Hoot Medical is hiring a Medical Records Retrieval Specialist to join our team in multiple functions. This position will focus on records retrieval and follow-up; email communication with clients and physicians as well as daily administrative tasks.
There is significant room for growth in this position. Will be working closely with a high-growth tech and product team.
Women owned companies are exploding onto the scene. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that companies such as Cisco, Liquid Paper, The Body Shop, Spanx, and Proactive are all owned by women.
What Women Owned Companies Need to Succeed
Women owned companies are definitely becoming a force in the entrepreneurial world. According to Fundera, 40% of US businesses are owned by women. If you are ready to join the ranks, here is what you need to know.
Women Owned Companies: Start Off On the Right Foot
All businesses, including women owned companies, need strong fundability. This starts with how your business is set up. The first part of this is separating the business from yourself. This starts with having separate contact information, meaning you do not use your personal address or telephone number as your business address or telephone number.
That sounds easy enough. However, many entrepreneurs, especially women, choose to start their business from their residence. It makes sense. In theory, a female business owner could better manage a home and children if running a business from home. Even a woman, or a man for that matter, without a family could find benefit in the flexibility of running their own business from home. There is no commute, you cut the cost of buying lunch out, and you can work in your pajamas.
Foundation of Fundability
While some would argue these things are not all they’re cracked up to be, one thing is for sure. It is definitely tempting to use your personal contact information as your business information if you work from home. There are two things you need to know about this.
What frustrates you the most about funding your business? Check out how our free guide can help.
Contact Information
First, regardless of where you run your business from, you do not need to use your personal contact information as your business contact information. Second, you can still run your business from your home and still have separate contact information for your business.
The phone number part is easy. You could get a separate phone, but it isn’t necessary. It is easy enough to get a number that works through the internet. You can then forward it to your regular phone, and whenever someone calls your business number it will ring to your personal phone.
An address is a little trickier, but not impossible. Whatever you do, don’t use a P.O. Box or an UPS box. Many types of funding will not accept this type of address. They want to see a physical address.
Other Setup Information
This is not the only issue with setting up your business to be fundable. But it is the first step. After that you need an EIN, you need to incorporate, and you absolutely must get a D-U-N-S number. You also have to open a dedicated business bank account.
The whole point in setting up your business to be fundable is so that you can get funding for your business. There is a huge catch 22 here, as if you are already running a business and are not yet set up to be fundable, you may need money before you can get it done. The set up is only one piece of the fundability puzzle. There are over 100 different fundability factors that lenders consider. Building business fundability takes time.
Best Funding for Women Owned Companies Right Now
The problem is, the longer you wait, the hard it gets to build fundability. Not only that, you need money now, right? How do women owned companies get the funds they need to grow and thrive, or just survive, in the meantime? We have a few suggestions.
Credit Line Hybrid
The credit line hybrid is unsecured business financing. It is available to pretty much anyone for any type of business expense. You can use it for real estate, equipment, working capital, and even startup expenses. Not only that, but there is no security required. Furthermore, there is no down payment, and you do not have to provide income documentation. It is completely no-doc financing.
You do need to have personal credit of 680 or above. Also, there cannot be any late payments in the past 12 months, there can be no open collections or bankruptcies, and there should be less than 4 inquiries in the past 6 months on your consumer credit report. There also has to be at least 2 open credit cards with a $2,000 limit or higher with 2 years of good payment history.
If you do not meet these requirements, you can take on a credit partner that does meet them. The payments will still be reported on the business’s credit report, so business credit will build whether you get the financing yourself or through a credit partner.
You can get up to $150,000, and often interest rates are as low as 0% for the first 6 to 18 months.
Business Revenue Lending
If your business has consistent revenue of $120,000 per year or more, you may qualify for this type of funding. Lenders verify revenue using bank statements. There can be no recent bankruptcies, but the minimum credit score to qualify is as low as 500.
A business must also be in operation for a year or more, and they must do over 5 small transactions each month to get business revenue financing.
What frustrates you the most about funding your business? Check out how our free guide can help.
Merchant Cash Advance
If your business accepts credit card payments and you have at least a 500 FICO, you could get up to $750,000 in a merchant cash advance. Credit rates are usually lower compared to traditional financing as well.
