Day: October 29, 2020

How to Develop a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy in 4 Easy Steps

According to Smart Insights, 45 percent of companies don’t have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy; 17 percent of companies have a digital marketing strategy in place, but it’s separate from their marketing plan. 

This means 62 percent of companies are unprepared. 

They don’t have the strategy, tactics, or tools they need to market their business well. The bad news is that marketers waste 37 to 95 percent of their marketing budget. This is really common, but it doesn’t have to be; if you have the right digital marketing strategy in place, growing your business is easier. 

If you’re feeling unprepared, don’t worry. 

Today we’re going to cover the important ins and outs of creating a winning digital marketing strategy. 

Why You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy

Your digital marketing strategy gives your company direction. With a plan in place, you’ll have the details you need to help your company grow consistently. Your digital strategy document should: 

  1. Define your short and long term goals
  2. Show you who your customers are
  3. Show you where you can find them 
  4. Outline what you need to attract your customer’s attention
  5. Offer a step-by-step plan to attract and hold customer attention
  6. Show you how to analyze and improve marketing performance

Why go to all the trouble? 

Is it worth the time to create a strategy document? CoSchedule’s State of Marketing Strategy Report found winning marketers: 

  • Document their digital marketing strategy. Marketers who document are 538 percent more likely to achieve success than those who don’t.
  • Document their marketing processes. Those that do are 466 percent more likely to achieve success consistently over time than those who don’t.
  • Winning marketers set goals. Goal setters are 429 percent more likely to report success than those who don’t; 81 percent of these marketers achieve their goals; 10 percent of organized marketers always achieve their goals.
  • Winning marketers study their audience. These marketers are 242 percent more likely to conduct audience research four times a year. Almost 60 percent of the elite marketers featured in their study conduct audience research once or more per month.

It seems too good to be true, but it’s actually the reality.

The more time you spend thinking about your goals, getting to know your audience and planning how you’ll approach your digital marketing, the more likely you are to achieve success. 

What Should Be Included In Your Digital Marketing Strategy

I’ve already given you a sneak peek, did you catch it? 

To be successful, your digital marketing strategy should focus on four specific areas. 

  1. Setting goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs)
  2. Understanding and defining your audience 
  3. Creating and implementing your digital marketing strategy
  4. Auditing and improving your marketing campaigns 

You’ll want to break each of these areas down in enough detail so you (and your team) can work with each of these areas properly. With each of these areas, you should have a pretty clear idea about: 

  • The information, tools, and resources you’ll need to create a plan
  • Who will be responsible for creating your plan
  • Who will be responsible for implementing your plan
  • The KPIs and metrics you’ll use to measure the success (or failure) of your plan
  • The tools and resources you’ll need to implement and improve campaign performance

Each of these points needs to be defined clearly for the four steps areas above. 

Let’s take a closer look at these four areas and break things down a bit more clearly. 

1. Setting Goals, Objectives, and KPIs

This step is all about deciding what you want.. 

Planning your marketing strategy begins with setting quantitative and qualitative goals;  you’ll also want to set KPIs. These goals are sort of like the railroad tracks that keep your digital marketing strategy on the right track. 

What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative goals?

G2 has a really helpful way of defining these, so I’m going to paraphrase their definition here. 

Quantitative goals can be counted, measured, or displayed using numbers. Goals like increasing monthly recurring revenue by 15 percent or boosting your conversion rate by 3 percent are good examples of quantitative goals.  Qualitative goals are abstract, descriptive, or conceptual — these goals are usually tied to the question “why.” Goals like increasing customer trust or improving brand reputation are examples of qualitative goals. They’re difficult to measure but just as important. 

You’ll want to make sure that your goals are: 

  • Challenging, realistic, and attainable
  • Tied to your company’s mission, vision, and values
  • Concise — 2-3 main goals 3-5 supporting goals
  • Specific, clear, and timely
  • Broken down into smaller, step-by-step milestones 

Your goals are important, but they’re difficult to achieve if you don’t have a step-by-step plan to follow. That’s where milestones come in; milestones are tactical. They’re great because you can use them to move towards your goals quickly. 

What about KPIs? 

Scoro has a list of 136 KPIs you can use to jumpstart your planning. I’ve listed a few of the more common examples you can use below.

  • Unique visitors per day/month
  • Pages per visit
  • New leads per day/month  
  • Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
  • Conversion rates
  • Churn/attrition rate
  • Cost per conversion
  • Conversion rate per keyword
  • ROI per content
  • Click-through-rate on paid advertising

Focus is really important. 

