Your level of commitment to company will be reviewed; for example, how much equity have you put into company?

If your company cannot repay its debt, bank will evaluate what secondary source of payment is; this can include security such as businesses assets that can be liquidated, personal guarantees and/or other sources of income.

Give lender sufficient lead time to review request, particularly if you are new to financial institution. It can take some time to review all information, often clarification is needed and business may need to be visited before any financing is approved. As well, most often request needs to be referred to institution's risk management for review.

A good business plan is important, but keep it concise and don't overdo it on documentation. The cash flow and balance sheet are of particular importance. Before preparing final draft of plan you may want to set up a preliminary appointment with a financial institution, be prepared to answer questions such as: how much money is being requested, why, what terms are you looking for, what are your alternative sources of repayment?

The reality is that banks are conservative lenders and will try to mitigate most or all of risk away. At very least you will probably have to provide a personal guarantee to some percentage of total outstanding amount borrowed.

Fees are a fact of business financing, you can negotiate and may get some reduction (in fact you should always try), but lenders are not in business of losing money. Interest rates are based on type of loan, perceived risk of business and financing and security being held in support of loan.

The looming war with Iraq will change all that. This is fervent hope of intellectuals throughout region, even those viscerally opposed to America's high-handed hegemony. But this may well be only another false dawn in many. The inevitable massive postwar damage to area's fragile economies will spawn added oppression rather than enhance democracy.

According to The Economist, military buildup has already injected $2 billion into Kuwait's economy, equal to 6 percent of its GDP. Prices of everything - from real estate to cars - are rising fast. The stock exchange index has soared by one third. American largesse extends to Turkey - recipient of $5 billion in grants, $1 billion in oil and $10 billion in loan guarantees. Egypt and Jordan will reap $1 billion apiece and, possibly, subsidized Saudi oil as well. Israel will abscond with $8 billion in collateral and billions in cash.

But party may be short-lived, especially if war proves to be as decisive and nippy as Americans foresee.

Stratfor, strategic forecasting consultancy, correctly observes that United States is likely to encourage American oil companies to boost Iraq's postbellum production. With Venezuela back on line and global tensions eased, deteriorating crude prices may adversely affect oil-dependent countries from Iran to Algeria.

The resulting social and political unrest - coupled with violent, though typically impotent, protests against war, America and political leadership - is unlikely to convince panicky tottering regimes to offer greater political openness and participatory democracy.

War will traumatize tourism, another major regional foreign exchange earner. Egypt alone collects $4 billion a year from eager pyramid-gazers - about one ninth of its GDP. Add to that effects of armed conflict on traffic in Suez Canal, on investments and on expat remittances - and country could well become war's greatest victim.

In a recent economic conference of Arab League, Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Faiza Abu el-Naga, pegged immediate losses to her country at $6-8 billion. More than 200,000 jobs will be lost in tourism alone. Egypt's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) distributed a study predicting $900 million in damages to Jordanian economy and billions more to be incurred by oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

The Arab Bank Federation foresees banking losses of up to $60 billion due to contraction in economic activity both during war and in its aftermath. This may be too pessimistic. But even optimists talk about $30 billion in foregone revenues. The reconstruction of Iraq could revitalize sector - but American and European banks will probably monopolize lucrative opportunity.

War is likely to have a stultifying effect on investment climate.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt each attract around $1 billion a year in foreign direct investment - double Iran's rising rate. But global FDI was halved in last two years. This years, flows will revert to 1998 levels. This implosion is likely to affect even increasingly attractive or resurgent destinations such as Israel, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Foreign investors will be deterred not only by fighting but also by a mounting wave of virulent - and increasingly violent - xenophobia. Consumer boycotts are a traditional weapon in Arab political arsenal. Coca-Cola's sales in these parched lands have plummeted by 10 percent last year. Pepsi's overseas sales flattened due to Arabs shunning its elixirs. American-franchised fast food outlets saw their business halved. McDonald's had to close some of its restaurants in Jordan.

Foreign business premises have been vandalized even in Gulf countries. According to The Economist "in past year overall business at western fast-food and drinks firms has dropped by 40% in Arab countries. Trade in American branded goods has shrunk by a quarter."

These are bad news. Multinationals are sizable employers. Coca-Cola alone is responsible for 220,000 jobs in Middle East. Procter & Gamble invested $100 million in Egypt. Foreign enterprises pay well and transfer technology and management skills to their local joint venture partners.

Nor is foreign involvement confined to retail. The $35 billion Middle Eastern petrochemicals sector is reliant on kindness of strangers: Indian, Canadian, South Korean and, lately, Chinese. Singapore and Malaysia are eyeing tourism industry, especially in Gulf. Their withdrawal from indigenous economies might prove disastrous.

Nor will these battered nations be saved by geopolitical benefactors.

The economies of Middle East are off radar screen of Bush administration, accuses Edward Gresser of Progressive Policy Institute in a recently published report titled "Blank Spot on Map: How Trade Policy is Working Against War on Terror".

Egypt and most other Moslem countries are heavily dependent on their textile and agricultural exports to West. But, by 2015, they will face tough competition from nations with contractual trade advantages granted them by United States, goes author.

Still, fault is shared by entrenched economic interest groups in Middle East . Petrified by daunting prospect of reforms and ensuing competitive environment, they block free trade, liberalization and deregulation.

Consider Persian Gulf, a corner of world which subsists on trading with partners overseas.

Not surprisingly, most of members of Arab Gulf Cooperation Council have joined World Trade Organization a while back. But their citizens are unlikely to enjoy benefits at least until 2010 due to obstruction by club's all-powerful and tentacular business families, international bankers and economists told Times of Oman.

The rigidity and malignant self-centeredness of political and economic elite and confluence of oppression and profiteering are crux of region's problems. No external shock - not even war in Iraq - comes close to having same pernicious and prolonged effects.