When going for a private loan you must follow many rules.

1. Read all of the fine print.
2. Do not sign personal guarantee. The entire point of having a business is to limit personal liability.
3. Be careful of giving up equity to guys who have bad reputations.
4. Do due diligence on your funders. Especially if you are going for multiple tranches of debt. If they don’t pay at a critical moment you can get slammed.
5. Be careful of covenants and covenants that you can`t control. A busted covenant can start you into terminal decline
6. Rate doesn`t matter that much if you can execute.
7 Try not to leverage more then 40% -60% of cashflow