It’ll be tough to focus on lots of metrics at once. Instead, you’ll want to focus your attention on a small number of really meaningful KPIs and metrics. 

Which ones are meaningful? 

They’re the KPIs that have the biggest impact on your company, the ones that generate consistent returns or a large amount of cash for your company. You’re looking for the 20 percent of KPIs and metrics that produce 80 percent of your results. 

That’s a pretty easy place to start. 

If you’re not sure which KPIs you should focus on, start with the common KPIs and metrics that have a direct impact on your business. These are typically metrics that focus on traffic, conversions, and optimization. 

2. Understanding and Defining Your Audience

You know what your goals and objectives are. Now you need to figure the same things out for your customer. This step requires some upfront research, but the success (or failure) of your digital marketing strategy starts here. 

Think about it. 

If you find the right customers, the people are excited to buy your product, then selling is a whole lot easier. It’s especially easier if you can understand what they want and how you can go about selling to them. So to do that, you’ll need information on your customer’s demographics and psychographics. 

What are you trying to figure out? 

  • The size of your market: You’ll want to figure out some important details about your market —is it new or established, niche or mainstream, broad or specialized. You’ll want to figure out who the major and minor players are, market expectations, areas you can disrupt, and the financial upside in your specific market. 
  • Who your customers are:  Are you targeting new moms, weekend warriors who are active on the weekends? You should have a basic idea of the customer you’re targeting. Are you focusing your attention on a specific niche, i.e., affluent travelers, price-conscious fashion aficionados? Use previous sales, competitor research, and market research sources like Ubersuggest and Google Trends to find the answer. 
  • Where they spend their time: Your customers have specific hangouts. Web developers spend their time on sites like ArsTechnica, Reddit, SitePoint, etc. New moms spend their time on sites like Babble, CafeMom, or Bundoo. If you know where your customers like to spend their time, you have a pretty good idea of the channels to target and the content to use. 
  • What they consume: This overlaps a little bit with where they spend their time. When there is an overlap, you’ll want to break the differences down even further. For example, your customers may spend a lot of time on Reddit, but this doesn’t tell you what they’re consuming on Reddit. Reddit is where they spend their time; the subreddit r/RobinHood is what they consume. See the difference? One tells you about their specific interests and desires; the other focuses on location. 
  • Why they buy: Your customers don’t buy for the same reasons. Sources like online reviews are a great way to get really helpful, in-depth feedback on why customers buy from customers themselves. You can also use tools like surveys or polls to attract responses. You’re not looking for an individual answer; you’re looking for trends. 
  • Where and how they buy: Do customers price shop offline, in your store, then order online from Amazon? Maybe your customers prefer a one-time purchase over recurring payment options? If you understand when and how your customers buy, you’ll be able to adjust your marketing around their expectations. Maybe that means persuading customers to do something different or stick with market expectations. 
  • What they need to buy: Online reviews are a helpful tool here as well. If you’re a new business, you can start with competitor reviews. Go through your competitor reviews, then make a list of the concerns brought up in each review. Look for customer objections, technology issues, complaints, reputation issues, any problem that customers felt were deal breakers. If you have reviews of your own, you can do the same thing there. 

Remember the research I shared earlier? 

Elite marketers study their audience, conducting audience research once or more per month. This step is important because it gives you the instructions you need to create a winning digital marketing strategy. Audience research shows you how to persuade your customers. 

This isn’t rocket science. 

But it requires more effort than most companies are willing to give. 

Here’s why. 

Most companies assume they already know their customers. They believe they know what their customers want and the best ways to approach them. 

They may be right. 

But the data they have on their customers changes often. Consistent research is the only way to stay on top of what your customers actually want. At this point, you’re ready for step three. 

3. Creating and implementing your digital marketing strategy

If you’ve done your homework, you should have the building blocks you need to create a well defined digital marketing strategy. You should be able to identify the marketing channels that will work best for your business. There are lots of digital marketing channels you can choose from. 

You can focus on: 

  • Content marketing
  • SEO
  • PPC
  • Display advertising
  • Email 
  • Online video
  • TV commercials
  • Mobile ads
  • Channel partnerships
  • Events 
  • Social media advertising 
  • Podcasts and radio advertising
  • Print advertising

In fact, there are more than 51 different marketing channels you can use to promote your business. Which one are you supposed to use? 

