August, 2019

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FinCEN Steps up Efforts to Protect Against the Six Biggest Threats to the U.S. Financial System

Abrigo

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is tasked with protecting the financial system both within the United States and internationally. Financial criminals are working hard, using technology and innovation to their advantage, to stay one step ahead of FinCEN and financial institutions. At the recent NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement , FinCEN Director Kenneth A.

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How to Expand a Business: 10 Tips to Help Your Business Grow

Fundera

How to Expand a Business: 10 Tips. Add new offerings. Optimize your existing market. Claim a niche. Move into new markets. Seek referrals. Launch an ecommerce website. Partner with other businesses. Acquire a new business. Franchise your business. Research your competition. It’s one thing to start a business —it’s another to know how to expand a business.

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How to fix the 10 biggest mistakes with your terms and conditions of sale

GoCardless

Before you undertake any business with a customer, whether they’re new or existing, you should clearly establish the terms and conditions of sale (T&Cs). They act as the agreed rules for everyone involved, to guide everyone to a mutually satisfying result.

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The Cost of Patient "Disloyalty" to Health Systems

MediRevv

Patient loyalty factors into a lot of decisions that healthcare leaders are making, but are those investments misplaced? It’s common knowledge in business that it is much more cost-efficient and easier to retain a current customer than go get new ones.

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Seven Items That Should be on Every BSA Software Checklist

Abrigo

Shopping for a bank secrecy act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) monitoring software can feel overwhelming. There are so many options, features, and benefits to each system that it can be tough to figure out where to start. We’ve spent the last 20 years working with industry experts regarding regulatory compliance and our customer base regarding program efficiencies to build BAM+ into the ultimate BSA/AML regulatory and compliance solution.

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Startup vs Small Business: What’s the Real Difference?

Fundera

Startup vs Small Business: The Main Difference. While the difference between a startup and a small business is subjective, it often comes down to the company’s growth goals and revenue forecast. Startups focus on disrupting markets and driving top-line revenue at a fast pace. Small businesses, on the other hand, often set their goals on long-term, stable growth in an existing market.

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How to Come Up With a Business Name

Fundera

For some entrepreneurs, what’s even harder than coming up with a great business idea is figuring out how to come up with a business name. After all, your business’s name doubles as your customer’s first impression of your business, and first impressions matter. You want your business name to be memorable, but approachable; unique, but easy to pronounce; indicative of your product or service, but not too on the nose.

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40 Quotes About Success to Inspire Business Owners

Fundera

A few quotes about success may be all you need to get motivated, take the initiative, and start down the path to reaching your small business goals. Remember this: many people before you have tried and failed. While some give up after a setback, others continue forward. They realize that hard work and dedication will pay off in the long run. When you read quotes about success from somebody famous or somebody with a lot of money, it is easy to toss aside what he or she is saying.

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Public Relations for Small Business Owners: The Complete Guide

Fundera

Public relations is the professional maintenance of your small business’s public image. Done well, public relations can build trust in your business, grow your brand, and drive sales. To effectively manage your small business public relations, you need to lay out a PR strategy, reach out to journalists and bloggers, and give effective interviews.

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Psychology in Business: 24 Concepts to Improve Your Business

Fundera

The last time you probably opened a psychology book was freshman year of college for psych 101. Chances are you were not thinking how you could one day use the material from this class as a successful business entrepreneur. The study of psychology encompasses the study of how people think and how they can be motivated or deterred. What could go better with business than a solid understanding of how people “tick?

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What Is a General Ledger? General Ledger Definition and Examples

Fundera

What Is a General Ledger? A general ledger is the master accounting document that contains all of the accounts a business has—meaning it records all of the transactions made over the life of a company. The general ledger includes transactions separated by type: assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. A general ledger is used as a reference, storing all of a business’s financial information, and is also used to create a variety of financial statements.

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Inventory Turnover Ratio: Why It’s Important and How to Calculate It

Fundera

What Is Inventory Turnover Ratio? Inventory turnover ratio is the measure of how many times inventory is sold or used in a given time period—usually a year. Knowing your inventory turnover is helpful to project how long it takes to sell inventory and when you’re going to need more inventory. You can calculate this by dividing the days in the timeframe by the inventory turnover formula—the result is the number of days it takes to sell the inventory.

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Startup vs Small Business: What’s the Real Difference?

Fundera

Startup vs Small Business: The Main Difference. While the difference between a startup and a small business is subjective, it often comes down to the company’s growth goals and revenue forecast. Startups focus on disrupting markets and driving top-line revenue at a fast pace. Small businesses, on the other hand, often set their goals on long-term, stable growth in an existing market.

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How to Start a Brewery in 6 Steps

Fundera

6 Steps to Starting a Brewery. Step 1: Choose a name and business entity for your brewery. Step 2: Create a business plan. Step 3: Apply for any licenses or permits. Step 4: Register your business and get an employer identification number. Step 5: Open a business bank account and credit card. Step 6: Start looking at funding options. Nearly everyone has a hometown brewery these days thanks to the fact that small craft beers became popular over the last decade or so.

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50 Entrepreneur Quotes to Inspire Small Business Owners

Fundera

Entrepreneur quotes can be a great source of inspiration for those starting their own business. After all, words matter. They have the power to influence us, change our moods, our attitudes, and our lives. Launching a business is not easy, and some days it helps to hear entrepreneur quotes to stay motivated and remember what you’re working so hard for.

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How to Run Effective Business Meetings

Fundera

If you’re just about to start a business for the first time, the whole process is probably fairly new to you, including aspects like running a business meeting. You may have experienced business meetings throughout your career that you found very helpful, but you have probably also experienced some that you thought didn’t accomplish very much. . When starting your own business, you want to make sure you have the basics of running a good business meeting down.

