October, 2017

article thumbnail

Setting goals for exiting your business: Why it’s important

Abrigo

By John Brown, Founder of Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. Setting goals is critically important when you approach the inevitable exit from your business. Without goals, even the strongest systems fail, as they have no purpose to work toward. Your goals are what guide your process toward a successful exit, and without them, you will find wheels spinning in the mud of indecision.

102
102
article thumbnail

20 Ways to Support Women-Led Businesses

Fundera

Did you know October is Women in Small Business Month? According to the Small Business Administration , there are more than 11 million woman-owned businesses in the U.S. That’s 38% of all businesses, supporting nearly 9 million jobs and generating $1.6 trillion in annual revenues—something worth celebrating all year round! But as the gender gap in business fights to close, it’s important to take this month to reflect on how you can support the cause.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How cloud accounting and fintech are changing the skill set of accountants

GoCardless

Cloud accounting has given rise to a new breed of tech-savvy, data-enabled, commercially astute accountants, who are becoming trusted advisors to their clients.

52
article thumbnail

The 5 Best Accounting Books for New Small Business Owners

Fundera

Many new small business owners rely solely on their bookkeeper or accountant to explain their financial statements to them. While nothing can replace the advice of a skilled financial advisor, having a basic understanding of important accounting concepts can give you peace of mind and confidence you’re making the right decisions in your business.

article thumbnail

What Happens When a Business Has to File for Bankruptcy

Fundera

When it comes to the future of your business, filing for bankruptcy might seem like the absolute worst thing that could happen. And, yes, it will show up on your credit report, which might put you at risk of getting rejected by certain long-term lenders. However, filing for bankruptcy is not necessarily a death sentence—in fact, it could mean the difference between sinking or saving your business.

article thumbnail

How to Prepare a Stellar Cash Flow Statement

Fundera

Tracking your company’s cash balance can feel like an overwhelming task—but it doesn’t have to be. And doing so is essential to making sure your company is prepared for both good times and rough periods in the future. Here’s what you need to know about preparing and analyzing your cash flow statement to best inform day to day and long-term decisions about your business spending and general operations.

More Trending

article thumbnail

16 Reasons Why Women Make Great Business Owners

Fundera

Just because the glass ceiling exists certainly does not mean that it should. And perhaps it’s just starting to crack : women own around 40% of businesses in the U.S. In China, the world’s second largest economy? Women account for 55% of all entrepreneurs. This is great news. Studies, personal anecdotes, and experience tell us that women make great business owners , and in honor of October’s Women in Small Business Month, we’ve compiled a big ole list of just why that is. 1.

article thumbnail

The Ultimate Small Business Tax Preparation Checklist

Fundera

Do you find yourself scrambling to prepare for tax season? Have you ever found yourself wishing for a checklist to help you prepare? Preparing for tax season can be daunting, even if you have kept up with your bookkeeping and record keeping throughout the year. Preparing for tax season doesn’t have to be daunting. Following is the ultimate small business tax preparation checklist. 1.

article thumbnail

Is Your Business Credit Score Keeping You From Capital?

Fundera

If you’ve ever learned much about personal financial management, you know that maintaining a strong personal credit score is critical to your ability to qualify for things like a home mortgage, personal or car loan, or even a personal credit card. But did you know that this same system of credit monitoring and reporting also exists for businesses? That means the decisions you make with your business finances when you first open your company can have an impact that lasts long into the life of you

article thumbnail

7 Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Success

Fundera

Women are making waves in entrepreneurship like never before. Women now own 36% of businesses ( based on 2012 US Census ), up from 30% in 2007. Advances in technology make it easier for busy women to start and run their own businesses these days. Internet access along with cloud-based apps make it so more women can seamlessly integrate their business-based livelihood with the parts of their life that includes children, relationships, and everything else in between.

