Fund your Minnesota business

When your own money is not enough, start with a no-cost advisor, then read which program actually lends. Some Minnesota programs send you to a bank or a nonprofit lender. Two of them are loans the state makes itself, and only for a narrow kind of business. Regular SBA loans also come from a lender.

What’s different in Minnesota

• Advising at the Small Business Development Centers is no cost. Classes are priced as a nominal cost, and the page does not print the price of a class.
• One SBA office covers every county. It is Minneapolis, by appointment³.
• DEED does not put every state dollar behind a bank. The automation loan and the growth loan are state loans. The guarantee and the participation program are not.
• The named grant is not opening-day cash for every new business. PROMISE Act grants go to eligible businesses in specific communities. The angel credit goes to the investor.
• An Emerging Entrepreneur microenterprise loan needs no private match. The regular loan does. The statute’s limits for both are below.

Do this

1. Write down what you need and what it is for. Equipment, inventory, a line of credit, and equity are different asks. The automation loan is for machinery, equipment, or software. The growth loan follows an equity raise. A grant for working capital is a third thing.
2. Book no-cost advising. The 2026 resource guide says the Small Business Development Centers offer one-on-one confidential business consulting at no cost, including help getting ready for a lender. The same page says they offer training programs at a nominal cost.* Ask what a class costs before you sign up. The Small Business Assistance Office offers individual consultations for a business with fewer than 500 employees¹. The guide does not price those consultations.* Ask when you book.
3. Use the SBA office for the whole state. The Minnesota District Office serves the entire state, all 87 counties. It is Minneapolis, by appointment³. There is not a second district office for part of the state.
4. Understand who lends the regular SBA loans. 7(a) loans go up to $5,000,000⁵ and come from lenders. Microloans go up to $50,000⁶ and come from nonprofit intermediaries. The SBA loans guide explains who makes each kind.
5. Read the Emerging Entrepreneur loan before you treat it as a state check. It is for businesses owned and operated by minorities, low-income persons, women, veterans, and/or persons with disabilities. Apply to a certified lender. The lender sends the package to DEED for approval and disbursement. A retail business qualifies only if it is a beginning microenterprise: fewer than five employees, and sales revenue for two years or less¹. Under section 116M.18, the state’s share of a loan is $5,000 to $150,000, and it has to be matched by at least as much new private investment. A microenterprise loan is for small, beginning businesses, including a sole proprietorship. It is up to $40,000, or $55,000 in a low-income area. A microenterprise loan does not require a match². DEED’s 2026 resource guide states the match without that exception. Ask the certified lender which of the two loans you are applying for.
6. Use the guarantee when a lender is already willing to lend. Apply to an approved lender. The lender makes the credit decision and sets the terms. The guarantee is up to 80 percent of principal, and not more than $800,000. The business needs fewer than 500 employees. The loan is not for passive real estate, goodwill, or other uses the State Small Business Credit Initiative prohibits¹.
7. Use the participation program when the lender is a nonprofit. DEED buys 25 to 30 percent of a loan a nonprofit community lender makes. The piece DEED buys runs from $10,000 to $250,000¹. You still apply to the lender. The same employee limit and the same banned uses apply.
8. Use the automation loan when a bank will cover at least half and the business fits the list. DEED makes the companion loan. You apply together with the private lender. The private financing, typically a bank, must cover at least 50 percent of the automation-related costs. The state loan may be up to $500,000. Eligible borrowers are manufacturing, distribution, technology, and warehousing businesses in Minnesota¹. The guide says the program targets businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
9. Use the growth loan only if you are already raising equity. It is an early-stage loan based on 20 percent of equity raised in one 12-month round. The loan runs from $100,000 to $400,000, at 1 percent interest, seven years, with principal payments deferred until year 4¹. It is not a loan for a business that has no investor yet. The business also has to fit the angel-credit or investor tests on that page.
10. Read who a grant pays before you treat it as startup cash. PROMISE Act grants go to eligible businesses in specific communities, through partner organizations. They are awarded in multiple rounds starting in 2024. The business needs prior-year revenue of $750,000 or less, and the award is $10,000, $25,000, or $50,000 depending on that revenue. The 2026 guide does not say a round is open now.* Check the program page before you apply. The Angel Tax Credit is a tax credit for the investor or fund, not a payment to the business, at 25 percent of the investment, capped at $125,000 per person per year, or $250,000 if married filing jointly. The STEP grant is a matching grant for businesses that want to export, not opening-day cash. The Minnesota Investment Fund is not a direct application from the business: The city or other local government applies, and then lends to the expanding business. A separate reservist and veteran program makes one-time interest-free loans of $5,000 to $20,000¹, and the guide says funds are limited.
11. Keep your paperwork ready. Lenders ask for formation documents and an EIN. Register your business and Get your tax IDs are the Minnesota versions.
12. After a declared disaster, the SBA can be the lender. Disaster assistance covers several kinds of loan, including physical damage loans, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loans, for a declared disaster, and only if you qualify⁴. Disaster loans are a different program from 7(a). A disaster by itself does not qualify you. Check the declaration and the loan type before you apply.

What you get back

An appointment with an advisor, and help preparing what a lender asks for. A loan decision comes only if you qualify, from the lender on a guaranteed or participated loan, and from DEED when the program is a state loan. A grant decision comes only if you are in a program the page actually funds and a round is open. These pages do not promise a finished plan or an approval.