It’s Like Free Money When You Stop Wasting Company Cash

How to Stop Wasting Company Funds – It’s Like Free Money Is it really free money? It may not be as glamorous as winning the lottery or venture capital money. It’s not as sexy as your content going viral. And it’s not as exciting as getting a shout out from major market influencers like Oprah … Continue reading It’s Like Free Money When You Stop Wasting Company Cash

How Core Web Vitals Affect Google’s Algorithms

While we spend a lot of time focusing on keyword optimization, mobile-experience, and backlinks, Google pays a lot of attention to the on-page experience. That’s why they’ve rolled out a new set of signals called Core Web Vitals.

These signals will take into account a website’s page loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

In this guide, I’ll explain what Core Web Vitals are and help you figure out how it could impact your rankings.

Core Web Vitals: What Are They and Why Should You Care?

Is this simply another scare tactic by Google to make us revamp everything and get all nervous for a few months?

I don’t think it is; I think this will become a serious ranking factor in the coming years — and for a good reason.

The good news is you may not even have to do anything differently because you’re already providing a high-quality on-page experience for your visitors.

This is essentially what Core Web Vitals are. It’s a page experience metric from Google to determine what type of experience visitors get when they land on your page.

For example, Google will determine if your page is loading fast enough to prevent people from bouncing. If it’s not, you could face a penalty in ranking and be replaced by a website that’s loading correctly.

So, now we have the following factors determining the quality of a “page experience” on Google:

  • Mobile-friendly: The page is optimized for mobile browsing.
  • Safe-browsing: The page doesn’t contain any misleading content or malicious software.
  • HTTPS: You’re serving the page in HTTPS.
  • No intrusives: The page doesn’t contain any issues that cover the primary content.
  • Core Web Vitals: The page loads quickly and focuses on elements of interactivity and visual stability.

Many websites are providing these factors already, and if you’re one of them, you have nothing to worry about.

Google’s Announcement about Core Web Vitals becoming a Ranking Factor

Twitter announcement of core web vitals

I took a look at Google’s press release to see if there was anything that stood out. Google announced that over time, they’d added factors such as page loading speed and mobile-friendliness, but they want to drive home the importance of on-page experience.

They’re looking at upcoming search ranking changes that factor in-page experience. Google says they’ll incorporate these page experience metrics for the “Top Stories” feature on mobile and remove the AMP requirement.

Google also says they’ll provide a full six months notice before rolling this out, so it does look like we have some time to think about it and get ourselves on track.

Core Web Vitals Metrics

As a website owner, developer, or builder, you consider a million different factors when putting together your website.

If you’re currently working on new sites or making updates to existing ones, you’ll want to keep these three factors in mind going forward.

Loading: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Largest Contentful Paint or LCP refers to your page loading performance. It covers the perceived loading speed, which means:

How long does it take for your website to start displaying elements that are important to the user?

Do you see how this differs from regular page loading speed now?

There’s a huge difference here.

For example, it’s common practice to keep the most important information and eye-catching content above the fold, right?

Well, that’s no use to anyone if it takes all the interesting “above the fold” six seconds to load.

We see this all the time when sites have images or videos above the fold. They generally take up a lot of space and contain important pieces of context for the rest of the content, but they’re the last to load, so it leaves a large white space at the top of the screen.

Google is paying attention to this because they realize it’s causing a lot of people to bounce.

The general benchmark for Google is 2.5 seconds. This means that your website should display everything in the first frame (above the fold) in 2.5 seconds.

Keep in mind that webpages are displayed in stages. So when the final elements of the top of your page loads, that would be your LCP. A slow LCP = lower rankings and penalties and a fast LCP = higher rankings; it’s as simple as that.

Interactivity: First Input Delay (FID)

The First Input Delay or FID is the responsiveness of your webpage. This metric measures the time between a user’s first interaction with the page and when the browser can respond to that interaction.

This web vital might sound a little complex, so let’s break it down.

Let’s say you’re filling out a form on a website to request more information about a product. You fill out the form and click submit. How long does it take for the website to begin processing that request?

That’s your First Input Delay. It’s the delay in between a user taking action and the website actually moving on that action.

It’s essentially a measure of frustration for the user. How many times have angrily hit a submit button over and over because it’s taking forever?

This is a huge UX metric because it can also be the difference between capturing a lead or a sale.

Chances are, someone is taking action because they’re interested in whatever it is you’re offering. The last thing you want to do is lose them at the finish line.

Visual Stability: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Cumulative Layout Shift refers to the frequency of unexpected layout changes and a web page’s overall visual stability. 

This one is straightforward, and I have a perfect example.

Have you ever scrolled through a website, saw something interesting, went to click on it, but right at the last second, a button loads, and you end up clicking that instead?

Now you have to go back and find what you were looking for again and (hopefully) click the right link.

Or, where you’re reading a paragraph, and buttons, ads, and videos keep loading as you’re reading, which keeps bumping the paragraph down the page, so you have to keep scrolling to read it.

