Posts Tagged 'Business'
The relationship between an entrepreneur and their commercial enterprise can be a complicated one. One the one hand it is your livelihood and your creation. On the other it is a vampire that sucks up away your time, money, sweat and tears. Beyond any mixed feelings you may have about the business enterprise, the line between an proprietor’s personal finances and those of the business enterprise can be a very slight one as well.
Will missing that student loan payment a few years ago hurt your chances of getting a loan now?
I have seen a lot of questions like that one, about how a small business owner’s personal credit can touch your business and contrariwise. It’s a complicated question, with two possible answers . The uncomplicated one is that if you have bad personal credit, there is no way you ‘re getting a business loan from a bank. The great news is that there is a more complicated answer ; there are other choices and ways to get the financing you need.
If your credit score is low, say below 640 you will probably have trouble getting a loan from a bank. Because the model banks depository financial institutions use to lend is largely dependent on your credit score and history of making payments on time, they will consider you a high risk, regardless of situation. Their model of making money depends on bigger, regular payments, so your past history of payments are crucial to most banks. Assuming you are lucky enough to qualify for the small business loan application, it’s likely that the terms of the loan will be expensive.
If you have already been refused for a loan because of your credit score, your next step should be the SBA . They will guarantee loans for some barrowers who have been rejected , which will help comfort the nerves of the banks.
If neither of these choices are available it’s time to try some more creative business financing.
One choice is to try and repair your personal credit. This will be the best long term strategy , but it can take years to fulfill. Blemishes will stay on your record for up to ten years, and it can take months of perfect payments to raise your score. These are all necessary steps you should be taking, however, most people will find that they need a near term resolution.
Revenue based loaning is likely the best option for most poor credit borrowers. Revenue based lending is estimated based on the company’s typical revenues. Put differently, repayment is forecast based on what the business has made in the past and will likely be able to afford to pay for the working capital over the next few months.
Because of this theoretical account , credit score is less of import. If you are likely to still have trouble qualifying for this small business loan application, you may consider a merchant advance. Merchant advances are based on the revenue your company makes from credit card sales, and are repaid automatically as you make sales. Because of this, merchant advance companies can lend to business enterprise owners with personal credit as low as 500.
Business budgeting is of the upper most importance in every company regardless of how large or small the business. Good business budgeting can help business owners to plan and achieve their goals and stay in competition despite difficult or unexpected financial situations.
Business budgeting is not as difficult as it sounds because it is basically financial planning. It can be simple or complex depending on the nature of your business but it is best if you keep the budget presentation simple and clear. Above all, use caution when creating your budget. What you have to make sure First you should make sure is that all information is accurate and up-to-date for effective business budgeting.
Below are some budgeting tips that you can try:
• Be realistic
Business budgeting should be founded on numbers that is backed up by sensible expectations. These expectations should be based on both previous business financial performance and projected business developments.
• Business budgeting should be time-bound
Your Business budgeting should be prepared within a set period The budget is most of the time based on the company’s fiscal year or you can also project a budget on a monthly or quarterly basis.
It is recommended that you break down your budget on a monthly basis even if you have already prepared it on your business’ fiscal year. To make your business budgeting easy, consider using a financial program or software.
• Make an approximation on your income and expenses
Business budgeting relies on your expenses and income within a specified timeframe. Your income should include the payments gathered from sales, interests, accounts receivable and other sources. For the company expenses, all cash in hand that leave the company should be included. Such expenses include payroll, materials, utilities, real estate so on and so forth. Regardless of how cautiously you plan, there is not doubt that you will come across with unexpected expenses as you run your business. This makes it very important for you to save some allowance for them in your business financial plan.
Also, it is a good thing to consider the time when both income and operating costs will be incurred. For instance, if you run a business that is seasonal, there are months wherein your sales will definitely go down. In this case, it is important to make sure to adjust the budget accordingly for the lean months.
Business budgeting should help you business to achieve it’s goals. To be honest, business budgeting is not easy but like a lot of things the more you do it the easier it will become and you can be sure that you will incur lesser financial problems in your company.
Selling Your Business: What You’ll Give to Your California Business Broker
When you start your process with an M&A Advisor (California Business Broker) to sell your business, he or she will ask you a number of questions about your business and your goals. There are two key reasons we ask so many questions:
- Your California Business Broker needs everything that is vital to the buyer. This makes the process faster and makes everything work more smoothly and ensures that the buyer won’t have any objections.
- Your broker will also need the data for the marketing of your business.
To be ready is to be successful. The goal is to get everything ready from the get-go before the buyer, bankers and investors ask for the information. This is how we’ll make sure that the deal runs smoothly, and it’s how we’ll make sure that you come away with the best deal, and that we close the deal.
What You’ll Provide About Your Company
What you see next is a partial outline of the data you’ll provide about your business when we get things rolling.
Company Organization and History
- The full history and timeline of your company
- How your business is structured, and the ownership
- Your latest organization chart
- A copy of your most important staff, any issues you might have about your employees, and what these people do on a day-to-day basis
Information About Your Products and Services
- Make a copy of your primary products and services
- Write a total description of these services and products
- Now, write the history of these same services and products
- And prepare a Competitive analysis
- Get all your licences, patents, etc. arranged
- Make sure that you’ve got your product delivery mechanisms well-defined
- Put all your warranties in the open
- And, make a complete assessment of your technology
An Assessment of Your Industry
- Write a general of your industry
- Discuss the different trends that are happening in your industry
- Describe what you see for the future of your industry
- Describe the demographics of your industry
- Discuss the general concerns of your industry
Understanding a bit about Your Customers
- Who are your primary customers?
- How do they pay you?
- Have you recently lost any key customers?
