How to Improve Your Chance of Getting the Business Funding You Need

Getting business funding is not always an easy feat. Whatever kind of business you are starting, chances are you need funds to get it off the ground and achieve your business goals. Even though it’s easier than ever to start a business these days with next to nothing, there comes a time for all business owners when additional funding is required in order to hire employees, launch marketing campaigns and grow the business. So, how do you improve your chance of getting business funding?

Go to the Right Lender

There’s no point in going straight to the bank for a business loan if it’s unlikely that you are going to get accepted. If you are trying to get funding for a brand-new business or a business that has not been trading for very long, there’s a high chance that the banks are going to say no, simply because of the fact that you have very little in the way of financial records. An alternative small business lender might be a more suitable option that’s more likely to be successful. Check here for more information.

Improve Your Business Plan

If you do not have a solid business plan, the first step before applying for funding is to get one. Lenders will want to see your business plan as proof that you are planning for the future in terms of your finances, and that you have a plan in place for when it comes to how you are going to invest any funding that you get and ensure that you are able to repay it.

Check Your Personal Credit Score

When your business has nothing or very little to speak of in terms of financial records, lenders are typically going to look at the next best thing; your personal credit score. If you have a poor personal credit score or a history of missing repayments in terms of your personal finances, lenders may see you as higher risk since they will worry that the same will happen when it comes to your business lending. It might be necessary to take some steps to repay personal debts and improve your credit score before you start thinking about borrowing money for your business.

Consider All the Options

Along with borrowing money from a bank or small business lender, there are some alternatives that you might find worth considering when it comes to getting the funds that you need. For example, you might want to think about pitching your business idea to an angel investor, using a crowdfunding app to get funds from the general public, or even asking your family and friends to invest in your business – all of which can be viable options compared to borrowing and might be easier for you to obtain in some situations. Weigh up and carefully compare all of your options so that you’re sure you’re making the right decision for your business.

At some point, most businesses will need funding to reach the next level – but business funding is not always easy to get. Keep these tips in mind to improve your chance of getting your business the finance it needs.

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Small Business Investment Opportunities That Aren’t Risky

There are many business investment opportunities that can give you a chance to be your own boss. Being a handyman is one of them and the best part is that your investment and risk are minimal.

Are you tired of working for somebody else? Well, if that is the case it might be the time to put your entrepreneurship skills and ambition to good use. Many would like to start their own business. However, it is easier said than done. Starting a new business demands funds and specific skills. At first, this might sound intimidating but hold on! Don’t give up before you even started. There are some great small business investment opportunities for you. All these suggestions demand minimal investing, which minimizes your business risk.

How To Put Your Handyman Skills to Good Use?

Some people just have a knack for fixing things. So, why would you put those skills to good use? To be an official handyman you might need to obtain a license and you might need to get registered. These types of regulations are largely dictated by the state that you live and work in. Your startup costs would include tools. In addition to tools, you need to be mobile. The best vehicle for a handyman is a pickup truck.

Appliance Repair Specialist

In order to pursue this business investment opportunity, you need to be a handyman with a supplementary set of skills. Therefore, you would need to have knowledge of appliances and their inner functioning and mechanisms.

Appliance Repair Specialist business

To fix appliances you must have a greater understanding of how they work.

Smartphone Repair Expert

We all have smartphones and we drop them, hit them and do all sorts of things that might damage them all the time. Thus, it is no surprise that smartphone repairs are in demand. Investing in a toolset might be all you need if you have the necessary skills. If not, you might need to take a course. Be aware that the demand is there, but so is the competition. Big producers of such hardware, like Apple and Samsung, will be your biggest competition. Still, you can be very successful in this line of business, but you might need to start off with lower prices in order to attract new incoming business.

Smartphone Repair Expert investment opportunity

People have their entire life on their phones, so imagine their panic when it gets broken. The demand for smartphone demand will only continue to grow.

Business Investment Opportunity in Web Development

Many business owners are too busy to work on their business’ websites. Also, some might not have the skills even if they had the time. You would need to write content, make sure the information on the website is up to date and all other activities that are included in website maintenance. To do this you would need to have some sort of background in this or similar field. The great thing about this business option is that you can work from home, which is a pretty great workplace benefit.

Pour Your Creativity into Your Own Blog

If you are a word wizard, becoming a professional blogger is an excellent business investment opportunity for you. You would write a blog about something that you know and something you are passionate about. For example, if you are an expert in all things beauty related, you will not start a blog on digital marketing. You will write about everything related to beauty. The way you will make money is through direct advertising. The more eyeballs you have on your blog, the more advertisers you will attract. This is another great business opportunity that can come to life from the comfort of your home.

