The Small Business Administration is an agency of the federal government that is tasked with ensuring the small businesses are able to have access to credit, do business with the federal government, and maintain employment among small businesses. Although major corporations dominate the headlines of financial news – it is the small businesses within the United States that make up for almost 80% of employment. Additionally, almost 90% of the companies within the United States are considered small businesses under the definitions of the SBA.
The primary role of the Small Business Administration is to ensure that lending banks are able to provide financing for their small business customers. As we have discussed in previous articles, the primary method of how this is completed is by providing guarantees to banks on behalf of small business owners throughout the country. Again, the most popular and flexible of these lending programs is the 7a SBA Loan.
Historically, the SBA was established in mid 1953 via the passing of the Small Business Act. Prior to the SBA, the primary agency in charge of providing support to small businesses was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Since its inception, the SBA has prompted an entire sub-industry in the world of finance. There are several banks, finance companies, and other organizations that deal solely with SBA loans. Additionally, there are also several types of firms including business planning companies and loan brokerages that exclusively assist small business owners with obtaining the 7a SBA loan and other loan programs offered by the administration.
Prior to the SBA, it was very difficult for small businesses (especially startup companies) to receive the financing that they needed. However, since its inception, the SBA has been instrumental with the rapid propagation of small business ownership within the United States. This trend is expected to continue as the role of the SBA has continued to expand over the past fifty years. The SBA has taken an active role in ensuring that small companies are able to successfully bid on and receive federal government contracts while concurrently ensuring that they have the financing they need to service these contracts.
7aSBALoan.com is a specialty website that provides content that focuses on the needs of small business owners and people seeking SBA 7a Loans. We encourage you to visit our website if you are looking for a
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Maybe you have dreamed of personally developing a website for either personal or business use. If this is true of you then you might consider affiliate revenue sharing programs as a means of trying out your web designing skills while offering you the opportunity to offset, fund entirely or even make additional income through an affiliate revenue program.
Web design through web building software can be a relatively easy and inexpensive way to learn web design skills. You could, of course, build a website for personal reasons, but the discipline of developing an ecommerce site can be helpful in practicing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) skills.
This web design test case can be enhanced when you have the potential of a residual income stream essentially paying you for learning the skills of web design.
Web builder technology is a useful tool because it is intuitive for customers who have never personally developed a website and can help guide them through most design difficulties they may encounter.
The ultimate web design is customizable in many ways allowing essential creative freedom in design while maintaining proper flow and balance for the overall site.
When a website is optimized well in relation to accepted SEO techniques the result is high placement in search engines and greater traffic to your site.
Should you work to make an affiliate revenue program your test case for web design you always have the ability to develop additional sites and cross-link those sites to assist in even greater traffic building efforts.
For many entrepreneurs there is a fear about the possibility of developing a site without the aid of the long established web master. However, by accessing an affiliate revenue program you have both reason and opportunity to develop a site on your own.
REASON – It is only by developing the site that you actually have the opportunity to derive a return on your site design investment.
OPPORTUNITY – When you develop a site and your SEO strategies start to bring in more traffic you begin to see the possibilities that may exist in a business of your own.
Many individuals have even developed a series of affiliate revenue sites. These sites have, in some instances, exceeded typical monthly expenses for their families. This didn’t happen overnight and it certainly didn’t occur without a solid SEO strategy, but in many cases an individual can make a living working exclusively with affiliate revenue sharing programs.
Web design using web building software combined with an interest in affiliate revenue programs can be a combination that pays off in increased web design expertise as well as residual payments that have the potential to exceed your current standard of living.
You’ll notice I used the word ‘potential’. Affiliate revenue programs vary widely in success and SEO strategies can take a while to realize maximum results. While affiliate revenue programs can perform beyond expectations they can also be stagnant in results. Research the product you are wanting to sell and ask for some actual figures (not best results) to gain a clear idea of the expectations you should have when signing on as an affiliate.
In the midst of the global economic crisis, many small businesses are on the brink of closing down if not enough capital infusion is found. It is now even more difficult to get small business loans from banks, though. Ironically, the exact reasons why small businesses need such small business loans – the fact that business has slowed down and profitability has plummeted – are the same reasons why banks turn them down for loans.
Small businesses now have to be more resourceful in finding alternatives to small business loans.
Government Grants and Contracts Instead of Small Business Loans
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama in February 2009 caused the pumping of billions of dollars for the revitalization of the economy. Because of it, there are plenty of government grants and contracts available to small businesses. These can be alternatives to small business loans.
But how can small businesses avail of the stimulus program?
The Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) has the responsibility for helping small businesses obtain and perform federal, state and local government contracts. It has Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC) throughout the country, ready to help small business owners to get registered and find opportunities in the area of government grants and contracts. Counselors assist small businesses in filling out bids, proposals and quotations.
The PTAC holds seminars teaching small business owners all the ins and outs of government legalese, including acronyms and registries. A one-day seminar with PTAC covers what small business owners may take months to learn on their own.
The PTAC then helps small businesses with Central Contractor Registration (CCR), a requirement for doing business with the federal government. This registration can be so complicated that some companies take two days to do it when the PTAC counselor can help them get through it in 15 minutes.
Local PTACs will be of help in acquiring state and municipal contracts.
