What You Need To Know About A Small Business Loans In 2022?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Small Business Loan|What You Need To Know About A Small Business Loans In 2022?Although small businesses are the backbone of our economy, many of them find the lending process to be difficult and stressful.

When it comes to obtaining small business loans, rising businesses are frequently turned down. In theory, obtaining funding should be difficult—lenders are in the business of making money, not charity. Even so, there are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of securing a loan.

Here are a few things to know about small business loans in 2020.

  • Consider the lender’s perspective: why should they lend you money? Treat your loan application as if it were a job application. You’ll need a terrific application instead of a great résumé. This entails assessing your financial condition and determining what you may use as collateral, which could include your home. A businessperson who performs the latter demonstrates that they believe in their product or service.
  • Other important criteria include cash flow and credit quality. Also, dress properly; if you appear to not require the money, you’ll be more likely to receive it.
  • Determine how much money you truly require. Businesses frequently ask for more money than they require, and the more money you ask for, the more likely you are to be rejected.
  • Make sure you learn from your mistakes. Determine why a lender has rejected you. Address that deficiency when you meet with your next small business loan.
  • Those with bad credit who have receivables in a business-to-business context can utilize them as collateral. Alternative lenders, such as so-called Internet lenders, will offer higher interest rates but have looser criteria in general.
  • Working with Small Business loan lenders should always be a consideration—in most circumstances, it should be your first choice. Many firms mistakenly believe they are ineligible. Low interest rates and long repayment durations are common features of small business loans. It’s also worth noting that just because one small business loan lender rejects you, it doesn’t mean all of them will.
  • You should be aware of what you’re getting yourself into. This entails learning the loan’s annual percentage rate (APR). You should be aware of the costs as well as any prepayment penalties. Become a well-informed shopper.
  • As previously said, online lenders may be able to give cash (and fast) if other options fail, particularly for people with poor credit. Aside from increased interest rates, Internet lenders are known for onerous terms and lack of transparency, so if you choose this way, make sure you actually need the money and can pay it back.
  • Small banks are more likely to be helpful than larger banks, which prefer to work with larger clients.

Conclusion:

Small business operators use business loans to improve cash flow, buy pricey equipment, and expand their businesses. Business loans are usually less expensive than credit cards, and they don’t force you to give up a stake of your company to an investor. Even if your credit score isn’t perfect, alternative business loans are simple to obtain. Before looking for a business loan, consider how much money you’ll need, what you’ll use it for, and how long you’ll need to repay it.

Alternative lenders are critical for small businesses looking for financing that may not be available through a typical bank. These lenders offer a variety of loan options, including merchant cash advances and equipment finance.

Working Out Your New Business on a Shoestring Budget

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Starting a New Business| Working Out Your New Business on a Shoestring BudgetThe internet has streamlined everything in our life—this is a clichéd statement that gets repeated in what we read, hear and see. We often quote this statement ourselves. However, is it absolutely true? For instance, many people believe that starting out a new business is as difficult as it was, say, 20 years ago. They maintain that working out on a shoestring budget is still a tricky rope to tread no matter if you are online or offline.

We can’t deny that steering through the formative phase of a business with limited monetary resources is no mean feat irrespective of the day and age. However, it is also true that the internet helps in any such endeavor. Even if doesn’t ease it out completely, it surely reduces the difficulty level of starting out a business from scratch and on a shoestring budget.

In this article, we are going to discuss how one can work out their business dream with limited resources and how the internet can come in handy in this regard.

Making and Pitching Business Plan Online

If you are on to capital collection for your startup, then you definitely need to create a business plan to reach out to investors. Taking a conventional route with the creation and pitching a business plan is itself a costly affair. You might have to hire a specialist to make you a business plan. After that, you have to bring that plan to the tables of people that matter. It’s obvious that this approach needs both your time and money.

You can do both planning and pitching online without spending a buck. And if you don’t sure about the free business templates, you can get fully professional business plan services at a minimal cost. Similarly, you can pitch your idea through the internet. The business plans you will find on the internet are so self-explanatory that the investors will know if they need to call you to have a one-on-one meeting.

