business finance

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur there are numerous online business opportunities readily available. It is much easier to make online business ideas a reality as compared to a ‘bricks and mortar’ offline businesses. Not only are the set up costs significantly lower but the internet makes it possible for you to easily expand your business beyond the constraints of your physical location.

It does not matter about your age, education, technical skills or qualifications if you want to take advantage of the online business opportunities that are available. Anybody can start one. Your online earnings do not all have to come from just one source. In fact, it can be more advantageous when you have different online small business ideas so that you have a variety of income sources so that you can see what works best for you.

1. Produce Your Own Information Product.

People use the internet to find information and if you have valuable information about a particular subject, people will pay for it. One of the best online business ideas is to write and sell your own eBook. You need to write an eBook on a topic that people are searching for information about. The topic can be one that you’re very knowledgeable about or it can be one that you become knowledgeable about by researching the information you need to know. Other than eBooks, you can also create online courses or workshops sharing your expertise.

2. Affiliate Marketing.

One of the easiest online business opportunities is affiliate marketing. This is when you promote other people’s products or services and when you make a sale, you get paid a commission. You find a product that you believe is good and will sell well and you begin to promote it for a commission. Promoting just means that you’re raising awareness about a product by driving traffic to it.

You can promote products without cost to you and many people find this type of an online business one of the easiest to break into. You can promote products by writing articles about it and submitting them to article directories, or you can blog about it, promote it on your own website or on any of the common social sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

3. Build A Membership Website.

Many successful online business ideas are structured around membership websites. A membership website is you get paid to give your knowledge and expertise to others. For instance, if you’re an specialist on repairing computers, you build a website where people can log in and get access to answers to their questions, get involved in a forum, etc. Once you are making a profit from your membership website, you can teach others how to do it by writing a how-to eBook or by putting together a course!

4. Freelance Your Services On The Internet.

Another one of our online business ideas is offering freelance services. Freelance just means that you are your own boss. You can take on the jobs you want and turn down the ones that you don’t. There are so many online business opportunities for freelancers. You can do graphic design work, build websites, edit what other people wrote or you can write articles from scratch for other people.

5. Drop Shipped Product Website.

Dropshipping means that a warehousing company makes its goods available to you for sell. This includes shipping the order directly to your customer, often without the customer knowing that it came from the dropshipper’s warehouse. It can be a very good way to start an online business as you don’t have to worry about fulfillment or inventory issues.

Yes, one of the best ways to start on an online business is to do something you already know well in your life. Have you had some sort of experience or gained expertise in your life.

You might feel a blank moment coming on right now… but everyone has lived and experienced life in some sort of way and learnt something from it.

Or you have learnt a skill from a former job, or in fact a job you are doing right now.

I want to clarify these most important things right now. Not only for the new people who are thinking of trying to start an online business for the first time, but for all those people who have already tried a new online business and it is either not going well for them or they gave up too early.

I want to say that like most things, failure is only a setback not a result. So lets get you on the right track in getting back into either, trying your online business again, or for those people who are just starting an online business for the first time.

Let’s get straight down to some points that are the most important thing when deciding what sort of business you want to do and how to begin.

• What sort of business theme do you want to do?
• What sort of business do you want to do online?
• The best place to get started.

What sort of business theme do you want to do?

As I have mentioned previously, you have had many experiences in life and have learnt allot through them. Can’t think of anything right now?… this is where you need to get your pen and paper out and start writing down these thoughts, and run with them.

There are many different areas you could get into, say you are interested in, or have experience in farming. You have learnt so much over the years, the trials and pitfalls of your trade. Or you might have a hobby that you have done for years and have a wealth of experience in doing it, where to get your supplies from and how to take shortcuts that you have learnt through trial and error.

Are you seeing the picture now? it does not matter if its your work, hobby or an experience that to have learnt from in your life, no matter how trivial it might seem. To other people who might be going through this exact thing in their lives right now, you might be able to have many answers that they could be looking for.

