Sat.Dec 15, 2018 - Fri.Dec 21, 2018

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9 Holiday Marketing Tips That Won’t Kill Your Budget

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The holiday season is a critical money-making time for many independent businesses. What’s more, it’s a prime opportunity to grow your customer base and turn one-time buyers into loyal patrons. . “Most people are looking to buy presents for the people in their lives, so they’ll likely venture to sites and stores they wouldn’t shop at normally,” says Elizabeth Bradshaw, the owner of an online store called Canvas Art Boutique.

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7 important questions to ask when choosing a Direct Debit provider

GoCardless

Are you using Direct Debit as a fast, efficient, low-cost method to collect regular fees, subscriptions or one-off payments from your customers? Or considering adding Direct Debit to your payments mix?

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How to Start an Ecommerce Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Much like starting any business , starting an ecommerce site is not easy, but the goal of setting up, launching, and maintaining sites where entrepreneurs, designers, and creators of all sorts can sell their wares is more attainable now than it ever has been. . Ecommerce businesses—which are businesses that transmit goods, services and funds over the internet—run the gamut in size and scope, from retail behemoths like Amazon to Etsy craft sites.

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Business Owner Titles: How to Pick the Best One Possible

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Business Owner Titles. CEO. COO. President. Owner. President. Proprietor. Founder. Principal. Head of Operations. Managing Director. Technical Director. Creative Director. Director of Operations. Managing Member. Managing Partner. Administrator. Chief Disruptor. Chief Executive Philosopher. When you’re a small business owner trying to choose the right title to fit your position, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by the number of choices you have—or to think your only options for business owner tit

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7 Clear Signs It’s Time To Hire Your First Employee (Infographic)

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Building a successful business by yourself still takes the advice, expertise, and mentorship of countless others. Even as a solopreneur, other professional’s ideas and support can make or break your business. When growing your own business, it’s normal to gain many new skills and areas of expertise to be proud of. However, it is inevitable that you will discover areas of expertise in which you don’t excel.

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Minority Business Grants: 25 Resources for Minority Entrepreneurs

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Best Minority Business Grants. Grants.gov Federal Grants Portal. The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) Growth Grants Program. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) Grants. Rural Business Development Grants. FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. Minorities are majorly driving the growth of entrepreneurship in this country.

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The 3 Best Grocery Store POS Systems for 2019

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The 3 Best Grocery Store POS Systems for 2019. Revel POS systems for fully integrated, customizable POS system—at a significant cost. Clover POS systems for a happy medium between capability and reasonable, transparent pricing. Square POS systems if you’re willing to search for an external scale but want to access high-power inventory tracking. Remember the days when all a grocery store needed to ring up customers was a scale and a till?

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The Booming Economy Index: December 2018

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The American economy has been booming of late, with hundreds of thousands new jobs added every month, annualized growth numbers from the past two quarters at the tune of 3.5% and 4.2% , and the stock market currently experiencing its longest running bull market since March 2009. As small businesses across the country make up 99.7% of all U.S. employers and 64% of net new private-sector jobs, they truly are the backbone of the country’s economy and an aggregate indicator of its health and status.

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Best Shipping Services for Small Businesses

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Best Shipping Services for Small Businesses. United States Postal Service. UPS. FedEx. Most small businesses will need to ship their products at some point. If you operate out of a brick-and-mortar location, shipping allows you to reach a larger pool of consumers and offer more flexible customer service. If you don’t sell out of a physical location and instead run an ecommerce business , shipping is pretty much a required part of your business model if you are to make any sales at all.

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How to File Taxes as a Sole Proprietor: Everything You Need to Know

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If this is your first tax filing season as a sole proprietor , you are probably wondering what to expect. Filing taxes as a sole proprietor is different than filing taxes as an employee with a W-2. With a little bit of education and planning, though, filing taxes as a sole proprietor is almost as easy as filing your individual return. If you’re wondering how to file taxes as a sole proprietor, this article will tell you (almost) everything you need to know.

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How to Set Up a Facebook Business Page in 7 Simple Steps

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How to Set Up a Facebook Business Page. Create a Facebook account or login in. You’ll need to do this to be an administrator of the page. Create a page. This will prompt you to set up your profile as a business or brand. Fill in your business information. In this step, you’ll enter your basic business information. Choose your images. Now you’ll be able to upload a cover image and images of your business.

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IncFile vs. LegalZoom: Which Is Right for Your Business?

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Most small business owners prefer to skip the legalese and focus on running their businesses. However, some legal issues, such as launching your business entity or entering into a contract with a potential supplier, are unavoidable. In fact, a research study from Decision Analyst showed that almost 60% of small businesses experienced legal issues in the last two years.

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Paydex Score: Breaking Down the Dun & Bradstreet Business Credit Score

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What Is a Paydex Score? A Paydex score is a proprietary business credit score generated by Dun & Bradstreet. The score determines your business’s creditworthiness, or how promptly you repay your vendors and suppliers. Scores range from 1 to 100. Establishing credit is an essential part of growing your business. When you begin to manage your business’s finances , and especially when you consider applying for a business loan , you’ll likely come across something called the Dun & Bradstreet

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The 8 Best Sites to Find Freelance Marketing Help

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The 8 Best Sites to Find Freelance Marketing Help. Fiverr. Upwork. Freelancer.com. Guru. PeoplePerHour. LinkedIn. 99Designs. Toptal. Marketing is one of the biggest challenges for small business owners and essential to your business’s success. As small business marketing becomes more digitized and more competitors enter into each industry, marketing your products and services becomes even more difficult.

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Home Depot Business Credit Card: Do You Need It?

