How to present management experience — the #1 lending factor
If your plan underweights one section, it's usually this one — and it's the section lenders weigh most heavily.
Lenders fund people who can operate. Before they believe your numbers, they need to believe you can hit them.
Make it concrete
Vague: "years of industry experience." Concrete: "8 years in food service; GM of two locations doing $2.4M combined revenue; led a team of 18." The second one does real work.
What to include
- Relevant roles and how long
- Revenue or budgets you've managed
- Teams you've led
- Directly transferable wins
If you're light on direct experience
Name your advisors and what they bring — an accountant, a mentor who's run this kind of business, a former banker. Borrowed credibility, clearly attributed, genuinely helps.
See where your plan stands
Paste the plan you have into the free Scanner. It scores you against the eight criteria Canadian lenders use — in about thirty seconds, no account, nothing leaves your device.
Score my plan — freeLenderReady is an educational service, not a lender, broker, or financial advisor. Lending criteria vary by institution and change over time; treat this as a starting point, not a guarantee.