Sunday, 25 October 2009

Alternative sources for business finance

Having trouble finding business finance from the usual sources in recent months, despite having used top of the range business plan software have been a common phenomenon ammongst entrepreneurs. Business owners have increasingly had to be creative and with their efforts as many of the usual sources such as banks have tighten their purse strings and only provided finance to those with sufficient equity, water tight business plans and feasibility studies indicating high customer demand. The good news is that there is a wide range of options available – although your choice will depend upon the nature of the industry in which you operate.

Lets look at a few of the sources and strategies for finding business finding from various industries popular amongst entrepreneurs.

Construction

This sector has been particularly hit by the downturn. As a result of a significantly lower volume of work, many firms are struggling with cash flow problems. Similarly, the ever-increasing period between issuing an invoice and actually receiving payment can exacerbate these problems.
Invoice financing provides an efficient way of bridging the gap between doing the work and getting paid for it. This form of finance effectively allows you to borrow against the value of invoices you have raised, enabling you to secure funds almost immediately.

Under an invoice finance arrangement you will pass your invoices onto another company, known as a ‘factor’. This company will then advance you a portion of the value of your invoice; this is frequently as much as 90 per cent and can often happen within 24 hours.

The factor will then chase up payment of the invoice when it becomes due. When the invoice has been settled by your customer the factor will pay you the remaining value, less a small fee.

Invoice financing has become much more sophisticated of late. Many businesses rejected this form of funding in the past as there was a sense that customers would presume the company was in difficulties if it had engaged a factoring company. Today, though, invoice finance arrangements can be adapted to individual needs; any communication between the factor and your customers will appear as if it came directly from your company.

Retail
The problems faced by retailers are different to those endured by businesses operating in the construction sector. Stock is often one of the most significant assets held by a retail business – and yet, in a period of slowing consumer activity, it can be very difficult to translate stock into cash.

One of the most significant recent developments in the alternative funding market has been the growth of asset based lending (ABL). Asset based lending enables businesses to borrow against stock and other assets – and is therefore perfect for retailers.
ABL provides a flexible way of meeting the unique funding requirements of retailers and other businesses. Like invoice financing it is totally scalable, meaning that it will grow with your business. Asset based lending is used by businesses of every size.

Professional services
Providers in this sector have a unique conundrum. These individuals generally have no stock, and many do not have their own premises – working instead from their clients’ premises, or preferring to work from home or rented office space.

This can make it difficult to secure funding as there are no assets against which to secure a loan. However, if you are in this situation there are still forms of alternative funding that you should be able to access.

Invoice finance should be your first port of call if you are looking to secure funds quickly. The benefits are much the same as for those in the construction industry; this type of arrangement can provide you with up to 90 per cent of the face value of your invoices, as little as 24 hours after you raise them.

Comparator services can ensure that you find the right invoice finance partner for your business – a partner that will grow with your company, and support you and your business through every phase of its development. Alternative sources of funding are becoming ever more important for the survival of SMEs – and it is vital that you find a partner that enables you to take advantage of the opportunities they present.

Friday, 23 October 2009

Business Finance from Google Ventures

With

business finance

becoming an attractive option for many organisation with cash to spare, In March of 2009, Google unveiled its latest undertaking: Google Ventures. Google Ventures is a Google-backed venture capital group that aims to invest in new and exciting business plans. Funding is open to any company with a great idea, and the idea needn't be computer-based.

What is Google Ventures?
Google Ventures is a venture capital firm designed to provide funding to new businesses with exceptional ideas. Google Ventures, managed by Rich Miner and Bill Maris, has a starting balance of over $100 million dollars, and over 20,000 "exceptional Googlers" evaluating prospective businesses.

Google Ventures can provide funds ranging from seed money to millions of dollars in start-up capital to businesses they believe have the potential to be great. As an investment company, they are of course looking for businesses that will provide them with a return on their investment. However, they stress that they are also seeking innovative and creative companies who tackle problems in new ways.

Google Venture and Startup Companies
The aim of Google Ventures is to seek out potentially great companies under the leadership of entrepreneurs who will go on to do remarkable things. Google Ventures states that they are primarily interested in funding software companies, biotechnology companies, and companies in the consumer Internet industry Google Ventures operates separately from Google and investments do not have to be directly related to, or tie into, Google's Vision. Instead, they seek to maximize returns.