So get that pen and paper out and start writing down what interests you, what you have learnt, and your knowledge in a certain area.

What sort of business do you want to do online?

In fact, there are many different areas you could do in your online business. Knowing what sort of area or areas you want to do is a matter of your own personal choice, this is something you need to look into.

There are such areas as: affiliate marketing, writing for others, lead sales, referrals, and the list goes on. But you do need to know what all these terms mean and learn about them and what would suit your area best.

You may have done an accountant course and you would like to have clients, but don’t want to go to a 9 to 5 job every day; or you just want to do part time work. You might like to do it as a secondary job on the side to the job you already have.

Now… on the internet where you can reach almost anyone in the world these days, you a have a vast audience of prospective clients to work for. And the best thing about starting an online business is that you can work over the internet and where there is an internet connection you can work any hours and in any place you like, even in a swamp if you so choose.

The best place to get started

This is an area that is most important and we need to cover it, in more detail…

All that we have talked about can come to fruition. Like I said previously… I have spend hundreds of hours and many years studying up on online marketing and still, to this day, it is forever changing.

Why? you may ask… the world changes, trends change, and needs change. If one country goes into a recession and another comes out of recession, nothing stands still, so you need to change with the trends and world climate as well.

Also I want to tell you that there is allot of noise out there… what is this I hear you say? when I talk about ‘allot of noise’ its like the radio waves that are bombarding us every day, floating around in the atmosphere. But what if you did hear all the noises, you would get confused with what to listen to, am I right!

Welcome to the internet, the world of business. And it can get quite confusing out there. You hear one thing and you hear another, then the trending lists of what’s going on, and what’s best to do at the time, you could go crazy with trying to take it all in.

Some of this information is beneficial for you, while others are not. You also have to look out for the scams and the people who are trying to make money selling you something to help your business (so they say) that you don’t really need. You need to get back to basics and clarify what is best for you now. Start fresh and simple, this way you will gain more knowledge and progress further at your own pace. I have seen too many people try to get ahead of themselves and fail. And fail in big numbers!

I have been there also, and gotten up and started again; re-learnt and worked out what I have done wrong. I have got too far ahead of myself and wasted precious time. But I have learnt allot. And that’s what its all about. Starting an online business is much more mature in structure these days, the internet and selling have come a long way from what it used to be many years ago.

So to sum everything up… are some words I want to give you to start you on your way. I am not saying you are not going to muck up and make mistakes, that’s just part or learning. But this is a constant game of learning to keep up and shine your own light of success in your online business.

I still make mistakes and have lost time thought either doing something the wrong way or a slower way. Not taking in everything I should have, and had to go back an re-learn the right way. But what I can say is that we all need to learn and I found the perfect place to do this and with everything at your fingertips and even a forum to chat with other members which is very enlightening.

It does not matter in the future if you stick with them or not, even incorporate them into your business and also branch out on your own as well. But to start with them, cuts out allot of that noise and you really get to learn the foundations and really know what you need to learn on starting an online business and I recommend them whole heatedly to get you going. You might like it so much you may not want to leave, but if I had started with them firstly, it would have saved allot of time for me.

Not only do they help you decide what you may choose to do, and how to do it. The different selling areas and jargon as well. You get access to tools that would cost you so much elsewhere individually. And all the advise you need. Avoid all the noise and go with one teacher who knows what they are talking about. Because going it on your own could lead you to other teachers who claim to know what you need to learn, only to withhold the last bit of information of success that can lead to your time wasted and failure.

As I say, build a good foundation and then you decide where you want to go from there, stick with them or not, but you need the right knowledge to start with, then you will have more of an idea when other online teachers are trying to trick you out or your money, or not. And I am still watching out for these scammers, and sifting through what is good and what is not to this day. And the right knowledge will give you this power also.

