Fast business loans for self employed people, sole traders and ABN holders

Fast business loans for self employed people are business loans assessed on the property you offer as security and on how you’ll repay, rather than on payslips or a large taxable income. They suit sole traders, contractors, partners and directors of small companies whose tax returns understate what the business really earns. BizLoansFast lends $20,000 to $5,000,000 to self-employed borrowers against residential or commercial property, often without business financials, and approval regularly lands the same day.

Why do self employed people struggle to get business loans from the bank?

Self employed borrowers struggle with banks because bank credit models are built around predictable, documented income, and self-employed income rarely looks like that on paper. A good accountant keeps your taxable income down, which is great at tax time and terrible when a bank divides your declared income by your repayments.

Other common sticking points:

• Two full years of tax returns and financials required, and yours aren’t finished.
• An ABN that’s only been active a short time, even if you’ve done the same work for years as an employee.
• Lumpy income — three big months, then two quiet ones.
• Contract work paid on invoice, which some credit policies treat as less reliable than wages.
• Processing that moves at the bank’s pace, not yours.

You’re in good company. When the Reserve Bank surveyed the small business lending picture for its October 2025 Bulletin, roughly a fifth of SMEs said finance had been hard to get — and the reasons they gave included lenders’ tough criteria and slow turnaround.

Can you get a fast business loan as a sole trader?

Yes — a sole trader can get a fast, property-secured business loan, and the structure is simple because legally you and the business are one and the same. As business.gov.au puts it, a sole trader uses their individual tax file number and is personally liable for the business’s debts. For a lender, that means the loan is in your name, used for your business, and secured over property you own or a guarantor’s property.

Sole trader loans fast-track well when:

• You own a home or investment property with equity, even behind an existing home loan.
• The purpose is specific: a ute, tools, stock, a deposit on premises, an ATO bill, wages through a slow patch.
• You can say clearly how the loan is repaid and roughly when.

The money must be for the business. A sentence in the enquiry about what the funds are for is usually all it takes.

ABN loans: how long do you need to have held your ABN?

For a property-secured loan, how long you’ve held your ABN matters much less than the equity and the exit. We regularly look at deals where the ABN is new but the owner has years of experience in the trade or industry.

ABN age matters more without property. Where a trading business has no property to offer, we can sometimes arrange short-term unsecured funding, usually somewhere between $5,000 and $500,000 — but that money is sized on turnover and business bank statements, so there needs to be a track record in the account. The table shows how the two compare.

If the numbers are close, our business loan calculator helps you see what a repayment schedule might look like before you enquire.

What do self employed borrowers need to provide?

For a property-secured loan, you need ID, the address and ownership details of the security property, what the money’s for and how you’ll repay it — and usually not much else. That’s a short list compared with the bank route, where business.gov.au points owners towards a business plan, projections, financial statements, leases and a summary of their personal finances.

Things that help us move faster, if you have them handy:

• A recent rates notice or a statement for any existing mortgage on the property.
• Three to six months of business bank statements.
• Evidence of the exit — a contract, a listing, a letter from your accountant, a tax refund estimate.
• Details of anyone else on the property title.

If your books are behind, don’t hold off until they’re done. Our page on fast low doc business loans explains how we lend without financials. When you’re ready, send a self-employed enquiry and a lender will take it from there.

What if your credit history isn’t clean?

A past default, a late payment or an old ATO debt isn’t an automatic no, because the property and the exit carry more weight than the credit score. Tell us what happened and what’s changed. Our page on fast bad credit business loans goes through how we look at it.

Should you borrow as a sole trader or set up a company first?

Don’t restructure just to get a loan — borrow in the structure you trade in today, and change structure later if your accountant recommends it. Setting up a company the week before you need money gives you a brand-new entity with no history, which helps nobody, and it adds signatures, searches and documents to the file.

What matters to us is that the right people sign. If you’re a sole trader, that’s you and anyone who co-owns the security property. If you already trade through a company or trust, the entity borrows, the directors guarantee it, and any trustee signs in that capacity. Bring the trust deed if there is one — an incomplete or outdated deed is one of the quiet ways a fast deal loses two days.

If you’re planning to move into a company within the loan term, tell us. It’s usually simple to handle at the start and fiddly halfway through.

What can fast business loans for self employed people be used for?

Any genuine business purpose works, as long as the amount fits the security and there’s an exit. Typical uses we see from sole traders, contractors and owner-operators:

• A vehicle, plant or tools needed to start a contract next week.
• Stock or materials ahead of a busy season or a large job.
• Clearing an ATO debt before it turns into a bigger problem — see business loans for tax debt.
• Covering wages and suppliers while a big invoice is outstanding.
• A deposit on a commercial premises or a business purchase.
• Paying out a partner who’s leaving the business.

How do you speed up a self employed loan application?

You speed it up by giving the lender a complete, accurate picture in the first conversation. Self-employed files slow down when details trickle in over days.

1. Know your property numbers. Rough value, what’s owing, and the name of the existing lender.
2. Write down the exit in one sentence. “Repaid from the sale of 12 Smith Street by March” beats “should be fine”.
3. Have your ID and your co-owner’s ID ready. Missing signatories are the most common hold-up on settlement day.
4. Be upfront about credit history. A default or past ATO debt we know about on day one is manageable; one we find on day three costs time.
5. Stay reachable. Answer the lender’s call. Most same-day approvals happen because the borrower picked up the phone.

Illustrative example: a plumber with a new contract

Illustrative example: a self-employed plumber has traded under his own ABN for three years. His tax returns show modest income because he reinvests heavily. He wins a commercial contract that needs $150,000 for a second van, gear and two extra hands for the first eight weeks. He and his wife own a home worth around $950,000 with $520,000 owing to a bank. We lend $150,000 on a second mortgage for nine months; his wife signs as co-owner. Approval comes the same afternoon, settlement four business days later. The exit is the contract’s monthly payments, with a refinance as the back-up once his next return is lodged.

One plain point on cost: borrowing privately and quickly is dearer than a bank. You pay for it when speed or flexibility makes the deal — a contract won, a bill cleared, a slow patch bridged.

Ready to move fast?

If you’re self employed, have equity in property and know how you’ll pay the loan back, apply online in about a minute. There’s no credit check just for asking, your details aren’t fired off to a list of lenders, and an experienced person — not a scoring robot — reads the deal and tells you promptly where you stand, even when the honest answer is no. Answer each question in the form accurately so the approval fits your real situation. Or call 1300 852 150, and see the full range on our products page.

Written by the BizLoansFast lending team · Updated 2026-10-05