Only companies within North America are eligible for funding form Google Ventures as of 2009. Start-ups interested in being considered are urged to contact the company via email with a presentation or proposal. The website requests that proposals be limited to either twenty slides or no more than three typewritten pages, and cautions prospective business owners that they will respond only to companies they are interested in speaking with further.

Goals of Google Ventures
While Google is not new to investing, Google Ventures is different. Google will be using Google Ventures as their primary vehicle for making venture investments.

Google Ventures acknowledges that great ideas are not subject to recession or hard economical times. Ideas don’t stop, however the backing to make them become a reality does. In the face of economic downturn in 2009, Google is offering funding because they believe it is the time to invest in companies that have the chance to become "the next big thing." Google was founded by entrepreneurs, and they believe they should now help the future icons of the next generation.

Companies Helped
Google Ventures' first investments were made in April 2009. Pixazza was the first company offered funding by Google Ventures. Pixazza's core business is Internet advertising using pictures. Their business model involves transforming static images into interactive advertising vehicles. Consumers can "mouse-over" a picture to learn more about things they are interested in, or buy products they see.

Silver Spring Networks, whose core business is in smart grid technology, was next in line and in August of 2009, three more investments were made to Altarock, Brightsource Energy and eSolar, three alternative energy companies.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/50275.aspx#ixzz0UnGnjjQW

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Currency Trading Pairs

If you plan to go into forex, one of the most important points you need to understand is how currency trading pairs work. Although you are free to experiment and sift through other currencies where you can possibly make a profit, pairs in currency trading are the basics where you will base your trading plans from. If you are new in the field of currency trading, you should definitely consider being an expert with the currency pairs before you explore other fields.

In forex, currency pairs work by relating their values against each other. Each pair is composed of a base currency and a quote currency. The base currency is the first among the pair which is the target currency that you wanted to buy. Meanwhile, the quote currency is the second among the pair which tells you how much of it do you need to buy the base currency or the first one. Using the USD to Euro conversion, a quote presented as USD/Euro=.067 simply means that you will need 0.067 Euros to be able to purchase one US dollar.

Working with Currency Trading Pairs

To be able to plot out your plan in the forex business, you will constantly need to consult your own currency pairs. Among the most popular trading pairs are the combinations of US dollars and Euros, US dollars and Japanese Yen, US Dollars and Swiss Franc. Most of the forex traders use US dollars as their quote currency since it is the most widely used currency in the world. The Euro, Swiss Franc, and the Japanese Yen are among the highest yielding and also most volatile base currencies in the trading game.

As a forex trader, it is your responsibility to keep track of currencies individually. In reality there really are no hard and fast rules about currency pairs. You are the one who gets to ultimately decide which of these pairs you plan to keep an eye on and develop. But it helps to have a separate track of these currencies individually so that if a raise occurs in each of them, you can easily form your pairs and make a sell or buy them at the soonest possible time. The thing about currency pairs is that they may not last as long as you would like them to. Sometimes, you need to make quick pair ups to keep ahead of the game.

Choosing the Best Currency Trading Pairs

As mentioned, there are actually no limits to which currencies must be paired against each other. What it takes is a watchful eye and keen observation to make sure that you have the right combination to trade in the currency market. But if you are a newbie and you are still trying to gain your momentum in the currency market, it will be good to stick with major currencies, such as dollars and euros, as your quote currency.

Although these currencies fluctuate as much as the others, they are also the more frequently used. These currencies will help you develop your own style when it comes to scouting the currency trading game since they are widely used. It is also a good idea to keep only two pairs at a time and gradually increase as you gain more confidence in buying and selling your existing currencies.

Electronic Currency Trading

Electronic currency trading has bought the vast potential of this market to anyone with an internet connection and a computer and some small seed capital. Here we will look at how anyone can learn to trade currencies
and enjoy success if they follow some basic guidelines.

The first point to make is that over 95% of traders who try electronic currency trading lose their money and the reason is they either get the wrong education or do not have the mindset for success. So what do you have to do to be successful?

First let's take a look at the advantages trading currency online gives you and here are just a few.

- Anyone can learn currency trading
and succeed - no special education is required

- You only need an internet connection and some seed capital

- You can trade for big profit opportunities every day

- There is never a recession, as one currency rises another must fall and vice versa

- You can trade in around 30 minutes a day or less

- You can leverage your investment by 200:1 or more!

As you can see there are many advantages of currency trading but you need to know how to use them and use them wisely especially leverage. Leverage is the key to big gains but it also wipes out more trading accounts than any other factor.

