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Thursday, September 30, 2010

How to Finance Your New Business

There are many creative ways to finance your business. Here are some common and creative ways to finance your business venture.
Family and Friends
1. Write a business proposal as if you were going to write one to obtain a loan from a banker. Discuss what the business does, the market demand for the product or service, how you intend to market your product or service, include financial projections: in what time frame do you anticipate the business will be making a profit. Include financial statements and tax returns.
2. State how much money you need, what the money will be used for and the terms of the loan such as the interest rate, how you intend to pay the loan back whether this be in a lump sum or in scheduled payments. You should also state whether the loan is secure, that in the event you are unable to pay the loan the lender will have a percentage of ownership in the business. In making your proposal more attractive to the lender you may consider having a promissory note or agreement stating the financial terms, scheduled payments and entitlement to the business in the event the note is not paid.
3. Don't forget the tax benefits in using a promissory note, if for some reason you are unable to repay the loan in full, the lender will be entitled to a tax deduction known as "bad debt". Warren Buffet who is now the second richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of 40Billion, raised $105,000 for his first business from 7 partners, two of which were his sister and aunt.
Equity in Exchange for Expertise
If you have a brilliant idea you maybe able to find others, who in exchange for there services are willing to accept some form of equity. This can be legal services, engineering services, or marketing services, the possibilities are endless. For example: many new start-ups require legal formation such as becoming a corporation. You can contact licensed attorneys in your area, who specialize in start-ups, many attorneys if the idea is one where the potential for future profits is great, will agree to postpone legal labor costs, and will request you only pay upfront costs, such as the filing fees. You can offer anywhere from 1-2%, for the postponement of legal fees and agree to pay the legal fees once funding has been obtained.
People are eager to be apart of the next big thing, in giving an attractive proposition with reasonable terms and conditions you can create winning business relationships allowing for your company to grow and become successful. Countless start-ups have utilized this financial strategy in launching their business. When Google was just an idea, Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had convinced their landlord to take stock in their company in exchange for free rent.
Commercial Loans
In applying for a commercial loan there will be many paper requirements, which generally include your business plan, financial statements, credit report, incorporating documents and tax returns. A commercial bank will evaluate your business on the basis of the 5C's of credit:
1. Capital- how much of your own money do you have in the business
2. Character- your reputation in business, they will look at your credit score, credit history, such as making your payments on time, the amount owing to other creditors and if you have any judgments or liens.
3. Capacity- your business cash flow and the ability to repay the loan.
4. Collateral- assets you business owns such as equipment or real estate as security for the loan. Potential Guarantees that is someone else's ability to repay the loan if you don't.
5. Conditions- how do you intend to use the funds and for what purpose.
In applying for a commercial loan you want to investigate several lenders, as to what businesses they finance, compare interest rates and terms.
Small Business Administration Loans (SBA)
In the event you are unable to obtain a commercial loan you can apply for a SBA loan, as a requirement in applying for a SBA loan is you have to have sought out a loan from conventional lenders and were unable to obtain a loan at reasonable terms. The SBA guarantees 75% or up to $750,000 of the loan made by a private lender. As the business owner you must personally guarantee the loan and demonstrate your cash flows are sufficient to repay the loan.
Angel Investors and Venture Capital
Many start-ups have received Angel investment. Angel investors specialize in early stage financing. They are often more willing to invest in ideas where there is too much risk for a bank and not enough potential for a venture capital firm. They usually invest smaller amounts anywhere from $100,000 to 3Million and are willing to invest for the long haul- 5 years or more. Many times companies will start with an angel investment, in the event the company becomes a high net worth company and huge profits are easily foreseen a Venture capitalist is most likely to become involved.
Venture Capitalists specialize in high growth industries and rarely invest less than 5Million at a time, as they want the company to grow quickly, ideally having the company go public, so as to cash out in the shortest time possible usually 3-5 years. It can be extremely challenging obtaining venture capital, on average venture firms receive 1000's of business plans yearly and are highly unlikely to invest in a business that was not referred to them by an acquaintance. It is estimated that only 1 in 600 business plans received from Silicon Valley venture firms even get consideration let alone funding.
In order to increase your chances of funding, it is recommended you join business associations and business organizations that have the involvement of venture capital firms, this way you can network and make valuable contacts. In the meantime, while you are networking and getting your name out there, continue to build and refine your product or service making it better each and everyday. Don't be discouraged if your business plan is rejected, as this is very common and does not mean you do not have a great idea or business. Scott Cook, founder of Intuit with a 2Billion plus company which provides accounting software - Quicken and Quickbooks, was rejected by every venture firm in 1984, the venture firms said, most people don't have a computer let a lone require computer accounting software, therefore not a large enough market exists for us to invest in it.
Home Equity Lines of Credit
If you own a home with a substantial amount of equity you many want to consider obtaining an equity line of credit as they offer some of the best interest rates available. It is important to consider all the risks carefully, as you need to make monthly payments and do not want to lose your family home to launch your new venture.
Business Plan Competitions
Business plan competitions are a great source in obtaining capital to start your new venture when you don't have the connections to angel investors. Business plan competitions have become very popular in the last few years many universities and leading companies have business plan competitions. You submit your executive summary or business plan, and if selected usually pitch your business to a group of judges who will award funding to the best business ideas. Some competitions have restrictions where you have to be affiliated in someway.
The Stanford University business plan competition requires 50% of the team members be Stanford graduates, while others are open, such as the Rice University business plan competition, where they allow graduates from all parts of the globe to apply. In April 2009, the Rice University had 42 groups present their business ideas before a group of judged, 3 of which were awarded a payment of $125,000. For a list of business competitions visit: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/11/business/smallbusiness/Competitions-table.html.
Credit Cards
Credit cards can be a great source to quick cash. Many credit cards offer cash advances at very low interest rates for the first 6 months, which you can transfer after the low 6 months interest rate has ended. Usually credit cards can be a short term fix to a financial need, but they are not recommended for the long-term.
Clue Hut is a FREE service that allows you to create a profile that tells the world what you hope to accomplish and with whom you are seeking to connect with. You can upload pictures, video and files. Search other members profiles. Send Invites to members you are interested in knowing more about and receive invites from members who are interested in knowing more about you. Visit Clue Hut today!