There are a few ways you can approach this. 

  1. Investing in the channels your customers use (e.g., search, social media) 
  2. Investing in the channels that give you independence and control (e.g., email, partnerships)
  3. Investing in the channels that are most common/popular (e.g., SEO, PPC, Social media) 

Start by testing the channels where there’s more overlap. 

If your customers use popular channels like Google search or Facebook, those are great places to start. If you’re looking for a channel that gives you maximum control and works well with other channels (i.e., email), you can start there. 

Don’t forget to test. 

Testing shows you what works. The tools you use for testing tend to be consistent with the channel (e.g., email comes with analytics. Google offers Google Analytics, etc.). Typically, you can branch out once you’ve identified the marketing channels that perform best for your business. 

You’re looking for stability. 

You want to get two to three channels working well before you decide to add more. Once you’ve identified your channels, use the data you’ve collected in step two to create the kind of marketing content that fits well with the customers you’ve identified.

Your content should: 

  • Attract their attention
  • Be fascinating 
  • Discuss a problem or challenge
  • Offer a solution to the problem or challenge you’ve just identified

Here’s another important detail. The research you’ve done should help you create a strong value proposition that answers the “why me?” question. Your value proposition is basically a promise. It’s the most important part of your marketing copy. 

It gives your customers a persuasive reason to do business with you. 

Your value proposition sets you apart from the competition. It gives your business an unfair advantage, and it gives you the opening you need to attract more customers, increase customer loyalty, command higher prices,  and beat your competitors. 

Here’s a detailed breakdown if you need help creating your own value proposition. 

If you’ve followed the steps I’ve mentioned above, you should have the information you need to create amazing content that draws customers in. 

4. Auditing and improving your marketing campaigns 

If you can’t measure your marketing, you can’t improve them. Part of the reason marketers waste 37 to 95 percent of their marketing budget is the lack of measurement.  Forrester’s research stated that between 60 – 73 percent of a company’s analytics data goes unused. 

Companies don’t know how to work with their data. 

  • They don’t know which problems to fix
  • They don’t know what they have 
  • They can’t see the value of their data
  • They don’t know how to evaluate or analyze their data
  • Their data isn’t available to analysts who can use it 
  • There’s too much data to go through and not enough people or time to use it

The other three steps aren’t all that helpful if you can’t see your marketing results. If you’re going to create a successful digital marketing strategy, you’ll need a plan that helps you to capture, report, and analyze the data. 

You’ll need analysts who can use your data to solve problems. 

That’s part of the problem. 

Most companies don’t have the people or processes in place to handle this. This is why it’s so important for businesses to get help. It’s too much for most companies to handle on their own — small, medium, and large companies all struggle with these issues. 

If this is the case for your organization, it may be a good idea to get help from an agency. 

You should be able to plan, implement, and optimize your digital marketing strategy.  If you can’t, it’s a good idea to get help with all or part of the process. 

Conclusion

Almost half of companies don’t have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy in place. A smaller segment of respondents haven’t connected their strategy and their marketing. Most companies are unprepared; they’re not ready to handle the requirements that come with creating their digital marketing strategy. 

If you’re feeling unprepared, don’t worry; use the information we’ve discussed as a guide. If you’re aware of the ins and outs of planning, you can create a winning digital marketing strategy in four easy steps.  

The post How to Develop a Winning Digital Marketing Strategy in 4 Easy Steps appeared first on Neil Patel.

New comment by designbygio_gio in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (October 2020)"

SEEKING WORK | Europe | Remote | Javascript Web Developer (Focus on Frontend)

Strongest skills:
Javascript/ES6, Reactjs, Nextjs, and all the typical React stacks (Jest Testing, storybook, Webpack, Contentful as CMS, Nodejs API, Hapijs and Expressjs).

Extra: UI/UX background, WordPress, generalist, open source, early stage startup,
Extensive Remote experience with different timezones.

Portfolio: https://designbygio.it

Pachyderm Raises Series B, Hiring for Pre-Sales, Golang, DevOps, Docs Engr

Article URL: https://boards.greenhouse.io/pachyderm

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24929565

Points: 1

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The post Pachyderm Raises Series B, Hiring for Pre-Sales, Golang, DevOps, Docs Engr appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.

