Let’s pretend for the next few minutes that you’re a lender. One afternoon, three business-loan applications land on your desk. One’s from Pope Francis. Another’s from Martha Stewart. And the third is from a local woman hoping to expand her day-spa business. Like many lenders, when...
Did you know that the American small scale business is family-owned? A whopping 90% keep it in the bloodline, but two-thirds have encountered difficulties in the process of transferring ownership to children or relatives. Why? Let's take a look. One family's story Decades ago a young man...
Congratulations! You’ve applied for – and gotten – a loan for your small business. You’re eager to put the money that’s now in the bank to work. Sure, you wish you had more, but by using your funds wisely, you can increase the odds of...
Got a couple of different credit cards in your wallet? A lot of people do. In the world of our wallets, it’s a widely accepted practice to carry a MasterCard and a VISA and maybe even one of those new Citibank Costco cards, too. And...
If there is a secret to business success, it no doubt lies in figuring out how to go about meeting the goals that have been set. For instance, let’s say that not all that long ago, you put together a business plan. You worked hard...
Things were finally coming together. They had started the business on a shoestring with their personal savings. Orders were coming in regularly. They knew they would soon need to hire more people and move to a larger facility; one considerably bigger than their current two-car...
An available credit line is excellent insurance against the unexpected expenses every business is likely to encounter from time to time: A pipe bursts in the warehouse. A major client is late with a payment. A computer crashes. Stuff happens. But with an approved line...
Imagine this: The holiday season is fast approaching and you need to hire extra help. Or the main oven in your restaurant’s kitchen suddenly stops working and if you want to stay open – and you do – you‘ll have to replace it fast. Or...
“When businesses get help, their success rate is 80%; when they don’t, their failure rate is 50% - 80%,” says Claudia Viek, CEO of the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity. And it’s facts like that that underscore the importance of a business being able...