Why Use PPC Online Advertising?

PPC online advertising is another way of marketing products and services. There is some cost involved, so not everyone will want to do this right away. You should consider this if you want bigger profits though.
Google
Google is still the largest search engine on the internet. Many have tried, but all have failed to budge Google from the top spot. Because of this, using Google's AdSense PPC online advertising would be a good business decision. This site has the largest potential for customers using pay-per-click. This doesn't mean that you can't use other search engines. In fact, it might be good to use more than one, but Google should be one of them.
Social
Many social sites are also making ppc online advertising programs available. This makes sense because so many people are using these sites. Since most of these sites are free for members to use; pay-per-click is a way for them to make money. You can advertise for free by posting links on your personal information page, but this is limited on some sites so that only your friends can view your personal information. PPC online advertising on these types of sites makes your ad visible to all users on the site whether you know them or not. Since these types of sites have become even more popular with all types of people, it has a lot of potential to make you very good profits.
Others
These are not the only types of sites that offer pay-per-click programs. With as big as the internet has become, and online spending growing despite the current economic crisis, there are programs available all over. When looking for others remember to consider your target audience to find the right spots.
PPC Online Advertising - Flip Side
There are other sites that offer a pay-per-click programs in reverse. Sites like Amazon offer an affiliate program that allows you to advertise their products for them on your site. I say reverse because they pay you. With this type of program you can advertise other products similar to yours on your site, and when someone clicks on it and shops on Amazon; you make a small profit. Please keep in mind that it's not a huge profit, but every little penny counts. There are other programs like this out there, but like Google, Amazon is one of the biggest. Be forewarned that you really won't make huge profits off just one page, but you never know what is possible when you put it on all your pages.
PPC online advertising is not terribly expensive, but it is something that should be considered when marketing online. It will take some initial training to learn how to correctly do PPC advertising so that you do not lose all your money jumping in as a novice marketer. To learn how to make money with PPC and other forms of marketing visit http://www.3-day-marketing.com

