December, 2019

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6 Business Growth Strategies: Ways to Grow and Measure Growth

Fundera

6 Small Business Growth Strategies. Increase demand through strategic partnerships. Improve your profit by removing unprofitable products and services. Boost revenue by improving your conversion rate. Increase sales by creating a sales funnel. Fortify your workforce with new recruiting tactics. Shore up market share with a customer relationship management system.

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Holiday Sales on the Dark Web

Abrigo

Key Takeaways Holiday sales, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are aggressively promoted by criminal sellers on the Dark Web seeking to grow sales and customers. The expected outcome of greater inventory at a lower cost, as we have seen in prior years, is an increase in fraud activity and cyberattacks heading into the end of the calendar year.

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Getting an invoice paid on time is better than Christmas presents, say UK SMBs

GoCardless

Find out how managing payment is impacting SMBs this Christmas.

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Do you know who your small business funding company is?

Wellen Business Credit

The market for providing capital solutions to small business is dynamic and crowded. For every new company eager to launch is a lender at the ready to provide financial back-up. And as a result of the rise in demand, funding companies and brokers are advertising and promoting their brands through every possible channel. They’re looking to drive customers to their web pages, complete online applications, and ultimately — sign contracts. .

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How to Advertise on Facebook

Fundera

How to Advertise on Facebook in 7 Steps. Create your Facebook Business Page and ad account. Add the Facebook Pixel to your website. Start creating your ads. Set a reasonable budget and schedule. Target lookalike audiences. Test, test, test. Make sure your website is up-to-date and optimized. Despite the issues Facebook faces with regard to privacy and data, billions of people across the world still use the platform—making it an essential tool for small business marketing.

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Small Business Branding 101: How to Brand Your Business

Fundera

What Is Branding and Why Is It Important? Your business branding is one of the keys to the success of your marketing efforts, no matter what type or size business you run. Creating an implementing a clear business brand will help your business earn credibility, set customers’ expectations, make the purpose and values of the business clear to customers, help your business stand out from the competition, and more.

More Trending

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Prevention is the Key to Stopping Elder Financial Exploitation & Fraud

Abrigo

Key Takeaways Elder financial abuse/exploitation (EFE) is under-reported although it remains on the rise. ABA study shows banks are reporting more cases of EFE. The Senior Safe Act provides a safe harbor for financial institutions reporting suspected EFE. . The under-reported and growing crime. Elder financial exploitation and elder fraud are rising at an alarming rate as they continue to be serious crimes in the United States.

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Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Everything You Need to Know

Fundera

What Is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)? An employee assistance program is a workplace benefit that helps employees through mental health problems, family issues, substance abuse, and other personal or work-related problems. Businesses typically contract with an EAP provider for the services. Licensed counselors provide confidential services at no cost to employees up to plan limits.

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Cash Flow Statement: Definition, Example, and How to Prepare One

Fundera

What Is a Cash Flow Statement? A cash flow statement, also known as the statement of cash flows, is a financial statement that shows the flow of cash into and out of your business during a specific period of time. This report shows how much cash a company receives and spends on operating, investing, and financing activities. The statement of cash flows is one of the core financial statements, along with the income statement and balance sheet, used to evaluate a business’s financial situati

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The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Food Truck

Fundera

How to Start a Food Truck in 9 Steps. Plan your costs and find a truck. Get approved by the Board of Health. Get the permits and licenses you need. Decide how you’re going to prepare your food. Hire employees and get mobile food vendor badges. Figure out where to park. Start marketing and promoting your food truck. Consider using a point of sale system.

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5 Best Grocery Store POS Systems and How to Choose One

Fundera

Best Grocery Store POS Systems for 2020. Revel POS systems: A fully integrated, customizable POS system— but it comes at a significant cost. Clover POS systems: A happy medium between capability and reasonable, transparent pricing. Square POS systems: A great option if you’re willing to search for an external scale but want to access high-power inventory tracking.

