What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Small Business Credit Cards

Any business owner can tell you that while getting a business started is difficult enough, it’s only the beginning of the battle. When it comes to keeping a business running, you’ll need to continue buying supplies and covering many other expenses that are associated with business operations.

credit cards for small businesses

Many business owners choose to cover these expenses through the use of small business credit cards. Still, other business owners are hesitant to get a credit card for their companies for a number of reasons. Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of small business credit cards and you can easily determine whether or not one is right for your business.…

Continue reading

Five Surprising Health Insurance Tax Tips For Small Business Owners and The Self Employed

health insurance tax tips

Whether you’re self employed or a small business owner, preparing your taxes can be a daunting task – scrambling to find every little deduction within “hidden” tax codes to make the most of your return. And with Health Reform underway, there are new laws in effect that may translate into a bigger refund check.

Here are five health insurance-related tax tips to consider before you file your taxes this year:

1.   New this year! Take a one-time opportunity to reduce your self-employment taxes – In addition to the standard “˜above the line’ deduction described below, self-employed persons can also deduct the cost of their health insurance premiums from their self-employment taxes on Schedule SE.…

Continue reading

Take Your Banker Out to Lunch

Starting a small business means having as many allies as possible and few allies are as important to new business owners as the banker.

build a relationship with your banker

It always pays to be on the good side of the person who has a say over whether or not your emerging business will be extended the loan it needs to get through the initial stages. Well as you might already know, it’s important to be on the good side to anybody that influences your business in any type of way.

Here’s a tip: Take your banker out to lunch and build a relationship with them.

For years, entrepreneurs and company associates have taken clients to lunch as a way to either establish a potential relationship or strengthen a rapport that had already existed.…

Continue reading

Planning Your Year-End Business Tax Strategies

planning your tax strategiesWhile everybody else gears up for the holidays, small businesses should have another thing in mind apart from sales: filing taxes. As the fiscal year draws to a close, it is important that business owners review the current financial situation and start implementing strategies to help minimize your income tax.

There’s no better time than the present to start planning which tax strategies are best for your business, for you to get deductions. Before the holiday rush, business owners should already have a plan in place. If you don’t have one yet, now is as good a time as any to come up with one.…

Continue reading

5 Bad Habits That Keep You From Getting the Funding You Need

bad habits that won't get your business funding

It’s common for small businesses to slip into bad habits that limit their ability to get funding.   From unscreened customers to generous payment terms, here are some of the most common reasons lenders will not loan to small business owners.

1. Not putting profits back into the business

When you hear these pleasant words from your accountant, “You should take a draw before the end of the year,” think again.   Building equity in your business has a positive impact on your ability to get funding.   A lender always looks at your debt-to-equity ratio.   The more equity you have, the better your ratio.  …

Continue reading

Financial Literacy Among Entrepreneurs

financial literacyAny person who is running their own enterprise and is accountable for it can be called an entrepreneur. But not all entrepreneurs can be called financially literate. Financial literacy goes beyond just knowing what goes on in the financial world, it is about understanding finance so that effective decisions about the business can be reached.

With the current economy, there is undoubtedly a need to improve financial literacy especially among those in the business sector. You may have the best business idea or the most innovative products in the market but if you do not have the essential financial knowledge in managing the money your business makes, you are in for a rough ride.…

Continue reading

The Impact Of Fraudulent Applications For SBA Loans

SBA loan fraudulent applicationsThe Small Business Administration (SBA) should be commended for their help in sustaining the small business sector with their microloans. However, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the funds which should be distributed to businesses that need it, actually go to ineligible ones. The HUBZone certification which businesses need to qualify for a loan is a program which spans 13 years and is meant to help small business owners build companies in economically distressed areas. When investigators submitted applications which should be denied or disapproved because of obvious reasons; those applications got the federal contracts instead.…

Continue reading

Bank of America Announces New Program to Help Spur Small Business Lending Nationwide

Bank of American lending program for small businessesBank of America (BOA), one of the world’s largest financial institutions, has announced it will provide $10 million in grants to nonprofit lenders, such as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), to leverage funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for lending to small and rural businesses.

The grants to nonprofits will help up to 8,000 businesses obtain new loans over the next 12 Months.

The CDFI’s will use the grant money as loan loss reserves, which BOA hopes will unlock millions in low-cost capital for small business microloans program nationwide.

SBA and USDA microloans are made through local nonprofit lenders, which also provide business training and technical assistance.…

Continue reading

Cost Cutting Your Business Expenses

business cost cutting expensesExpenses can be a burden for any particular company. This is something that a business owner cannot avoid. Of course, the prerequisite for a business to operate is start up capital. You can’t manage and operate a business from an empty pocket. You need to shell out money in order to start your business operation.

Since expenses cannot be eliminated, entrepreneurs must find a way to at least lessen the cost required for business operation. A successful business knows how to control the costs. Manage your business in such a way that every small detail of your expenses will be recorded and you’re spending at the smallest possible cost.…

Continue reading

Top Ways SMBS Can Save on Energy Costs Now

saving on energy costsAs the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day approaches, consumers and businesses everywhere are thinking about ways to reduce energy consumption and lower their energy bills. Affordable alternative energy sources are years away and utility-driven conservation measures like the Smart Grid won’t help SMBs in the short term, if at all.

While we await advances in energy creation and conservation, consumers and businesses are faced with skyrocketing energy costs. Businesses are particularly hard hit as they are forced to pay higher rates due to their higher peak energy usage.

SMBs looking to reduce energy use and costs quickly and affordably would be wise to look at the following biggest energy wasters and tips for controlling energy use and costs for each:…

Continue reading