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Weebly Review for 2019: Features, Pricing, Top Alternatives

Fundera

Whether you’re trying to start an ecommerce business or you’re simply looking to bring your business’s presence online, you’re going to need a website. Luckily, it’s no longer necessary to have advanced technical knowledge to create, customize, and launch a business website—you can do it all using a website builder. From simple drag-and-drop editors to those that double as ecommerce platforms , there are a variety of website builders available for business owners on the market.

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Lending and Credit Automation: Before and After

Abrigo

Slow lending decisions and frustrating loan application processes are among borrowers’ biggest gripes with traditional financial institutions vs competitors such as online or alternative lenders. Ask the staff of banks and credit unions about the loan application, underwriting, and onboarding processes at their respective institutions, and you’ll likely hear some complaints from them, too.

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FinCEN Releases New Advisory for Financial Institutions Regarding the Fentanyl Epidemic

Abrigo

In response to the nation-wide opioid crisis that has led to unprecedented addiction and death, FinCEN has issued guidance to alert financial institutions to the financial schemes and typologies related to the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 130 people die each day in the United States from an opioid-related overdose.

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How Financial Institutions Focus on Customers Is Key

Abrigo

The community bank model is built around customer service, but for many bank and credit union customers, the definition of “good service” has been changing over the last couple of decades. While good service 20 years ago might have focused on having fully staffed branches, today it more likely involves a blend of digital technology and face-to-face contact with staff.

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Easy Ways BSA Officers Can Get Their Required Training

Abrigo

Ongoing training is at the very heart of a satisfactory Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program in financial institutions. Training is especially important for the BSA officer, who “is expected to be fully knowledgeable about the BSA and all related regulations,” as a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis publication noted.

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How One Bank Intends to Implement CECL – And Maybe Even Do It Early

Abrigo

Main Street Bank, like thousands of other privately held or smaller financial institutions across the U.S., recently found out it will have extra time to implement the current expected credit loss (CECL) accounting standard. The Massachusetts mutual bank has until 2023 to comply with CECL, considered the biggest change to bank accounting in the industry’s history, after FASB recently agreed to extend the deadline for smaller public and all privately held financial institutions.

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The SAFE Banking Act Update – Is Regulation for Banking CRBs on the Horizon?

Abrigo

Many in the financial crimes community have been waiting for some sort of guidance on banking cannabis-related businesses. The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act was introduced to address the cannabis banking issue and the accompanying lack of banking services to the cannabis industry, forcing significant amounts of cash to be stored in vaults or underground.

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Is the ThinkBIG Conference Right for My Financial Institution?

Abrigo

The first annual ThinkBIG Conference is right around the corner. Abrigo is bringing together the nation’s leading conferences on the new current expected credit loss (CECL) standard, MainStreet Technologies’ National CECL Conference, and the leading conference on lending, credit and portfolio risk best practices, Sageworks’ Lending & Risk Summit.

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Helping Bankers Deal with Change: ThinkBIG Keynote Speaker Champions Tips For Change Management

Abrigo

The current expected credit loss model, or CECL. Modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act. The shifting shape and effect of fintechs on banking. Libra and other forms of digital currency and their impact. Financial institutions are dealing with enormous change these days. Banks and credit unions must learn about these upcoming changes, adjust for them, and meanwhile continue to operate their existing institutions and meet customers’ needs while following all of the regulations that come w

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July’s Employment Report Is Just Fine

Abrigo

The Aug. 2 Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation report for July was about in line with expectations. The report said 164,000 payroll jobs were added (consensus expectations ranged from 156,000 to 165,000, depending on who was doing the surveying) and the headline unemployment rate (U3) held steady at 3.7%, although it was expected to tick down 0.1 percentage point.

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The Importance of Managing Core Deposits 

Abrigo

“I don’t think there’s any more important topic at this time in our recovery in the economy and the state of community financial institution management,” said Dave Koch, Managing Director of Advisory Services at Abrigo on the topic of core deposits. “Deposits are a thing that we have coveted for a while and became quite easy. Now once again we’re back to the question of, where do I go to get more deposits?

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Google My Business Listing: Why It Matters and How to Optimize Yours

Fundera

When it comes to your small business showing up in local searches, you may already know the importance of your business website and directory listings like Yelp. Something you may not know: A Google My Business listing directly affects where you appear in Google Maps and Google Search results. . Unfamiliar with Google My Business? It’s time to change that.

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The 5 Key Accounting Reports Small Business Owners Need to Know

Fundera

It’s important to always have a good idea of how your business finances are doing, especially when you are a new small business owner. Something as simple as reviewing your income, expenses, or cash flow statement could give you a better idea of what steps you need to take to move your business forward. . The easiest way to do this? Generate accounting reports, so you can see all the data you need at a glance, helping you make smarter business decisions for the future.

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How to Write Product Descriptions for Your Ecommerce Store

Fundera

When you’re browsing products online, why do you pull out your credit card and push the “Buy Now” button? Whether or not you realize it, the product description is almost certainly a factor in this decision. . As a consumer, you intuitively recognize good product descriptions—because they make you want the product in question. When you start an ecommerce business , however, you might find yourself struggling to write product descriptions or understanding exactly what’s going to motivate your cus

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How to Set Realistic Business Goals You Can Actually Keep

Fundera

The start of a new year may be the traditional time to set new business goals, but you don’t have to wait for January 1 to create business goals that will motivate you and your team to move your company forward. In reality, the best time to set new business goals is right now. While starting a business may have been your ultimate goal for some time, now that you’ve accomplished this, it’s time to make new business goals so your entrepreneurial endeavor can continue to grow.