BaseDash (YC S20) is hiring remote full stack engineers

Article URL: https://www.basedash.com/careers

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24921183

Points: 1

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Jerry, Inc. (YC S17) Is Hiring a Data Analyst in Toronto, Canada

Article URL: https://apply.workable.com/jerry/j/485D148B0C/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24924103

Points: 1

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Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant

Need a Recession Business Loan a Restaurant?

If you love to cook or you love to eat but know you can do better than the restaurants and cafés in your area, you might be dreaming about opening your own restaurant. But to grow a restaurant, you are going to need business capital. In a bad economy, that means a recession business loan for a restaurant.

Like all businesses, getting started with a restaurant is probably going to mean you will need to borrow capital. Often, that will be a business loan.

Recession Age Funding

The number of US financial institutions and also thrifts has been decreasing slowly for 25 years. This is from consolidation in the marketplace as well as deregulation in the 1990s, reducing obstacles to interstate banking. See: https://www.fundera.com/blog/happened-americas-small-businesses-financial-crisis-six-years-start-crisis-look-back-10-charts

Assets focused in ever‐larger banks is troublesome for small business owners. Big banks are a lot less likely to make small loans. Economic downturns suggest financial institutions come to be much more mindful with financing. The good news is, business credit does not rely on banks.

The SBA

Many credit line varieties that most business owners imagine come from conventional banks and conventional banks use SBA loans as their key loan product for small business owners. This is because SBA assures as much as 90% of the loan in the case of default. These credit lines are the most challenging to get approval for because you must qualify with SBA and the bank.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant from the SBA

There are two fundamental sorts of SBA loans you can commonly get. One kind is CAPLines. There are in fact 4 types of CAPLines that can work for your business.

You can also secure a lesser loan amount more quickly using the SBA Express program. A lot of these programs offer BOTH loans and revolving lines of credit.

From the SBA … “CAPLines is the umbrella program under which SBA helps business owners meet short-term and cyclical working capital needs”. Loan amounts are offered right up to $5 million. Loan qualification prerequisites are the same as with other SBA programs.

Seasonal Line

This one advances against anticipated inventory and accounts receivables. It was created in order to help seasonal businesses. Loan or revolving are on offer.

Contract Line

This one finances the direct labor and material costs of performing assignable contracts. Loan or revolving kinds are available.

Builders Line

This one was made for general contractors or builders constructing or renovating industrial or residential buildings. This line is for fund direct labor-and material costs, where the building project acts as the collateral. Loan or revolving types are on offer.

Working Capital

Borrowers must use the loan proceeds for short term working capital/operating needs. If the proceeds are used to acquire fixed assets, lender must refinance the portion of the line used to acquire the fixed asset into an appropriate term facility no later than 90 days after lender discovers the line was used to finance a fixed asset.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant from SBA Express

You can get approval for right up to $350,000. Interest rates can be different, with SBA enabling banks to charge as much as 6.5% over their base rate. Loans above $25,000 will call for collateral.

Approval Details

To get approval you’ll need great personal and company credit. Plus the SBA states you must not have any blemishes on your report. An acceptable bank score demands you have at least $10,000 in your account over the very last 90 days.

You’ll likewise need a resume showing you have market practical experience and a well put together business plan. You will need three years of business and personal tax returns, and your business returns should show a profit. And, you’ll need a current balance sheet and income statement, therefore showing you have the funds to pay back the loan.

Collateral

To get approval you’ll need account receivables, but just if you have them. As for the collateral to offset the risk, normally all business assets will serve as collateral, and some personal assets including your home. It’s not unheard of to need collateral equivalent to 50% or more of the loan amount. You also need articles of incorporation, business licenses, and contracts with all third parties, and your lease.

Let’s look at credit lines.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant from Credit Lines

A credit line, or line of credit (LOC), is an agreement between a borrower and a bank or private investor that establishes a maximum loan balance that a borrower can access.

A borrower can access funds from their line of credit anytime, so long as they don’t go beyond the maximum set in the arrangement, and as long as they meet all other requirements of the bank or investor including making on time payments.

Advantages

Credit lines deliver many unique benefits to borrowers including flexibility. Borrowers can use their line of credit and merely pay interest on what they use, in contrast to loans where they pay interest on the sum total borrowed. Credit lines can be reused, so as you acquire a balance and pay that balance off, you can use that accessible credit again, and again.

Learn business loan secrets with our free, sure-fire guide. We can help you get money, even during a recession.

