Want to Launch a Business? Here’s a Step-by-Step Startup Checklist
If you’re starting a business, you’re probably focused on the product or service you’ll sell, but there are other essential tasks you’ll need to tackle, too. Not only do these tasks help establish your business as legitimate and professional, but they can also help your business as it grows and seeks investment capital or small...
Don’t Fall For This Small Business Loan Scam
A business owner looking for a deposit for a building he wanted to purchase says he wound up losing $1,200 to a loan scammer, according to a complaint filed on the Better Business Bureau website. He’s not the only entrepreneur who has reported being ripped off while trying to find financing. The “BBB Scam Tracker is...
Why You Need a Business Mentor (and Where You Can Find One)
Mattie Mae Larson has a growing business in Hawaii turning trash into treasure. Her company, Upcycle Hawaii, creates wallets, zipper pouches, bookmarks, beach totes and a plethora of other products. All of Upcycle Hawaii’s items are made from post-consumer waste diverted from local landfills. While her business has been built with blood, sweat and tears,...
Here Are 7 Ways to Get More Funding Than Ever Before in the Post-Pandemic Era
Starting a business in 2021? You’re in good company: The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there were some 440,000 applications for tax ID numbers in March of 2021 alone. Many of these entrepreneurs will face a shared dilemma: where do they get the funding they need to launch? Traditionally, getting startup capital can be challenging....
7 Exceptional Ways to Make Your Business Stand Out to Lenders
Searching for a small business loan can feel a little bit like hitting the dating scene. You’re researching lenders wondering, “Will they like me? Or will they reject me?” Working at Nav, where we’ve played matchmaker between thousands of small business owners and lenders, I’ve observed several key steps small business owners and entrepreneurs can...
How Trade References Can Help Your Startup Get Financing
New businesses often find it challenging to get financing. Many lenders prefer to lend to businesses that are at least a year or two old and that have strong financial profiles. But if you wait until your business is a couple of years old, you may find yourself missing a key piece of your credit...
4 Ways the New PPP Loans are Better Than Before
The economic stimulus bill that was recently passed by the House and Senate has been signed by the President. It contains several hundred pages of aid for small businesses. There will be more funds available for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grants, among other aid to struggling businesses. Those...
5 Financing Sources for New Businesses
Many new entrepreneurs start their businesses with funds from their own personal savings, or by getting friends and family to help them get off the ground. But that’s not an option for everyone. What do you do then? Your first inclination is probably to try to get a bank loan. But it can be very...
3 Ways to Help Protect Your Business from Identity Theft
As if the pandemic isn’t causing enough stress and anxiety for business owners, there’s another growing threat to worry about: business identity theft. KrebsOnSecurity, a leading security news source, recently warned of a “particularly aggressive business ID theft ring that’s spent years targeting small businesses across the country.” Even businesses that have slowed down operations due to...
In a Financial Rut? Here’s How 3 Creative Business Owners Mastered Money
Do you dislike dealing with the financial side of running your business? You’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs go into business to do something they are good at, or to fill a creative void. Spending time with accounting software and spreadsheets, however, isn’t often on their list of ways they want to spend their time. The...
7 Steps to Get Your Business Lender Ready
For years, I’ve been encouraging business owners to line up financing before they need it. Whether it’s a crisis or opportunity, you want to be prepared so you can respond quickly—and that crisis is now a reality across the country. For some businesses, this will also be a time of opportunity. Aside from COVID-19 relief...
5 Tips for Keeping Your Business Credit Strong During Turbulent Times
No one knows how long it will take small and independent businesses to recover from the COVID crisis; at this point there is no timeline that allows for serious planning. But what is clear is that those businesses that are able to maintain good credit will find it easier to bounce back as they will...
3 Things That Could Cost Your Business its COVID-19 Loan
The Senate approved an additional $60 billion in funding for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program and $310 billion for Paycheck Program Protection (PPP) loans on April 21, 2020. It now heads to the House and then, hopefully, to the President’s desk. Small business owners who missed out on the first round of funding...
The Little Known Risk Your Business is Taking with Debit Cards
Angela Proffit rarely uses her business debit card. But one morning in December 2018, she was heading out for a long drive with a client of her consulting business. She had to fill up her gas tank and realized she had lent her business credit card to one of her team members, so she pulled...
Free Resources for Understanding COVID-19 Financing Options
Are you overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there about COVID-19 relief loans? Not sure where to start when it comes to what you might be eligible for? You’re far from alone. Information is being updated nearly hourly, and the various small business funding to make it through the coronavirus pandemic is a...
4 Smart Ways Business Owners Maximize Credit Card Rewards
Credit cards can make it all too easy to rack up fees and interest rates when we don’t pay off our balances, but for many entrepreneurs, they are what keeps cash flowing into our business. And with so many business credit cards offering cash back, travel redemption and other rewards, using a credit card can...
4 Types of Interim Financing While You Wait for SBA Assistance
Congress has passed the CARES Act, which includes more than $367 billion in loans for small business owners through Small Business Administration lending programs. These loans come in the form of: Economic Injury Disaster Loans of up to $2 million SBA 7(a) loans for 2.5 times the previous 12 month’s average monthly payroll (up to $10...
5 Old School (But Highly-Effective) Productivity Tools for Entrepreneurs
While, certainly, technology can be instrumental in boosting productivity, sometimes going old-school is the best way to get the job done. Whether you want to complement the high-tech tools and apps you use or simply wish to avoid being distracted by technology, analog may be one of the best ways to be efficient at work....
7 Steps for Getting Your Health Food Product to Market
There’s never been a better time to launch a health food product. In 2018, organic food sales in the U.S. rose 5.9 percent. Additionally, the global gluten-free market is slated to reach $12.5 billion by 2024. While we’ve never seen such thirst for healthy products, that doesn’t make getting a health food product to market...
How to Conduct a Financial Year-End Review
As business owners, we spend a lot of time looking to the future. Where are we headed? What are our goals for the next quarter, year or five years? What we don’t do a lot of is looking in the rearview mirror. Yet, doing so can provide valuable insights into what we’re doing right and...