Your business must bring in $100,000 or more per year in credit card sales, and typically you can get approval equal to one months credit card financing volume.
Account Receivable Financing
Outstanding account receivables can also be a source of funding for your business. Get as much as 80% of receivables advanced in less than 24 hours. You get the rest of the accounts receivable amount once you collect full payment for the invoice. Closing takes 2 weeks or less.
Receivables should be with the government or another business. Getting financing with receivables from individuals is not as easy. If you also have purchase orders, then you can get financing to have those filled. You won’t need to use your cash flow to do so.
Equipment Financing
You can secure this type of financing by using existing equipment or new equipment you want to purchase as collateral. Funding is available up to $10 million. Terms range from 5 to 60 months, and you need a minimum 550 FICO.
The equipment must be new, and most types of equipment are acceptable, including software.
You’ll need to provide details on the equipment to be financed and, depending on the loan amount and certain risk factors, you may need to show 2 years corporate and personal tax returns.
Enterprise SBA Loans
For these loans you have to have collateral worth up to at least 50% of the loan amount, but you only need a FICO of 620. There also can be no bankruptcies in the past 4 years. Only for profit companies qualify, and they must have positive trends in sales growth. Generally amounts are available of up to $12 million with terms up to 25-years.
What frustrates you the most about funding your business? Check out how our free guide can help.
Women Owned Companies Can Get the Funding They Need
While there are some women business grant opportunities out there, they are highly competitive and rarely enough to fully fund business needs. These funding options are great for immediate cash needs, and you can work on building your fundability in the meantime. Once your business has strong fundability, you can have pretty much any business funding you need.
The absolute best way to build fundability is with the help of a business credit expert. They can walk you through the complicated web of the many factors that affect fundability, including helping you find accounts that will report to your business credit profile. That is the only way to build a business credit score.
Choosing the right content for your image and video ads can be challenging.
What message will actually get consumers to take the plunge and buy your product?
Regardless of how thorough your digital marketing plan is, there’s no one simple solution for ad success that applies to every campaign.
Or is there?
Instead of looking inside of your organization for inspiration, look to past and current consumers to help you share the greatness of your product.
How can you do this? By harnessing the power of reviews your satisfied customers have already given. 93 percent of consumers read online reviews before they make a purchasing decision. If you can incorporate authentic, positive reviews into your ads, you can set yourself apart from your competition and show your audience your worth.
In this blog post, we’ll break down six strategies for successfully using customer reviews to craft effective video and visual ads.
Why Should You Use Customer Reviews in Your Advertising Images and Videos
When a potential customer hears about your business or product, they’re going to go straight to the internet to find out more about it.
They’re not just looking for slick visuals: They’re looking for reviews from other consumers.
Also, 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews from strangers more than those from their friends and family.
When customer reviews are used in advertising material, you eliminate the middle step of consumers combing the internet for information.
Instead, you build immediate consumer trust with these user-generated descriptors of your service or product.
How to Use Customer Reviews in Your Advertising Images and Videos
There are countless ways to incorporate customer reviews into your marketing strategy. Below, we break down six strategies to let customer reviews do your marketing for you.
Pick an Ad Theme and Find Customer Reviews on That Theme
Ads can be powerful and evoke complex emotions.
As you craft your testimonial campaign, decide which emotion you want your ad to embody. These include: -comfort -beauty -family -self-confidence -patriotism -courage
Coca-Cola, for example, routinely adheres to the theme of friends and family. Invariably, when you see a Coke ad, you see this theme manifested either through imagery of copy.
Think about the values associated with your brand and your mission. Dedicated to innovation? Select that theme and then source your existing quotes that highlight your cutting-edge tools.
Regardless of which ad theme you choose, by pairing a sentiment with corresponding copy, you’ll inevitably craft an arresting, powerful testimonial that will make your product stand out to potential consumers.
Pick a Great Customer Review and Create an Image or Video Around the Review
While great reviews are worth their weight in gold, not displaying these testimonials properly can make them essentially valueless.
To make sure your reviews get the attention they deserve, build an image (or a video if that’s more your brand’s speed) that is eye-catching and engaging.
