Google for Entrepreneurs

Google

source:Mashable

If you are a small business and love Google like we do, then you are in for a treat. Google is using Google for Entrepreneurs Week to shed like on their new online business resource.

The week actually ends up being two, with live Google hosted events around the globe designed to get people excited, and get businesses going online.

This is a very good move by Google, because the last 6 months have been dark times for the company’s image. Their has been a veil of secrecy around the company and their attack on their own search engine leaving most well meaning webmasters in the dark while trying to eliminating spam, and bolstering search query results.

So it is nice to see an initiative from Google showing they care about their business users and believe product education is at the heart of it. It may be self serving for “Googs”, but having its users use their resources to create their online businesses will help both Google, and the business maintain their integrity.

So I like it. Google clearly lays out their motivations on the official google blog and explains the purposes of their events. Each and every one of them will contain valuable information for anyone looking to do business online, especially with an entrepreneurial start up. There is much needed focus on third world nations, women business and minorities which is terrific stuff, but I see little for businesses looking to get a deeper relationship with Google as they get over the start up phase, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised with some announcement down the road on that subject so I’ll hold my criticism for now.

But one logical omission has me baffled. Many of these events will lead newbies and young business to the cusp of turning the key but their is no focus on finance. Perhaps how to get a business loan for your start up will be covered in the related presentations, but as I read their descriptions I’m not finding many useful resources.

Whether you are going to work online, or use online resources to grow your brick and mortar business, you are going to need proper funding. Remember 80% of new businesses fail in the first year due to undercapitalization. So hopefully this will be covered in the program where applicable.

The good news is that Businessloan.org, powered by Seed Capital able to find business loans for anyone with good personal credit. You may think you need business credit to get started but this is not always true. So if you believe you may be under funded, please let us qualify you for free and help you make the right financial decisions for your online business.

Mitt Romney Uses Square To Panhandle

Mitt Romney Square
That’s right, Mitt Romney wants you to pay him and he has adopted the hippest new small business technology to make it easier.   It is not our place to question the motivation behind wealthy politicians asking you to donate your hard earned money to their cause, but it is our place to point out small business innovation when it really changes the game.

The Candidates over the past 20 years have been quick to adopt technology during campaigns whether its been weblogs, MySpace, Youtube, Facebook or Twitter.  The elections have even been the  benchmark events that pushed some of these technologies to critical mass.

So this is a really big deal for mobile payment technology, and in this case Square, because it allows politicians to reach deeper into our pockets for every last cent so they can spend it trying to trick us into voting for them.  It’s a brilliant move, and it’s not like they settle up with us when they win or lose anyway.  It is simply a revenue stream that didn’t exist  in 2008.

But it is not which side you are on in this election because both sides are going to play this game.  The important question to ask is, “Is your business playing too?”  While the candidates themselves probably know very little about the technology itself, they’re staffers have become early adopters of something every business can do.  And they should.

Small business owners now have choices when it comes to their merchant services and unlike before, the costs of accepting credit cards need not be a major expenditure in your business plan.  It is necessary to make it easy for your customers to pay you,  but you longer have to make a large capital investment to do so.

In fact,  Mobile payment processors are practically free.  It is the low cost which has me a little ticked at the Romney campaign but I don’t blame them for taking full advantage of the technology.   Square is a true mobile payment processor and the campaign aims to give out 5,000 card readers so volunteers can do more than just hold up signs on street corners,  they can actually beg you for money too!

Read more about how Romney campaign is using mobile payment technology to Panhandle here: http://mashable.com/2012/08/31/mitt-romney-square/

The Secret GOP Plan For Small Business

Like many of you last night I was watching Mork & Mindy because it was the episode when Mork runs away because he thought he was being a burden on Mindy.  Actually, it was the 4th episode where Mork ran away for that same reason.

I needed some emotional, but light television last night because I was knee deep in decision making about my business.  During a commercial break I turned to catch a little Big Brother but to my surprise it had be preempted by some type of flash mob called the Republican National Convention.

I was thrilled to stumble across this because I new they would have some answers for me, like they always do.  There was a fella called Paul Ryan up there talking about how the Republicans had a plan to create 12 million jobs if we voted Mitt Romney as the President.

