Abrigo
OCTOBER 10, 2017
By John Brown, Founder of Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. Setting goals is critically important when you approach the inevitable exit from your business. Without goals, even the strongest systems fail, as they have no purpose to work toward. Your goals are what guide your process toward a successful exit, and without them, you will find wheels spinning in the mud of indecision.
Fundera
OCTOBER 17, 2017
Many new small business owners rely solely on their bookkeeper or accountant to explain their financial statements to them. While nothing can replace the advice of a skilled financial advisor, having a basic understanding of important accounting concepts can give you peace of mind and confidence you’re making the right decisions in your business.
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GoCardless
OCTOBER 3, 2017
Cloud accounting has given rise to a new breed of tech-savvy, data-enabled, commercially astute accountants, who are becoming trusted advisors to their clients.
Fundera
OCTOBER 2, 2017
When it comes to the future of your business, filing for bankruptcy might seem like the absolute worst thing that could happen. And, yes, it will show up on your credit report, which might put you at risk of getting rejected by certain long-term lenders. However, filing for bankruptcy is not necessarily a death sentence—in fact, it could mean the difference between sinking or saving your business.
Fundera
OCTOBER 29, 2017
Tracking your company’s cash balance can feel like an overwhelming task—but it doesn’t have to be. And doing so is essential to making sure your company is prepared for both good times and rough periods in the future. Here’s what you need to know about preparing and analyzing your cash flow statement to best inform day to day and long-term decisions about your business spending and general operations.
Fundera
OCTOBER 23, 2017
There’s no worse feeling than being crushed by debt of any kind. You can’t run or hide from it, but you can take steps to get it under control. If you find yourself struggling with small business debt, start with these steps to help eliminate what you owe and get your business back in good financial standing. 1. Assess and rework your budget. Before tackling business debt, you need to have a solid understanding of your current financial situation.
Credit Management Source brings together the best content for credit management professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Fundera
OCTOBER 11, 2017
Do you find yourself scrambling to prepare for tax season? Have you ever found yourself wishing for a checklist to help you prepare? Preparing for tax season can be daunting, even if you have kept up with your bookkeeping and record keeping throughout the year. Preparing for tax season doesn’t have to be daunting. Following is the ultimate small business tax preparation checklist. 1.
Fundera
OCTOBER 7, 2017
Boo! Did we scare you? It’s easy to get a customer’s attention with Halloween-themed marketing. October is a great month to engage your consumer base in fun, simple—and yes, perhaps spooky—ways. Bonus? It’ll be good for your business to get that all-important marketing push just before the holidays. Some marketing ideas work better for some businesses than others, but don’t worry: we’re not short on ideas.
Fundera
OCTOBER 10, 2017
Visiting a haunted house is a time-honored tradition during Halloween season. The months of September, October, and even into November are prime time for getting scared half to death by people in elaborate, grizzly costumes and terrifying props. It’s also (assuming you’re visiting a haunted house for entertainment purposes and not just some random abandoned mansion) a business.
Fundera
OCTOBER 3, 2017
The immediate effects of a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey are obvious almost everywhere one looks in Houston. But the long-term effects are more difficult to assess, especially when it comes to small businesses. Harvey dumped a record amount of rain near the nation’s fourth largest city—51.88 inches, the highest ever in the continental U.S.
Fundera
OCTOBER 16, 2017
Small Business Saturday is coming up in November—it’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving. But you don’t have to wait that long to support local small businesses. The National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend some $9.1 billion on Halloween this year—a record high, up from $8.6 billion last year. Why not spend some of your dollars with local small and independent businesses?
Fundera
OCTOBER 14, 2017
One of the most exciting things about business is that there’s no one way to go about it. Each entrepreneur has a unique story and set of qualifications, whether they earned them through schooling or directly on the job. Of course, many famous entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople never went to college at all—and there’s so much we can learn from them.
Fundera
OCTOBER 24, 2017
Jennifer Mallet speaks with eloquence and ease as she explains the intricacies of her smart home consultation and installation company, Level Up Your Home. Even before learning about the details of her career, you immediately get a sense of her long history working in home technology installation. However, as you begin to learn more about Jennifer’s career experience, you begin to grasp just how much success she’s seen.
Fundera
OCTOBER 19, 2017
Starting a business is a challenging pursuit—and that’s without the complicated legal ramifications that you want to protect you and your business against. As a business owner, you want to make sure you have covered all your legal bases to avoid any hefty fines, headaches, or—worst case—even jail time. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available to small businesses both online and through hired legal counsel.
Fundera
OCTOBER 20, 2017
Over the past couple decades, ecommerce companies like Amazon have had so much success thanks to one distinct advantage over traditional brick-and-mortar stores (other than low prices)—the ability to analyze customer behavior using big data. Big data in this context are the shopping patterns of buyers—such as what’s hot in search right now or what items are typically bought together.
Fundera
OCTOBER 23, 2017
In November of last year, we released our first annual report on the State of Small Business Lending: Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs. After reading stats like women entrepreneurs receive only 16% of all traditional small business loans, we wanted to know: do these same stats also ring true in online business lending? To find out, we dove into our own internal data to look at the gender breakdown of a Fundera customer sample.