Easier said than done?
Below we included five must-know design tips.
Layout Organize your testimonial by keeping user experience (UX) at the forefront of your design. This includes strategic use of white space and placement of text and visual content. This will allow you to create an organized, consumable image that is easy to deduce meaning from.
Unique Visuals The internet is flooded with so-so quality, cookie-cutter images. To make your customer review stand out, incorporate brand-appropriate images and colors, breaking up the monotony of visuals.
Color Color can be used to stop a viewer in their tracks and evoke emotion. As you craft your testimonial images, decide what message the colors in your graphic should be sending.
Typography Outside of the overall appearance of your testimonial graphic or video, typography can play a massive role in emphasizing the most important elements of your customers’ quotes. Consider bolding and bright colors to highlight pain points so the viewer immediately knows this quote is relevant to them.
Simple While you want your testimonial to stand out, you don’t want visuals to overshadow the message. When it comes to designing these images, adhere to the three Cs of Google Marketing: clear, concise, and compelling.
Pick a Customer Review and Use It to Amplify Your Social Shares
An undecided shopper can morph into a dedicated buyer by engaging with other members of your audience.
In fact, one out of every four individuals follow brands whose products they are interested in on social media. By monitoring your social channels and responses from customers, these shoppers can make a more informed decision about the strength and utility of your product.
To show off your customer’s feedback, use client testimonials and reviews in your social strategy to further highlight just how wonderful your product is.
When you share customer feedback on social media, you boost brand credibility, increase engagement, and ideally, grow your bottom line.
Want some inspiration for getting reviews onto your social channels?
Check out this testimonial from a Maybelline user:
By sharing the tweet, the makeup company underlines the efficacy of its product and fosters trust and community as well.
Pick a Customer Review and Use It in Your Search Strategy
Search engines aren’t solely interested in how well you optimize your listing; they are also a source of constant monitoring, which includes what consumers are saying about your brand or your product.
By using reviews in your Google and Microsoft listings, you can prominently display how consumers feel about your offering. What’s more, collecting new content regularly can earn you featured snippets and Google Seller Ratings, boosting your overall search visibility.
Check out this ad from Lego for The Simpsons™ House:
The stars, rating, and number of reviews alert interested viewers that the product is well-liked among buyers and that a significant number of people have purchased it. These extensions on a classic search engine listing help foster trust before potential consumers visit your site.
Pick a Great Customer Review and Use It in Your Email Marketing Strategy
Regardless of what your email marketing strategy is, it can benefit from including customer reviews. Given the medium’s historically high return on investment (ROI), this channel is the perfect place to include images or videos spotlighting customer reviews.
When you share these testimonials in emails, you not only build credibility, but you are also more likely to increase your click-through rate (CTR).
Through using customer-created narratives, you can both share experiences of your consumer base, while simultaneously demonstrating what readers can anticipate when they become customers.
Check out this example from natural skincare company Naturopathica:
While this content isn’t built into their email template, sharing a visual that includes reviews and customers’ first names and last initials humanizes the review, making it more believable and relatable.
Here, the quotes selected by the company speak to a pain point that is likely shared among many buyers looking for facial serum: decreased fine lines and wrinkles. By choosing quotes that address your product’s strengths and consumer pain points, you prove further value.
Pick a Great Customer Review and Use It in Your Email Marketing Strategy
OK, homepage was a bit of an understatement.
While you should without a doubt have a dedicated page of your site for testimonials, you should also ensure your strongest customer reviews appear on every page of your website.
These don’t have to be in your face. Instead, they should serve as a subtle reminder about the strength of your product and the amount of earnest goodwill behind it. Fabletics does an excellent job placing customer reviews across its website.
By sharing these highly-starred reviews along with images of real consumers, Fabletics resoundingly makes the point that their product is, well, fabulous.
Regardless of which route you choose to incorporate reviews into your digital marketing strategy, and all is a great option, too, there are three best practices you should adhere to when crafting your testimonial content.
Short and Sweet Avoid quoting the entirety of a customer review. Instead, cherry-pick the best part and craft a relevant, bold headline. If you’re sharing on social, you can link to the complete review in the body of the post.