Resume Writer

Your resume is the first thing your future employer sees that represents you and your past business ventures. Of course, you want it to be as impressive as possible. In today’s tough and competitive job market, people are willing to pay good money for professional assistance on their resume. To do this, you must have good writing skills and some type of knowledge of editing. It might take you time to build up a client base, but once you get the ball rolling you will have clients coming at you left and right.

SEO Expert

SEO experts are focused on your website’s content and your SEO ranking. The following obligations fall under this popular job description: keyword analysis, Google Analytics, writing content, staying up to date on current SEO trends and strategies, etc. To be able to run this type of business you would need to have related prior experience. Nevertheless, there are classes that you can take, but you will have extra costs related to your additional education. Once your business takes off you will need a website for marketing purposes. The great thing is that you will know how to work on your website’s SEO ranking.

Wedding Planner

Those that have a background in hospitality or event planning might have a bright future as wedding planners. If you top that with great communication skills and a bubbly personality, you are golden. However, be aware that wedding planners are always on the move. You cannot do food tastings and venue research from home. Also, weddings die down during the winter months. Yet, this is not true for cities like Los Angeles and Miami that are warm all year round. Thus, you might want to move if you plan on seriously entering the wedding planning business. For those that need professional and reliable assistance during their relocation visit movingkings.com.

Wedding planning for small business investment

Put your communication skills to good use and start a wedding planning business.

Professional Photographer

You can be a general photographer, but you can also specialize in something. For instance, you can be a wedding photographer or a fashion photographer. For those that want to dive into this business investment opportunity, but they do not have relevant experience, they can start off as an assistant to a more experienced photographer. Professional equipment can be expensive, but once you invest in it, you will be covered for quite some time. Investing in this type of equipment would be a great way to spend your last bonus check.

Do You Have An Idea on How To Turn Your Skills into Cash?

As you can see there are many small business investment opportunities that do not carry a big risk. It is important to realize that every investment carries a certain amount of risk, so you always need to think twice before diving into a business opportunity. It doesn’t matter how small or big it is, always keep your eyes wide open.

There is no doubt that you will pick the best possible business venture to dedicate yourself too. Make sure you are dedicated, determined, persistent and patient because every business will demand these qualities out of its business owner. Happy investing!

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What is Bad Debt Expense in Business?

Finding your way through the ins and outs of owning your own business can be difficult, but extremely rewarding! Along the way, you will not only find new and interesting ways to create profits, but you also learn a lot about business expenses and debt. Bad debt expense in business is one of those things that can hurt your business, but you may not have any idea what it is until it is too late!

So what exactly is bad debt expense? Much like learning how to calculate the cost of debt, or even learning how to file your taxes properly, bad debt expense is a part of doing business. In order to make that clear to you, here is a breakdown of examples, as well as steps you can take as a business owner to avoid it!

Defining Bad Debt Expense

Unless you’re an accountant or have been in business for years, defining bad debt expense can sound intimidating. However, once you understand exactly what it is, and how it can affect your business, then it’s quite simple!

Defining Bad Debt Expenses

Your company’s accounts receivable will be where you should be looking for bad debts expense. It can also be called “doubtful accounts expense”, or even “uncollectable accounts expense”. This means that your business has provided goods or services to a customer on credit. Unfortunately, when the time came to collect on that credit, the customer did not pay what was owed.

However, this doesn’t mean you get to just go after the customer for the amount owed legally. Bad debt expense is basically when the customer is no longer able to pay. This is generally due to things like bankruptcy, going out of business, or other unfortunate issues.

How Do You Account for Bad Debt Expense?

Finding how to both report, file and account for bad debt expense in your business finances doesn’t have to be tricky. They are typically sorted as either general administrative expenses, or even as a sales expense. However, bad debt expense does create an obvious obstacle for your accounts receivable!

In addition to losing goods and/or services, your accounts receivable will also be out of balance. Although businesses can always retain the right to collect the amount due if the customer’s financial situation changes, your business is in the red for that account for now.

Two Main Ways to Recognize Bad Debt Expense

Within your company’s financial records, there are two primary ways to acknowledge bad debt expense:

  • Allowance Method: This means that your company will take steps to predict this type of expense before it happens. The losses can be calculated into expected income for the year. Therefore, a company can avoid an account overstatement. This can be calculated from previous losses of this kind from the company, as well as from other companies in the same field.
  • Direct Write-Off: This is a method of dealing with bad debt expense that is extremely straight forward. Instead of calculating the non-payments into their overall budgets, businesses can write off the expense. All in all, this means that uncollectible funds are written off as a base expense by the business. However, this method can lead to more difficult accounting in the future for many different reasons.