Advertising Online - The Advantages of Advertising Online Compared to Traditional Offline Media

Although both types of advertising of course has benefits and advantages, does online advertising really offer more than offline? Or, should they both be used in conjunction with each other, as long as the company can afford it? Below are some of the reasons online advertising is getting more popular and effective when we compare it to offline advertising, including newspapers and flyers etc.
Cheaper - If you weigh up the difference between offline and online advertising, online advertising is usually much cheaper than offline advertising. A decent cost per click budget or website advert is generally much cheaper than a series or run of offline or newspaper advertising and is often much more targeted and rewarding. This is not always the case, especially if you get deals for long term advertising offline, but on the whole you normally find that online advertising works out to be more cost effective and controllable in the long run.
Target Audience - A major advantage of online advertising is that you can target your audience much more efficiently. For example, if you advertise in a newspaper, although you can choose the newspaper that you consider being nearer your perfect audience, you will still have many more people who do not fit your criteria. With online advertising you can select who your advert is seen by, by niche, age, location and many other factors, especially when using cost per click or other social media types of advertising.
More Options - When you consider the types of offline advertising there is, you will normally be able to name the top three, which are newspaper advertising, flyers and television. But when you look at online advertising the options seem to be much more, with cost per click, banner advertising, email marketing, site sponsorship, directory advertising and many more. Online advertising also has more flexibility using these options, as they can easily be turned on and off, changed or re-written and republished to take advantage of any related news that might be relevant to the advert.
Quicker - One of the biggest advantages of advertising online is how quick it can be. From the second you publish your new advert, news story or pay per click advert, it will be live on the internet and have the potential to be viewed by thousands of people. With offline advertising, especially newspaper adverts, you could be waiting up to a week for your advert to go to press and then be delivered to all of the possible readers, meaning you have to plan well in advance to capture time critical or seasonal advertising opportunities.
So, should all businesses ditch offline advertising and go fully online? Of course they should not, as for some businesses offline advertising will always have some mileage to it, and although it is hard to believe, not everyone has access to the internet or the know how to use it successfully to find what they want.
Even so, online advertising is growing rapidly and offline advertising is really suffering, as online seems to offer much more flexibility and options to get the message across for many businesses and companies.
Ian Spencer works for Clear Web Services, a SEO Web Optimisation and Web Design company serving the Forest Of Dean, Gloucestershire and South Wales. He has worked in the SEO and Internet Marketing world for many years, and working in partnership with another company has launched the new SEO business.
http://clearwebservices.com/ - For More Information, please call 01594 835 857 or email info@clearwebservices.com

Forum Marketing Techniques

Forum marketing is perhaps one of the biggest ways to drive traffic to your website on almost complete autopilot; I will be discussing a few forum marketing techniques below. Do you have a website and niche? If so, then you are well on your way to getting started with forum marketing. There are a number of ways to get traffic to your website, business, product or brand using forum marketing techniques and strategies. In this article, I will discuss 1 very good way to get a nice stream of unique, targeted and organic traffic to your business, product, brand or niche. Firstly, you need to go to your profile or account settings tab and click on the option to edit signature, now you need to put your website's slogan or a great quote that you know about, into the signature panel, under this, you need to insert your URL. Secondly, you need to go and change your profile picture or avatar to a picture of you or your business logo depending on what your marketing or promoting etc. Now you need to get involved with everything that is happening with your forum, participating in posts and threads is a great way to build your credibility and popularity.
When you have finished posting or replying to threads etc, your slogan and website link will be left there. People who like your posts and enjoy your input will click on your link, taking them to your website for your business, product or brand.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL INFORMATION MENTIONED ABOVE IS SIMPLY MY OPINION AND THEREFORE, NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE TO VALIDATE THE USE OF THE INFORMATION. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: LEARNIM.NET
ARTICLE BY TYLER LEESE OF LEARNIM.NET
Tyler Leese runs a website called LearnIM.Net helping users to get started online with internet marketing, brand awareness, product exposure, business marketing etc. His highly sought after skills have put him in the front line of trusted internet marketing and social media marketing experts.