Details

Credit lines are revolving accounts similar to credit cards, and compare to various other types of funding including installment loans. Oftentimes, lines of credit are unsecured, much the same as credit cards are. There are some credit lines which are secured, and for this reason easier to qualify for

Credit lines are the most commonly requested loan type in the business world although they are preferred, authentic credit lines are rare, and tricky to find. Many are also very hard to get approval for calling for good credit, good time in business, and good financials. But there are other credit cards and lines that few people know about that are attainable for startups, bad credit, and even if you have no financials.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant from Private Investors and Alternative Lenders

Private investors and alternative lenders also offer credit lines. These are less complicated to qualify for than conventional SBA loans. They also demand much less documentation for approval. These alternative SBA credit lines frequently need good personal credit for approval.

Unlike with SBA, many of them don’t call for good bank or business credit approval. Most of these kinds of programs call for two years’ of tax returns. Tax returns need to demonstrate a profit. Rates can vary from 7% or greater and loan amounts range from $25,000 into the millions. Loan amounts are frequently based on the revenues and/or profits on tax returns. At times lenders may ask for other financials such as a profit and loss statement, balance sheets, and income statements.

Learn business loan secrets with our free, sure-fire guide. We can help you get money, even during a recession.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant with Merchant Cash Advances

Merchant cash advances have quickly become the most popular way to get financing, in large part due to the effortless qualification process. Businesses with $10,000 in earnings can get approval, with the business owner having scores as low as 500.

Some sources have now even begun to offer credit lines that accompany their loans. You must have at least $10,000 in revenue for approval. You should be in business for at least one year, however three years is better. Lenders usually want to see a credit score of 650 or better for approval.

Loan amounts are usually around $20,000. Lenders normally will pull your business credit, so you ought to have some credit already and at times lenders will want to see tax returns.

Rates vary, due to the risk for this program, and there typically aren’t a lot of funding sources who offer it.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant with Stocks/Bonds as Collateral for Financing

You can get financing despite personal credit if you have some sort of stocks or bonds. You can also get approval if you have somebody wishing to use their stocks or bonds as collateral for financing.

Personal credit quality doesn’t matter as there are no consumer credit requirements for approval. You can get approval for as much as 90% of the value of your stocks or bonds. Rates are often lower than 2%, making this one of the lowest rate credit lines you’ll ever see. You can still earn interest as you generally do on your stocks and bonds.

Credit Cards and Lines are Very Similar

Credit cards ordinarily offer 0% intro rates for up to two years. This is also rather useful for startups in particular. And credit lines let you take out more cash at a more affordable rate than do cards. These are the main two differences which will have an effect on you between credit cards and credit line.

Investopedia even says that “lines of credit are potentially useful hybrids of credit cards.”

Both cards and lines are revolving credit. Credit lines are tougher to get approval for as card approvals are often very quick, many times automated, while line require an in-depth underwriting review. Lines usually offer lower rates, according to Bankrate card rates average 13% while lines average 4%.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant with Unsecured Business Credit Cards

Recession Restaurant Financing Credit SuiteThe majority of these cards report to the consumer credit reporting agencies. They all require a personal guarantee from you. You can get approval in general for one card at the most as they discontinue approving you when you have two or more inquiries on your report.

Most credit card companies feature business credit cards including Capital One, Chase, and American Express. These have rates similar to consumer rates and limits are also similar.

Some of them report to the consumer reporting agencies, some report to the business bureaus. Approval requirements resemble consumer credit card accounts.

Inquiries

Frequently, when you apply for a credit card you put an inquiry on your consumer report. When other lenders see these, they won’t approve you for more credit for the reason that they do not know how much other new credit you have lately obtained.

So they’ll only approve you if you have less than two inquiries on your report within the most recent six months. Any more will get you refused.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant with Our Hybrid Credit Line

With this form of business financing, you work with a lender who concentrates on securing business credit cards. This is a very rare, very few know about program which few lending sources offer. They can typically get you three to five times the approvals that you can get on your own.

This is because they are familiar with the sources to apply for, the order to apply, and can time their applications so the card issuers won’t reject you for the other card inquiries. Individual approvals frequently range from $2,000 – 50,000.

The end result of their services is that you generally get up to five cards that resemble the credit limits of your maximum limit accounts now. Multiple cards create competition, and this means they will raise your limits, often within 6 months or fewer of first approval.

Approvals

Approvals can go up to $150,000 per entity such as a corporation. With our hybrid credit line you get three to five business credit cards that report only to the business credit reporting agencies. This is huge, something the majority of lenders don’t offer or advertise. Not only will you get cash, but you build your business credit also so within three to four months, you can then use your new company credit to get even more money.