What was this secret plan, and how did it work?  Which 12 million of us got the jobs and how would we know where to go when we kissed our heterosexual life partner on the cheeck and drove off into the middle class sunrise.  I was hanging on the edge of my for nearly 2 seconds until he changed the subject.

If Mitt Romney really knew how he was going to create 12 million jobs I don’t think he would tell the guy who’s a plate of bad clams away from becoming president and taking all the credit for the plan they don’t even have in the first place.

But the important thing is that they said they had the plan.  And that is really all the American People deserve to hear.  As a nation we tend to get caught up in the details of these plans and that  can really spoil the effect of  perfectly manicured speeches.  You know the kind  where the guy walks and asks you to bare with him because he’s under the weather and he starts softly with a few statements and then a few creshendo moments ending  with a towel wiping the brow sweat and yelling at the opposition.

I’m going to say that since the hopeful leaders of our country say they have a 12 million jobs plan, then I will believe them because I am an american and their party line is to never underestimate the stupidity of the American public. And, hey that’s me!

But as they try to slip this by unchecked I would like to point out the challenge set out that their plan will create 12 million jobs only with a GOP victory.  This implies that if President Obama remains president, these guys won’t tell him whey they are hiding the jobs.

So if you don’t vote for Mitt, you aint getting no job.  That doesn’t seem fair, but it certainly seems american.  Maybe they could give us a handful of those millions of jobs.

This is the part of politics that has to leave the small business community pulling their hairs out because smallbiz is the key to both parties plans of turning the economy around.  Maybe during Paul Ryan’s speech, somebody should have run up and tickled him relentlessly until the secret leaked right out.  Then we could have all seen it.

Even though the dog and pony show isn’t over we  have read that they are forthcoming and detailed about their plans.  Unfortunately they were the ones who wrote down so we could read it.  It doesn’t not make sense.  They will ask us to vote based on the speeches where the people who paid a lot of money to be there and then to stand up and clap for them.

What does this all mean for the middle class and small business?  It means the same thing as the plan in 1776 meant.   It’s none of our business because they don’t gotta plan.   Thankfully I do.

My plan, and your plan, is business as usual.  You do not have to go to a big bank to get  favorable business loans with lots of restrictions on how you as the business owner can spend your proceeds because they banks before gave bad loans.

You do not have accept grants to run your business the way the grant giver wants you to run your business.  You can get an unsecured loan based on your personal credit for a minimum of $50,000 that you do whatever you want with. You can pay down debt, hire our of work people from the losing campaign, invest in machinery or anything you would like.

You see while the dig dongs on capital hill are busy trying to trick into voting for the one that may only govern you not that badly.  You could focus on the issues and not the party, take control of your business to turn to people that will help you for all the right reasons.

 

Cheaters Always Win!

The other day I was discussing business finance and start up capital with someone in the office who asked me an interesting question. The conversation started with a confession that he skipped college and decided to get his degree in workforce by working for other people and learning everything he could from them. So he asked what was the most important thing I learned in College?

It may have surprised him that I didn’t even have to think about it and I answered “Cheaters always win!”. I may have learned some other things on my 4 year vacation but to me, that was the most valuable. Everyone that I know who later went on to phenomenal business success was in some way, shape or form was a cheater in college.

The lesson here is not to cheat, but it is about  the essence of a cheater. It takes a certain character, or lack thereof, to try and put one over on the system and while these people seemed like morons at the time, they learned valuable life lessons that those of us who dared only to follow the rules, missed out on.

Although cheating on a college campus takes many imaginative forms, ene example in particular really stuck in my mind. I had a roommate my freshman year that I who reminded me of a used car salesman in high top sneakers. He was a nice enough guy, but I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. He slept all day and never went to class. I had him pegged as a spoiled rich kid instead of an aggressive risk taker and wondered how he’d even gotten into college.

When the first semester was over, I remember him relishing in the joy of his 0.0 grade point average. Yes, I said it, he had the lowest GPA you could possible get, and he was thrilled. I asked him how he planned to stay in school and he boastfully answered that he was only in college to make money and not to learn anything. Then he told his devilish plan.