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The Home Depot Business Credit Cards. Both Home Depot business cards for business boast no annual fee, online bill pay and account management, up to four attached cards to your account, one year to make returns (4x the length of Home Depot’s usual return policy), and live purchase tracking. But, in contrast to The Home Depot Commercial Revolving Charge Card, The Home Depot Commercial Account card doesn’t have a spending limit and will require you to pay you monthly spending in full.

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The 3 Best Business Gas Cards for Small Business Fleets

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The 3 Best Gas Cards for Small Business Fleets. American Express SimplyCash Plus. Chase Ink Business Cash. American Express Business Gold. As you track just how much your small business spends on gas every month, you might be inclined to grab a branded business gas card from your local gas station. And this strategy could certainly provide relief at the pump.

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Loss Payee vs. Lender’s Loss Payable Endorsements: An Important Difference

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When you’re applying for an SBA loan for your small business, the process can be intimidating, complicated—and frankly, a little scary. There are a lot of very specific, practically nitpicky requirements from the SBA that you as the borrower must meet. And at first glance, some of them might not even make sense. One of those requirements is loss payee vs. lender’s loss payable endorsements.

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5 reasons to start taking payments by Direct Debit

GoCardless

Many businesses choose to automate payment collection through Direct Debit: but what exactly is the benefit?

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Bank of the West Business Credit Card Review, Plus Top Alternatives

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Having a business credit card can really come in handy to help you stay on top of your business’s finances. This is especially true when you find a business credit card with the right mix of perks. For example, if you travel frequently for business, you’ll likely want to consider one of the best business credit cards for travel. On the other hand, if you’ve just launched a startup, a business credit card that caters to new businesses might make more sense for your needs.

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Huntington Bank Business Loans Review for 2019

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Huntington Bank Business Loans, Summarized. Business term loans. Commercial real estate loans. Business lines of credit. SBA 7(a) loans. SBA Express loans. SBA 504/CDC loans. The Voice Business Credit Card. If you’re running a business in the Midwest, and you’re on the hunt for an SBA loan, odds are you’ve come across Huntington Bank. Huntington Bank was number 2 in the nation of the top SBA lenders of 2017 for the SBA 7(a) loan program , so they’re sure to come up for pretty much any Midwester

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City National Bank Business Accounts Reviewed

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The key to running your business as smoothly as possible might just be opening the right business checking account. The right business bank account can allow you to make all your transactions at no extra cost. You could even potentially have extra allowances for more flexibility. City National Bank offers a number of business checking accounts with a variety of special features and perks.

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Commerce Bank Small Business Loans Review

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With headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, and 184 national branches, Commerce Bank serves consumers and businesses located mostly in the Midwest. In fact, Commerce Bank small business loans can only service businesses located in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, or Colorado. That geographical limitation precludes a wide swath of American business owners from applying for business loans with this particular institution, of course.

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2018 highlights from GoCardless

GoCardless

Saying farewell to the year of the global payments network and looking to 2019.

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FAQ Friday – that’s it for 2018!

GoCardless

The best bloopers and funny moments from all the FAQ Friday videos of 2018.

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6 Best Appointment Scheduling Software for 2019

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6 Best Appointment Scheduling Software for 2019. Setmore. Square Appointments. Acuity Scheduling. GigaBook. 10to8. Appointy. If you’re in the service industry, you can’t operate your business optimally without a highly organized appointment scheduling system. But luckily for those businesses without the budget to hire a dedicated administrative assistant, there are tons of excellent, easy-to-use appointment-scheduling software programs available.

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How Long Do Credit Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report?

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How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay On Your Credit Report? Hard credit inquiries can stay on your credit report for a maximum of two years. However, they’ll only actually impact your FICO score for one year, and the ding to your score will be minimal—typically within 1-5 points. Your credit history and the circumstances of each pull will affect how your score is affected.

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5 Best Business Expense Tracker Apps

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The 5 Best Business Expense Tracker Apps. Expensify. Certify. MileIQ. Zoho Expense. Concur Travel. For most small businesses, your two biggest line items are labor costs and business expenses. While the former is relatively static, the ladder can change every single day—especially if you have employees making expenses on behalf of your business. You wouldn’t go around spending your own money without keeping track of what you are buying (we hope!

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The 51 Best Finance Apps for Small Business Owners

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The Best Finance Apps for Banking and Budgeting. Capital One Mobile. Amex Mobile. Bank of America. Citi Mobile. Simple. Square. QuickBooks GoPayment. PayPal Here. InDinero. Mint. Goodbudget. Wally. Home Budget With Sync. Digit. Credit Karma. You Need a Budget. Mvelopes. Spendee. One of the best parts of owning a small business? You get to have a hand in every pot.

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Can You Have Multiple SBA Loans? (And Should You?)

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Can You Have Multiple SBA Loans? Yes. As long as your bank allows it, you can have multiple SBA loans outstanding at the same time, but the total amount borrowed can’t exceed SBA program limits. To qualify for multiple SBA loans, your first loan must be in good standing, and you must have positive cash flow, strong credit, and sufficient collateral.

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The 45 Best Chrome Extensions for Business Owners

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Are you one of the many small business owners who uses technology to get ahead for their business? Whether with new small business apps , accounting software , or innovative automation programs , entrepreneurs who stay on the cutting-edge of tech-based tools are making their lives easier and their businesses better. So, where’s the next tool that’ll move the needle for your business?

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Most People Would Not Loan Their Loved Ones Money to Start a Business [Survey]

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The process of finding funding for your business can be arduous. Not only do you need a solid idea, but you need to find the time to create a compelling pitch and business plan. You also need to network with potential investors and apply for bank loans. The time and effort it takes to raise the funds for your startup can quickly get out of hand, which may be the reason that 29% of new small businesses run out of cash and fail.