Rates

The lender can also get you low introductory rates, typically 0% for 6-18 months. You’ll then pay normal rates after that, typically 5-21% APR with 20-25% APR for cash advances. And they’ll also get you the very best cards for points. So this means you get the very best rewards.

Like with just about anything, there are significant benefits in teaming up with a source who focuses on this area. The results will be far better than if you attempt to go at it by yourself.

Learn business loan secrets with our free, sure-fire guide. We can help you get money, even during a recession.

Qualifications

You must have excellent personal credit now, ideally 685 or higher scores, the same as with all business credit cards. You shouldn’t have any negative credit on your report to get approval. And you must also have open revolving credit on your consumer reports now and you’ll need to have five inquiries or less in the last six months reported.

Fees

All lenders in this space charge a 9-15% success based fee and you only pay the charge off of what you secure. Remember, you get a lot of extra advantages and about three to five times more cash in this program than you could get on your own, which is why there’s a fee, the same as all other lending programs.

You can get approval using a guarantor and you can even use various guarantors to get even more money. There are even other cards you can get making use of this very same program but these cards only report to the consumer reporting agencies, not the business reporting agencies. They are consumer credit cards versus business credit cards.

Benefits

They offer similar benefits such as 0% intro annual percentage rates and five times the amount of approval of a solitary card but they are much easier to get approval for.

You can get approval with a 650 score and seven inquiries (or fewer) in the last six months and you can have a bankruptcy on your credit and other negative items. These are a lot easier to get approval for than unsecured business credit cards.

With all preceding cards above, you ought to have good consumer credit in order to get approval but what happens if your personal credit is not good, and you don’t have a guarantor?

This is when building company makes a great deal of sense even if you have good personal credit, developing your business credit helps you get even more money, and without having a personal guarantee.

Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant with Building Business Credit

Company credit is credit in a company name, in connection with the company’s EIN number, and not the owner’s Social Security Number. When accomplished correctly, you can acquire business credit without a personal credit check and without a personal guarantee. This is something all other cards above can’t deliver.

You can get three types of business credit cards. First is vendor credit, which offers net 30 terms to set up a business credit profile. Then is retail credit, where you will get credit cards with high limits at most stores.

Next is fleet credit. It’s credit to fuel, service, and maintain business vehicles. And then there’s cash credit, which includes Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards that you can use anywhere. You can obtain these with no credit check or guarantee. Limits are oftentimes $5,000 – $10,000 to get started, and can exceed $50,000.

Takeaways for How to Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant

Your business can get credit cards and financing, if you know where to look. Learn more here and get started toward establishing business credit. Get a recession business loan for a restaurant. And grow a business you can be proud of!

The post Get a Recession Business Loan for a Restaurant appeared first on Credit Suite.

How to Rock Out Streetshares Recession Financing

The recession is officially here, and that means finding financing for your business is going to be more challenging than ever.  It is possible however.  Check out Streetshares recession financing for example.

A Comprehensive Review of Streetshares Recession Financing Options

Funding is a huge obstacle for virtually every small business, especially in a recession. It can seem as if there is almost never enough. This is why having more than one option when it comes to small business funding in a recession is vital. Most assume the first stop is a traditional bank or credit union. That isn’t always possible however. Sometimes you need to research alternative options. This is exactly what Streetshares recession financing is.

Traditional lenders rely heavily on personal credit scores and are not set up to specifically help small businesses thrive. There are some non-traditional lenders that, while still acknowledging risk reduction is essential, know small businesses are a different breed needing special help.

Because of this, they are willing to take other factors into consideration rather than relying so heavily on the personal credit. Factors such as business credit, time in business, annual business revenue, and more can come into play.

Is Streetshares one of those companies? In some ways yes, it is.  In other ways, not really.

Find out why so many companies are using our proven methods to improve their business credit scores, even during a recession.

What is Streetshares?

Streetshares is an online small business funding service offering much more than traditional loans. It all began in 2013 when Mark Rockefeller and Mickey Konson both agreed a small business financing solution for everyday small business owners was necessary. The idea for Streetshares was born.

The idea was to create a lender which would offer small business solutions for veterans and their communities. Today, Streetshares offers financial products to all types of small businesses. While you do not have to have military or veteran affiliation to take advantage of these products, they do maintain their dedication to their military and veteran roots.