article thumbnail

11 Halloween Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business

Fundera

Boo! Did we scare you? It’s easy to get a customer’s attention with Halloween-themed marketing. October is a great month to engage your consumer base in fun, simple—and yes, perhaps spooky—ways. Bonus? It’ll be good for your business to get that all-important marketing push just before the holidays. Some marketing ideas work better for some businesses than others, but don’t worry: we’re not short on ideas.

article thumbnail

The Economics of How to Run a Haunted House

Fundera

Visiting a haunted house is a time-honored tradition during Halloween season. The months of September, October, and even into November are prime time for getting scared half to death by people in elaborate, grizzly costumes and terrifying props. It’s also (assuming you’re visiting a haunted house for entertainment purposes and not just some random abandoned mansion) a business.

82
article thumbnail

The Long-Term Effects Hurricane Harvey Will Have on Small Businesses

Fundera

The immediate effects of a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey are obvious almost everywhere one looks in Houston. But the long-term effects are more difficult to assess, especially when it comes to small businesses. Harvey dumped a record amount of rain near the nation’s fourth largest city—51.88 inches, the highest ever in the continental U.S.

article thumbnail

8 Ways to Support Local Small Businesses This Halloween

Fundera

Small Business Saturday is coming up in November—it’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving. But you don’t have to wait that long to support local small businesses. The National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend some $9.1 billion on Halloween this year—a record high, up from $8.6 billion last year. Why not spend some of your dollars with local small and independent businesses?

article thumbnail

9 Quotes From Successful Entrepreneurs Who Never Went to College

Fundera

One of the most exciting things about business is that there’s no one way to go about it. Each entrepreneur has a unique story and set of qualifications, whether they earned them through schooling or directly on the job. Of course, many famous entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople never went to college at all—and there’s so much we can learn from them.

76
article thumbnail

The Ultimate Startup Legal Checklist: 16 Issues You Need to Resolve

Fundera

Starting a business is a challenging pursuit—and that’s without the complicated legal ramifications that you want to protect you and your business against. As a business owner, you want to make sure you have covered all your legal bases to avoid any hefty fines, headaches, or—worst case—even jail time. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available to small businesses both online and through hired legal counsel.

article thumbnail

How Small Businesses Analyze Behavior to Boost the Bottom Line

Fundera

Over the past couple decades, ecommerce companies like Amazon have had so much success thanks to one distinct advantage over traditional brick-and-mortar stores (other than low prices)—the ability to analyze customer behavior using big data. Big data in this context are the shopping patterns of buyers—such as what’s hot in search right now or what items are typically bought together.

article thumbnail

State of Small Business Lending: 2017 Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs

Fundera

In November of last year, we released our first annual report on the State of Small Business Lending: Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs. After reading stats like women entrepreneurs receive only 16% of all traditional small business loans, we wanted to know: do these same stats also ring true in online business lending? To find out, we dove into our own internal data to look at the gender breakdown of a Fundera customer sample.

article thumbnail

7 Small Business Owners Who Became Instagram Famous

Fundera

In the landscape of modern marketing, social media isn’t really optional anymore. Even small businesses and startups need to put serious focus on how to best connect with their audience and spread brand awareness through these digital channels. Instagram is one of the most popular social platforms available, and its influence and impact continue to grow rapidly.

article thumbnail

3 Surprising Benefits to Becoming a Business Owner Later in Life

Fundera

These days, we’re taught to think that entrepreneurship is entirely the province of the young and the restless. But the history of business actually favors founders who started later in life. Without these “ silverpreneurs ,” hits like GEICO, KFC, and LinkedIn would never have existed. There’s no reason to think that you can’t be one of them. Let’s take a look at three reasons why age shouldn’t stop you from launching your business. 1.

article thumbnail

Best practices in risk rating policies

Abrigo

Policies are “the cornerstones for sound lending and loan administration,” and risk rating policies are a key component. Regulatory agencies lay out elements that loan policies should cover, such as what types of loans an institution will make and what information will be required from borrowers, but they rarely dictate the details. An institution must develop appropriate policies and procedures based on its size and the complexity of its portfolio.