Give Thanks Want more customer reviews? Of course you do, they’re invaluable marketing tools. Encourage consumers to leave future reviews by thanking them for taking the time to share their experience with your organization.
Re-Tweet and Reshare This one applies specifically to your social media efforts, but be sure to continuously monitor your social platforms to see if there are any positive comments posted. If you find these hidden gems, you want to be sure to share them across your platform.
Conclusion to Using Customer Reviews in Visual Ad Campaigns
Regardless of industry or product, you should be taking advantage of customer reviews to enhance your digital marketing strategy.
As more and more searchers look online to determine if a product fits their need, you would be doing your business a disservice by not having an aesthetically engaging video or image ready to greet them.
By implementing a multichannel customer review campaign, you can demonstrate to potential customers not only your product is loved by owners, but that you have a true understanding of your audience’s pain, too.
Highlighting this central pain point through the language and context used by your current customers assures would-be customers that you both understand and solve their needs.
While the six strategies for customer reviews we discussed above will allow you to begin providing potential customers with proof points, also consider launching an entirely review-based campaign. With a handful of effective reviews, you can craft a narrative that tells your entire brand story, all while increasing visibility and awareness.
Where will you start incorporating customer reviews?
VoxMedia | Senior SRE, Engineering Manager, Full Stack Engineer, Software Engineer | Remote US | Full Time
As the leading independent modern media company, Vox Media ignites conversations and influences culture. Across digital, podcasts, TV, streaming, live events, and print, we tell stories that affect our audience’s daily lives and entertain as much as they inform.
SEEKING WORK | UTC-5 | Remote | Web (Backend/Frontend/Devops)
10+ years in senior and lead engineering roles at Silicon Valley startups and independently (5+ years remote).
Diverse technical experience designing, building and managing complex and critical systems, building out large greenfield projects, integrating with/rewriting legacy systems. Most of my roles have had me working directly with business stakeholders to design and build products.
Some of the tools I’ve worked with: Python, Ruby, PHP, Javascript/ES6, Java, Golang, Perl, Rails, Django, Symfony, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, HTML5, React, React Native, Angular, AWS, Docker
Whether it’s for a loved one or a colleague at work, getting a gift for someone is never easy.
One reason is there are billions of options to choose from. The other reason is most people don’t have the time to look through millions of catalogs to pick one.
That’s why if you run an e-commerce store, you should make it easy for your customers to select one of your products as a gift.
To do that, you must equip your customers with a gift guide to help make the selection process easier.
Why Should You Create Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Site?
Besides making it easier for your customers to decide which of your products to buy as a gift, gift guides serve many other purposes. Here are a few more reasons why you should create a gift guide for your e-commerce site:
Gift GuidesBoost Brand Awareness
One of the most significant reasons to create a gift guide is to help boost brand awareness. Particularly during holiday seasons, holiday gift guides are a popular form of content. Because they’re helpful in inspiring purchases, consumers are likely to share them with their networks. As a result, you’ll enjoy a boost in brand awareness.
Gift Guides CanIncrease Sales
Every business-related activity you undertake must ultimately have an impact on your bottom line. That’s exactly why you must invest in a gift guide for your e-commerce store. A well-designed gift guide is an effective tool in helping you increase sales on your e-commerce store.
Gift Guides Provide Blog and Social Media Content
Another reason to invest in creating a gift guide for your e-commerce site is gift guides provide you with engaging content for your blog. They also make for excellent social media posts. As a result, you’ll be able to maintain high engagement rates with your target audience.
Gift guides are also able to help you achieve many of your marketing and sales goals.
How to Create Unique Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Business
Now that you know what a gift guide is and why having one on your e-commerce is essential let’s dive into how you can create one.
1. Identify Your Audience
Audience research is one of the most critical steps in creating a gift guide. That’s because knowing your audience is key to developing accurate buyer personas.
For your gift guide to be appealing, you must understand your target audience enough to create personalized recommendations.
Here are a few tips:
Collect Demographic Data
Demographic data refers to your target audience’s physical attributes. Examples include:
Both demographic and psychographic data are essential to understanding your customers’ needs, pain points, and aspirations. As a result, you can tailor a gift guide that will be relevant by offering personalized product recommendations.
