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.

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!

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.

Even 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.