Lideresm Business

You may be aware of this, but there a number of firms that can actively assist you as you looking for business loan. These firms are commonly known as loan brokerages. They work in a very similar capacity to that of a mortgage brokerage firm but with a specific focus on business loans. However, before engaging a business loan brokerage you should be aware of a few things. Like with any industry, there are a number of unscrupulous firms and individuals that seek to take advantage of people that are not privy to how the industry works. In regards to loan brokerages, you should be wary of any firm that requires substantial upfront fees before assisting you with obtaining a business loan. However, some of the fees presented by a loan brokerage can be reasonable. For instance, fees for business plan development and credit reports should be reasonable while several thousand dollar retainers for simply taking on a project are not. When working with a business loan brokerage you should always perform your own due diligence. Does this firm have references? Are they are member of the Better Business Bureau? What is their success rate?

Once you find a firm that you want to work with when looking for business loan then it is time to begin negotiating the fees. Typically, most business loan brokerages charge a fee ranging from 2% to 10% of the successfully raised capital. Again, this is subject to negotiation. If you have a substantial amount of collateral, an excellent credit score, and a solid business plan then the fees should be lower as your chances of obtaining a business loan are much higher than people that do not have the same qualities.

One of the pros of working with a business loan brokerage is that you can quickly receive a number of loan offers from a number of banks and lenders within days of submitting your formal application. Additionally, the business loan brokerage can assist you immensely with developing the appropriate application and business plan so that your business loan request can be processed faster than if you did it on your own.

One of the primary negatives to working with a loan brokerage is that they can charge substantial fees for their services. However, these fees can be justified if the loan brokerage is legitimate and able to secure a business loan on your behalf.

According to the Small Business Administration, companies that can qualify for the 7a SBA loan must meet certain small business size standards. These standards vary greatly by industry, but the general rules of thumb are as follows:

Farming businesses must not have revenues exceeding $750,000
Building contractors can have a maximum revenue of $14,000,000
Retail and service businesses can have maximum revenue of $7,000,000
Heavy construction trades and industries have maximum revenues of $33,500,000.

Additionally, there are headcount tests regarding the number of people that work for your business. For wholesale trade industries, the maximum number of employees is 100 while manufacturing firms can have a maximum of 500 employees. However, these rules are not hard and steadfast. The SBA and its associated lenders understand that revenues can fluctuate as can the personnel summary of your firm. As such, it is imperative that you speak to you 7a SBA loan representative to determine whether or not your meet the standards discussed above. However, as many entrepreneurs seek to use this type of credit facility for starting a new business then the standards discussed above typically do not apply to your business. If your business becomes highly successful and requires additional capital then you may start to require traditional business loan financing rather than debt through programs like the SBA 7a Loan.

It should also be noted that based on inflation and industry trends, the Small Business Administration regularly reviews and updates its business eligibility standards based on revenues and personnel numbers of businesses across a number of different industries. If you are having trouble determining whether or not your existing business qualifies for a 7a SBA loan then you should speak directly to a SBA representative, your banker, or your accountant.

Want bring your business international?

It’s easier than you think with a Manhattan virtual office from VH International Business Solutions!

Do you have big plans for your business? Of course you do! The Internet has made it easier than ever to market to a global audience so why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to expand your business? It’s a fabulous idea but many business operators have found that while they can reach prospective clients all over the world with their advertising, getting overseas clients to advance to the stage of placing an order is a different matter, particularly if you don’t have any overseas offices. Here are three of the main reasons for their reluctance:

1. People like to shop locally. This can apply to corporate clients as well as individuals.

2. When you’re ordering from an interstate or overseas business, there’s a nagging doubt that you’ll receive the product or service promptly. When you don’t have a street address people can relate to they can have difficulty forming an opinion on the size and professionalism of your business. When in doubt, they’ll revert to a local supplier.

3. Credibility – if the business is run predominantly online, is based overseas or interstate and has no street address displayed, it raises doubts as to whether it is a legitimate operation. At the very least it raises the concern that if you pay your money and your product or service doesn’t arrive there is no way of tracing the perpetrator.

