For most small businesses, the question isn’t whether you will need a loan, the question is when. The business cycle involves ebbs and flows of capital needed to pay bills, draw salary and buy inventory. Without sufficient liquidity, a business may have to cut staff, curtail operations or simply close down. An affordable commercial loan […]
What You Should Be Looking for (or Looking Out for) in a Loan Offer Read More
Your business can quickly spiral out of control if debt climbs to unsupportable levels. Sudden shocks are much harder to absorb if your cash flow is already tied up in debt service. The best remedy is to pay down your debt methodically. Insolvency and bankruptcy leave economic and psychological scars that you should work hard
How to Reduce Small Business Debt Read More
Natural disasters can wreck your business. Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, meteor strikes, terrorist attacks, nuclear meltdowns, viral contagions and other mishaps can cause power outages or shut down key vendors, events that can cripple small businesses. According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, 25 percent of businesses that experience a major disaster never
Disaster Plan: Why You Need It and How to Create It Read More
You are a manager, and as a manager you have a staff. When you think of that staff what attributes would you like them to have? Your list probably includes words and phrases such as hard-working, loyal, intelligent, and trustworthy. You probably even have a vision of the ideal employee. Now turn it around. Have
Top Characteristics of an Effective Manager Read More
Starting your own small business is at once exciting and threatening. Any entrepreneur spends a lot of time planning and fretting about a new venture, with alternating periods of exhilaration and despair. So much progress, but so many pitfalls! As the time comes to pull the trigger, your doubts rise and you hesitate. That’s normal,
Start Small, Think Big Read More
We are not out to discredit banks or bankers, but we do believe that many potential borrowers make unwarranted assumptions about banks that we’d like to clear up. The bottom line is that sometimes a bank is a good place to get a small business loan, and other times it’s not. Banks Are Not Impartial
5 Things Your Bank Won’t Say About Small Business Lending Read More
In a word, Yes! Most every business has a website, but many sites suffer from stagnant content. This limits readership and gives no incentive for consumers to revisit a site. Without return visits, you generally have to make the sale the first time a consumer comes to your site. A blog can give you additional
Should You Start a Blog for Your Business? Read More
Cash is the lifeblood of small businesses, because often they do not have alternate sources of small business funding. A company’s current assets minus its current liabilities are its working capital. Cash and its equivalents — short-term Treasury bills and commercial paper — plus assets that can become cash within a year, such as accounts
Understanding How to Manage Capital Read More
Good record keeping is a vital activity to ensure the success of your business, for several reasons: Measuring the success of your business Producing correct financial statements Supporting limited liability protection Filing tax returns Handling audits Measuring Your Progress You can see if your business is growing and whether a particular strategy is effective by
How Record Keeping Saves Your Business Read More
As a business owner, you may feel that your days are too full already and joining the local chamber of commerce (CoC) will be too time-consuming. Think again — the real question is whether you can afford not to join the CoC. The advantages that these worthy organizations confer are well worth the time invested,
Top 10 Reasons You MUST Join Your Local Chamber of Commerse Read More