It turns out that this guy was accepted into our University without any plans to actually attend. But, since he qualified for student loans and grant money he accepted them all and packed his bags. This was 1986 and I don’t know how it works now, but then, you were sent checks and paid the school yourself. If you didn’t pay, it took a long time to figure it out.

So my roommate made the first few payments as they were due and signed up for classes. The remainder of the money went for a downpayment on a small beat up house close to campus that housed students on a rental basis. His 0.0 GPA earned him academic probation for the following semester but kept him in school. He took the money for the second semester money outright and sunk into the house, finagled a low leverage loan and even fixed the place up.

By the time anyone was the wiser, he had already sold the house for an amazing profit with enough left over to invest in house number two. Without saying where we had gone to school I can say that it was an expensive private school so the loan money certainly penciled out and if you were smart enough to use it as seed capital instead of tuition, you could theoretically win big. Today, this person is one of the wealthiest property owners I know.

The moral of this story is not to skip college and cheat your way through life, it is to point out the that to succeed in business you have to have a certain combination of vision and guts. You have to have a dream and go for it instead of playing it safe all the time. You have to be willing to fail in order to succeed and for whatever reason I admire the sheer stupidity of this idiot.

The lesson I learned from him was to borrow money for business and not to expose yourself personally in case you fail. At the time student loan money was about the cheapest money you could buy.  This is one of the reasons that I avoid the SBA and opt for unsecured business loans which give me the freedom to operate with the entrepreneurial spirit which allows small business owners to succeed.

My challenge to you is to seek out other opportunities for funding besides the big banks. Most people just assume they won’t qualify for a business loan and never even ask. So Ask Us!

Do You Really Want To Be Your Own Boss?

We all seem to have reasons for wanting start our own businesses but one of the ones I hear most is just about firing your boss. Getting out of the rat race seems to be the most popular of them all, but few people tell me which race they actually want to enter.

The best advice is to always follow your dreams but what if you mostly have nightmares? Or what if you are like most americans who can’t sleep at all and take ambien resulting in no dreams to hold onto?  I’m not trying to be facetious in any way but my point is this.

What do you want to do and Why do you want to do it?

We have people come into Seed Capital all the time seeking our professional advice about getting a business loan and we can usually have no problem getting them money.  We do it with low rates and easy term so they are immediately faced with our question, what do you want to do with the loans?

Our unsecured business loans have no limits or restrictions on how a borrower can choose to use their funds.  They may pay down debt, save cash on hand, expand or hire.  Our loans put you in charge and leave the bank out of it.  This comes as a complete surprise to a lot of borrowers.

All of the sudden being faced with the money they thought they couldn’t get leaves without a barrier to entry. Now they must come to terms with why they wanted be an entrepreneur in the first place .  So I ask them this.

Do you have what it takes to leave your job and become an immediate success at something else?  Or are you planning a side business for a few years so you can gain market share in a new niche?  Their personality type will help tem determine their best plan for them .

If you believe in your gut feeling then listen to it.  If you know you just want to stop working for someone else, then take it slow, plan wisely and get as much advice as you can.

The bad news, believe it or not is that these opportunities come a long a lot because the money is readily available to start today. You may hear that banks aren’t lending, the economy is weak,  the sky is falling and the pigs are flying.  But the truth is that you don’t need banks.  There are plenty of small business lenders out there and, Seed Capital, can guide you through the free processes of getting a business loan.

 

3 Tips to Improve Your Chances of A Business Loan Approval

At some point the life of a business, it becomes necessary to borrow money. Whether you are just starting up, or whether your established business is ready for expansion, additional capital is often need to take your venture to the next level.

Unfortunately, few of us have tens of thousands of dollars in immediate funds to accomplish our goals. A business loan can provide you with the capital you need to create a successful company. Getting that business loan, however, is a challenge in many cases – especially if you are a startup with no established business history.

The good news is that there are a number of organizations that can help you raise the capital you require. Traditional lending organizations, such as banks, are one option, but there are many other possibilities as well. Online seed capital providers, angel investors, venture capitalists, and crowdfunding opportunities are all available for your business.