Fundera
OCTOBER 21, 2017
In the landscape of modern marketing, social media isn’t really optional anymore. Even small businesses and startups need to put serious focus on how to best connect with their audience and spread brand awareness through these digital channels. Instagram is one of the most popular social platforms available, and its influence and impact continue to grow rapidly.
Abrigo
OCTOBER 11, 2017
Policies are “the cornerstones for sound lending and loan administration,” and risk rating policies are a key component. Regulatory agencies lay out elements that loan policies should cover, such as what types of loans an institution will make and what information will be required from borrowers, but they rarely dictate the details. An institution must develop appropriate policies and procedures based on its size and the complexity of its portfolio.
Abrigo
OCTOBER 6, 2017
During a Sageworks webinar on HVCRE risk management Rob Ashbaugh, senior risk management consultant at Sageworks, explained that clarifications on some of the murkier aspects of the HVCRE (high volatility commercial real estate) rule were anticipated by the industry. On September 27, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a Community Bank Summary entitled Proposed Simplification to
Abrigo
OCTOBER 5, 2017
Ancin Cooley, CIA, CISA, of Synergy Bank and Credit Union Consulting , recently presented at the 2017 Sageworks Risk Management Summit on the Perspectives of Lending Dysfunction: Loan Officers, Credit Analysts and Loan Reviewers. According to Cooley, the major cause of dysfunction between the lending department and credit risk function is an inability to see or appreciate the other function’s perspective.
Abrigo
OCTOBER 4, 2017
As technology continues to evolve, it is difficult for every team member to keep up. Employers can help by implementing strategies to ensure that employees are proficient in and knowledgeable of new industry tech. The below strategies will guide a firm’s development of well-informed, proficient employees. 1. Where do your Employees Stand? Before implementing strategies to overhaul the standing of your firm’s employees’ technological competency, gauge their current understanding.
Abrigo
OCTOBER 4, 2017
Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence where machines can predict outcomes by using algorithms to interpret data, won’t eliminate the need for humans in accounting work, according to a leading expert on business, technology and big data.Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence where machines can predict outcomes by using algorithms to interpret data, won’t eliminate the need for humans in accounting work, according to a leading expert on business, technology and big d
Fundera
OCTOBER 27, 2017
Non-profit organizations face a dilemma when it comes to choosing accounting software —they usually need something fairly robust that can handle fund accounting and keep track of financial information and donor contributions. But these organizations are also typically limited to the amount of money they can afford to spend on the software. This can result in organizations choosing an accounting system that doesn’t provide the features and reporting capabilities they need.
Fundera
OCTOBER 31, 2017
The end of daylight saving time is, for most of us, a blessing. Not only do we get an extra hour of sleep on the first Sunday of November, but for the next few weeks, our mornings are a little brighter. We much prefer the end of DST to the beginning, when we lose an hour. What’s less certain is the economic impact of daylight saving time—or what the point of it is at all.
Fundera
OCTOBER 29, 2017
Over the past few years, the concept of workplace has changed dramatically. Expectations in the workplace have also changed. Advances in technology and multi-generational teams have redefined the modern workplace in many ways. More and more employees in these next generations are looking for something beyond the traditional approaches to employee engagement.
Fundera
OCTOBER 5, 2017
Thinking about applying for a business credit card ? Smart move. Using a business credit card comes with a lot of perks for small business owners. Plus, applying for a business credit card is a great secondary financing option when you’re in the need for financing but don’t necessarily qualify for a more traditional business loan just yet. You can use one for backup business financing , to build business credit , to cushion your cash flow, to earn rewards on your purchases… The list of benefits
Fundera
OCTOBER 15, 2017
The hiring process can be an arduous one. Sift through scores of résumés, conduct interviews—and second interviews—make an offer, iron out the details. Whew! That was tough! But now you’re ready to celebrate because your work is done. You can rest assured you’ve made the right decision and everything is going to be great! Right? Maybe. Maybe you hired an extraordinary person who magically understands exactly what you want and will always do it exactly the way you want it done.
Fundera
OCTOBER 28, 2017
Millennials, a term for those born from 1981 to 1997, are a unique generation with ample potential as entrepreneurs. Still, despite millennials being the most educated generation to date, factors like slowing asset accumulation, rising student debt, and coming of age during the Great Recession have made starting a small business a relatively rare thing for this demographic.
Fundera
OCTOBER 8, 2017
‘Tis the season to be jolly … Already? According to the National Retail Federation, one of the biggest trends for the 2017 holiday season is strategic shopping. In 2016, more than half of holiday shoppers began early browsing in October and even in earlier months although two-thirds opted to wait until November to begin buying gifts. Is your small business ready to embrace consumers who are starting their holiday research?
Fundera
OCTOBER 26, 2017
Snapchat, YouTube, and other social media channels may get all the buzz these days, but for most small businesses, the most effective digital marketing method is still email. More than 90% of people like to get promotional emails from companies they do business with, according to MarketingSherpa, and 865 want to get these emails at least once a month.
Fundera
OCTOBER 29, 2017
What is APR ? You may find yourself asking this question for a variety of reasons, such as when applying for a credit card or comparing business loan offers. APR, also known as annual percentage rate, is defined by Investopedia as: “…the cost per year of borrowing. APR is not the same as the interest rate on a loan. Loans charge an interest rate, but usually also charge other fees, such as closing costs, origination fees or insurance costs, which are typically wrapped into the loan.
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