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“Right now, it’s very, very difficult for everybody,” said Penni Nafus, director of the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners’ Women’s Business Center in Chatham, who said she speaks to at least one woman a day who’s going out of business. Lenders’ more stringent standards mean “the only ones able to get loans are the strong businesses that have a lot of collateral,” she said. “There’s nothing out there for businesses that are in trouble.”

Meanwhile, “it’s next to impossible to get funding for a startup business right now,” she said. “Without the availability of startup money, it’s definitely going to put a limit on the rate on which the economy can grow.”

In the last six months, banks have begun to loosen what had been very stringent lending requirements, said Jim Kocsi, director of the New Jersey district office of the U.S. Small Business Administration, in Newark. SBA lending was up in the last six months of the agency’s fiscal year, which closed in September, he said, “but it is still a challenging environment.”

Women secured a slightly smaller percentage of SBA-backed loans this year compared to previous years, he said. In fiscal year 2009, women accounted for 261, or 23.4 percent, of the 1,117 SBA-backed loans in New Jersey, according to the agency. Women accounted for 26.2 percent and 23.6 percent of SBA loan activity in 2008 and 2007, respectively.

Lending decisions are based upon the qualifications, rather than the gender, of the business owner, Nafus said, but “the problem that occurs in our society is women do not control the wealth,” she said. “They are less likely to have all the requirements lenders are looking for.”

Despite those potential challenges, women can take advantage of various forms of financing assistance — including some specifically geared toward female entrepreneurs. The Women’s Business Center provides training and counseling services to business owners and helps them develop business plans and loan proposals, while the New Jersey Women’s Micro-Business Credit Program offers loans for low- and moderate-income women looking to start companies. Those loans range up to $5,000, with interest capped at 3 percent and a payback period of up to five years, according to the state Department of Community Affairs, which implements the program with the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority.

The SBA’s Microloan Program makes loans of up to $35,000 through four intermediary lenders in the state, Kocsi said. Those loans are not exclusively for women, but “we do see a larger amount going to women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses,” he said.

In terms of financing from traditional banks, “a home equity line of credit is probably the easiest to get right now,” provided a business owner has enough equity in her home, Nafus said. While some women are averse to pledging their homes as collateral in a home equity line of credit, business loans also require a personal guarantee — but have a higher interest rate, she said.

An entrepreneur must meet a set of criteria to get a business loan, Nafus said, including having a viable business plan, a 30 percent deposit, experience in the industry in which she plans to open the business, personal credit and at least 100 percent collateral. Collateral is the biggest challenge, she said: “If you don’t have a house, it’s just not going to happen.”

Angel investors and venture capital firms, meanwhile, make up another source of capital, St. John said. Such investors are pulling back from private equity and hedge fund opportunities — where they had traditionally invested their money — and are “looking for something that they know is more solid and will give them a return … they can realize more quickly.”

Nafus, however, warns against “the credit-card trap,” which she called one of the more perilous forms of financing, with some women entrepreneurs staggering under $50,000 to $60,000 in credit-card debt.

“It’s an option of last resort,” Nafus said. If a business owner can’t pay the bill at the end of the month, she shouldn’t be using credit cards, she said. “If you don’t have the business to make those payments, it can be a major issue for you,” Nafus said. “That has an impact on you for the rest of your life.”

E-mail to elee@njbiz.com