Business financing in Shelby County.
County-by-county financing guides. No paperwork. No social. No ID.
20 institutions are headquartered inside the Shelby County line, Memphis included, and 4 more keep a branch here. Below, we say which is which.
Not this lane? Home FinancingPersonal Financing
The doors in Shelby County.
The CDFIs, credit unions, and microlenders that actually say yes — county by county, in two languages. We are not a lender. Nobody paid to be listed. And where a county has no good doors, we say so.
- 24
- DOORS HERE
- 20
- BASED HERE
- 58
- TN COUNTIES WITH DOORS
- Lane
- Business Financing
- People
- 930Kresidents of Shelby County
- Covers
- Memphis
- Elsewhere in TN
- Davidson County →17 doors — the biggest list of any other county in Tennessee
- State
- Tennessee →58 of 95 counties hold a door in this lane
Certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not. Nonprofit, patient, and used to a file that is not clean.
Bank3 · Hope Credit UnionOwned by their members, not by shareholders. They look at your whole story rather than a score, and that is the difference when a bank says no.
First South Financial Credit Union · Hope Credit Union- Bank3Personal · Business capital
- First South Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Orion Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedPersonal · Home · Business capital
- River City Capital Investment, LLC.Community lending · Business capital
- Southern Security Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedPersonal · Home · Business capital
- IN THIS LIST
6 of the 24 doors inside the county line are CDFI-certified.
The U.S. Treasury certifies them to lend to the people banks pass over. It is a loan, not a favour.
- Banc3 Holdings, Inc.Community lending
- Bulab Employees Credit UnionPersonal
- F a a Credit UnionPersonal · Home
Show the other 12Show fewer
- Fedex Employees Credit AssociationPersonal · Home
- Fedtrust Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Healthnet Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Kennedy VA Employees Credit UnionPersonal
- Kimberly Clark Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- L G & W Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Memphis City Employees Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Memphis Municipal Employees Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Methodist Healthcare Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Olivet Baptist Credit UnionMinority depositoryPersonal
- Securcommunity Credit UnionPersonal · Home
- Tva Mid-South Credit UnionPersonal
Based elsewhere, with a member-facing office inside the Shelby County line. You can walk in.
- Hope Credit UnionCDFI-certifiedMinority depositoryPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Leaders Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Southeast Financial Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- U. T. Credit UnionPersonal · Home · Business capital
- Grameen AmericaAccepts ITIN
Microloans for women entrepreneurs. Requires photo ID and proof of address — no SSN requirement. Branches in major metro areas.
Business capital - Mission Asset FundAccepts ITIN
Zero-interest lending circles and credit building. SSN or ITIN accepted. Works through nonprofit partners across the country.
Personal
Nobody paid to be on this list.
The 24 doors inside the county line come off public data, and 21 of them are owned by their own members. We do not ask for your name, and we earn nothing if you knock on one door rather than another.
How to read this list.
We do not ask for your name, your email, or your number. Nothing on this page changes based on who you are.
A door is headquartered here when its head office sits inside the county line. The rest are based elsewhere and keep a branch you can walk into. We list both, and we label which is which.
Every institution on this page comes from public federal data — the CDFI Fund certified list (Aug 2026), NCUA credit union data (Jun 2026), and the SBA microloan intermediary list (Sep 2026) — plus a short national tier we verified by hand. We refresh each list as its agency publishes. No listing is paid.
Shelby County is Memphis, Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Cordova and Millington — a freight economy built around the air cargo hub, the river, the rail yards and the interstates, with a construction and service economy wrapped around it. If you run a crew, a truck, a kitchen or a storefront here, this guide explains the business financing that exists, who qualifies, what to bring, which lenders are actually based in the county, the Tennessee licensing rules that catch contractors, and the offers to walk away from.
It's a process, not a rejection.
Business financing comes in four shapes, and picking the wrong one is what hurts people.
- A term loan — a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For a truck, a trailer, a mower deck, a food truck build-out.
- A line of credit — an approved ceiling you draw from and repay, over and over. The tool for the gap between finishing a job and getting paid.
- A microloan — a smaller loan, usually from a nonprofit lender, decided by a person rather than a scoring system. Often comes with free business coaching.
