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If there’s one mistake that new small businesses make consistently, it’s underestimating the amount of cash they need to keep on hand. When a company is in the startup phase, one or two minor disruptions in cash flow can doom a small business.
Once outside of the start-up phase, most entrepreneurs assume that cash flow won’t be a problem. An established customer base, predictable sales and revenue often lull the business owner into a sense of complacency.
Make no mistakes about it. Cash is king. It means the difference between operating and shutting down. Regardless of where your business is in its life cycle, it needs cash to survive, and today’s recession is proving that even established businesses can quickly find themselves on the ropes.
If your US-based business accepts Visa or MasterCard, and can demonstrate credit or debit receipts of $2,500 or more per month, your business most likely qualifies for a merchant cash advance from Rapid Capital Funding.
Rapid Capital Funding is a leader in providing merchant cash advances for businesses of all sorts. In most cases, we can process your request for a cash advance in just 72 hours. Special funding programs are available for high transaction volume businesses like restaurants and bars, too!
You don’t need to worry about getting stranded without the cash you need to pay bills, make your payroll, cover unexpected expenses, or cover customers who are late paying their bills to you. Rapid Capital Funding can float you the cash you need today.
Photo Credit: Christa Richert
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Job Seekers Turning To Small Business For Help But Where Does Small Business Turn?
In today’s tight economy,
small business owners are looking to pinch every penny possible. One of the biggest challenges ahead for small business is getting paid. Recent surveys show that businesses, particularly small businesses, are waiting longer to collect their receivables than they have in the past.
In many cases, customers are paying bills later and less often than they used to, which can in turn cause cash flow problems as small businesses try to float their customers for longer periods of time. Balancing cash flow can be tricky. For some merchants, the ideal solution is a merchant cash advance.
A merchant cash advance leverages your future credit card sales to provide you with the cash you need to pay bills, cover unexpected expenses, pay taxes, buy supplies, upgrade equipment or whatever else your business might need.
Qualifying for a merchant cash advance isn’t like qualifying for a loan. There are no long applications to fill out, no collateral to put up, no personal guarantees to make. You fill out a brief application form, and most merchants have the cash they’re looking for in just three days or less. Rapid Capital Funding also has special programs for high volume credit card businesses like restaurants and bars.
Don’t carry your non-paying customers alone. Contact Rapid Capital Funding today for more information on a merchant cash advance for your business!
Photo Credit: Sigurd Decroos
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Cash Flow Is King For Small Businesses
In a good economy,
small businesses can afford to let a few customers slide when it comes to paying bills on time. In a tight economy, late payments cascade through the system, impacting not only the small business that isn’t getting paid, but also its vendors and suppliers, who may have to wait for payment. One or two late payers can turn an efficient small business into another late payer.
When regular collection methods don’t work, one potential solution for small businesses is to consider a merchant cash advance. A merchant cash advance from Rapid Capital Funding allows you to get the cash you’re owed now and repay it when the cash actually arrives.
By putting cash into your hands right now, a merchant cash advance from Rapid Capital Funding can help your business break the potentially catastrophic cycle that delayed payments from customers can set up. A merchant cash advance is ideal for businesses that accept Visa or MasterCard and have credit card sales of at least $2,500 per month. Rapid Capital Funding collects repayment as transactions come in, along with a small fee. As a business owner, you can pass that fee on to the late-paying client(s). Your business doesn’t suffer because your customers are late in paying their accounts.
A merchant cash advance isn’t a loan. There are no monthly bills to pay, which makes it a convenient way to get cash fast. Most merchant cash advances can be completed within just a few business days. Better than that, 95% of merchants who fit the basic advance criteria are approved for advances, even those with less-than-perfect credit.
When you need cash for your business, you need Rapid Capital Funding!
Photo Credit: Jypsygen, via Flickr
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When you own a small business, saving on overhead costs is critical, and if you do not manage the costs of your operating expenses effectively and properly, it can kill your business. Of all the expenses involved that are not directly related to manufacturing your product or delivering it, expanding overhead expenses are dangerous. Here are three critical aspects that you need to be aware of concerning operating expenses or overhead:
Even in small businesses, overhead expenses have the tendency to increase, usually slowly and often times unnoticed. You may find yourself confronted with a serious situation - your overhead expenses have grown and are out of control.
Swollen overhead costs are a threat to the competitiveness of your small business as well. By the same token, lower overhead costs can become one of the best competitive weapons in your arsenal.
Creeping costs can oftentimes be insidious. Those seemingly minor costs that get added here and there start to add up. Just remember that it is very easy to add additional overhead expenses, but eliminating them can be far more difficult.
Your office space is a prime example of a major overhead expense. The big mistake that most new business owners make is that they have more space or higher quality office space than what is actually necessary. I call this one “overkill”, but the only thing that really gets killed is your cash flow and your profits. Keeping overhead expenses in check is the most ideal reason for designing and using a home office.
I consider this list of the 6 most important action steps to deal with first in order to help you save money on overhead in your small business:
1) Focus on cutting your energy costs – this is one of the major areas that drain a business’ bank account and they are continually rising. A terrific source of assistance in cutting energy costs is the government-backed program called Energy Star.
2) Control your inventory – carrying excess inventory or the wrong inventory hinders your turns on that merchandise and can ultimately cripple your operation. Inventory control software is available online and it is highly advisable that you invest in this.
3) Do you have a cost-effective insurance policy? – another critical area is business insurance. You might want to consider re-evaluating the type of coverage that you have versus what you actually need.
4) Don’t waste money by spending it on waste – sounds redundant doesn’t it? I’m referring to what it costs you monthly to have your trash removed. Try using smaller receptacles and having fewer pick-ups per month.
5) Spend less time on the phone – phone costs can be lethal. A good suggestion here is to look into converting your landline over to VoIP (an internet-based phone service provider). This is much cheaper than the standard phone service.
6) Involve your employees – believe it or not, you would be amazed at how adept your employees can be when it comes to identifying wasteful spending in your business. It is always advisable to enlist their assistance in your cost-cutting mission, just be sure that you can reward their valuable input if that is warranted.
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Today’s tight credit market is causing franchisers to lend a helping hand to franchisees in need of financing.
“Great Clips Inc., a Minneapolis-based hair-salon chain, says it has secured $14 million in loans for expansions, acquisitions, debt consolidation and refinancing for new and current franchisees.
The franchiser obtained the money from lenders InSource Capital Services Inc. of Sherman Oaks, Calif., and IRH Capital LLC, Deerfield, Ill., “in the wake of all the turmoil and fear out there,” says Rob Goggins, Great Clips’ vice president of franchise development.
Mr. Goggins says the franchiser was able to get the financing partly because of franchisees’ low default rate on previous loans. Much of the money is still available, the company says.”
read full article by Richard Gibson
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