No matter course you follow, though, you can’t just arrive with your hands outstretched. If you want the business loan, or if you want other types of funding, you need to show that you are capable of providing value in return. Lenders want to know that you will repay them, and investors want to know that they will likely receive something in return for their faith. Before you ask for money, consider the following 3 tips to improve your application:

1. Create a Business Plan

It’s hard for a business loan provider to have faith that you will be able to repay your loan (with interest) when you don’t have a plan for building a profitable business. In order to increase your chances of business loan approval, submit a business plan with your application. Your business plan should include the following elements:

  • Executive Summary: This is a brief statement of your business concept, as well as your target market. It should also include information on important financial points, and what you need to start the business, as well as what the money will be used for. Your executive summary should also offer information about when your company started, and its legal organization. The executive summary is just that: A summary. It should be no longer than a page.
  • Business Description: In this section, you share information about your business. What do you do? What do you offer? How is what you offer different or better than what others in your space offer? Describe how your company will be able to turn a profit, and how the capital you receive from the business will aid in your efforts to build a successful venture.
  • Market Strategies: What will you do to position and market your company? Your business plan should mention strategies you will use to gain customers or clients, as well as analyze how you will compete in your industry.
  • Development: Include information about your product or service development. Detail what you expect to spend for development, as well as overhead costs, and other expenses. Mention specialized personnel that can help you in this stage.
  • Management Plan: Offer information on your management and operations. How do you expect to make this work? Also, include relevant financial statements to show where you are at (if your business loan is for expansion). If you are a startup, you might need to include personal financial statements.

Your business plan provides lenders with a clear idea of what you expect to do next, and shows that you have seriously though about how to turn a profit.

2. Improve Your Credit

Your chances of obtaining business loan approval will improve if you have good credit. An established business should have its own credit. Register with a business credit bureau (Dun & Bradstreet is a good example), and use the assigned number in your business dealings, asking relevant vendors and creditors to report. If you are a startup, it helps if your personal credit history is solid. Programs like Seed Capital offer you a chance to use your personal credit to receive an unsecured loan for your business. This allows you to begin establishing business credit. Look at your credit report, and take steps to improve it. Correct errors, pay on time and in full, and reduce your debt. A good credit score denotes a certain level of responsibility in financial matters, and helps lenders feel better about providing you with the funds you request.

3. Show Your Expertise

Finally, show your expertise and experience. Highlight business or management skills you have. If you haven’t much business experience, focus on your expertise in you industry. Include copies of licenses, certifications, agreements, and contracts. Explain why you know the industry, and what you bring to the table. Also, include information about who you plan to hire to offset some of your deficiencies in knowledge and expertise. You need to prove your competency so that lenders feel comfortable approving your funding request. This is especially important if you are seeking a business loan as a startup.

With the right planning and execution, it’s possible to improve the chances that you will be approved for the business loan you need to take your company to the next level.

Include Merchant Services in Your Small Business Financial Plan

Cost Of Merchant ServicesEven before thinking about a business loan, starting up a small business should begin with a good business plan. Your plan builds the framework that helps you strategize and formulate a process that will help you realize your end goals.

If you are unfamiliar with business plans, they may seem to be a daunting task to create – but it can be quite simple. A good place to start is with a business plan template which can be found online.

A simple search on the subject will provide you with invaluable information and clever ways to create a business plan using what seems to be an endless supply of free templates.

Some are better than others but depending on the type of small business you plan to start, something catering to your industry will be available.   If you are absolute beginner in business planning, here is a list of characteristics you need from your template.

 

The good  templates will pose a  number of  significant business questions for you to answer in order to get a clear picture of the unique startup issues you will likely face, such as:

  •  Business concept
  • Personal resources and objectives
  • Product/service
  • Market description
  • Sales and marketing
  • Organizing and running your business
  • Business development
  • Budgets
  • Financing

Notice that getting a business loan is mentioned last one the things to consider.  And included in your loan proposal should be the budgeted cost associated with running your merchant services. Accepting credit cards offers great opportunities to grow your business.

An experienced and reputable merchant account provider can discuss your many options for credit card processing. Credit card processing equipment costs depend on your requirements. Retail POS processing for card-present credit transactions use countertop POS terminals and magnetic cardreaders —or a telephone or Internet connection to the processor plus receipt printer for retail point of sale transactions.