Other resources that small business owners should consult include the Small Business Administration (SBA) which also coordinates with the APTAC; the General Services Administration (GSA) which acts as the government’s purchasing department and provides information on becoming an approved vendor; the Federal Business Opportunities website (fbo.gov) where federal contract opportunities currently available are posted; and the Small Business Innovation Research website (sbir.gov) where grant and funded research opportunities for small businesses are listed.
Cash Advances from Credit Card Services Instead of Small Business Loans
Another alternative to small business loans are cash advances from credit card services. This option is much easier than winning government grants and contracts.
Most small businesses are already availing of credit card services that enable them to accept payments by credit cards or debit cards. This is practically a requirement to doing business these days, with people hardly paying cash for goods and services. Many small business owners do not know that they could avail of cash advances from these credit card services, though, and that such advances can actually equal small business loans.
The amount that a small business can borrow is based on its average monthly income from credit card sales. This is so because the cash advance does not require collateral and future sales receivables from credit cards stand as the collateral. Payment will also be done through automatic deductions from those future credit card sales. There will be no set monthly amortizations. Instead, a certain percentage of the sales will be allotted as payment. The small business owner, therefore, need not worry over where to find cash for loan payments.
Cash advances from credit card services are the best bet of small business owners as alternatives to small business loans.
Since June 15, 2009, the United States Small Business Administration has been processing deferred payment small business loans of as much as $35,000 to be given out to 10,000 small businesses. This is covered by the SBA’s America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) Loan Program.
To qualify, companies should be private enterprises that are for-profit. They should have up to five hundred employees only and should be at least two years old. Furthermore, they should be able to prove financial need with a twenty percent decrease in sales, revenue or working capital. On the other hand, they should be able to prove that one of their two years in business has been profitable, and that with the infusion of cash they will be able to meet their existing and future debt obligations. This means positive cash flow projections. The ARC small business loans are intended to be used to pay outstanding debt such as payables to vendors.
For this batch of small business loans, there are no fees or costs involved, except if the borrower defaults on the loan later. In that case the SBA-approved lender can charge costs for securing and liquidating collateral.
The ARC small business loans also do not charge interest. Actually, the SBA pays the interest for the borrowers. Disbursement of the loan can take as much as six months but payment of the principal is also deferred for the next 12 months. After that, the borrower has five years to repay the loan principal.
Each small business can only avail of one ARC loan. SBA-approved lenders will offer the loans until September 30, 2010 or until available funds run out, whichever comes first.
There are, however, an estimated 30 million small businesses in the United States and only 10,000 of them can avail of the government’s small business loans. What if you do not happen to be among the 10,000 lucky recipients? How will your small business survive?
There are even doubts being raised on whether as much as 10,000 businesses can indeed avail of the ARC loans. There are fears that there may not be enough lenders willing or able to participate in the program. Lenders will have to advance the full amount of the loan, will not receive payment on principal for a full year, and will not be able to charge any fees, thereby absorbing all administrative costs. This may be too steep for many lenders. They may not be able to afford to participate at all.
This is where you as a small business owner can and should maximize your credit card services. We are not talking about your personal credit card services here. Instead, we are referring to the merchant services that enable your small business to receive credit card and debit card payments. Surely, any business these days avails of these types of credit card services. After all, more people pay by credit card or debit card rather than cash.
Most credit card services offer small business cash advances that can be as substantial as small business loans. These small business loans do not require any collateral because they are secured by your company’s future credit card receivables. This is even more convenient for your business because repayment is also built into those receivables. Credit card services automatically deduct a percentage from your income to go toward loan repayment. For as long as you have incoming sales, you can support your loan. Interest rates are often quite affordable considering how the loan can help your business.
Small businesses should therefore look into maximizing these credit card services for small business loans. The survival of your business could hinge on this.
Internet Marketing for Small Business – The Basics If you aren’t already familiar with internet marketing for small business, it is important to know just the influence it can have for your business in generating a larger consumer base. The processes involved in web marketing are a bit different than that of traditional marketing, but offer a much stronger approach. The actual impact web marketing campaign can have for a small business is well above that of traditional marketing, allowing small businesses to target the most consumers with ease and great management of the venture. Marketing through the internet provides a highly effective management of the marketing attempts and provides several tools and resources that are also quite effective in marketing any small business to great heights.
Internet Marketing for Small Business – Creating an Optimized Site The first step to any internet promotion venture is to ensure that there is an optimized site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming a large figure in marketing today, and involves several processes that must be performed appropriately.
Keyword research and development
Keyword placement through text, tags, and descriptions
Back linking and link exchange
Registration with search engines
From the very moment you choose a site, SEO should be on your mind. Internet marketing for small business is a powerful venture but even the start must be appropriate. Small Business Internet Marketing Promotion
Internet Marketing for Small Business – Targeting the Audience through the Search Engines As you begin your internet marketing venture, you will realize that you are considering your audience in every step of the way. You choose keywords that are likely to be searched by your target consumers, and you are exchanging links with other sites that your target consumers are using. The thing is, internet marketing for small business has another target in mind: search engines. The most popular search engines include:
Google Yahoo Bing MSN
SEO should play a key part in your internet marketing for small business efforts. You are targeting these search engines as well, seeking to be indexed as much as possible, receiving the highest search engine ranking possible. Why? Mainly because your target consumers get online and choose one of these search engines to search for what they need. They type a few words in the search bar and there is a search engine results page that shows up and you want to be at the top, because 9 times out of 10, your target consumers are choosing between the first 10 sites as the business for their needs. Small Business Internet Marketing Promotion
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