Demonstrating to a potential lender that you have experience and expertise in your trade or business, and that you have the necessary entrepreneurial and management abilities to run a business will give a potential lender more confidence.
Your personal investment and commitment to the business
A lender will most likely expect to see that you have your own resources invested in the business. This shows that you are serious about the endeavor and are committed to making it a success. The amount of equity that you should have invested depends on the nature and the size of the business, but you can expect lenders to require you to have at least a 10% equity interest in the business.
Your willingness to provide a personal guarantee for the business loan will also give lenders more assurance of repayment, since they will have more recourse than just the assets of the business.
How you intend to repay the loan
This is obviously the key factor in getting the loan, and represents the convincing argument you will need to make. Your ability to repay is a function of the aspects previously mentioned, and all these aspects will be taken into consideration. The point here is to show, in tangible form, how you expect to generate the cash flow necessary to make the loan payments on time.
If you are requesting additional financing for an ongoing business with demonstrated profitability and a good repayment history on previous loans, potential lenders will probably feel more comfortable with extending you the credit than they will if you are just starting a new business without a proven track record. If yours is a new business, you will need to show that your idea is feasible, based on data on comparable businesses or industry statistics. But it will come down to showing how you intend to generate the necessary cash flow to make the payments.