All about Credit Cards

Most businesses start out thinking the first thing they need is a great business plan. The popular myth is that potential lenders will place great stock in your business plan as a major consideration for approving the financing you need.

While a well written business plan will assist you when you are seeking financing, it is far down on the lenders list behind things such as your business management teams experience, your past business successes and your lending character. Having a plan for accessing the business capital you need to execute your business plan is what is required to bring your business success. Not having a viable business financing plan is the direct cause of why 90% of all new businesses fail.

Your lending character means the lender sees you having the ability and stability to repay the loan. They also ask how far they believe you can take the business to maximize the potential earnings and therefore their chances of getting repaid.

The first thing a lender is going to look at is how did you structure the business and were you responsible and knowledgeable in that. Are you Incorporated or an LLC? If not you are declined for a business loan and everything becomes based solely on you as an individual. Did you do your EIN, State, business licenses and bank filings correctly? If not, you are declined because a lender requires attention to detail.

A simple business credit report check by a lender will quickly show whether or not you are even in the ballpark for getting approved for financing. If the lender finds that you have not bothered to insure that your business has active reports with all three major business credit reporting agencies, then of course you are immediately declined.

Next, the lender will look at the character of your business credit reports. What do they say about your business? What kind of payment histories have you had with debts that are easy to get such as vendor trade lines, small business credit cards, equipment leases, etc? If your business has no credit history or very minimal history then no lender will even consider your business for a larger loan when you have no track record of paying smaller debts.

If you pass these simple tests, now a lender will get to the heart of you business loan application and it is only at this point that you even get the opportunity to present your funding request. Unfortunately as high as 90 percent of all business loan applications never get to this point, because most business owners never take the time to complete the initial steps.

So you have made it this far, The next question you need to ask is what is a lender going to want to see? Debt service! Here is where the lender finally looks at your business plan, or at least the financial pat of it, to determine if your business can debt service the loan. To make this determination a lender will test the reality of your numbers. Basically this means do your numbers add up and do they make sense.

If you do not know anything about accounting you had better get help. When a lender looks at your projected financial statement and finds simple accounting errors, then in most cases you will again be declined. They do not want to lend money to someone who cannot produce a simple proof and loss statement; or someone that cannot balance a balance sheet. There is a lot of help out there, get some.

Next, a lender will look at the market niche section of your business plan. While most business owners think that this is the place that sets them apart from the competition, it actually is the part where lenders will compare you to your competition. Here is where lenders must see that you have done you market research. Can the revenue claims that you are making in your financial projections be backed up by the actual market demographics for your specific business industry, location, customer base, etc.? It essentially comes down to the need for your product or service.

All of this can seem overwhelming and in truth it can be. It is the reason that 97 percent of all business loan applications get declined. The overriding reason is that business owners are not taught this in school and typically only gain this knowledge through years of brutal experience that normally includes having one or two failed businesses under their belts.

This will give you plenty of information to get you started on putting together a business funding request.

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If your business is a work at home online Internet business, or staffs several hundred in a downtown skyscraper offline, you are going to be able to increase your low cost effective marketing, promotion and company image online to succeed.

To not use online promotion and exposure, in this day and age, is almost a guarantee that your business will lose sales and important recognition and emotional credits from your customers for not having a hand on the pulse of your target market for profits.

You definitely need to come up with a good keyword type business name and a good keyword type domain name so people will know exactly what you do when they are searching in any source for your business. This is an online as well as an offline necessity.

If you show people how to work at and profit from online auctions you would not have much success with, Kathy loves flowers, as your business name, right? Something to the effect of, Online Auction Trainer School would tell people what you do when they seek help to learn about online auctions.

Take the ego out of your online and offline business names. Owner ego sells nothing. Please learn this important point first. No one wants your ego. Everyone wants your useful services. This is a mountain of difference in profit or loss.

Here are some things to avoid in naming your work at home online business prior to setting up your Internet or offline site. Please learn them well.

One of the first mistakes many new work at home online business owners, and unbelievably, experienced owners and business advisers make is to ask for too much input on Internet site and business name, from way too many people. They tend to ask family and friends what their new business name should be and what domain name it should have. The problem with this is that not all will really understand the business idea, needs or jargon involved in that business.

Friends, family and many business advisers do not know squat about naming a business, per above. Ask them how many businesses they have named that succeeded that they named and you will understand exactly what I mean real fast.

The second reason to avoid this egregious consultative process is that you can only choose one name. This means that the more people you ask the more people you are going to disappoint and even insult even though they do not know what they are doing anyway.

It is far better to begin the online and other aspects of your work at home Internet business by asking the opinion and business help of those few people who have been chosen to have an important management part of your venture. You might pull these folks together and have a brainstorming session where you all feed off the ideas of each other.

That way, when the end results in a name, each will feel like they have been a part of giving you that idea. They need to know that the name must tell what the business is quickly and as much as possible in very few words.

Another entrepreneurial business naming error is to attach an adjective together with a noun to come up with one word former with a middle of the word capital letter. Getting too complicated here. If, for example, your work at home Internet or offline business were to offer online sale of luggage at discount prices you think it correct to call it something like EconoPack. This is bad for two reasons.

No one can look at that name and know what it is you offer. Is it like a UPS store that offers shipping services? Luggage for Less would be a much clearer name. Do you see the very important difference to customers and leads?

If you think of the recent work at home Internet and offline business start ups that have grown online to become household names, you will see that they all took zingy, snappy, lively names that differentiated themselves from others and were not likely to be copied. They did not take hard to understand names that could be forgotten or worse yet, confused with other companies.

Yahoo is one example that you might be looking for. It could have been World Wide Search Engine instead. This probably would have been better for the first name identification done! Google is another. This name is appropriate.