Promote Online Business - Online Forums 101

Years ago, joining in online forums is only meant to interact with people having the same interests - asking questions, getting answered and all that stuff. But who knew that even online forums bring money to one's online business?
Why Go For Online Forums?
In the recent times, online forums have been growing in number. If this medium is used properly, it could be another way to promote anything - including products and services without rendering too much cost on the part of the individual running a business. But how could one use it for such purposes without sounding too direct?
How To Make Use Of Online Forums:
1) Look for an online forum that caters topics about your business, field of expertise, or perhaps field of interest. Look for them on the search engine. For instance, you want to be involved in a forum about hair care. Type "hair care forums", "forums about hair care", and any other keywords until you find what you are looking for. Register for free, and start interacting!
2) Post a topic. In most online forums, the most activities are going on in the "Main Discussion". It would be best to visit this portion first before anything else. Ask questions, ask for their opinions about your articles, blogs and etc. This will not only expose your business discreetly, but will also help you form relationships among other users in the forums. Make them your friends, advisers and even critiques. You'll never know - one of these users might be your client soon!
3) Answer questions from other posts. Don't just ask, but also share what you have. If there are any questions related to your field of expertise, go and share your piece of mind. Likewise, be someone's friend, adviser and critique. Most common scenario would be, a huge percent of online forum users are like you - an online entrepreneur. Who knows you might be finding something you thought you would not need for the business?
4) Post anything that would give information about you. If there are videos, blogs or articles that tell about you and the services you offer, post a topic about it so that users could see and know more about you.
5) Once in the forum, make sure to have a link of your site as your signature. It would be helpful to add hints that will lead them to visit your website (e.g. visit this site if you want to know more about what I am talking about, etc.). Never ever forget about this because this would serve as your main advertising tool.
Additional Points To Remember
Never, ever promote your products or services directly. This will lead to other users to think that you might just be probably after advertising, not building an interaction with them. Well, anyhow, there would still be interaction, but not as lively as one could get if they are only talking like peers inside the forum. Just make your signature (with the link on it) is large enough to be seen and attractive enough to be clicked. Remember, most of them might have joined not only for marketing purposes, but also for learning some online business strategies.
Leval Ainah helps people succeed online. Did you find this article helpful? If you did, then take a look at the step-by-step free video tutorials here. http://www.mavericmoneymakersyearly.com/

