Posts Tagged ‘Starting A New Business’

How To Prepare For Small Business Loan?

January 3rd, 2010

Small business owners often face difficulty in their business operations as they face shortage of funds. You would need to take necessary steps to avail a small business loan with minimum difficulty. You ought to know what you need to do to clinch the loan deal. If you are going for a start-up business, banks and other financial institutions would turn down your loan application citing the risk factors involved. However, you can still get a small business loan if you have prepared yourself well.
Never bank your luck on getting a grant from the government and company agencies. It is even more unlikely that you would get any funds from these sources than getting any money from your own savings, family, friends, or a bank. The main criteria in getting personal loan would be your credit score ratings, business plan, experience in the field of business, education, and most importantly the feasibility of the business that you would want to start, or expanding.
The business plan needs to be prepared with due care, since your business viability is reflected in the plan, as also its feasibility. The business plan needs to reflect that in providing the loan, the lender would face minimum risk. The lending institution has a format of questions which your business plan must answer. There questions may be as follows:
The first thing it has to answer is how much money that you would need. If you are starting a new business, your business plan must include the capital expenses for your business to start. The calculations shown in your business plan must be accurate and it is advised that you should ask for enough money to invest wisely.
The next part that you need to explain in your business plan is how you would be spending that money. The loan amount that you are asking for, you would need to provide details as to how this money would be spent on the designated heads. Every dollar that you spend needs to be accounted for. Your small start-up business might require funds for new employees, marketing, etc. which are for the operations of the business; the assets, such as, equipment, real estate, etc; and possibly to pay off your business loans.
The question of your payback of the loan must also be answered in your business plan. This needs to be explained in detail, mentioning the kind of cash-flow that you expect, and the time that it would take to achieve the cash-flow. Your financial statements in your business plan must be convincing enough for the lender to believe that you can pay off your loan amount from the cash-flow that you would be generating.
While you show your cash-flow in your business plan, you should be able to take the worry away by taking care of government taxes and others, in your financial statements. You would need to keep your staff turnover low for the inherent growth of your company. You would need to plan as to how you would be enhancing your vendor and supplier relationships, and win the market share in the services or product that you are dealing with.

Some Important Guidelines For Business Grants

December 12th, 2009

Every year millions of dollars are given away by United States government to people for various purposes including your personal and business needs. If you are thinking of starting a new business or want to expand the present business but lack in funds then you can always apply for small business grants. Though they are many grants offered by the government yet it is not easy to receive one as according to the most famous proverb, there can be many slips between the cup and the lip. There are many reasons on the basis of which many times proposals for grants are rejected so special care has to be taken while seeking grants. Granting agency sets specific guidelines and it becomes utmost important to meet these otherwise the chances of getting a grant gets negligible. Hereby you are given some tips, which would help you to clear the hurdles and achieve your purpose: Firstly the intention and the objective for applying grant has to be explained comprehensively and explicitly so that the officer-in-charge reading the proposal should easily understand it. The format of the proposal for grant should be systemized in such a manner that it clearly sketches the features of the business plan for which the grant is needed and then each and every step is elaborated upon. Also make sure that the grant proposal is double checked for any spelling, grammatical and typing errors before submitting it for perusal. Also do not forget to submit the proposal within the fixed time frame. Do not give vague ideas rather goals should be clearly defined and facts should be well researched and formulated to make your proposal more authoritative. There is also need to put in extra time and effort to calculate the estimated cost and funds required while applying for grant and strictly avoid any guesswork in this stage. If the grant reviewer gets even a little suspicious over the funds needed and the accurateness of the application, then the chances of getting your grant proposal being rejected gets manifold. What is optimal is to do research of the granting agency and find what is that they look for just to make certain that your application is appropriate according to their specifications. The grants require to strictly adhere to their rules otherwise your proposal may get rejected. For example if certain agency requires the proposal to be submitted online, then do it as required without asking for any other alternative. Agencies granting money are anxious to know where the money is going to be spent by whom and why and ultimately who are all going to be benefited. So make sure that person who is writing this grant proposal should clearly mark these areas. Grants are not easy to find and are extremely competitive so it becomes all the more important to present best possible proposal to the extent that it instantaneously captures the attention of the grantor.

Small Business Grants for Women Starting a New Business

October 4th, 2009

If you as a woman own 51% or more of your business or business start up it is considered a woman-owned business and as such qualifies you for a variety of small business grants for women. The beauty of going this route instead of the more well known bank loan or finding willing investors route is the simple fact that business grants do not need to be repaid.

This of course helps relieve the stress of paying back that loan or the group of investors that fronted you the money to get your business off the ground. Being able to concentrate solely on your business without worrying about cash flow is a sure fire way to ensure its success.

This is important when you consider that the vast majority of small business start-ups are being done by women every year. Not only that but women are also 75% more likely to succeed in their business venture then men are. Because of this there are more and more resources becoming available for the woman who starts or owns her own business. Everything from small business grants and loans to free business plan help and tax strategies can be had for any woman in business.

When considering getting grants for women owned businesses there are four things that can make the process quicker and easier.

1. Create a workable business plan – This can be the most important part of any new business start-up. In fact most grant applications require a business plan so that the grantors can make an informed decision as to who receives a grant and who doesn’t.

2. Grant research – There are literally thousands of government and private grants available to women business owners. Some are for specific areas of business while others are more general. It is also important to find out what the requirements for each grant you may be interested are.

3. Hire a professional – Finding an accountant or lawyer who is familiar with the grant request and application process can greatly increase the chances of success. They can help with everything from building the business plan to double checking all the paper work before it is submitted to the granting agency.

4. The internet – There are many websites that help the woman grant seeker find the grant or grants that she is looking for. They also provide an abundance of information on successfully applying for the different grants that they track. These sites can be a great resource for the woman trying to start a new business.

Finding small business grants for women can be done quickly and easily on the internet. To successfully apply for those same grants will take some time and effort but the payoff is well worth it when you consider that the government and private organizations are giving away billions of dollars every year.




By: Andrew Bicknell