I was an entrepreneur at age 29. I sold the business at age 40 and made enough to invest and retire on a middle class income for the rest of my life. I've had "business loans".
Most here are sugar coating a bit.
1st: A "business plan" is for you. Banks don't care.
2nd: Use your equity first. As in equity in your home, car, or whatever. If you do not have confidence in taking the equity out of your home and using those funds, then why would anyone else loan to you if you won't loan money to yourself? Tap any equity you have.
3rd: The term "business loan" is very misleading. You will sign your name, you will be responsible for the debt, you will only get out of that debt by either paying it off or filing bankruptcy.
The time to obtain a loan in business is when you don't need a loan.
I obtained loans in business by being able to buy broken down production equipment and repairing it to use. I paid cash out of my pocket for the equipment (pennies on the dollar), paid cash for the parts I needed to repair them, and repaired it all myself (I'm an engineer). Several pieces of production equipment were worth $50K-$400K once I worked my magic on repairing them. I took out a $250K "business loan" on the equity on the equipment/used those as collateral. I might had have had $75K in cost (and a lot of my time) into repairing them but they were valuable after I refurbished them. I was using that equipment to run production with at my manufacturing company. It was all "bought and paid for" so the bank used it as collateral.
About being an entrepreneur. I had $280K cash to toss in as startup/seed money. I had already burned through $100K+ before I landed my first customer. I was 29 and literally started from my garage. I worked in R&D as an engineer for Kodak, I was a lab rat so they let me do my work on 3rd shift. I worked 3rd shift for 3 years and grew my company full time during the day for those 3 years. I had 13 employees before I ever took a dime in pay from the company. I quit my engineering job at the start of my 4th year in business. I took a starting wage at my business of $12/hr but was paying employees at the time $30K-$55K/yr. I worked 16-18 hours a day for 3 years without pay (between business and my engineering job) just to give the business a fighting chance to succeed. I then worked 16-18 hours a day at my business (after I quit my engineering job) for the next 8 years until I sold it.
I had 120+employees during boom times but typically always had 50-60, and during super busy times I had 300+ (with 180 being temps for 13 months) and leased a 28K sq ft facility. I never paid myself over $85K a yr but had revenue of almost $5 million/yr. When I sold it I did not owe a dime besides for maybe $10K on a credit card I used for business. I was all about establishing equity and selling at age 50 and retiring....I made it out 10 years ahead of schedule.
I highly suggest you read the book "E Myth". It's a great read if you are thinking about going into business. It shows you what being an entrepreneur is all about. It's been 19 years or so since I read it, but it still rings true. One example in the book is about someone that is a good "baker/pie maker" and that person wants to start their own business baking pies. That person in essence is only creating a job for themself, they are not starting a business. It would be wise for that person to keep their job. A business person that can run a business is who starts a business, not a
pie maker. What does a pie maker know about
marketing? Sales? Accounting? Overhead?
Profit margins? Cash Flow, etc, etc etc? And are you going to be the manager over people too? Do you still expect to be able to "run production" (baking pies) and do all of that stuff too? What about attending PR events like Chamber of Commerce meetings?
To continue playing the Devil's advocate here, why hasn't someone else with the cash simply bought a stand like you want to buy and hired an employee to run it? If there was money to be made (I am talking money to be made, not creating a job) then those in the business world would be all over it.
Most fail in business because they are clueless. You either have to have a superb product that everybody wants and nobody else offers or you have to be the slickest used car salesman in the history of the world.
I truly wish you all the best. True entrepreneurs are viewed by me just the same as I view other combat vets (I am a combat vet (Gulf War 1))...both earn my respect because both are tough and not many get to experience either.
Please remember that you are starting a business not creating a job for yourself. Sure the 1st few years may find you running the stand....but your goal is to hire someone to do that for you. Then you buy another stand, and another....then you franchise your brand.