Monster is a great example of a name that is not only memorable but suggestive of high volume, strength, durability and vast reach. Monster could have been Online Job Resource. What a blah name that would have been. Customers would of found it easier to find though when they are looking for a job. See the difference?

All these started out as work at home Internet business projects by unknown entrepreneurs. Their choice of business and Web site names played a large part in their ability to brand themselves and thus to succeed. Some would of started and grown faster with more appropriate names though.

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Many things can contribute to creating the business image that you want and they should all be considered before you rush into having anything printed to promote your business.

Start with the very name you call your business. When deciding on the name consider just what the image is that you are trying to convey e.g. fun, serious, sensitive, caring, knowledgeable, etc. Don’t have the name too long or too difficult to pronounce or spell.

As well as a short name, if possible it should also give an idea of what the business is about. This will help your potential customers to recognise and remember your service/product. You can also create an image or ‘branding’ by supporting the name with a logo (a graphic or drawing) to help customers visually recognise you. A logo does not have to be complicated - it can simply be your name, which is written in a particular way e.g. Coca Cola just uses the name of the product written in a specific style.

In most countries you have to legally register your business name. In Australia registration allows you to have an individual name for your business that is not identical or similar to another business name within the State where it is registered. The cost of registration is around $70 in most Australian States.

As you may not get your first choice of a name, the registration form allows for alternative suggestions. Do not make the name of your business too long. It is difficult to fit in computer fields, and you may find clients end up abbreviating it.
Registration will not necessarily protect the rights of the name from being used by other businesses especially if they create a company or add another word in front of the name.

In Australia, the registration lasts for three years and can be renewed. The Certificate of Registration you are given must be displayed in a prominent position at the place of business or outside every location where business is conducted under that name.
The registered name also must appear on all stationery such as letterheads together with the ABN (Australian Business Number).

It is important that you do not commence using the name you have chosen, or have it printed on anything, until you receive notification that it has been accepted for registration (you will receive a Certificate with your business name attached). You cannot claim any expenses in relationship to your business until you have a registered name (unless you trade only using your actual name)

Business cards are a cheap and most effective way to promote and advertise your business and are an invaluable networking tool. Each business card should contain the business name, persons name, title, address, phone, fax, email and web address. If the name of your business is not self descriptive, put a couple of words to explain what your business does, e.g. Gabogrecan Enterprises - Art Commissions, Tourist and Fashion Product.

Your card should be designed with the image you want to create, in mind. Colour, style and size of fonts, logo and the quality of card used, can all contribute to the image you wish to create.

Business cards are often stored in special containers or plastic sleeves by participants. If your card cannot fit these receptacles, they will be placed in a drawer and forgotten. If you want to have a magnet card, or some other type of interesting format - produce and present two business cards. One for storing with others and the special one to make an extra impact.

When exchanging a business card, take the trouble to read the information at that moment (it shows genuine interest and helps you remember the person). Jot some details on the back e.g. Date and function at which cards were exchanged, and any special details to assist you in remembering the contact e.g. opened the door for me!

Business cards that have a great deal of information printed on the back, are laminated, or are of a very dark colour, make this networking function impossible.

Always have business cards with you. Keep them in a wide variety of places so you do not forget them. Carry blank cards with you for those people you meet who have forgotten theirs.

Remember, business is often about perception. If you are targeting the small or micro business sector and your printed material is ‘over the top’ this can lose customers just as quickly as promotional material that is scatty and obviously disjointed.

This ‘over the top’ material is something big business does all the time and then they wonder why they cannot win over customers from smaller business. The bigger and bolder the ’splash’ of your promotional material is the more is will suggest that what you have to offer is expensive - is this the image you want to portray? Remember that the smaller business does not necessarily think expensive means quality service or product.

Think out your image before having a single thing printed and this includes how you will present it e.g. will a brochure, flyer, business card be presented in a folder? Once you have decided on your image - then promote it and build up your brand recognition.

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Starting a home business I not an easy task and to make things harder there are so many myths attached to starting a home business that it can become quite confusing. Some people get an idea in their head and just take off. Starting a business for them is easy. The majority of people, however, end up having the desire to start a home business before the actual business idea comes to them. Once they begin thinking about actually starting a home based business they are overcome with many myths that make it seem next to impossible to succeed.

One of the biggest myths about starting a home business is associated with the internet. The internet has opened many doors to home business owners, but at the same time the complexity of the internet has caused many to give up and abandon hope that they can ever get a business to be successful. Many people believe that the internet is a vast marketplace that is too he to compete in. That is simply not true. There are many small home businesses that are doing great on the internet. It is all a matter of knowing how to run a business website. A person has to understand about marketing and setting up a website. Once they’ve established their online presence they can make great money.

Another internet related myth about starting a home business is that there is no help available for the business owner. Anyone who has went to a search engine and typed in business will now this is not true. There are online networks of websites that are all aimed at helping people succeed in internet business. These people offer free information and plenty of support. A person can find answers to almost any question they have and even talk to others who have started their own business. The internet business environment is one of helping others.

One myth that may hold some truth is that marketing online is impossible. While it is, obviously, not impossible it can be difficult for the beginner. Starting a home business online requires plenty of research into internet marketing. The marketing tools used online are very different from those used in the traditional environment. A person has to understand how to drive traffic to their website and how to catch the attention of their target market. As mentioned above, there are plenty of resources available to help a person get their marketing plan in order.

These myths about starting a business all make it look impossible to tap into the internet marketplace. These myths are quite untrue and should be ignored. It does take hard work and dedication to start any business, but using the internet just opens up a business to a huge marketplace and offers additional opportunities that a traditional, offline business does not have. It is worth it for every business owner to look into the internet when starting a home business.

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