Entrepreneurs and small business owners who have incorporated their business have a special opportunity that no other individual or sole proprietor has. It’s the opportunity to start establishing business credit by building a business credit profile that is completely separate from a personal credit profile.

The main problem still facing today’s small business owner is fewer than 10 percent know about or truly understand how business credit is established and tracked-and how it affects their lives and businesses. Statistics even show that over 65% off all small businesses use credit cards on a regular basis; but the problem is less than half of those credit cards are actually in the business name. The others continue to use the owner’s personal credit cards for business transactions. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past bad credit when applying for a business loan usually only meant you would pay more in interest. That was bad enough, but now good credit is even more important. Bad credit can mean not getting a loan, needing a co-signor, or having to use your personal credit to obtain a loan. None of the three are great options and wise business owners prefer a simple, straight-forward business loan so getting credit, keeping it in good shape, and having great business performance records is important. Read the rest of this entry »

Bonding is NOT insurance. The purpose of bonding is to ensure that the project continues on or near schedule despite issues with performance or payment. The bond is there to provide assurance to the owner or general contractor that your company can and will fulfill its obligations as contracted. In the event that the bond is utilized, the bonding company expects full repayment for the amount utilized.

Bond companies need 10% equity (or higher) on the balance sheet. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Featured Business Loan Resource: Maryland Direct Loans and Guarantees CDBG–ED provides funding to commercial and industrial economic development projects. Program funds are dispersed to a local jurisdiction in the form of a conditional grant and are then used for public improvements or loaned to a business.

Depending on whose stats you pay attention to, approximately 80% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years of operation. In many cases, its not that a particular business could not succeed; there just wasn’t sufficient time to figure out how to succeed.

Which brings us to the worst small business financing strategy ever.

Here’s how it works: Read the rest of this entry »

The Permanent Fund to Alleviate Extreme Poverty directly supports microloans from tax-deductible contributions. No overhead, no administrative fees, no fundraising costs are paid for with donated money to the Fund. Every gift to the Permanent Fund provides perpetual benefits. As loans are repaid, the money is loaned out in perpetuity.

MicroCredit Enterprises provides loans and guarantees to qualified MFIs. It launched its lending operations in 2006. It finds creditworthy, locally-run and locally-controlled microfinance programs around the world and provides these organizations with affordable, interest-bearing loans so that they can expand their operations. Priority is given to organizations that serve a high percentage of deeply-impoverished individuals and families, particularly women, and operate in isolated, rural communities.

Hunter Douglas Endowment for Microfinance Sustainability
MicroCredit Enterprises has established the HunterDouglas Endowment for Microfinance Sustainability, which is currently funded at $1 million. Operationally, this fund serves as a liquidity account or bridge financing to respond to unexpected financial emergencies in the MicroCredit Enterprises overseas loan portfolio.

See More of MicroCredit Enterprises here

Micro Lenders: A company or organization that offers small loans to businesses that are generally unable to obtain financing from a conventional source. Microlender loans often range from $5,000 to $25,000 at interest rates higher, but not always, than those charged by traditional commercial banks.

Micro loans first started in underdeveloped countries to help the poor become entrepreneurs. The loans were generally small. Today this has all changed. Micro loans are now available throughout the United States and one of their principle groups is women! Because women have had…

Finish: What Are Micro Loan Lenders? here

Being classified as a small business isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it means that you may qualify for a large amount of support from the Small Business Administration or “SBA”.

When you are in business for yourself, it is critical to develop a good knowledge base, and that is also what will help you wade through the myriad of small business loans.

So Let’s Look at How SBA Loans Work

The first thing you need to understand is that you as a business owner are not going to deal with the SBA yourself. The SBA does not act as a principle lender. Instead it backs loans made to small businesses that might otherwise not find a favorable market in traditional lending circles. This means that you will still seek financing from your regular source of lending: banks or other private financial institutions, and if they feel that you have merit but perhaps do not quite meet their more stringent requirements for a loan they put the loan forward to the SBA as a security backing. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter what, your business is it is likely you need supplies. For some companies it may only be a matter of office supplies and equipment, for others it might be an entire product line brought in for re-sale. No matter what type of business you are going to be dealing with vendors. Because of this you are in the perfect position to build your business credit in a way that will benefit your company in several ways.

Even if you can afford to buy your paperclips with cash—don’t. Right from the start you should be contacting vendors that you will be doing business with and enquiring about the possibility of trade credit. Use your business name, address, and pertinent information to obtain vendor accounts so that it is your business that builds credit not your personal credit history. Read the rest of this entry »

Before you go a bank or financial institution to request information for commercial loans, you should ask yourself the following questions:

How comfortable are you with your past decisions of the finance company? You should know what kind of commercial funding to consider. For example, what kind of rate would feel more comfortable with? Do you feel secure about your history of repayment of commercial loans are personal loans?

When financial institutions give commercial loans, they tend to focus on three main ratios. Read the rest of this entry »