Business Predictions For 2009, Part 2

One question that everyone wants answered: "Just how long and severe is this credit crunch going to be?"

Business Week has a great roundup of some expert answers to that question as it pertains to small businesses.

In general, the experts interviewed give us the predictable answers that getting loans will be harder, and standards of credit-worthiness will continue to tighten, etc. But here's one bit of counterintuitive thinking from Matthew Parente of Aperio Marketing in Austin, TX:

For 2009, as long as small businesses do apply for credit while their businesses are still in good standing, it will be a relatively easy thing to do. But I'd say that small businesses need to get to it in the next two to three months. If they wait much longer, people are going to start to get much more nervous by the middle of the year—when it will be the darkest before the dawn—and it might not be until the end of the year before credit begins opening up again.

Read the whole thing.