Within your business, how you deal with bad debt expense is completely up to you. Not to mention what is best for the company as a whole.

write-off debt

Avoidance and Modern Business

All things considered, it’s extremely difficult to avoid bad debt expense in the modern business world. When dealing with many different clients, or even different companies, it’s extremely difficult to predict their successes or failures. That being said, there are a few ways to avoid this expense altogether.

As bad debt expense only occurs when dealing with credit for customers, you can simply avoid this expense by not dealing in credit. Simply allow for payments to be made upon receipt of services, or goods.

Because businesses allow customers to receive goods or services on credit, they run the risk of this debt becoming uncollectable! However, this isn’t always a black and white, clear picture kind of decision to make. There are a lot of reasons why you may allow a customer to receive credit from your business, as well as whether or not you aggressively collect those debts.  

Finding Your Way Through Bad Debt Expense

Altogether, owning a business is filled with many ups and downs. From learning how to deal with people one on one, as well as wading your way through corporate takeovers, finding your way through bad debt expense doesn’t have to be a challenge! You can find great ways to collect debts, to deal with clients, but some expenses can’t be avoided.

Overall, how you deal with your bad debt expense is up to you and your business. Whether you prefer the direct write-off method, the allowance method, or trying your hardest to avoid it altogether, there are a variety of paths! However, you can’t predict how well, or how poorly your customers will do. Bad debt expense is simply one of the many, many costs of doing business in the modern, credit-driven world.

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Most Effective Debt Recovery Solutions

Looking for an effective debt recovery solution?

Collecting money from people who are in debt to your company, is never a fun task. Going after the money you are owed can create unnecessary trouble for you and your business. That’s why there are debt recovery solutions available to take the stress out of retrieving the money owed.

You will find this helpful: 4 Interesting Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund

However, the debt you are collecting is indeed owed to YOU. As a creditor, it is legally your right to attempt to collect the debt after a missed payment. Unfortunately, there is only so far you can go before you move from debt collection into debt recovery.

What Is Debt Recovery?

Debt recovery is when a debt has gone unpaid for a long period of time. As soon as the debt has been unpaid for an extended period, the creditor, or company, hires a non-biased third party to recover the money owed.

Debt recovery is different from debt collection. Debt collection is when you as the creditor attempt to contact the consumer. After the loan, or bill has gone unpaid for an extended amount of time, it is time to bring in the professionals!

Effective Debt Recovery Solutions In the Modern Age

If you are a consumer, ignoring your debt, you no longer live in a world where you can rip up the bill and be done. Maybe you fell for a minimum payment plan, or fell on hard times. Regardless, your debt follows you all over the world!

Digital Footprint debt

As digitizing has made credit scores, as well as recent contact information more available, you simply can’t outrun what you owe!

As a creditor, there are several debt recovery solutions that are extremely effective today. Find a debt collection company that will not only include these strategies but also use all of them in order to close the account!

Finding the Debtors

Collecting up-to-date information on the debtors is vital to debt recovery. However, this information isn’t just about physical addresses!

Here are a few things a good company will uncover about consumers:

  • Phone number
  • E-Mail address
  • Most recent address
  • Commercial Information

Being able to locate, as well as contact a debtor attempting to run out on their debts is one of the most practical and necessary debt recovery solutions!

Creating Debt Recovery Solution Priorities

A good debt recovery solution is finding the right amounts, as well as knowing you can collect them! Altogether, this means that if a debt seems to have the potential to be repaid, industry specialists will likely prioritize collecting this debt first.

Technology allows for this to be done not only with by researching consumer patterns, but also experimenting with new collection strategies. Prioritizing certain collectable debts will not only get you your money faster, but it will also keep the debt recovery company in business!

Digital Collection and Virtual Recovery

All in all, the internet and your digital footprint make it easier and easier for debt collectors to find you. This means that if you are a creditor, you will not only WANT digital debt recovery solutions, but you may NEED them.

Debt Recovery Programs

There are a growing number of programs available to different debt recovery companies. These technological advancements will not only allow for your debt to be collected, but will also help to discover if the debtor is in a better place to pay more on their debt!

Using the information that is practically alive on the internet will be an invaluable way to collect the debts you are owned.

debt recovery solutions company

Debt Recovery Platforms

There are also companies that use digital platforms to collect debt, but also allow consumers to negotiate payment plans, pay back their debt in a timely manner, and do it all online! Using available technology to collect, as well as pay off debt!

The Most Effective Debt Recovery Solutions Are Always Fair

When it comes down to the wire, as a creditor, you want to collect the money you are owed, but you should also be able to keep your company’s hard-earned profile. Finding fair, legal, and effective debt recovery solutions will help to not only get your money to you faster but keep your company in consumer’s good graces!

Find a debt recovery company that will incorporate all of these debt recovery solutions. Avoid the burnout and hire a professional! Because you want the best solution so you can be on your way to getting paid!

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