Of course, setting up physical offices overseas is a major expense and one that is out of reach for the majority of business operators – but there is a viable alternative. A Manhattan virtual office from VH International Business Solutions is your answer. Starting from just $25 a month you can have a Manhattan office. You’ll be able to use the prestigious office address, and have mail sent to your Manhattan address and forwarded to you. You can even take advantage of a Manhattan phone number that diverts to your number or to a message service. Live call answering is also available for your overseas Manhattan office! And if you’re ever in the situation where you need to meet clients in Manhattan, you’ll be able to book office space to use at your physical Manhattan office address.

If you’re planning to go international, a Manhattan virtual office will get you off to a great start without costing you a fortune.

The HTC Touch Pro2 is one of the latest touchscreen phones from HTC, it was released in 2009 in the UK and has quickly become one of the most popular mobile phones for business users.  

HTC may not be one of the best known smartphone manufacturers but this business mobile phone can certainly compete with the likes of RIM’s Blackberry phones as well as the i-Phone from Apple.

The last few Windows Mobile phones from HTC have basically been updates of its main models – the style-conscious Diamond2 and now the business mobile phone behemoth – HTC Touch Pro2 with its slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

HTC, a Chinese brand have a strong past record and have proven themselves as leaders in innovation with mobile phones for business and individual users - check out their credentials here.

The HTC Touch Pro2 is a fair bit bigger than the Diamond2 and a little heavier to boot – 116x59x17mm and 179g, but it does have a bigger and better tilting touch screen as well as an improved interface as a good justification, it also has a new conference call facility named ‘Straight Talk’.

It is not a cheap phone by any means – you will be paying top end prices for this mobile but it does deliver on almost every level – the main downfall being the quality of the 3. 2 megapixel camera.

But don’t be put off by the size – unless you are a skinny jeans kind o’ guy/girl, it’s a stylish and flashy mobile phone.

The front of the phone is exceptionally sleek with just four hard keys that raise above the screen level that sit along the bottom of the screen: call start and stop/home, back and Windows.

The sides are not overloaded with buttons – just a volume switch, reset slot and stylus on the right, power button on top and USB 2. 0 power/headphone socket on the bottom. The 3. 2 megapixel camera lens is situated on the back of the phone, and alongside this sit the microphone and the large Straight Talk speaker for conference calls, as well as a mute button.

The HTC Touch Pro2′s has a slide out QWERTY keyboard on the left of the phone. There are 5 rows of keys which are not disimilar to a standard computer keyboard. The keys on the keyboard are little rounded hardened bits of rubber that are backlit and are well spaced enough for fast accurate typing – the extra size suddenly seems worth it – if you are a heavy business user of your phone then this will be a big plus.

The Touch Pro2′s screen tilts so you can put the phone on a desk and type on the keyboard – which is a nice touch as it tilts to about 45 degrees. There is also an onscreen keyboard so if you prefer this then it is there but we found that the QWERTY was a lot easier and faster so little need for the touch screen.

The interface is well laid out too, with large numbers, and can predict phone numbers that you have previously used after you have typed the first few digits which can be a handy time saver. It has been specifically designed with conference calls in mind and it’s easy to set up multi-party calls.

You just need to register for this service with your network before you can use it. You just set the call up, and then put the phone face down on a desk so that the big, loud, noise-cancelling Straight Talk speaker is visible.

On the back there is also a useful mute button with a glowing colour indicator to show whether or not it is in use. The HTC Touch Pro2′s has a 3. 6-inch with a resolution of 480×800 pixels. It’s got a bright, sharp and clear picture, and it also has all of the Windows Mobile options for dimming and limiting backlight to save on battery life.

You can also rotate the screen round to show in landscape.

The level of sensitivity of the keys is just about right – we didn’t have any problems with mistaken presses or missed swipes on scrolls. The sensitivity cannot be adjusted but it is set well so you should find this not a problem. HTC are constantly improving the TouchFLO 3D interface, on top on the Windows 6. 1 Professional operating system.

You can stroke across the entire home screen to access each of the different functions. If you press the start button then you can bring up all of your shortcuts as well as 30 different apps.

