Financial SourceGlobal Finance & Market News at FinancialSource.Org

Loan decline rates for small businesses continue at close to the ninety percent level.  Small businesses have been challenged by the slow economy.  Business owners have continued to invest personal funds into their businesses, getting home equity lines, refinancing mortgages, selling unproductive assets, and tapping into credit cards. 

Such actions have resulted in making small business owners even more of a risk for banks and have contributed to the high rate of turn-downs for bank loans.   Owners with maxed-out credit lines and highly collateralized property are not attractive candidates for the banks.  

Survey Says…

The high rate of bank denials has driven small business owners to look for new sources of funding.  A recent online survey of 276 small business owners indicated that 87 percent needed a predictable and readily available source of capital.  Consistently, business owners felt that funding decisions should be made on the strength of a businesses’ cash flow and not the ability to collateralize a loan.

Merchant Cash Advance Provides Funding

The survey results reinforce the concept of a merchant cash advance; cash advance decisions are made primarily on the strength of business’ credit card receipts.  Factors like high personal credit scores for the owner are not required, and funds are readily available.  

Funds Are Available Quickly

When businesses with strong credit card sales find themselves short on cash, they can get a cash advance on future credit card receipts with a merchant cash advance.  A cash advance is often a good solution because:

• Repayment is made from credit card receipts, so the payment will go up and down as sales go up and down
• There is no fixed repayment term
• No collateral is needed

In order to qualify, a business owner needs:

• $2,500 minimum in credit card sales per month
• 4 months as the current business owner
• Have a FICO score of at least 500 (better credit = more funds and lower rates)

Merchant Cash Advance Gets High Rating

Business owners who have used a merchant cash advance found that it was easy to use, and generally recommend it to other business owners.  The owner of a B & B in Texas has this to say:

“The cash advance allowed my company to expand and grow by opening another location. The payback is truly

Full Post…

About three years ago I ordered a Bose QC3 headphone. When I received them, they had a bit of a quirk in the left ear — I had to fiddle with the cord to get clear sound. At that time, I should have sent them back for an exchange, but I didn’t. Fast forward a couple of years and they stopped working completely out of that ear.

Thinking it was the cord, my husband and I searched around to find a replacement. We found one on eBay through a seller named mazatlan and ordered it. And it was the wrong cord — our fault not his. But he was great about it. He sent us out a replacement (before we even returned the wrong one). But that didn’t work either.

Full Post…

This past January, I attended my first Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop — NAMS. It was the third of it’s kind and full of lots of interesting tidbits and tactics I could take to improve my results. You can read about my NAMS3 experience here.

NAMS is held twice a year and is just an awesome conference for anyone who is trying to dip their toe in an online business venture. It is non-threatening, helpful and fun. What’s really cool about NAMS (well, there’s lots of cool things!) is that during the sessions a product is created and put online for sale. Then there’s a contest to see who can make the most sales. But it’s not really about the contest. It’s about

Full Post…

Yesterday, as Colin from Market Street Eats and I were discussing owning the sales process (see yesterday’s post), we were putting up a new poster for Social Media FTW, the upcoming social media conference we’re putting on up here in Maine.

Colin taped up the poster on the back of the Dasani cooler that faces people as they walk in and when they’re sitting down. While doing this we were  patting each other on the back for being able to see opportunities that other people miss (again, see yesterday’s post.) After five to ten minutes of this activity, and after the poster had been in place for a few minutes I got ready to go. It was o

Full Post…

Technology companies are, unfortunately, almost as well known for having poor customer service as they are for their actual products.  Why is that?

Small business expert Anita Campbell cited poor customer service for web apps as one of three key issues that needs to be overcome before cloud apps can become ubiquitous in small businesses.  Shame on us web software companies for allowing an easy-to-fix item like this onto the list!

This truth stings quite sharply, for a couple of reasons:

1.      It’s true

2.      Most cloud app companies are small companies (not large ones)

Crappy customer service is almost expected from large companies – in software, and beyond.  But it should NOT be an acceptable business practice for us smaller software companies.  The future of the software industry is in the cloud – and in the many innovative small companies that are producing productivity enhancing web apps for small business.  So we need to get the customer service issue figured out – and soon!

The Most Common Customer Service Complaint

What’s the worst feeling a customer can have?  How about when you can’t get a hold of someone to help you.

You know the feeling – and you probably dread it.  Remember the last time your plane got delayed, and you couldn’t get a hold of anyone from the airline to inform you about your alternate travel plans?  Or how about the last time you called your cell phone company, and you were stuck in a maze of 1-800 numbers, all answered by people without a clue or even an inclination to help you?

Our Secret Customer Service Weapon: The Telephone

From a customer service perspective, the offer of free email AND phone support is very comforting for many of our customers.  It assures them that they’ll always be able to get a hold of someone, because they can pick up the phone and give us a ring.

And ironically – between you and me – they rarely take us up on the phone offer.  We get only one phone call for about every 20 email inquiries.  So the incremental effort required from us to accept phone calls is actually minimal.

Most importantly, we’re able to take care of that one person out of twenty who really wants to talk to a live person.

And Sometimes We Even Call Them

Sometime we will even call somebody back directly after receiving an email.  We’ve found this to be a very good practice in the following situations:

1. When we are unsure of what they are

Full Post…