Business Financing - Where to get it and why you would want a SBA Loan and Seller FinancingWritten by Jim Brown
Business Financing - Where to get it and why you would want a SBA Loan and Seller FinancingBusiness financing can come in form of conventional loans, SBA (Small Business Administration) loans, and seller financing. A combination of three forms may be used, but SBA loans are by far most popular. In fact, SBA loans are primary source of capital injected into small business community nationwide. Last year SBA assisted small businesses with over $10 Billion Dollars of loan guaranties. The Small Business Administration more commonly known as SBA is a Federal Agency established in 1953 to protect and assist America's greatest resource... small businesses. SBA's mission is to stimulate and foster economic development through small businesses, because helping small businesses get started and become successful is great for nation's economy. Briefly, SBA loan guarantee program works in following manner. The SBA will guarantee a portion of a business loan made by a lender enrolled in program. By issuing a partial Federal Guarantee to Bank, your loan, which might not be approved on conventional terms, can now be approved via a SBA guaranteed loan. SBA Loan benefits include longer terms and larger loan amounts than you might be able to obtain through a conventional loan. They also include competitive interest rates and no balloon payments or annual reviews. Furthermore, SBA loans are fully amortized and loan terms typically range from 7 to 25 years depending on purpose. To understand benefits of full amortization, consider a loan that is used to purchase commercial real estate. The conventional bank loan is normally amortized over 15 to 20 years and renewed every 3 or 5 years. So, when a small business owner faces 3 year review of that conventional loan: The bank may decide that its risk appetite no longer favors loans for those types of businesses and therefore requires full payment. The bank may review and reamortize loan over another 15 to 20 year period, which would mean more interest over term of loan. If small business is doing well, bank may renew loan as is, but often borrower has to pay thousands of dollars in costs associated with renewed loan application. All of that uncertainty and additional expense for refinancing or restructuring of loan is eliminated with SBA financing.
| | Testimonials and Letters to the EditorWritten by Marcia Yudkin
Of all marvelous opportunities offered by Internet to get publicity without paying for it, two of least- used methods are writing testimonials for companies, books and Web sites and penning letters to editor. Every time you're happy with a service performed for you or a product you've purchased, instead of simply saying "Thank you" or keeping your contentment to yourself, consider writing a blurb expressing why you were satisfied, pleased or ecstatic and emailing it to company responsible. End your message of praise, "And feel free to quote me on this," and very often recipient will do exactly that. So long as you follow two additional guidelines, when your testimonial gets added to a well-trafficked Web site, you can count on it generating click-throughs to your site. First, within body of your praise, mention what you do or what your company is up to. For example, "Your whooziwhatsit performed like a dream when we used it during our new all-female production of 'Hamlet'" or "For anyone like us who helps recruit college presidents and other educational leaders, your service couldn't be more valuable." Second, include your site's URL when you sign off. Use full "http://www" format, and anyone becoming curious about you from your comments can easily hop over and visit you, even if site using your words didn't install a formal hyperlink. The same tips apply when you read a book that you liked in your professional field of interest. Even if you bought it at a real-world bookstore, you can submit comments about book at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and elsewhere. In your review, find occasion to state how book was valuable to you in your line of work, namely such and such. For example, "I read this book when our company, WashWorks, was launching our portable washing machine. It warned us away from so many pitfalls of new product introduction that TravelWasher became an immediate success. Thank you!" Add a few more points that you appreciated in book so this doesn't sound like bald self-promotion.
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