2. Choose Items to Include in Your Gift Guides
Once you understand your audience, the next step of creating your gift guide becomes easier: choosing the products to include in your gift guide.
Though you may be armed with rich customer data, choosing the right products to include in your gift guide can be a daunting task. A few tips to guide you in choosing unique gift ideas include:
Look at Your Sales Data
The most effective way to choose items is to look at your sales data. Your data will give you insight into:
buying trends and habits
popular products
unique segments
Besides your own sales data, you can also leverage tools like Google Trends to identify emerging opportunities in your niche.
Ask Your Customers
Another effective way of figuring out what to include in your gift guide is to ask your customers. The best way to do this is to leverage interactive content like surveys, polls, and quizzes. These will give you insight into your audience’s preferences. To leverage interactive content, you can invest in an interactive content tool. Alternatively, you can create polls on your favorite social media channels.
Consider Creating Gift Bundles
Not sure what to include and exclude in your gift guide?
Then consider creating gift bundles.
Gift bundles are an excellent way of showcasing your product range. For your bundles to be effective, you must get the right mix. Tips for getting the right mix include bundling:
complementary products from your product range
products you’ve succeeded in cross-selling
fast-selling products with slow movers
You can also consider collaborating with other brands that target a similar audience to yours but don’t sell the same products you do.
Consult Your Suppliers
Your suppliers are another avenue you can leverage to know which products to include in your gift guide. Ask them which products are moving fast in their inventory or those they anticipate to be buzzworthy.
The success of your gift guide lies in knowing which products are relevant to the season. Invest time in ensuring the products you include will resonate with your target audience.
3. Craft Headlines for Your Gift Guides That Evoke Emotions and Inspire Action
Like all other types of content, your gift guide depends on a powerful headline for success. Take your time to craft one that:
Evokes the Readers Emotions
Gift buying is usually an emotion-driven endeavor. When your customers shop around for a gift, they do so (in most cases) for someone they have an emotional connection with. Hence, they want a gift that will have an emotional impact.
To craft such a headline, use personalization. Speak directly to your customer by using the word “you.” You can also create emotion-evoking headlines by using words that trigger an emotional response in your readers.
Inspires Readers to Take Action
Your gift guide headline must also inspire readers to take action, preferably purchasing one of your products. To do this:
paint a picture of the benefits of reading your gift guide
A well-written headline is essential to hooking your target audience and getting them to browse for the perfect gift for their loved one or colleague.
4. Find Quality Product Images
Once your customers click through into your gift guide, you must immediately grab their attention. The best way to do that is to use high-quality product images. Here’s an excellent example from Brightland’s gift guide:
Besides attention-grabbing, images also help:
Give instant information: Human beings are visual creatures and process images faster than text.
Make your gift guide easy to scan: Images are an excellent way of helping your readers scan your gift guide.
Images encourage sharing: People love sharing helpful stuff they find on the internet. Those who love your gift guide are more likely to share it if you use high-quality images.
Getting the images to use in your gift guide is quite easy. Your first port of call would be to get your manufacturer’s product images. However, a better option would be to hire a professional photographer and take your own images. Doing so allows you to place your products in a setting of your choice, resulting in personalized images.
5. Determine the Format of Your Gift Guides
Gift guides come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. As you plan on creating your own, you must determine which is the best format for your guide. Examples of the gift guide formats include:
blog post
slideshow
infographic
video
social media post (like Instagram posts)
How do you know which content format to use?
There are a couple of factors you can use to guide you on the best format for your gift guide:
Your Audience
When deciding which content format to use, the first port of call must always be your audience. Check your blog and social media analytics to see which content types perform well with your audience.
The Platforms You’ll Market Your Gift Guide On
The platforms you use to market your gift guide are another factor determining the format of your guides.
Your Niche
Finally, another essential factor that impacts the format you should use for your gift guide is your niche. If you’re in a visual niche, your gift guide may not need as much text as one in a niche where info plays a bigger role in driving conversions.
6. Market Your Gift Guides
With your gift guide ready, it’s time to show it to the world.
How do you get eyeballs on your gift guide?
Here are a few tips to help you market your gift guide to the right audience.