Default 60
article thumbnail

Regulators share proposed changes to HVCRE guidance

Abrigo

During a Sageworks webinar on HVCRE risk management Rob Ashbaugh, senior risk management consultant at Sageworks, explained that clarifications on some of the murkier aspects of the HVCRE (high volatility commercial real estate) rule were anticipated by the industry. On September 27, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a Community Bank Summary entitled Proposed Simplification to

60
article thumbnail

4 Ways to improve the typical lending dysfunction

Abrigo

Ancin Cooley, CIA, CISA, of Synergy Bank and Credit Union Consulting , recently presented at the 2017 Sageworks Risk Management Summit on the Perspectives of Lending Dysfunction: Loan Officers, Credit Analysts and Loan Reviewers. According to Cooley, the major cause of dysfunction between the lending department and credit risk function is an inability to see or appreciate the other function’s perspective.

article thumbnail

4 Strategies to keep up with tech changes

Abrigo

As technology continues to evolve, it is difficult for every team member to keep up. Employers can help by implementing strategies to ensure that employees are proficient in and knowledgeable of new industry tech. The below strategies will guide a firm’s development of well-informed, proficient employees. 1. Where do your Employees Stand? Before implementing strategies to overhaul the standing of your firm’s employees’ technological competency, gauge their current understanding.

60
article thumbnail

Technology can handle these 5 accounting tasks for you

Abrigo

Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence where machines can predict outcomes by using algorithms to interpret data, won’t eliminate the need for humans in accounting work, according to a leading expert on business, technology and big data.Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence where machines can predict outcomes by using algorithms to interpret data, won’t eliminate the need for humans in accounting work, according to a leading expert on business, technology and big d

article thumbnail

The Best Low-Cost Non-Profit Accounting Software

Fundera

Non-profit organizations face a dilemma when it comes to choosing accounting software —they usually need something fairly robust that can handle fund accounting and keep track of financial information and donor contributions. But these organizations are also typically limited to the amount of money they can afford to spend on the software. This can result in organizations choosing an accounting system that doesn’t provide the features and reporting capabilities they need.

article thumbnail

The Economic Impact of Daylight Saving Time on Small Businesses

Fundera

The end of daylight saving time is, for most of us, a blessing. Not only do we get an extra hour of sleep on the first Sunday of November, but for the next few weeks, our mornings are a little brighter. We much prefer the end of DST to the beginning, when we lose an hour. What’s less certain is the economic impact of daylight saving time—or what the point of it is at all.

article thumbnail

5 Ways to Foster a Wellness Culture in the Workplace

Fundera

Over the past few years, the concept of workplace has changed dramatically. Expectations in the workplace have also changed. Advances in technology and multi-generational teams have redefined the modern workplace in many ways. More and more employees in these next generations are looking for something beyond the traditional approaches to employee engagement.

69
article thumbnail

How to Get a Business Credit Card in 5 Simple Steps

Fundera

Thinking about applying for a business credit card ? Smart move. Using a business credit card comes with a lot of perks for small business owners. Plus, applying for a business credit card is a great secondary financing option when you’re in the need for financing but don’t necessarily qualify for a more traditional business loan just yet. You can use one for backup business financing , to build business credit , to cushion your cash flow, to earn rewards on your purchases… The list of benefits

article thumbnail

How to Get the Biggest Bang From Your New Hire’s First Day

Fundera

The hiring process can be an arduous one. Sift through scores of résumés, conduct interviews—and second interviews—make an offer, iron out the details. Whew! That was tough! But now you’re ready to celebrate because your work is done. You can rest assured you’ve made the right decision and everything is going to be great! Right? Maybe. Maybe you hired an extraordinary person who magically understands exactly what you want and will always do it exactly the way you want it done.

68