavvy points borrowers toward SBA 7(a) lenders that already understand their industry’s cash flow, collateral, and seasonal swings.
About 7aSavvy
7aSavvy is an SBA loan broker for Montana entrepreneurs. We are not a bank, and we do not approve loans, set rates, or decide terms. Lenders make those calls. Our job is to understand your request and put it in front of the SBA lenders most likely to fund it.
Our founder, Brett Smith, spent years on the lender side of SBA lending as a business development officer, bringing loans into a bank and getting them through to funding. That is why we know how a credit department reads a file and which lenders will actually work a deal like yours. Lenders pay us when a loan closes, so Montana borrowers get that experience at no cost. To get started, tell us about your deal through our Get Connected form.