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How to Write a Business Proposal in 7 Steps—Plus Tips and Examples

Fundera

How to Write a Business Proposal. Step 1: Introduce your company and the assignment. Step 2: Create a table of contents. Step 3: Write an executive summary coverting the who, what, where, when, and how of the proposal. Step 4: Lay out all of the project details. Step 5: Describe every deliverable you’ll give the client. Step 6: State the overall budget for the project.

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Best Franchise Opportunities for Veterans

Fundera

Franchises are an excellent opportunity for aspiring business owners in general, but veterans are uniquely qualified for this kind of entrepreneurship. Running a franchise successfully requires grit, determination, analytical skills, and leadership ability, which service members have in spades. Succeeding in the franchisor’s mission also requires that the franchisee works within the franchisor’s proven business model and properly executes their training.

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Merchant Services 101: Everything You Need to Know About Merchant Processing

Fundera

Merchant Services Definition. Merchant services is a broad term used to describe a range of financial services for businesses—most generally, the services a business uses to accept and process payments, otherwise known as merchant processing. On the whole, however, the term merchant services can encompass the behind-the-scenes process by which a business accepts payments, the companies businesses work with for this purpose, as well as the hardware or software involved with taking and processing

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How to Calculate a Business’s Cash Flow

Fundera

How to Calculate Cash Flow. The formula used to calculate cash flow is: Cash flow = Cash from operating activities +(-) cash from investing activities + cash from financing activities. It takes many things to start and run a successful small business: passion, determination, discipline, and the right people. But the best-laid plans will go nowhere without one key ingredient—cash.

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What Are Early Payment Discounts on Invoices?

Fundera

The invoicing process is a crucial accounting task vital to your business’s operations and cash flow. Some businesses offer early payment discounts as a way to reward their customers for paying their bills before they are due. You might have heard of this strategy—and you might have taken advantage of it yourself as a customer—but you might still be confused about whether this is a good strategy for your business.

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What Is a Credit Privacy Number: Don’t Get Caught Up in Illegal Credit Scam

Fundera

What Is a CPN (Credit Privacy Number)? Credit privacy numbers or credit profile numbers (often referred to as CPNs) are nine-digit numbers promoted online as an alternative to your Social Security number (SSN). In fact, they’re sometimes called secondary credit numbers, or SCNs. With rising concerns about identity theft, data breaches, and online privacy, you might be considering using a credit privacy number.

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Business Tax Planning Tips: How to Start

Fundera

If you’re like most small business owners, you think about taxes once a year — when they’re due. That could be an expensive mistake. . Small business tax planning is important. Meeting with your CPA isn’t just about filing your taxes, it’s about making sure you’re doing the best for your business all year long. . To get a jump on tax planning, you can start simply by making a few strategic decisions about purchases and benefit contributions.

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20 Retail Store Design Tips to Convince Customers to Spend More

Fundera

Your business is your baby! You’ve likely spent more hours than you care to admit obsessing over every aspect of it: the budget , your employees, your website , maybe even your customers. But have you given that same level of careful thought to your retail store design? Design matters more than you might think, and, although you might not be a professional interior designer or psychologist that specializes in analyzing consumer behavior, you should focus on creating the best possible experience

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How to Hire Freelancers: The Ultimate Guide

Fundera

How to Hire Freelancers in 5 Steps. Understand your project and your needs. Know your budget. Create a work listing and post it via your own network and freelance-specific sites. Review candidates, interview top contenders, and extend an offer. Execute paperwork, including statement of work, tax forms, and contract. Freelancers are an integral part for many businesses to get work done—especially for tasks that fall outside the normal scope of operations.

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Using BSA Hot Topics to Strengthen Your BSA Program in 2020

Abrigo

Key Takeaways Using exam findings from 2019 can help strengthen your BSA program in 2020. Institutions must create a strong culture of compliance. Pillar violations see a big increase in the nature and seriousness of the violation. . Looking back to strengthen your BSA program. The decade is quickly coming to an end, so as we put 2019 in our rear-view mirror, it’s time for a fresh start with the new year and new decade approaching.