- A grant — money you do not repay. Real ones are competitive, come from governments and foundations, and never arrive by text message.
What you need depends on how the money moves in your line of work, and in Shelby County most of it moves on wheels. The overnight air cargo hub at the airport, the warehouse and distribution corridors in southeast Memphis, the river port and the rail yards, and the crossing of I-40 and I-55 make this one of the busiest freight places in the country. That economy supports owner-operators, box-truck and last-mile delivery contractors, forklift and warehouse crews, and the diesel and tire shops that keep them running.
Around it sits a construction and service economy. Roofing, siding, tree work and drywall crews follow the storms that hit the Mid-South.
An older housing stock across Memphis keeps remodelers, painters and handymen busy.
The medical district and the big hospital systems create steady cleaning, food-service and maintenance contracts. And along Summer Avenue, through Berclair, Nutbush, Raleigh and Hickory Hill, there is a dense run of Latino-owned taquerías, panaderías, tire shops, carnicerías, salons and auto-repair bays.
Each has a different money problem. A trucker needs equipment financing and float for fuel and repairs. A storm-season roofing crew needs a line of credit to buy materials before the insurance check lands.
A taquería needs equipment and a cushion for slow months.
A cash-heavy storefront needs its sales to start showing up in a bank account before any lender can see them.
Forget what the banks say.
Every lender asks four questions: can you repay, have you repaid before, how long have you been doing this, and does the business make sense here.
- 01
**The owner-operator or last-mile delivery contractor.** Settlement statements, route contracts, fuel receipts and steady deposits make your income readable. Your authority or lease agreement matters as much as your credit score.
- 02**The 1099 subcontractor in roofing
Remodeling or drywall.** Storm work makes income lumpy. Two years of tax returns, plus deposits that match your invoices, turn lumpy into a pattern a lender can trust.
- 03**The cleaning
Landscaping or maintenance contractor.** Recurring contracts with hospitals, offices, warehouses or apartment complexes are strong evidence. Bring the contract list.
- 04**The taquería
Food truck or bakery.** Bring a full year of sales, not the best season. A microlender is the likeliest yes for a first location.
- 05**The cash-heavy storefront
** The obstacle is rarely credit — it is that sales never touched a business account. Deposited revenue is the only revenue an underwriter can count.
- 06**The business under two years old
** Most banks will decline. The community development lenders based in Memphis exist to take a closer look.
- MISSING ONE?Ask Iris which one you're missing.ASK A QUESTION ↓
Get your papers in order.
Put these in one folder and you can apply to three lenders in the time it usually takes to apply to one.
- 01Government photo ID
Tennessee driver license or ID, passport, or consular ID where the lender accepts it
- 02Your Social Security number or ITIN
- 03Your business registration with the Tennessee Secretary of State, if you are an LLC or corporation
- 04Business tax license
From the county clerk, and from the city if you work inside Memphis or a suburb's limits
- 05Your state contractor or home improvement license if your work requires one, plus local contractor registration
- 06Two years of personal tax returns
Plus business returns if you file them, with every 1099
- 07Three to six months of business bank statements — the document that decides most files
- 08A simple profit-and-loss statement, even one you typed yourself
- 09For truckers
Operating authority or lease agreement, settlement statements, insurance declarations
- 10For food businesses
Your health permit and, for a truck, your commissary agreement
- 11Signed contracts
Purchase orders or recurring service agreements
- 12One page in plain words
What you do, who pays you, what the money is for, how you will repay it
The doors worth knowing.
Shelby County has real mission lenders inside its line.
ALL 24 DOORS, BY NAME AND BY TOWN- 24
- DOORS HERE
- 61
- ACROSS TN
Based in Memphis, Tennessee. A community development financial institution, certified by the U.S. Treasury to lend where a bank will not, and used to a file that is not clean.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and working capital, equipment and payroll for a small business.Based in Memphis, Tennessee. Treasury-certified as a CDFI, which is a mandate rather than a courtesy: reaching borrowers the mainstream market passes over is the job.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and community lending where a bank has already said no.Based in Jackson, Mississippi. A credit union: no shareholders to satisfy, and a habit of reading a whole story rather than a single score. It is CDFI-certified, and it is a minority depository.