It also has a scrolling menu which works similarly to that of the i-phone with large icons which can be easily accessed with the thumb – so not much need for the little stylus. The phone was pretty good on the web with a good sized screen for viewing sites.

It comes preloaded with Opera, but you can also use IE, and access is fast via Wi-Fi or HSDPA 3G link (with up to 7. 2Mbps download).

The accelerometer switches the screen to landscape mode when you turn the phone on its side. This also happens when you open up the QWERTY keyboard. You can tap the screen twice for a zoom on web pages and can easily scroll around with your finger and switch sites easily. Web pages are rendered extremely well – the majority of sites appeared perfectly.

There is an RSS hub to keep you up to date as well as a YouTube app. The camera is not a great one; if used in good light then the quality is OK but if used indoors with artificial light then it is not the best. It has autofocus, a 2x digital zoom, some colour effects, a panorama setting, ten-second timer and touch screen focus.

If you need a quality camera for business mobile use then this will probably be a killer for the Touch Pro2 but for light users it will just about do. The HTC Touch Pro2 is perfect for Watching video.

The screen is only 0. 2in smaller than the Touch HD, but has the same pixel resolution and it is difficult to spot any difference in quality. You can watch a wide range of video and media formats; WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI You can use Windows Media Player for music, and there’s a ten-band graphic equaliser with 21 presets to help you get the sound you want. It supports a good range of formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A.

There is no FM radio but the sound on the music player is pretty good – supplied headphones are not bad but probably not as good as the ones with the i-phone. We found that for business mobile phone users to get your email set up is very easy – you simply need your email address and password. The HTC Touch Pro2 has quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (with stereo A2DP) and USB 2. 0, as well as a TV out facility.

For business mobile phone users who are regularly out of the office for meetings – the Touch Pro2 comes with GPS and Google Maps, both of which work very well. There’s no sat nav included but you can pay for inclusion but will be lucky to find this for less than the £60 cost through the i-phone app. Windows Office and Adobe Reader are pre-installed, this means that you can create and view Word, Excel and OneNote docs, as well as view PowerPoint docs and PDFs. But. . . there’s also JETCET Presentation, which allows you to edit PowerPoint docs.

For business users there is also instant messaging with Windows Live Messenger, some Java games, including Teeter, stock quotes, weather updates and a calendar. The HTC Touch Pro2 has 512MB of memory with 288MB of RAM, and you can add up to 16GB with a microSD card.

The battery should give you 510 minutes of talk time (GSM) and up to 750 hours of standby according to HTC but we found that we gor just over 2 days with typical business use of all functions.

All round this is a great mobile phone for the business user – it has really taken a step up from the diamond2 which is saying something. This is a company to watch!

If you are keen to buy this mobile phone then there are some great deals available through our site – at time of writing the prices started at £25/month based on 1 handset so depending on your size you may be able to barter down from this price.

There is a common misconception that simply having a corporation can absolve you from liability regarding business loans acquired for your business. This could not be less true. In today’s lending environment, most banks and finance companies will require a full personal guarantee before providing you with a business loan or other type of business credit facility. In fact, most SBA loans (as well as conventional business loans) require that the small business owner provide a personal guarantee for any credit undertaken by business that is closely held to the owner.

As your business continues to expand with a profitable operating history, the demand among banks for personal guarantees will lessen. However, this is not always the case. Many established entrepreneurs that have sought business loans have also come across the issue of having to put up personal assets (primarily residences) in order to secure business loans and business lines of credit for their companies. This trend is expected to continue for sometime as banks and finance companies have tightened lending standards in the wake of substantial losses incurred due to the poor housing market over the past three years.

With this in mind, it is important to select a corporate entity that will assist you in developing the business credit that you will need in the future for securing a business loan solely in the name of your business. There are many different forms of business entities to chose from including corporations (both C and S corporations), limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and limited liability partnerships.

Prior to incorporating your business, you should speak to a duly licensed attorney and a certified public accountant to determine which corporate structure works best with your personal financial situation. When looking for business loan, it is important to note that the corporate structure you chose will most likely flow onto your personal income statement in regards to tax filing matters. As such, proper advice should always be sought when making this very important decision.