How Personal Credit Affects Small Business Loans Unlike the CEOs of a large public company whose personal financial situation has little effect on their companies' loans, if you are a small business owner, your personal credit is an important factor that influences your company's access to capital. The power of personal credit scores to predict small business loan repayment, the legal structure of many small businesses, and the use of personal guarantees and personal loans by small business owners to finance business operations link personal credit of small business owners to their companies' access to capital.Many, if not most, lenders will look at your personal credit score if you are a small business owner looking for a loan for your business. A 2006 report written for the U.S. Small Business Administration found (http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs283tot.pdf) that 71 percent of banks used small business owners' credit scores when underwriting small business loans. homeowners' personal credit scores make sense. As researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta explain (h...