What Products Do They Offer?

Streetshares offers a variety of recession financing products with fast application processes and funds deposited almost immediately. There is never a prepay penalty, and the credit check is a soft one, so there is not an impact on your credit score for applying.  This is a huge plus when it comes to financing during a recession.

Streetshares Recession Financing Products

Term Loans– These are lump sum, traditional style loans. They run from $2,000 to $100,000 with terms from 3 to 36 months.

Patriot Express Line of Credit– A revolving line of credit for amounts between $5,000 and $100,000. You draw only what you need, when you need it, and only pay interest on what you used. Terms run from 3 to 36 months.

Contract Financing– An advance on contract invoices. You can receive up to 90% of the total of unpaid invoices on a contract, and Streetshares will collect from the contractor. The beauty of this is you get your cash right away, without having to wait for customers to pay their invoices.

Factoring– Similar to contract financing, accounts receivable factoring allows you to collect a portion of your receivables from Streetshares, while they collect the total amount from those who owe you. This allows you to receive your funds immediately without having to worry about collections.

Our comprehensive Streetshares review revealed that this is a flexible product rather an a one-size fits all. The company lets the borrower determine how many and which invoices to factor in the way best suiting their needs. The business does not have to factor all invoices.

You may be wondering how your credit score will react when you apply for a loan. With most lenders, you credit score can drop some due to the credit check made by the lender. However, while we were doing our Streetshares review, we learned they do a soft pull when they check your credit score, so your credit isn’t affected at all by the application.

Find out why so many companies are using our proven methods to improve their business credit scores, even during a recession.

Streetshares Recession Financing: Repayment

They deduct a set amount from your bank account weekly, so repayment is easy peasy. They also do not have a prepayment penalty, so if you want to pay ahead, you can totally do that.

Other Services: Investment Products

Veterans Business Bonds– These bonds pay a flat 5% interest rate with as little as $25 to start. You can withdraw from the bond in the first year with a 1% fee, and after one year can access your funds at any time without a fee.

Streetshares Pro Investing– If you choose, you can let the Streetshares pros build a portfolio that will help you reach your financial goals.

Financing Application and Requirements for Streetshares Recession Financing

Online application for Street Shares recession financing is quick and easy. If you want or need personal help, you can call and speak with a qualified professional who will walk you through the process. Approval typically comes the same day as application, and funds can be in your account within 3 days.

The basic loan pre-approval qualification requirements are:

  • United States citizenship
  •  At least one year in business (in some cases 6 months is enough)
  •  Minimum required earnings
  •  Business guarantor with reasonable credit

When you apply, you will need to have the following information ready:

  • Business owner’s social security number
  • EIN
  • Total outstanding business debts
  • 6 months of the most recent bank statements
  • Most recent business and personal tax returns

In some cases, financial statements may also be required for Streetshares recession financing. These would include the Profit and Loss statement, the Balance Sheet, and other information as requested. If you use QuickBooks Online, their system can review your financial information directly from there, making the process even faster!

What About Closing Costs?Streetshares Recession Financing Credit Suite

Streetshares changed how they accounted for closing costs mid-2018. Previously, these fees came from funds before they went into the borrower’s account.

The new policy allows for the disbursal of all funds to the borrower, who is then allowed to either roll closing costs into the payment, or pay them back immediately. Streetshares says they made this change to allow borrowers to receive all their funds and have more control over how they used the money based on the needs of their individual business.  This is a huge plus for Streetshares recession financing.

Other Perks

There are a few exceptional benefits to being a Streetshares member.

Discounts

Members of Streetshares enjoy discounts at various retailers. These include but are not limited to discounts on bookkeeping services, services offered by Amazon, and combat attire.  In a recession, every penny counts, right?

Best Price Guarantee

When it comes to Streetshares recession financing, they are serious about offering the best deals and rates when it comes to small business funding. In an effort to do just that, they guarantee they will beat or match a competitor’s offer, or give you a $100 gift card. Here are the details: 

  • You must have a loan offer from Streetshares that has been fully underwritten.
  • You must also have an approved and underwritten offer from one of the lenders listed below.
  • There will need to be proof of the competitor’s offer.