Share It on Social Media
One of the best marketing channels for your gift guide is social media.
Particularly when you run paid ads, you can hyper-target your campaigns to reach people who match your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Send It to Your Email List
Another excellent marketing channel for your gift guide is email. Although it’s one of the oldest and most basic digital marketing channels, email is still one of the best when it comes to marketing your gift guide.
One of the best advantages of email marketing is most of the people on your list are already interested in what you have to offer. The chances of them knowing other people interested in being gifted with your product are also high.
Another advantage of email is you can segment your email list, enabling you to create personalized messaging. You can also consider making a personalized gift guide for each segment, increasing the chances of conversion.
Leverage SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is still applicable to marketing your gift guide. While basic, it’s easy to forget to implement best practices like:
keyword research
adding tags to your images
strategic linking
focusing on user experience (UX)
Make it easy for your customers to find your gift guide when they’re looking for gift ideas. Having an effective SEO strategy is exactly what you need to do that.
Creating your gift guide is only half the battle. Getting it in front of the right people’s eyes is the other half. With your well-designed gift guide and these three gift guide marketing tips, chances of your gift guide succeeding in driving sales.
FAQ: Gift Guides Best Practices
Shopping for gifts is never easy. It becomes a more difficult task if you have a long recipient list. That’s why your customers appreciate a helpful gift guide. While we’ve covered how you can create a unique gift guide for your e-commerce site, you probably have a few questions regarding gift guide best practices. Let’s quickly answer a few before we wrap up.
Do Gift Guides Really Help Boost Sales?
There are two main reasons gift guides work so well. The first is people don’t have time for gift shopping—yet they have to. The second is there are just too many products to choose from. Gift guides solve both problems by helping your customers find and decide on what to gift their friends and loved ones.
How Do I Improve the Chances of My Gift Guide Converting?
One word: data.
Before getting started with your gift guide, you must gather all the data you can about your target audience and market. Scour your sales records, and use competitor analysis tools and any other data collection tool you can get your hands on. Use these to mine every piece of data that will help inform the design and creation of your gift guide. Doing it this way will ensure you create a hyper-targeted gift guide.
Conclusion
Creating a gift guide is a must if you run an e-commerce business. They don’t just boost your sales during holiday seasons; gift guides also help raise your brand awareness.
Gift guides are the perfect marketing tool as they attract high-intent shoppers.
That’s why you must include them in your marketing strategy. However, for them to work, you must ensure yours is unique and well-crafted. Use the tips above to create your first (or next) gift guide for the next holiday season.
Have you ever used gift guides to boost sales on your e-commerce store?
Those who died in military service did so for our freedom. Part of that freedom is the ability to open a business. In fact, you can even get a government business loan to do so. However, that option will not work for everyone. How can you fund a startup when you can’t get a government business loan?
Discover Other Ways to Fund a Business When a Government Business Loan Isn’t An Option
First, you may not qualify. They typically require good credit and some sort of collateral. Likewise, even if you do qualify, a government business loan may not be enough. What are the other options?
1.The Credit Line Hybrid
The Credit Line Hybrid is a funding option that may offer an even better interest rate than a government business loan. Yet, you get the money faster and easier also. Furthermore, you don’t have to supply any bank statements or check stubs. You can get funding in a few days rather than weeks, without supplying any collateral or documents.
It is revolving, unsecured financing that allows you to fund your business without putting up collateral, and you only pay back what you use.
How to Qualify for the Credit Line Hybrid
Your personal credit score should be at least 680. In addition, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments. Furthermore, in the past 6 months, you should have less than 6 credit inquiries. Also, you should have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards. You need to have at least two credit cards with limits of $2,000 or more and at least a year and a half of good payment history as well.
Yet, if you do not meet all of the requirements, you can still get this funding. You can take on a credit partner that meets each of these requirements. Many business owners work with a friend or relative to fund their business. If a relative or a friend meets all of these requirements, they can pair with you to allow you to tap into their credit to access funding.
Generally, approval is up to 5x that of the highest credit limit on your personal credit report. Sometimes, you can get interest rates as low as 0% for the first few months, allowing you to put that savings back into your business.