In short, you can save a considerable amount of resources on making and proposing your business plan if you are using the internet rightly.

Start out as an LLC

There are different business categories in the legal framework that are assigned to every new business. We would recommend you to choose the LLC (Limited Liability Company) categorization for your business. To begin with, being LLC is the most advantageous option for any new and small business from many legal and operational aspects.

Moreover, you don’t need to allocate a big chunk of money to complete the registration of your business as an LLC. You can do it yourself online without spending more than $100 dollars for registering anywhere in the US. Lastly, you don’t need any legal aid while filing the online LLC forms, which means you are saving yet another cost.

Even if you have the dream to make your business a C-corporation, we would suggest you start out as LLC. You can shift to your preferred classification anytime you want. Forming LLC will not just save you cost, but it also involves fewer risks.

Secure Intellectual Property

Today, when startups are mushrooming at a very quick rate, it has become really important for any new entrepreneur to secure its intellectual property at the earliest. Amidst all the informational proliferation all the time, you can’t keep your business plan and trademark under the cover for long. It’s also possible that someone else will come up with the same plan as you and have it formally patented while you are still mulling over it.

In short, the better business sense suggests that one should register their intellectual property at the onset. If you don’t have enough money at the start to hire costly experts to do this on your behalf, don’t just sleep on it for any other time. The US Patent and Trademark Office now offers its services online. From trademarks to patents and copyrights, you can register every piece of intellectual property online for a few hundred bucks.

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Arrangement of Office Space

No matter how virtualized our lifestyle gets, we still need to operate through physical spaces. Even if you are planning on to start out an online business, you will need to have some physical space to operate from. Getting a full-fledged office in commercial zones seems like an insurmountable task when you don’t have enough money to work with.

One way to steer out of this tricky spot is to go for virtual office space services where you and your team can remotely work without needing any physical space or desk. However, this idea can’t work for all business plans, particularly not for the ones where you have to meet clients in person and call meetings. In such cases, the need for physical office spaces becomes inevitable. The internet can also come in handy to find physical office spaces.

There are entrepreneur outreach programs and incubators that offer physical office spaces, conference rooms and other business amenities at the fraction of the price of the main real estate market. You can start your journey to find office space from here.

Make the Most of Cloud Computing and Pay-as-you-go Software Subscriptions

This is where the internet helps budding businesses like a guardian. With Google providing so much free online storage and Amazon providing web services at exceedingly marked down prices, you don’t need to invest heavily on you digital and software infrastructure initially.

Make the Most of Social Media

This is another domain where the internet provides some unmatched benefits. For instance, you can save the entire cost of your marketing if you are using social media the way it should be. With search engine optimized curation of content for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can reach out to your target market without spending a single cent.
Obviously, not every business plan can execute in the same manner. It has its own peculiarities. Nevertheless, the points that we have discussed here will surely help in working on any business idea with strained budgets.

Tips to Apply For a Money Market Account

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article | Tips to Apply For a Money Market AccountA money market account is a type of savings account that has a high-interest rate. These accounts have very low balance requirements and may have transaction limits. A good money market account is a safe bet for investors, but it is important to consider your financial goals and personal situation before you decide to open one. There are a few tips to remember when opening the highest-paying money market accounts. Here are some: – Make sure you check the bank’s interest rate requirements. – Research the banks’ deposit and transaction limits before you choose an account.

You can open a money market account online

If you have an existing checking account, you can go through the process of opening a money market account online. Most banks have websites that will allow you to open an internet account and access your information. Once you’ve established a connection, you’re ready to make a deposit. You can withdraw and deposit funds anytime you like, as long as you have a sufficient balance.

Check out the bank’s fees

The bank’s fees and charges can be high. However, money market accounts can be convenient to use and can pay higher interest rates than traditional bank accounts. Some banks even have no minimum balance requirements, meaning that you can use them for routine bill-paying. Ultimately, you can open a money market account with any bank that is willing to provide you with a low minimum balance.