Leverage is simply the ability to invest more than you have in your trading account. If you have $500.00 in your account and leverage by 200:1, you have the potential to trade $100,000!

Be Careful With Leverage

The reason most traders lose is they don't understand how to use leverage. While 200:1 is tempting to use, on small accounts it leads to a swift wipe out of equity. If you have a small account 20:1 is plenty to use.

Be Patient

The other point to keep in mind with electronic currency trading is that while there are opportunities to trade each day, you only want to trade highs odds trades and this means being patient and trading infrequently.

Another reason novice traders lose is they simply trade too much and trade low odds scenarios.

If you want to make money at electronic currency trading, trade high odds set ups and they come around only every few weeks but remember you don't get rewarded for trading often, you get rewarded for being right.

I know traders who trade less than 20 times a year yet make triple digit gains and you can to!

Discipline is the Key

The key to currency trading profits is to have a robust simple currency trading system you have confidence in and can apply with discipline.

You must be able to apply your system with discipline through losing periods, until you hit a home run (which you will if your system is based on sound logic), in currency trading you have to lose to win and not lose discipline.

The Road to Currency Trading Success

Currency trading looks easy but of course appearances can be deceptive and while anyone can learn to trade currencies, you need to get the right forex education and mindset and apply your trading system with confidence and discipline.

Electronic currency trading, if you prepare yourself correctly can be the gateway to a lucrative second or even a life changing income. Its exciting, its fun and if you put in a bit of effort, you can enjoy currency trading success.

Currency Trading Success

If you want to learn currency trading the right way you need to be aware that 95% of traders lose - not because they because they don't try, its just they get the wrong Forex education and this results in a swift wipeout. Here, we are going to give you a plan to devise and implement a forex trading strategy for success in 4 simple steps.

1. Accept Responsibility

If you want to make money in currency trading then you need to accept responsibility for your destiny - no one else is going to give you success you have to take it for yourself.

This means no blaming your forex broker, a guru or the currency markets; you are on your own.
That's no bad place to be, as all successful traders in currency trading accept this fact and love the challenge.

If you want to make money in currency trading you can, there is nothing to stop you as everything about successful currency trading is specifically learned.

Don't fall for its easy, its not and with the rewards on offer you wouldn't expect it to be either.

2. Accept These Facts For Currency Trading Success

The most important fact to accept is that currency trading is a game of odds not certainties, predicting the market and scientific theories, and pinpoint accuracy is a lie perpetrated by vendors and they won't give you success.

You're like a successful card player simply playing the high odds but instead of hands their trading opportunities.

You bet big when the odds are in your favor and fold when there not it really is that simple and it will make you a lot of money, if you do it correctly.

Accept that you have to have confidence in what you are doing (which comes from self education and knowledge of your personality) this then gives you the discipline to follow your currency trading system.
Of course - If you can't follow your currency trading system with discipline, you have no system in the first place!

Markets can be frustrating and you have to wait for the right opportunities but you can win, if you get learn currency trading the right way.

Now lets look at your method for currency trading success.

3. Your Currency Trading System

Building a trading system should be based on the following points and if you work smart and get the right knowledge, it should only take you a couple of weeks to master the basics and have a robust forex trading system that can get the odds on your side.

1. Use a long term trend following system

2. Learn about support and resistance and the timeless method of breakouts - if you don't know what they are read our other material.

3. Confirm any trading signal you execute with momentum oscillators, this is the key to getting the odds on your side, if you don't trade with momentum your not trading the odds.

4. Employ a money management system that ensures you have clearly defined get out area when you enter a trade for both losses and profits

Also you need to:

Keep your system simple!

Simple systems are easy to understand, apply and are more robust than complicated ones. If your trading system has to many indicators and it will break in the brutal world of trading and in currency trading less is more just a few is enough.

You can win with a simple system based upon support, resistance and just a few momentum indicators and this is very quick to build and test.

5. Getting Success

Don't work hard at trading! Work smart and only learn the right forex education.

There is plenty of rubbish sold on the net. For example, most novice traders love day trading yet its guaranteed to lose you money or trust scientific systems that are as accurate as your horoscope.

These traders are naive lazy or both - don't join them or you will lose.

Once you have built your currency trading system, don't do any more work on it. Many traders bang on about learning all the time - but if you are happy with your trading system and the logic is sound, there is no need to do more work.

You don't get paid for effort in forex trading you get paid for being right and that does not involve hard work!