The process is pretty fast, especially with a qualified expert to walk you through it. Another benefit is, with the approval for multiple credit cards, there is competition. This makes it easier, and even likely if you handle the credit responsibly, that you can get interest rates lowered and limits raised every few months.
2. Retirement Account Financing
This Credit Suite program offers a flexible and powerful way for a startup to leverage assets that are in a 401(k) plan or IRA. It even has the blessing of the IRS. In fact, they have their own name for it. It’s called a Rollover for Business Startups (ROBS).
How to Qualify for Retirement Account Financing?
No financials have to be submitted, and you do not need good credit. In fact, all the lender will ask for is a copy of your two most recent 401(k) statements.
If the plan has a value of more than $35,000, you can get approval. This is true even if you have really bad personal credit. You can get however much of your 401(k) is “rollable.” Sometimes, you can secure a low-interest credit line or loan for 100% of your current 401(k) value.
The plan you use cannot be from a business where you currently work. It will have to be from previous employment. Also, you can’t still be contributing to it.
The cost is 5.25% (prime +2) and the term is 5 years. There is a $1,995 lender fee rolled in as well, which includes 5 years of management and consulting.
3. Line of Credit
The difference between a traditional loan and a traditional business line of credit is that the line of credit is revolving credit rather than a term loan. Like a credit card, you only pay back what you use. Also, lines of credit typically have lower interest rates than business credit cards. The trade off is, there are no rewards like cash back or air miles.
At Credit Suite, our funding partners offer an unsecured line of credit that has a minimum FICO score requirement of 600. You also must show business tax returns with net profits over $20,000 if you have been in business between 6 months and a year. If you have been in business for over a year, you need to show $10,000 in monthly revenue. These requirements are much easier to meet than those typically set forth by lenders.
Terms are 6 to 18 months and interest rates range from 12% to 25%. You can get up to $250,000.
4. Alternative Lenders
There are a number of non-bank lenders that will lend to startups. You do have to be careful, as there are a lot of predatory lenders out there. They also tend to have higher interest rates. However, they aren’t all bad. Here are a few decent options for startup loans if a government business loan isn’t available.
BlueVine
BlueVine requires that you be in business for at least 6 months. If you have at least $120,000 in annual revenue, you may qualify for a loan from them. The minimum credit score for a line of credit from BlueVine is 600. Furthermore, if you want invoice factoring, you can get approval with a score as low as 530, 3 months in business, and $10,000 in monthly revenue.
Kiva
Kiva is different. First, the interest rate is 0%. As a result, even though you have to pay it back, a loan from them is free money. There is no credit check at all. However, you have to get at least 5 family members or friends to donate to help fund your business as well. In addition, you have to pitch in a $25 loan to another business on the platform yourself.
Accion
Accion also may also be a good fit if a government business loan isn’t happening. It’s a nonprofit that offers microloans. The minimum credit score is 575. You don’t have to already be in business, but if you are not, you must have less than $500 in past due debt. In addition, your business needs to be home or incubator based.
Remember, details such as interest rates and loan requirements can change, so be sure to check lenders directly for the most up to date information.
5.Crowdfunding
This option for startup funding is growing in popularity. With crowdfunding, you get a lot of smaller investments from a lot of people, or a crowd if you will. It is different from getting the bulk of your small business funding from one or two larger investors.
First, you have to figure out which crowdfunding platform is best for your situation. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the most popular. Be sure to take note of the rules each platform has for when you gain access to funds. They can vary greatly.
These are investors that are typically less formal than regular investors. An angel investor can be anyone. For example, it could be a family member or someone you met through networking.
The best way to find an angel investor is to ask people you know. Another option is an angel investors website or network. For example, Gust keeps a database of investors, companies, and programs.
Wait! Don’t Apply for Any Funding Before Your Read This
As you work on starting your business, you need to think about building business credit so that you can get the funding you need as your business grows. Unlike your personal credit score, you have to initially work to establish your business credit score. The best way to do this is to work with a business credit expert from the beginning. The process is not hard, but if you don’t know what you are doing, it can be difficult to navigate. A business credit expert can help you start off on the right food, and guide you through the process in the right order. This will save time and money, ensuring you build a strong business credit profile from the start. See for yourself with a free consultation.
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