Charges for swipe machines are lower than online manually keyed in transactions that are time consuming and prone to human error. Unlike mail order/phone orders where there is no card present, the physical presence of the card makes the transaction easier to verify and reduces the risk of fraud. You can also use a swipe machine that is integrated into a POS system, eliminating the need to purchase or lease a credit card terminal.

Online merchant accounts provide methods of accepting credit cards via a virtual terminal and payment gateway or through an e-commerce website. Wireless merchant accounts utilize a wireless portable terminal. Mobile merchants can accept credit card payments using an app-enabled smartphone.

Merchant service fees are often charged for each transaction and are dependent upon many factors including: the risk level of your business, if you have previously had a merchant account to accept credit cards, your transaction volume and your means of processing credit card payments.

Your fees and rates may be negotiable with your merchant services provider. Fees to discuss should include: assessment fees, equipment fees, maintenance fees, supply fees, swap fees and early termination fees. It is up to you to read the terms of your merchant account agreement and understand what you will be responsible to pay.

You and your merchant account provider can come to an agreement for a customized payment processing solution to fit your individual requirements and your budget. It is an important part of your finances and one you’ll want to prepare for when you apply for your small business loan.

Let’s Talk About CrowdFunding

Crowdfunding For Business One of the hottest topics surrounding business loans is crowdfunding so what is it, and can it work for you? In a nutshell crowdfunding is a way to raise capital through social media sites and networks for a business venture.

There are already hundreds of crowdsourcing sites online and here is how they work. If you are looking for an alternative type of business loan, you sign up for an account and place your project online. Users of the site and can read about it and decide if they want to invest. Investments are based on what you decide you will take for a stake in the project. It could be stock or just a rate of return depending on how you set things up.

In many cases, individuals can invest a few dollars and spread their investments over dozens of opportunities to hedge their bets. The benefit to an investor or lender, is that they can minimize their risk by investing lesser amounts in many different projects as opposed to risking it all on just one.

What’s So Great About Crowdfunding?

The benefit to the borrower is, that if presented correctly, they can entice investors to take a chance on their business and raise capital without getting a traditional business loan from a bank. In theory it all sounds good but the obvious problem is the risk of “the scam”. How can investors really trust the borrower while relying solely on the terms of service of the website and how can the investor trust that the website itself will be in business long enough to handle the transactions?

Danger aside, crowdfunding statistics show over $1.5 billion in capital raised in 2011 alone, so regardless of our thoughts on the matter, it is an intriguing way to finance a business. The reason the subject is so interesting right now is that the SEC is expected to lay down rules for crowdfunding in the United States some time in 2013. If the SEC is on board, this will not only regulate the practice, but bring a sense of trust and legitimacy to the process.

For now we have to look abroad for indicators of how this trend is moving. It is true that the majority of capital raised is from the United States, but the platforms used are based outside the US where these money raising social platforms are legal.

One of the most interesting numbers from 2011 is the fact that nearly 80% of the crowdfunding projects raised over $25,000. That is a significant amount of money for a small start up or existing venture looking for capital to avoid traditional business loans.

We always focus on the business lending side of things but crowdfunding can be broken down into reward based funding, charitable donations, equity and lending. So there are other opportunities for both borrower and investor that can be studied. Because we are a business loans company we pay particular attention to the lending model where the lenders receive interest income only until the original loan is paid back. The other models fall beyond the scope of our expertise.

So should you consider crowdfunding as opposed to a business loan? It seems that there would be too many unanswered questions so early in the evolution of this type of borrowing. Because of the peer-to-peer grassroots lending model it has the possibility of gathering momentum but there at this state of the game there are better ways to find a business loan to safely raise the capital you are looking for.

Small Business Lending Enhancement Act: Don’t Believe The Hype

Credit Union Business Lending ActThe Small Business Lending Enhancement Act was introduced to congress to allow credit unions to raise their lending cap to provide easier access to small business loans. The theory behind it is that lending caps hold back job creation which is a main focus in a political year.

The politicians in support of the bill claim its passage would create over $13 billion in freed up lending capital and create almost 150,000 jobs a year with absolutely no cost to taxpayers. It sounds too good to be true, and you know what that means.