BEST FORWorking capital, equipment and payroll for a small business, and a personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing.Based in Collierville, Tennessee. A credit union — owned by its members rather than by shareholders, which is exactly what changes the conversation after a bank has said no. It is CDFI-certified.
BEST FORA personal loan, or building a credit file from nothing, and buying, repairing or refinancing a home.
Don't fall into these traps.
Funding in two days, only bank statements required. It is not a loan — it is the sale of your future sales at a steep discount, collected by daily withdrawals that do not pause when the rain stops the work. Call a community development lender in Memphis first.
Tennessee permits both, and the storefronts are everywhere. Pledging your work truck to cover payroll risks the very thing you earn with.
Programs marketed to new owner-operators can leave you paying for a truck you never own. Read the total of payments and ask exactly what you own at the end.
In storm season, outfits from out of town hire local crews on handshakes. If there is no written contract and no lien rights, there is no way to collect when the check never comes.
A legitimate lender takes its fees out of the funded loan, not from your card in advance.
One broker can produce a dozen hard inquiries and a stack of offers you did not ask for. Apply yourself, to two or three named lenders.
Real lenders do not have offers that expire at five o'clock. Ask in plain words what can be taken if you miss a payment. If the salesperson cannot answer, walk away.
Everything below is set by Tennessee, and it reads the same in every county in it. The 24 marks above are this county's own doors — who opens one is decided by them, not by the state.
The rules where you are.
Tennessee is friendly to start a business in and strict about who can build.
LLCs and corporations register with the Tennessee Secretary of State. Most businesses also need a business tax license, issued through the county clerk and, inside city limits, the city as well; the state Department of Revenue collects the business tax itself. LLCs and corporations also owe the state's franchise and excise taxes, which surprise first-year owners who expected no state taxes at all. Tennessee does not tax wages, but its combined sales tax is among the highest in the country, so a food business or retailer has to price for it and remit it on time.
Contractor licensing is the big one. Tennessee's Board for Licensing Contractors requires a state license for construction projects above a set size, and in some counties, including the Memphis area, residential remodeling jobs above a set size require a home improvement license as well. Confirm which applies to you before you bid. Locally, permits and contractor registration run through the joint Memphis and Shelby County code enforcement office. A lender financing equipment will ask for these licenses, and an unlicensed contractor can have real trouble collecting on a job.
The state lines are close. Many Shelby County crews work in DeSoto County, Mississippi, or across the river in Arkansas. Each state has its own licensing and tax rules, and working across the line can mean filings in both places.
On the help side, Tennessee's economic development department runs small-business programs mostly through lenders and partners. The SBDC is the free front door to all of it.
The short version.
- 01
Shelby County has mission lenders headquartered in Memphis and a mission-driven credit union with branches here. That is more than most counties can say. Open a business checking account and run every dollar through it. Build the document folder. Then call River City Capital Investment, LLC. or Bank3, and one of the CDFI-designated credit unions, and compare.
- 02
If you build, get your state and local licenses squared away first — in Tennessee they gate both the work and the financing. If you drive, cook or run a storefront, bring a full year of records rather than your best season. If you file with an ITIN, the national nonprofits above are verified, and the local lenders deserve the question.
- 03
Skip the merchant cash advance and the title pledge. Use the free SBDC and SCORE help before you borrow, not after.
- 04
Origen Capital is a directory, not a lender. We do not collect your information, we do not sell it, and we do not take applications. Use this page as a map, then work directly with a licensed lender, a credit union or a nonprofit community lender when you are ready.
Same county, another question.
Home FinancingPurchase, renovation, HELOC, and bridge loans for homeowners and investorsSEE IT IN SHELBY COUNTY →
Personal FinancingPersonal loans, credit building, and ITIN-friendly financing optionsSEE IT IN SHELBY COUNTY →58TN COUNTIES WITH DOORSThe whole stateEvery county in Tennessee, in this same lane.61 institutions fund small businesses inside Tennessee county lines.OPEN THE STATE →Still don't see your situation?
Ask Iris. She'll explain it the way it should have been explained the first time.