Know the bank’s requirements

When opening a money market account, you’ll need to check the bank’s minimum balance requirements and daily balance requirements. Some banks even waive their monthly maintenance fee if you meet minimum requirements. You need to do your homework. If you have any questions or concerns, make sure to contact the bank or the financial institution to determine if they have a minimum balance requirement. You can find out if the bank offers this benefit or not.

strong>Option for transferring money

While the money market account is a popular option for transferring money, you should keep in mind that the interest rates may vary. Many people do not realize that they can receive higher interest rates with a money market account. It’s also important to make sure that you know what your bank’s rules are. This is especially important if you’re new to this type of investment. The money market account is a great place to put your savings.

There are several steps to open a money market account

The first step in opening a money market account is to decide the amount of money to deposit. Some banks require you to deposit a certain amount of money to open an account. While it is not a bad idea to invest some money in your business, it’s also important to keep your assets safe. Besides minimizing risks, a good money market account will help you earn more interest.

It’s important to remember that money market account rates may differ between banks. You should check around and find the best deal to avoid high fees and high-interest rates. When choosing a money market account, remember that it’s essential to shop around. There are many advantages and disadvantages. You need to compare money market accounts and select the right one for your financial situation. Depending on your personal situation, a money market account can be a very smart choice for growing your money.

Top Finance Management Tips

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Finance Management Tips|Top Finance Management TipsWhen you have your finances in order, life feels like a breeze. There are a few different ways you can manage your money, but different methods work for different individuals. It’s best to try a few ways of managing your finances and see which one works successfully for you.

If you’ve got debts, pay them off as soon as possible

Debt is the biggest reason people fail to manage their money successfully, if you get yourself into money troubles it will be a lot harder to organise savings, and budgeting can feel pointless if you can still see you’re in debt. If you are in an emergency situation, there are options like payday loans direct lender if you think you will be able to pay it back.

The best way to deal with debt is to push yourself to budget in certain areas of your life and pay a bit off your debt every month. Setting aside a certain amount will ensure you don’t spend it, if you get paid once a month you could pay off a set amount on this date. The main thing to focus on is paying the debt off, whether it’s an overdraft or a credit card the more you pay off, the better. Service fees, interest fees, and other bank charges will keep adding up until you pay the money back.

Create a monthly budget you can stick to

A monthly budget you can actually stick to will set you up for a few weeks. If you get paid once a month, you can divide up your money on payday, make sure you set aside any basic outgoings like mortgage, rent, or bills and then you know you can spend what is left over. However, if you have debts to pay off or saving goals, take this money straight out on your payday aswell, this will prevent you from spending it.

Set an amount to save every month

If you aren’t in debt and you feel at a stable point with your income, you can start to set aside a certain amount to save every month, if you aren’t already doing this. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount but it will slowly add up if you are consistent. At the end of the month seeing savings in your account can feel satisfying and rewarding, you just need a certain amount of self-control to make sure you don’t feel proud of yourself and spend them, you would then be back to square one.

Use money management phone applications

Banks that have a money management feature are very helpful for tracking your spending. Some applications even have categories for your transactions, so you can compare what you are spending every month. It is helpful to set monthly budgets for categories, for example, maybe you want to spend a small amount on transport and try to use your bike more. Planning our budgeting and spending goals at the beginning of the month will keep you motivated.

Find a side hustle

We hope you now feel more positive about managing your finances, whether you’re in debt or doing well with your savings, there will always be a way to manage your money more successfully. It’s just finding the best option for you.

How To Get Funding Through Horizon Europe?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Horizon Europe|How To Get Funding Through Horizon Europe?Horizon Europe is an ideal funding program for startups or SMEs working their way through the innovation ecosystem in Europe. Horizon Europe has a budget of €95.5B for seven years between 2021 and 2027; this budget boosts sustainable development and competitiveness in the EU. Furthermore, the program supports the innovation ecosystem in Europe, and it has pillar III, where startups find vital opportunities.

Between June 23 and 24, the European research and innovation days take place. These days signify the annual flagship event on research and innovation for the European Commission. In the event, there was a policy-related discussion that hints at an upcoming opportunity to learn about the Horizon Europe program for entrepreneurs; the opportunity is slated for info days 2021, which is between June 28 and July 9.