I am going to give you a link that you can go to on my site and you can go and have a look at it for yourself. When I joined, there was no free trial or pay as you go every month. But now there is and they have also expanded into word press, you don’t have any worries about being tied down to a long term investment.

What I can tell you is my respect for this system and how much I have learnt from it. If you start no where else, start here. I wish I had that opportunity. But… if nothing else, read the wealth of free information they have on their pages, I will also grab some of these links and put them on my page for you. And they also teach you in video format, if you like… (which I love).

Don’t be afraid to start again in starting an online business, or starting an online business for the first time. One of the biggest things for failure is lack of the right knowledge, determination and discipline.

If you need more discipline in business, that’s what my website is about. Go have a look for your self.

Making a prediction is a sometimes risky scenario, potentially damaging to your credibility, but we’re quite confident in saying that Canadian business owners will recognize non bank asset financing as credit facilities for business finance loans to be the best thing they every heard of when it comes to financing their business.

Quite frankly we don’t think we exactly going out and making a stretch comment because, hundreds if not thousands of Canadian firms are investigating and utilizing this type of financing.

As the Canadian business economy turns itself around going into 2011 most of are clients are finally focused on growth again.But how is that growth to be financing, since lending standards and criteria at institutions such as the banks don’t appear to have been liberalized at the same pace that your company hopes to grow at!

That’s where our trend prediction comes in. Asset based lending focuses on your assets and growth opportunities – it doesn’t focus on rations, tangible equity in your company, rations, covenants, cash flow coverage, etc, etc, etc!

So you are picking up on the opportunity, let’s see how things work. Asset based lenders keep it simple, they lend a very high value against your ongoing assets. What are the typical assets lent against – you can almost guess what they are. They are receivables, inventory, unencumbered equipment and real estate.

The big mystery around asset based lending in Canada, based on conversations with our clients, is that business owners don’t really know or understand who these firms are. So we’ll tell you.

They are specialized firms, both Canadian and U.S. based, that focus solely on providing credit facilities and business finance loans with your assets as security. They take the same security as a Canadian chartered bank would, and you manage your facility on a day to day basis, drawing down cash as you need it. Funds are wired into your account as you need them, based on… guess what… assets! That really is the one key difference that our clients pick up on, that the total focus of this type of assets financing is the collateral itself.

We already know your next question… because we’ve heard it a hundred times before. Its’ how much can we get ‘… followed by what does it cost.
Speaking in general terms your receivables are financed at 90% of their value, and because of the nature and marketability of different types of inventory this type of collateral is margined anywhere from 25-75%. Recall we had noted that unencumbered equipment can be drawn against also. Typically an appraised current market or liquidation value is agreed upon with you and the asset financing provider.

Costs vary around this type of financing. On occasion it is competitive with bank financing – and giving you twice the liquidity – but more often than not it’s more expensive. You offset those costs by greater access to credit facilities that will grow your business and profits.

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who can walk you through the Canadian landscape of business finance loans in the asset based lending area. You’ll quickly find, we think, that our prediction is becoming more true every day, asset based financing is hot! And here to stay.

Any small business owner in operation today is actually an incredible and solid form of business ownership as well as being an integral part of the growth and health of the economy. Quite often, when public policy and economic decision making is undergone, they look at small businesses to see how they are faring and able to withstand the various different amounts of strain and tensions that the economy is being placed under. An incredible stress of any business is the financing options available to them which requires the knowledge of the various types of small business finance.

With any level of business financing, there are actually an incredible amount of options available that provide an incredible source of financing overall. Businesses must keep a very close eye on their options at all times in order to remain competitive and thing strategically regarding how they are able to move forward. Thus, understanding what all options are at all times is definitely a crucial element in this process.

Truly, at all times, any small business must maintain a solid grip on their cash flow. Being a good cash manage is often crucial for maintaining a level of financial well being as well as not having to depend as much on financing at all. Thus, this should always be a foundational business model process.