3 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Joining Online Forums

Online forums are amazing places to socialise and network online. Like minded people with similar interests generally get along well, and the sharing of ideas and posting questions to help each other appeals. This is a way to identify potential customers if you are an internet marketer. Unfortunately, for forum participants, you need to ensure you follow a few recommended ground rules, or else risk being the social reject of a forum.
I mean it in a positive way: we all have our social groups, and we are attracted to each other because of certain personalities or common grounds. It will be similar in a forum; except with the internet, these factors are take a bit longer to grasp.
Here are 3 questions you need to ask yourself to ensure successful participation on online forums:
1. Do you actually want to be in these groups? There are plenty of forums out there on any specific topic, ranging in different participants, parents, teenagers, people from specific countries; or different interests, such as weight watchers, pet owners, a sport, and it goes on. Before just heading into a conversation with unknown people, it might pay to scout these forums and observe what sort of activities and communication goes on within. Some just seem to be spammed by advertisements nowadays. It does not make sense to join these unless you like skimming through junk mail.
2. Are you comfortable in this forum? While checking out the forums, and observing the passersby in that online lounge, you will soon get a feel of the mood and atmosphere. Do people like short quick messages or longer more comprehensive discussions? Who has similar thoughts to you or is currently in a similar situation? Which messages get more feedback and replies? It all needs to suit you, rather than you trying to be someone else on that forum. You need to be comfortable, any awkward vibes you get, its a sign to get out. And again, people tend to socialise in clusters so the more you can relate to the forum, the more likely you will be a successful participant.
3. Are you in the right place at the right time? Just as you would choose your friends carefully in the real world, the unfortunate fact is online, there are also a few shady characters out there. Just because you enjoy being in a forum does not mean you can tolerate unfriendly or inappropriate messages. Avoid these uncomfortable confrontations, keep in contact with those who you can identify with and maintain a rapport with them. It is a social occasion after all, people with similar thoughts hanging out online sharing your ideas and questions.
If you are happy with these criteria, do participate, get out there and have fun. Just as the internet has connected people from diverse cultures and varying countries, internet forums are a fantastic way to socialise and network. And we do know that working as teams or in groups do foster a higher likelihood of success.
Shane is an internet marketer who utilises blogging for educating as well as online marketing.
Website: http://www.mymaverickmillionaire.com/
Contact: http://www.mymaverickmillionaire.blogspot.com/

Key Tips to Avoid Forum Spam

A forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user-generated content. Internet forums are also commonly known as Web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards or simply forums. Forums are often divided within few groups or sub forums depending on topics that help its users to easily access the information they want by searching within a particular topic and also to post their question in most relevant subforum to get quick response by other forum members.
Forums are also very useful for Search Engine Optimisation. Often forums have an option to its members to have a signature link as a reference. Members can add their websites or blogs and also their favorite quotes in their signature links and that signature link appears in each and every time they post any thread or reply to any thread in natural way. But some people start misusing forums and start spamming forums by making posts that have little or no meaning and useless to other members.
Forum spamming is a black Hat SEO technique where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting which sometimes has malicious intent. This is a common trolling technique. It can also be traditional spam, unpaid advertisements that are in breach of the forum rules.
Below are some useful tips that can help a lot to avoid forum spam:
1. Using Captcha or Human Validation:
Having an option for captcha or human validation may help you a lot to avoid spam to your forum. In this option there is an application where people have to submit some characters into a box that appears in an image along with that box and randomly change each time for new post.
2. Using Email Verification: Make sure to have an option for Email verification that ensures members to activate an email before they can post anything. That includes a profile link which emailed to members email and member has to click on that to activate his or her membership.
3. Limiting Number Of Link In Signature: Some people use to have a lot of links in their signature links to spam a forum. Make sure to have limited number of links to use as signature links and having maximum of three links will be good.
4. Avoid Posting of Links From New Users: Do not allow new members to post live links of any other site no matter that is useful or not. It will better idea to allow new members to post live links only after they become regular and active member of the forum and have posted a number of useful posts.
5. Limiting Number Of Posts for Signature Links: Do not allow new users for signature links in their posts. Make sure to allow signature links to new members only after posting a number of useful posts or threads to the forum. It will be good to allow signature links after at least 20 or 30 regular posts by a new member.
6. Limiting Post Editing Time: It is recommended to limit the time of editing any post because some spammers edit older posts and either post blatant advertising links, or else hide them in punctuation and invisible images.
7. Block Common Email domains or IPs: Block same email domains or IPs from your admin panel or by using .htaccess file if you find that these are not natural and being used to spam the forum.
8. Having An Active Moderator Team: Having a team of active moderators is very much necessary to watch out your forums on regular basis that will help members to solve their unsolved queries and also warn or ban members immediately if they do not follow guidelines or involve in spamming activity.
Above tips will sure help you to avoid forum spam and make your forums free from spam. If you have any query or suggestions feel free to contact me.
Webexcel Solutions (ISO 9001:2000 Certified) A Software Development Company and an SEO Company
Author involve in research and analysis of various search engine strategies and algorithms. For more articles by author please visit- Latest Google SEO Tips