This post further looks into the investment strategy of Horizon Europe and how startups can apply for funding opportunities.

What is Horizon Europe’s Mission and Scope?

The Horizon Europe program strives towards three goals, including strengthening European scientific and tech bases and the European Research Area. Also, the program aims at boosting Europe’s competitiveness, jobs, and innovation capacity. The third target seeks to deliver on the EU’s ambition for a sustainable transition to meet citizens’ priorities.

Horizon Europe has a three-pillar structure; this information is necessary when finding open calls for funding. The three pillars include excellent science, global challenges and European industrial competitiveness, and innovative Europe pillars.

The Excellent Science pillar is in support of frontier research projects to boost scientific competitiveness. In contrast, the global challenges and European industrial competitiveness pillar invests in societal challenges research. On the other hand, the Innovative Europe Pillar through the European Innovation Council aims at making Europe a front-runner in market-driven innovation.

Furthermore, the pillar seeks to develop the EU’s innovation landscape in association with the European Institute of Innovation Technology with research, education, and innovation projects.

Recently, the Horizon Europe program introduced the concept of missions for increasing the funding’s effectiveness further. The mission revolves around commitments for solving global challenges, including climate change, food security, and cancer. In addition, missions operate as a portfolio of actions; they include research projects and policy measures while bringing experts in business, innovation, media, science, and civil society together. By November 2021 latest, the projects should be up and running before engaging business communities and citizens in the implementation.

What Are the Funding Opportunities for Tech Startups and Companies?

As mentioned earlier, Europe’s budget is around €95.5B for 2021 to 2027; the budget includes €5.4B from NextGenerationEU for boosting recovery and future resilience and additional reinforcement of €4.5B. Furthermore, the European Defence Fund implements Horizon Europe while the Euratom Research and Training Program complements it.

The program tackles global challenges and European competitiveness with over half of its budget while innovation projects are about €13.5B. Furthermore, with the European Innovation Council (EIC) addition, the program increases support for breakthrough innovation. EIC is a one-stop shop that leverages private finance to help innovators, especially SMEs, in the space of scaling up, increasing agility, and creating future markets. Due to the program’s novelty, the EIC has a budget of €10B for 2021 to 2027. Also, the funding opportunities will be more than €1.5B in 2021. Also, the program earmarks 70% of its budget for SMEs.

The funding and tenders portal allows access to the calls for proposals. Calls give detailed information on research and innovation issues that proposals applications should address.

The EIC has an open round of €1 billion in the innovation category. Therefore, startups can apply for grants up to €2.5M and receive direct equity investments between €500K and €15M. The EIC Accelerator aims at investing in innovations that have significant Green Deal innovations impacts for economic recovery, strategic digital, and health tech. Furthermore, asides from financing, companies benefit from business acceleration services in the ecosystem, including access to top investors, expertise, and partnership opportunities. The funding’s first deadline already has over 801 complete applications, which is a strong response. Also, the full applications’ next cut-off date is October 6, 2021.

The Energy harvesting and storage technologies grant program is another innovation-focused open call. The program will be open till the end of September 2021. As long as an SME, large company or small consortium has five independent legal entities, they can apply. Proposals should address innovative technologies that combine clean, low cost, and high energy density harvesting and storage. In addition, the proposal should also address innovations for the renewable energies combined harvesting and storage or devices for electrochemical storage and advanced materials.

Horizon Europe also supports partnerships where the EU, member countries, and their private sector commit to developing and implementing research and innovation activities. The European commissions’ partnership with Breakthrough Energy is an example, and they support the catalyst project for making competitive cleantech solutions in Europe

Conclusion

The Horizon Europe program provides funding for startups and SMEs. With the numerous funding opportunities, all you need do is apply for grants. If you need more help with this topic, check out https://www.emdesk.com/horizon-europe and hit the ground running. Whenever there is a call for a proposal, always pay attention to the research and innovation issues your application should address.