- What new key customers have you added recently?
- What is the buying cycle of your primary customers
Getting to the bottom of your Sales and Marketing
- Let us see your sales and marketing plans
- Provide a detailed description of your marketing and sales tactics
- Discuss your sales force with us
- What type of promotion and advertising do you do?
- Describe your distribution channels in full.
What About Your Competition?
- Who are your most important competitors?
- Will your primary accounts go to the competitors?
- How do you think your competition will react?
And, There’s More…
You’ll also provide details about:
- Your Vendors and Suppliers
- Your facility and buildings
- Everything about your equipment
- Significant information/data about you
- And, finally, you’ll provide detailed data about your business, financial records, and inventory
Summary
As you can see, our data investigation goes both deep and broad. When selling a business, we try to make the process simple, and that requires as much information about your company up front as possible. This guarantees that the buyer will have all the information he or she needs to breeze through the due diligence process and will come to closure more quickly. As business brokers and M&A Advisors, we want to make sure that the selling process goes as smoothly as possible.
 Recently, we had the chance to sit down with Lola Whittle. Lola is the Director over at Renaissance Bayview helping emerging entrepreneurs realize their dreams in the Bayview. She is also a small business owner.
OK, OK – full disclosure – she is a great friend, as well.
What is your favorite part of a typical day?
Early mornings. It’s when I’m at my best. I particularly enjoy getting up and taking my dog for a long walk at Candlestick Park. Our neighborhood is so beautiful. I particularly love walking the paths along the water. After that, I am charged and ready for the world.
Which part of your job would you gladly give up?
Internal and external politics.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
“Don’t beat yourself down when you make a mistake – it definitely wasn’t your first and guaranteed not to be your last.”
What keeps you up at night?
YOU MIKE – Just joking “Juggling all the balls and not wanting a single one to drop. There are so many things to be done, so many people to respond to, and so many issues to resolve. My life is full with love, family and friends, but fitting it all in is sometimes difficult. With that said, after living life to the fullest (dining out after work with my special guy, catching a movie mid-week with my son, or taking time to read a favorite book), often times, I end up late still working.
What is your great extravagance?
Traveling to foreign countries, dining at the finest restaurants and surprising the special people in my life with incredible gifts.
What skill would you most like to improve?
Public speaking.
What is your most treasured possession?
My integrity.
What talent would you most like to have?
Motivational Speaker.
If you could have a drink with anyone (living or dead), who would it be?
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama
What is upcoming at Renaissance Bayview?
- Contractor/Production, Distribution & Repair (C/PDR) Program
- Food Program (catering, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, etc.)
- Prison Re-Entry Program
- Developing Green and Sustainable Business Practices for our clients
Lola M. Whittle, Director
Renaissance Bayview
3801 Third Street, Suite 616
San Francisco CA 94124
Tel. 415-647-3728, ext. 401,
Fax. 415-647-1542
www.rencenter.org
My friends get pretty jealous about me having an office in my home, saying it must be cool to be able to sit around in my sweats and do all sorts of errands during the day. Well, while there are definite perks to working from home – spending nothing on gas (a big benefit in $4/gallon San Francisco) and eating a healthy lunch that I prepare – it’s important to remember the work part in the work-from-home equation. For most of us with home offices, it’s key to our success to find ways to put the “office” back in “home office.”
Reduce distractions. Here’s a scenario: even though you hate doing laundry, as soon as you sit down to start your workday, suddenly your laundry jumps to the top of your must-do list. You get out of your chair, collect your laundry, sort it, put it in the machine, and before you know it, you’ve lost 20 minutes that was supposed to be spent on an important project. Sound familiar? Most of us have distractions in our homes that can divert our attention from the work that we have in front of us. For us work-at-homers, it’s super-important to combat these distractions. True, we can’t make them go away, but look for ways to shift your focus back to your work. For instance, putting all non-work-related items out view of your desk, closing the door to your office, and turning off the ringer on your home phone during the day have all proven helpful to people I’ve worked with.
Set the scene. Is your home office set up to help you do your best work? If it isn’t, take some time to get the space organized, comfortable, and conducive for how you like to work. For instance, if you have trouble getting started each day because you can’t find your papers, take an afternoon and set up a paper management system. Are your frequently-used supplies all the way on the other side of the room? Move them closer so you spend less time getting up and interrupting your workflow. Does the space itself reflect your personal aesthetic? How things look and feel can play a big part in how much (or how little) we like our workspace, and when we like our space, we do better work. Spend some time “dressing up” your work area or desk with items that reflect who you are and the things you like.
Dress for work, not for home. Even though it might seem working in your home office in pajamas or sweats is a good idea (you’re already wearing them, right?), doing so doesn’t lend itself to enhancing your productivity or helping you do your best work. Your pajamas may be silk and your sweats designer, but chances are you’d never see a client or go to an office wearing these decidedly not-work garments. Dressing up helps us shift our mind into another state – in this case, dressing for work helps make the mental shift into work mode. I’ve seen people work much better when they dress as if they may be called off to a client site at any moment. For example, a client says when she puts on her shoes, she knows it’s time for her to go to work (even though her office is just down the hall from her bedroom). What outfit can you change into to signal work time?
Find the things that you can do, whether it’s putting on a dress shirt or closing your office door, to create a physical or mental “workspace” that is distinct from your home. When you do, you’ll find yourself being much more productive and enjoy your work more.
Joshua Zerkel, CPO® is a the founder of Custom Living Solutions, a San Francisco-based productivity and organizing consulting firm, specializing in helping busy people save time, space and money by getting organized at home and at work. For more FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.
© 2009 Joshua Zerkel and Custom Living Solutions. All Rights Reserved.
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