Blogging - Advertising Your Blog in Your Forum Signature

Blogging can take quite a while to master and to learn to write great blog posts. However great blog posts are virtually useless and have little chance of making you any money if no one reads them. So you need some easy cheap ways of promoting your business blog.
One of the best way of promoting your blog for free is to advertise your blog in your forum signature files.
It always amazes me how many people spend hours a day writing forum posts and replying to them that do not have any advertising in their forum signature file. I will have to admit that some of the forums require one to master basic BB code which I assume is why people just do not bother creating signature files.
However once you have mastered creating forum signature files you can search for forums relevant to your business with high page ranking and use your signature files to create back links to your blog. The more relevant high ranking back links you can create the higher your blog will appear in the search results.
It is not just a matter of adding a link in your forum signature but you should write something that attracts the attention of other forum participants so that they click though to find out more about your business. Some forums allow you to use colors and lots of different fonts but others can be a bit restrictive. These restrictions might mean you have to be a bit more creative but do not over do it so that they tighten the restrictions even further.
Before you get too creative be sure to write some good posts and helpful replies to other forum posts so that people begin to trust you and no just see you as someone spamming their forum. Some forums only allow email signature links to be shown after a certain number of posts have been written and frown upon those who post short posts to reach this quota. So read the forum rules before you post so that you do not get banned. Remember that some of the bigger forums want people to put in a bit of effort before they can get the benefits. After all it is a free advertising in some cases to literally thousands of forum members.
Each post you make with a link to your blog in your signature also helps create more back links to your blog. The more relevant high ranking back links you can get to your blog the higher it will rank in the search results. This means more organic traffic to your blog as well as the traffic you are now getting from the forums.
So before you join any forums think about what you blog is about and search for relevant forums so that you can use your forum signature to promote your blog. The more relevant the forums are the better, as this can also lead to your blog being better optimized for the search engine results. For more information on blogging http://www.kerriesheehan.com/.
                                                                      alex duduta

Dropship for online auctions

Dropship for online auctions
Many sellers on online auction sites, such as eBay, also drop ship. Often, a seller will list an item as new and ship the item directly from the wholesaler to the highest bidder. The seller profits from the difference between the winning bid and the wholesale price, minus any selling and merchant fees from the auction site. A seller is permitted to list items that are currently not in his/her own possession, provided that he/she follows eBay's policy on pre-sale items.

Dropshipp for small business

Dropshipp for small business
Drop shipping can occur when a small retailer who typically sells in small quantities to the general public receives a single large order for a product. Rather than route the shipment through the retail store, the retailer may arrange for the goods to be shipped directly to the customer. Drop shipping is also very common with big ticket items like steel buildings where the retailer will take a deposit and have the building shipped direct to the buyer's building site from the supplier's manufacturing facility.

what are the procedures of dropship?

what are the procedures of dropship?
Some drop shipping retailers may keep "show" items on display in stores, so that customers can inspect an item similar to those that they can purchase. Other retailers may provide only a catalogue or website.
Retailers that drop ship merchandise from wholesalers may take measures to hide this fact to avoid any stigma, or to keep the wholesale source from becoming widely known. This can be achieved by "blind shipping" (shipping merchandise without a return address), or "private label shipping" (having merchandise shipped from the wholesaler with a return address customized to the retailer). A customized packing slip may also be included by the wholesaler, indicating the retailer's company name, logo, and/or contact information.

what is dropshipping?

what is dropshipping?
Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in all retail businesses, the retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price.