Earlier quoted context omitted.
It isn't just about that. You need industrial policy. And not just stuff like the CHIPS act. In China a small outfit can get financing and open a factory anywhere. You can't do that in the USA. You are too small for the lenders or investors who do such things to care yet too risky for traditional financial institutions to risk anything on you. If I want to buy a couple of CNC machines and start making a product in my…
Wait. I remember reading about this. Doesn’t SBA 7a cover your use case? I’m sure there’s an SBA loan category for you. It’s backed by the machine. Recently they changed the valuation of things or something.
You need a high credit score (680 at least) to even have a hope and 10% cash to put down if not more.
Unless you can prove experience managing a business forget it. You have to demonstrate other outside income (hope your spouse works a good job) or enough cash in the bank to cover living expenses for a year or more.
If the business is going to be a new venture you have to put together financial projections that demonstrate how you are going to start making money and it had better be quickly. You will not get 2 years to ramp up. And if you fail to meet projections they can call in the loan.
Oh and by the way: you must sign an agreement to take unlimited personal liability for the loan. So if the business fails they get to take away your savings, retirement, even your house. In fact if you don't have significant assets they will put a lien on your house as part of the loan closing!
In China if you want to start a factory in an area the national government lists as desirable the state-owned bank will almost shove money into your hands. Repayment timelines are extremely generous. You mostly don't take on personal liability - instead they focus on the assets, land rights, etc. That is if the business starts to fail you will own machinery, a lease on the land, and/or a factory building so they are content to secure the loan against those things.
When the state bank underwrites your loan in China they only care that your project is technically viable and you have some kind of plan. They assume you will find a way to be profitable and worst case they can take the factory away from you and give it to someone else. As long as your plan makes sense - if your plan says you're going to make robot arms but your plan doesn't mention buying any CNC machines or hiring any electrical engineers you will have difficulties. And if you want to build a factory to make lathes expect serious pushback - the Chinese government considers that sector to be "over-capacity" so they are reluctant to finance new factories for such things.
Not that it matters because unlike the USA if you aren't a Chinese citizen then you can piss right off because you aren't going to be approved for anything and you aren't allowed to own property anyway. Not that any court would ever side with you in any case either.
The entire philosophy is different and I'm saying we should adopt the Chinese philosophy. Instead of letting risk-adverse private banks make the decision the government should make the decision. And instead of focusing on credit score and making you sign an unlimited personal liability contract - do the opposite and secure the loan against the actual factory, machinery, and assets. Build a network of such so if a business fails you can turn around and offer it to the next suitable applicant who can bootstrap their business instead of selling everything for pennies on the dollar at auction.