It should only take you 30 minutes or so to execute your trading signals per day and that's it - get on with your life.

If you follow the above four simple steps you can enjoy currency trading success. You will get the right forex education you need, have the confidence and discipline to apply your forex trading strategy for big gains.

Most traders fail not because they lack a method, but because they lack the mindset to apply it with confidence and discipline and this point cannot be stressed enough. If you want to learn to trade successfully, keep the above points in mind and they will lead you to currency trading success.

Banks in the US

The US Banks

Some of the largest and most innovative banks in the whole world are found in the US. Banks in the US are watching one another, the rest of the banks in the world always seeking what to do next.

US banks provide financial support to the most developed economy worldwide, and so their importance has grown within the global financial market. They range of products and services they offer, is wide and varied, be it personal business or corporate, institutional banking or any other type. With the use of the most advanced internet services on the market, banks in the US can easily be accessed anywhere and at anytime.

Among other, here is a list of services US banks provide:

• Personal Banking Services of Banks in USA

Personal banking services have been created to cater to daily requirements of consumers, such as checking products, plus internet banking free of charge, ATM/debit card facilities, online bill payment, monthly statement, opening deposits, etc. Loan products available in the US banks come in the form of home equity loans, car loans, or personal loans. Among the most common forms of saving money are the certificates of deposit or passbook savings.

• Mortgage Services of US Banks

US banks also offer a range of mortgage services, carefully designed to take care of the various mortgage needs of customers. Together with standard mortgage services, banks also provide mortgage calculators for clients to easily calculate the payment schedules they will have as well as monthly payments, mortgage amounts, and many more. Besides online mortgage services are also available, making the process of mortgage even easier and hassle-free.

• Business Banking Services of Banks in the USA

US banks also offer business banking support for corporate clients. Checking business accounts or seeing to all other financial needs businesses, such as commercial loans or construction loans, offered for business operation, equipment, or commercial real estate purchases are just a few operations US banks deal with.

• Other Products and Services of Banks in USA

Other banking products the US banks offer include agricultural loans or checking accounts. There loans help investors purchase machinery, livestock, and even real estate. Besides being cheap, checking accounts are also easy to operate. Among the facilities offered by online banking there is checking balance, funds transfer, or bill payment anytime and anywhere.

The largest banks in the US by deposits, are Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Wachovia Bank, Citibank, Washington Mutual Bank, SunTrust Bank, US Bank , Regions Bank, and so on.

Bank Business Loan

It is a fact that at one point in time or another nearly all entrepreneurs need a bank business loan, either to start up the enterprise, expend it, or to bridge difficult times when the consumer turns fickle. Of the many lenders and types of loans available, a bank business loan will probably be the best bet for starting the venture. A bank business loan is often the best way to establish and maintain your venture's credit rating, if it is fastidiously repaid.

But, if you are experiencing financial problems, is a bank business loan a good idea to use to get current on the debts? Just what is a bank business loan and what is the application procedure? A bank business loan is an unsecured loan that does not require collateral of any kind. It is based entirely upon the credit rating of all of the involved partners; the prospectus or the plan that was developed that outlines the venture, including both the financial liabilities and the anticipated income. You will have to provide well-organized and scrupulous detail, together with a good credit rating for this type of loan. A bank business loan is the primary vehicle for starting up an enterprise and gets a venture off to a good start, however it is a poor remedy for existing financial problems.

It is far better to obtain professional advice on how to deal with your financial problems. The first thing that a qualified business debt consultant will want to know is the type of loans and financial obligations make up the entire situation. If you have unsecured debts, especially a bank business loan, there is quite a bit the consultant can do to make things easier for you to repay your business debt, continue running your venture and even improve your credit rating. One solution that may be proposed is business debt consolidation, which consolidates all of the financial obligations into one account that requires just one affordable payment per month. This has been worked out by the consultant together with all of the creditors who have agreed to accept a reduced payment that is based upon a lowered interest rate.

If the financial obligation is more problematic and either represents a large amount, or has become delinquent, the consultant may recommend business debt settlement. This form of financial relief is aimed only at unsecured loans such as a bank business loan and business debt settlement can be effected in a couple of days.

With either remedy the credit rating will begin to improve almost immediately. When creditors see that a professional business debt reorganization program is being worked out, the business credit rating reflects their approval. However, it is always best to seek help before any real damage is done and to anticipate a remedy before it is actually required. With the advice of a good business debt consultant, any venture can stay on track without taking out additional bank business loans.