Debt financing is actually an incredible common form of small business finance available. Basically, this is where the finance company purchases the debt acquired by the business in exchange for repayment with interest. This is often performed at early stages of any small business.

For those that need more cash flow, business loans are actually often a very common source of business financing. This is basically much like a personal loan and requires a solid credit standing as well as an incredible amount of potential. This should actually be something that is reserved for the harshest of economic times for any business.

Investment in any business is also another incredibly common form of small business finance. Basically, this is something that involves a great deal of word or mouth and branding before it is offered to any company. Most businesses use this investment cash for expansion and upgrades to help the business grow and run efficiently over time.

Another form of business finance is through equity finance. Most often, this type of funding requires a decent level of credit standing as well as a very solid forecast of growth and potential to attract equity financiers. In this process, the business owner relinquishes a level of their ownership in the company in exchange for a set amount of financing that requires repayment and constant reporting to the equity finance company.

Finally, venture capital is often used as business finance for those wishing to take their business to the next level. This is acquired when a business is beginning the process of going public and wishing to sell themselves to the market. This funding is often used to increase the overall financial outlook of the company to make it more attractive.

Avoiding the top 7 business financing mistakes is a key component in business survival.

If you start committing these business financing mistakes too often, you will greatly reduce any chance you have for longer term business success.

The key is to understand the causes and significance of each so that you’re in a position to make better decisions.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (1) – No Monthly Bookkeeping.

Regardless of the size of your business, inaccurate record keeping creates all sorts of issues relating to cash flow, planning, and business decision making.

While everything has a cost, bookkeeping services are dirt cheap compared to most other costs a business will incur.

And once a bookkeeping process gets established, the cost usually goes down or becomes more cost effective as there is no wasted effort in recording all the business activity.

By itself, this one mistake tends to lead to all the others in one way or another and should be avoided at all costs.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (2) – No Projected Cash Flow.

No meaningful bookkeeping creates a lack of knowing where you’ve been. No projected cash flow creates a lack of knowing where you’re going.

Without keeping score, businesses tend to stray further and further away from their targets and wait for a crisis that forces a change in monthly spending habits.

Even if you have a projected cash flow, it needs to be realistic.

A certain level of conservatism needs to be present, or it will become meaningless in very short order.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (3) – Inadequate Working Capital

No amount of record keeping will help you if you don’t have enough working capital to properly operate the business.

That’s why its important to accurately create a cash flow forecast before you even start up, acquire, or expand a business.

Too often the working capital component is completely ignored with the primary focus going towards capital asset investments.

When this happens, the cash flow crunch is usually felt quickly as there is insufficient funds to properly manage through the normal sales cycle.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (4) – Poor Payment Management.

Unless you have meaningful working capital, forecasting, and bookkeeping in place, you’re likely going to have cash management problems.

The result is the need to stretch out and defer payments that have come due.

This can be the very edge of the slippery slope.

I mean, if you don’t find out what’s causing the cash flow problem in the first place, stretching out payments may only help you dig a deeper hole.

The primary targets are government remittances, trade payables, and credit card payments.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (5) – Poor Credit Management

There can be severe credit consequences to deferring payments for both short periods of time and indefinite periods of time.

First, late payments of credit cards are probably the most common ways in which both businesses and individuals destroy their credit.

Second, NSF checks are also recorded through business credit reports and are another form of black mark.

Third, if you put off a payment too long, a creditor could file a judgement against you further damaging your credit.

Fourth, when you apply for future credit, being behind with government payments can result in an automatic turndown by many lenders.

It gets worse.

Each time you apply for credit, credit inquiries are listed on your credit report.

This can cause two additional problems.

First, multiple inquiries can reduce you overall credit rating or score.

Second, lenders tend to be less willing to grant credit to a business that has a multitude of inquiries on its credit report.