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New Year’s Resolutions to Grow Your Financial Institution in 2020

Abrigo

Key Takeaways To book loans more quickly, institutions must create efficiencies and increase loan turnaround. Institutions must be proactive in effectively pricing loans. Looking to mergers and acquisitions, institutions can expand into new areas of business or geographic markets. The new year is just around the corner, and with that comes new goals and resolutions.

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What SEC Filers Have Learned About CECL Implementation

Abrigo

Key Takeaways An SEC filer with a 2020 CECL deadline recommends starting ASAP on implementation -- even if your deadline is 2023. Assess data before selecting your methodology or methodologies. Be willing to change as needed. . All eyes will be on the large SEC registrants in January as they become the first financial institutions to adopt the current expected credit loss model , or CECL.

CECL 78
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Funding Loan Growth: How to Set Your Institution Up for Success

Abrigo

Key Takeaways To grow your FI, you must support the growth with proper funding. Relationship pricing leverages your customer base and cross-sells products for a larger share of the deposit wallet. Bundling accounts can make a loan more attractive for both the institution and the borrower. . Supporting loan growth. You can’t just plant a seed in the ground and expect to have a plant the next day.

CECL 78
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Dynamic vs. Static Approach to Asset/Liability Management: Why It Matters

Abrigo

Key Takeaways Changing your perspective on asset/liability management can position your financial institution for better business results. A dynamic ALM approach provides an ongoing method for evaluating risk and return and for strategic decision-making. The basic, static approach adds little value beyond satisfying regulatory requirements. Outsourced advisory services can help financial institutions transition to a dynamic ALM approach.

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FDIC Releases Formal and Informal Enforcement Actions Manual

Abrigo

Key Takeaways. The FDIC released a manual on Formal and Informal Enforcement Actions. ABA study shows banks are reporting more cases of EFE. The Senior Safe Act provides a safe harbor for financial institutions reporting suspected EFE. . The FDIC released its manual on Formal and Informal Enforcement Actions. For the first time, the FDIC released its manual on Formal and Informal Enforcement Actions to provide greater transparency to those processes.

CECL 78
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November Employment Report Shows Underlying Strength

Abrigo

The morning’s Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a fairly (and surprisingly) strong labor market. There were 266,000 new jobs added in the month of November, compared to the 188,000 new jobs expected. The headline unemployment rate (U3) and the broader measure of labor underutilization (U6) both ticked down by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5% and 6.9%, respectively.

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New Regulatory Guidance on Providing Banking Services to Hemp-Related Businesses

Abrigo

Key Takeaways. The landscape around banking hemp and hemp-related businesses is very confusing. A joint statement was issued to provide guidance to institutions regarding banking hemp. The guidance does not cover marijuana banking. . Seeing through the smoke. No one will argue that there has been a lot of confusion, fear, and apprehension surrounding providing banking services to the hemp and hemp-related industries.

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How to Send an Invoice via Email

Fundera

Holiday cards and wedding invitations are great for sending through snail mail. Invoices? Not so much. Businesses send invoices because they want to get paid. And in the interest of getting paid as quickly as possible, more small business owners are skipping the snail mail and sending their invoices electronically. . Ready to learn how to send an invoice via email to simplify this accounting task ?

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19 Retail Holiday Window Display Ideas for 2019

Fundera

The holidays can be the most lucrative season for retailers both big and small. And other than offering sales incentives and launching a killer marketing plan , one of the best ways for brick-and-mortar businesses to leverage that extra traffic is by implementing some unique retail holiday window display ideas. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales are expected to increase by 3.8% to 4.2% from last year’s holiday season—that’s a projected $727.9 billion to $730.7 billion spe

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