This only applies to online lenders. These are defined as lenders that:

  • Are not a bank, credit union, CDFI, or thrift
  • Operate as a for-profit lending agency
  • Are not a brokers or ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations)
  • Provide Merchant Cash Advance products or is one of the lenders in the following list:
    • Strategic Funding
    • YellowStone
    • BFS capital
    • SOS capital
    • IOU Central
    • BOFI
    • EBF partners
    • Flash Advance
    • LoanMe
    • Ondeck 
    • Kabbage
    • Swift Capital
    • Breakout Capital
    • PayPal LoanBuilder   
    • Principis capital
    • Par Funding
    • National Funding
    • Quick Bridge Funding
    • Business Backer
    • Advance Capital
    • Mulligan Funding Knight Capital
    • 1st Global Capital
    • SFS Funding
    • Itria Ventures
    • EIN CAP
    • Pearl Capital
    • Prime Meridian

They must also, of course, provide small business lines of credit or loans as part of their normal operations.

Brass Tacks of the Best Price Guarantee

After reviewing your offer, Streetshares will generate an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for the costs of your Streetshares offer in an effort to give you a fair comparison. They will then offer lower fees, a lower interest rate, or make other changes to their offer to beat or match that of the competitor.

Find out why so many companies are using our proven methods to improve their business credit scores, even during a recession.

If they, for some reason, cannot beat or match the offer, they will give you a $100 Amazon gift card.

Streetshares Foundation

We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the Streetshares Foundation along with Streetshares recession financing. The foundation’s mission is to encourage and support veteran small business owners. In keeping with this, they present a grant to 3 veteran-owned businesses each year.

There are three prizes as follows: 

  • 1st Place: $15,000
  • 2nd Place: $6,000
  • 3rd Place: $4,000

To apply, a business must meet the following requirements:

  • The applicant has to be a veteran or reserve or active duty member of a branch of the United States Armed Forces, or a spouse of an armed forces member.
  • They must be at least 21 years old.
  • The business must be legally incorporated or a formal partnership or sole proprietorship.
  • There must be some sort of social impact on the veteran or military community either in conjunction with or in addition to the primary business function.

The foundation will choose 5 to 10 finalists based on the social impact, business idea, how they will use award funds and the social impact of that use, fit of the product market, and the history of the team and the company.

The final selection process is one of the best parts. Once the finalists are set, they post a list on the website and the public votes on which businesses will receive prizes!

What is “Reasonable Credit? And What if My Credit Isn’t “Reasonable?”

To gain approval for Streetshares recession financing, you need to have “reasonable” credit. It took a little digging around, but it turns out they define reasonable credit as a credit score over 650.

What If My Credit Score Doesn’t Meet that Definition?

There are some steps you can take to improve your score. First, pay your bills on time, every time. You also need to take a look at your credit report. You can do this by obtaining a free copy. Get one annually at no cost.

Review it with a fine-toothed comb. It is even more important to do this during a recession.  If you find mistakes, have them corrected. Do this by submitting the detailed request in writing, with back up documentation of the correct information. Never send originals of backup. Always make copies.

You can also ask those that are not required to report payments to credit agencies to do so. A couple of examples include landlords and utilities. If you are making your payments to them on time, you can ask them to report those payments.

They may say no. It can’t hurt to ask though. If they choose to do so, it could improve your score much faster.

The Better Business Bureau: What Do They Say About Streetshares?

You really can’t talk about a lending company without checking out their profile on the Better Business Bureau. It’s pretty important when considering Streetshares recession financing. As it turns out, they have an A+ rating! There are only two complaints on file, and they are each in reference to unwanted solicitation. The company has responded, and in each case the individual complaining was taken off of their list.

There are 3 reviews on file, and all three relate to the investing option. One is a 3-star rating because there seem to be no financials available for the past 4 years. The last ones are when they first filed with the SEC. The reviewer would like to see how the investment money is being used.

Another 3-star rating is from a reviewer who was not impressed either way yet. They note a few good things and a few not so good things and state they need more time to form an opinion.

The last reviewer gives a 5-star rating and says their investing experience has been “as advertised.”

Do You Need Streetshares Recession Financing?  

It depends.  If you qualify, Streetshares recession financing could be the perfect solution for whatever you need.  The company prides itself on offering fast financing options with little hassle. They have lower interest rates than other online lenders.  Also, while they offer their products to everyone, they take their original mission to use their business solutions to support businesses run by those in the military and veterans seriously.

The main drawback is they are a newer company.  This inevitably causes some kinks, but they seem to be working them out nicely.

(Note: We make every effort to update details regularly but always check the lender’s website for the most up-to-date information on terms, rates, and requirements as these details can change frequently.)

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