If you do get into situations where you’re short cash for a finite period of time, make sure you proactively discuss the situation with your creditors and negotiate repayment arrangements that you can both live with and that won’t jeopardize your credit.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (6) – No Recorded Profitability

For startups, the most important thing you can do from a financing point of view is get profitable as fast as possible.

Most lenders must see at least one year of profitable financial statements before they will consider lending funds based on the strength of the business.

Before short term profitability is demonstrated, business financing is based primary on personal credit and net worth.

For existing businesses, historical results need to show profitability to acquire additional capital.

The measurement of this ability to repay is based on the net income recorded for the business by a third party accredited accountant.

In many cases, businesses work with their accountants to reduce business tax as much as possible but also destroy or restrict their ability to borrow in the process when the business net income is insufficient to service any additional debt.

>>> Business Financing Mistakes (7) – No Financing Strategy

A proper financing strategy creates 1) the financing required to support the present and future cash flows of the business, 2) the debt repayment schedule that the cash flow can service, and 3) the contingency funding necessary to address unplanned or unique business needs.

This sounds good in principle, but does not tend to be well practiced.

Why?

Because financing is largely an unplanned and after the fact event.

It seems once everything else is figured out, then a business will try to locate financing.

There are many reasons for this including: entrepreneurs are more marketing oriented, people believe financing is easy to secure when they need it, the short term impact of putting off financial issues are not as immediate as other things, and so on.

Regardless of the reason, the lack of a workable financing strategy is indeed a mistake.

However, a meaningful financing strategy is not likely to exist if one or more of the other 6 mistakes are present.

This reinforces the point that all mistakes listed are intertwined and when more than one is made, the effect of the negative result can become compounded.

The comparison of small business financing to a puzzle is not meant to diminish the critical importance of success by business owners when they encounter difficulties with commercial lenders. The most practical goal for using a puzzle analogy in this article is to help describe an otherwise complex working capital and commercial finance situation in a more understandable way. The current commercial loan stakes for commercial borrowers are high because their business survival might be hanging in the balance.

In using a puzzle comparison, this analogy provides an opportunity to evaluate the commercial loans puzzle (a challenging commercial lending climate) as something that tests the ingenuity of small businesses to solve. When reviewing the current small business finance environment, an increasing number of commercial borrowers are comparing what they are finding to a puzzle with pieces scattered everywhere. The ongoing descriptions of commercial financing in terms of solving a puzzle should provide a reasonable reflection of the underlying problems that cannot be ignored by a prudent business borrower. The growing confusion represented in small business owner interactions with their current bank concerning available business financing options is no doubt also reflected by such an analogy.

Recent experiences by many commercial borrowers with their business banker probably resemble a constantly changing level of difficulty for an already confusing small business finance puzzle. It has become a common experience for banks to take over two months for a working capital financing process that should realistically be completed in three weeks or less, and in many cases even then the lender does not complete the process for providing the requested working capital to the business which has been waiting without any awareness that funding might not be finalized. Suggestions that commercial lenders have misrepresented what is required to finalize commercial loans are emerging in too many reports for borrowers to ignore.

For a number of years most business financing has been more complicated than borrowers realize. Recent events have made these complexities more obvious primarily because the eventual results have changed so drastically. It is situations like those noted above that cause business borrowers to feel like some of the required puzzle pieces have been removed from the board. In effect that is exactly what has happened in many cases because fewer banks are now providing small business financing. When this happens with the bank that a business has previously relied upon for their small business finance needs, a business owner is indeed likely to feel as if the commercial finance puzzle pieces have disappeared.

By continuing the puzzle analogy, there are two practical options for commercial borrowers to analyze and consider. First, in an approach which can lead to a small business finance puzzle which will involve “fewer pieces” if executed successfully, business owners should assess the potential for a reduction in their commercial debt requirements. Second, by looking for alternative commercial lending sources, small businesses should attempt to find the “missing pieces”. As with any complex business financing situation, both of these (as well as any other realistic commercial loan choices) should be thoroughly reviewed with the help of an experienced expert.