What business owners want and need are favorable business loans, and if you look below the surface of the bill, you will see that it probably will not deliver. What seems like good legislation only tricks people into thinking help is on the way.

Credit Unions have tax advantages over Community Banks which handle most of the small business lending we hear about. The credit unions are limited by the percentage of their assets they can lend and raising their caps would do nothing more than shift loans in process in the Bank pipeline over to the Credit Union pipeline. So who really benefits besides the tax advantaged credit unions?

Nobody, and here’s why.

Credit Unions already have a nice piece of the business lending market and their loans which are less then $50,000 do not even go towards their cap. So the extra money they have to lend as a result of the legislation would turn their focus toward larger, and much riskier, commercial loans where they have little expertise. The last thing we need is for Credit Unions to venture out into these waters.

The appeal of these types of loans can lead to Credit Union failures just like we saw with traditional banks. Remember Credit Unions do not pay taxes like community banks who pay nearly a third of their revenues to the government. So this Act, which is technically a government subsidy for Credit Unions, will harm the Community Banks much more than it will help the Credit Unions.

The most important thing to realize here is that while the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act may shift the power for small business lending toward Credit Unions, it will do nothing for the people who need access to business loans in order to create the jobs promised by the Act itself.

While its passage will create some competition in the marketplace, the consumer will not really benefit from it. It most cases it would not matter, but if when we are talking about the government teaming up with a certain segment of an industry, then the consumers should be the ones to benefit from it.

Will the cost of a loan be cheaper for a borrower? Probably not. Will loans be easier to get? Not a chance. So what’s the point?

The point of the Act really is to help politicians look good in election year by promoting legislation that sounds good to business owners because they think help is on the way. It may create more revenue for Credit Unions, but only by harming Banks already out there lending.

For people in need of business loans, there will be no difference because if you cannot qualify for a bank loan then will not qualify for a credit union business loan either. The key is to understand the options you already have in front of you whether you are a start-up or looking to expand.

We recently touched on the subject of credit union business loans with an understanding that although interesting, it probably does make too much difference for people with little business credit history.

However, Loans have always been out there and are easier to get than ever and we can get you qualified for a minimum of $50,000 based on your personal credit score no matter what the Politicians are doing.

The Treasury Says Small Business Lending Is A Success

The news regarding the business loans industry is always interesting to say the least. We have to wade through reports and statistics issued to support the economic policies of government while trying to get a clear view of the reality facing business owners looking for capital.

So of note is last weeks Treasury report to Congress illustrating the growth trends in new business loans from participating lenders in the Small Business Lending Fund. They point out that those lenders in the fund are doing better than those who are not, which proves that the government backed program is worth all the fuss.

While it is true that the last quarter of 2011 shows over $1 billion in growth over the third quarter, and nearly $5 billion over the program baseline average, but what do the numbers really mean?

Remember, the Fund was created to encourage growth and hiring from business owners by granting easier access to business loans. The program was designed to absorb some of the risk of participating lenders adjusting limits and streamlining their origination process. But the recent numbers could just be a sign of the times because the baseline used to assess the program was made by using the average numbers from the 4 quarters immediately preceding the Act’s start date. If nobody was borrowing due to the credit crunch then it is hard to verify that the lenders are more willing to lend as a direct result of the Act.

As with most reports to Congress, the facts are presented in a positive light and the sheer number of statistics is overwhelming. To think members of Congress actually understand how the program works and how to judge if it continues to be successful, is asking a lot from our “elected” officials. But, the numbers certainly add up and politicians who have taken credit for the creating the Small Business Lending Fun can now bask in the glory of taking pictures of each other shaking each other’s hands in front patriotic landmarks in their districts.

However, if the increased business loans are indicative of anything, it would be to serve as proof that most of us are being left out in the cold. The Small Business Lending Fund provides easier access to business loans for very well qualified borrowers who would have been able to secure financing without its existence.

The average business owner in America is not well qualified and not attractive to lenders. So what we hear on the news, of C-SPAN for that matter, is not necessarily a valid assessment of what is happening on the front lines. It is true that any good news about the economy serves as a vote of confidence for business owners and consumers alike, but does it accurately reflect the experiences of mainstream American’s? Let us know what you think.