Applications will soon be accepted for the Cumberland Business Incubator’s (CBI) 2016 Accelerator, 100 Days to Launch – Tourism. The selection committee will review applications to find the top candidates with an existing business or those interested in launching a new business with a tourism focus. Continue reading
Business loans – particularly those for new startup businesses – often require the borrower to provide a personal guaranty for the bank to proceed with the loan. A number of the clients that we speak with aren’t clear that if the business is unable to make the loan payments that they are personally liable to pay the business loan back even if the business closes. In short, you promise to pay the loan back even if the business no longer exists – from your personal assets.
The following article, written by an attorney, helps explain the personal guaranty…
Personal Guaranties: What Small Business Owners Need To Know
BY JOSEPH F. KOLB
Why do small business owners need to know about personal guaranties? Because personal assets – homes, cars, checking accounts – are on the line, not just business assets.
As a small business owner, it’s likely you’ve been asked to sign a personal guaranty agreement. If not yet, you will be. Personal guaranties are staples of small business financing. Consequently, it’s to your benefit to know a few things about them. Continue reading
Gift cards are big business. Each year $400 billion worth enter the market. About 30% of gift-card values go unspent annually, in part because it’s so easy to forget about that piece of plastic you’ve tucked away somewhere. At 23 George Bousis started his Chicago-based company, Raise, offering gift-card holders the chance to sell the cards they don’t want and buy others they do want at a discount. With the new mobile app, Raise lets consumers grab discounted cards as they wait in line to make a purchase. Continue reading
Posted by the Internal Revenue Service
FS-2015-22, August 2015
For anyone starting a small business, especially those who are self-employed, the Internal Revenue Service offers some basic information on filing, reporting and paying taxes.
Generally, one is self-employed if they:
This article appeared in Forbes Magazine 8/28/2015 – by Bob House
Selling a business can be a challenging process. However, like many challenges in life, business owners who take the time to properly prepare will fare much better than those that jump right in.
This is the real life lesson learned by one couple that successfully sold their North Carolina cafe after 18 years of devoted ownership. Their story is an example of how a little prep work can ease the selling process and perhaps more importantly, lead to a higher sales price. For every small business owner, whether planning to sell now or much farther down the road, these lessons apply. Continue reading
Attracting a prospect’s attention does not help if they disappear: if you want to make a sale, you need to direct your prospects to take some kind of action.
Your prospects can’t read your mind. If you want your prospects to take the next step you’re encouraging, you need to tell them exactly what to do. The most effective marketing messages give the recipient or prospect a single, very clear, very short action to take next. Continue reading
At the moment of every day I must decide what I am going to do the next moment; and no one can make this decision for me, or take my place in this.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Philosopher and Essayist
Given options, sometimes clients have a hard time deciding what to do. I found the following essay on making decisions in Josh Kaufman’s The Personal MBA – Master the Art of Business. Continue reading
Is there change going on in your world? Is there a major change pending in your organization or non-profit you volunteer with? Many of us face change everywhere we look. We’ve always heard change is hard. Sometimes it is harder than other times. What if there was a formula to approach change that would help get people aligned to work together toward the needed change? Continue reading
Have you ever been so busy with the work of your business that you felt like it was time to stop and take stock of what it is you do?
Bonnie reminded me that it’s probably time we do just that. I thought I would share with you what I came up with. Continue reading
This 4th of July, the United States celebrated its 239th birthday. Hopefully you’re reading this with memories of a holiday weekend filled with fun and relaxation with family and friends.
In honor of our founding fathers, I share a few quotes that apply to business, from some of the more notable men who signed one of the greatest documents ever drafted. It’s amazing that these concepts hold as true today as they did over 200 years ago. Continue reading