These are signs of a poor on-page experience, and Google is factoring these issues as they strive to provide the best experience for users.

Going forward, the focus is on mimicking an “in-person” experience online. As more and more stores shut down and e-commerce continues to boom, it’s up to store/site owners to provide that in-store experience to their users.

For CLS, the goal is to have a score as close to zero as possible. The less intrusive and frustrating page changes, the better.

The Effects of Core Web Vitals on Content Strategy and Web Development

Now let’s talk about how to improve core web vitals and where you can get this information.

Head to your Google Search Console, where you’ll see the speed test was replaced with “Core Web Vitals.”

core web vitals on search console

When you click it, it’ll bring up a report for mobile and one for desktop.

You’ll see a list of poor URLs, URLs that need improvement, and good URLs.

Remember that Google is factoring in the three things we discussed previously to determine the URL’s quality.

core web vitals on mobile

So, if you have many poor URLs, it means that they’re slow to display the most critical content, slow to process actions, and continually offer a poor experience by shifting layout too frequently.

core web vitals need improvement

If the URL “needs improvement,” it may have a slight combination of two or three of these. A good URL checks out clean.

If you open the report on mobile, for example, you’ll see a page that might look like this.

core web vitals LCP issues

It’s an example of a website that needs improvement, and the issue here is LCP or page loading performance.

The goal is 2.5 seconds on mobile, and this URL has an average LCP of 2.9 seconds, so this shows clear room for improvement.

If we hop over to the desktop report, here are some examples of poor URLs.

This one has a CLS issue, which means that the website is loading in a way that changes the site’s physical structure too often.

The goal for this is 0.25, and this webpage has a CLS of 0.55. It also says that 472 URLs are affected by this same issue, so this website owner has a lot of work ahead of them to get this fixed.

Core Web Vitals CLS Issues

I’m a big fan of these reports’ transparency because Google makes it easy to locate the problem and fix it.

You can even click the “validate” button when you think you’ve fixed the problem, and Google will verify your progress and update the report.

How to Track Your Website’s Core Web Vitals

Tracking your Core Vitals is as simple as going into the search console and looking at each web property on a case-to-case basis. You’ll want to go in and play around with this to see where you stand.

How to Improve Core Web Vitals

Once you’ve pulled your report, it’s time to make some changes.

You’ll be able to improve the LCP by limiting the amount of content you display at the top of the web page to the most critical information. If it’s not critically important to a problem that the visitor is trying to solve, move it down the page.

Improving FID is simple, and there are four primary issues you’ll want to address:

  1. Reduce third-party code impact: If you have a bunch of different processes happening simultaneously, it will take longer for the action to start working.
  2. Reduce JavaScript execution time: Only send the code your users need and remove anything unnecessary.
  3. Minimize main thread work: The main thread does most of the work, so you need to cut the complexity of your style and layouts if you have this issue.
  4. Keep request counts low, and transfer sizes small: Make sure you’re not trying to transfer huge files.

Improving CLS requires paying attention to size attributes and video elements on all media. When you allow the correct amount of space for a piece of content before it loads, you shouldn’t experience any page shifts during the process.

It also helps to limit transform animations because many of them will trigger layout changes, whether you want them to or not.

Conclusion

Core Web Vitals and SEO go hand-in-hand, and we all know that we can’t ignore any single ranking factor if we want to beat out our competition and keep our rankings.

Do we know exactly how much of an impact core web vitals have on our ranks? No, we don’t. But Google is paying a lot more attention to the on-page experience.

Is your website following best practices for Core Web Vitals? Let us know!

The post How Core Web Vitals Affect Google’s Algorithms appeared first on Neil Patel.

New comment by codingsett in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (September 2020)"

Location: Nairobi, Africa

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Python, javascript, GCP(AutoML, CE, Firestore), docker,
MongoDB, Postgresql

Résumé/CV: https://kuria.dev/resume.pdf

Portfolio: https://kuria.dev

Email: josephkiurire@gmail.com

Looking to be hired for a backend engineering role. Processing and managing tons of data and building robust systems is where i excel at.

It’s Science-backed With Our Foolproof Research: How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession

We Smuggled Out Hidden Information on How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession

Our research dynamos can teach YOU how to build a business credit score in a recession! The economy doesn’t have to be perfect to build business credit quickly and effectively.

Building better business credit means that your small business attains opportunities you never assumed it would.

You can get new equipment, bid on real property, and deal with the company payroll. And you can do so even when times are a bit lean. This is specifically helpful in holiday businesses, where you can go for calendar months with simply negligible sales.

Because of this, you ought to tackle building your company credit. Enhance and maintain your scores and you will have these possibilities. Do not, and either you do not get these opportunities, or they will cost you a lot more. And no company owner wants that.

So you need to know what affects your business credit before you can make it better.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Credit History Length Is Vital

This is essentially the length of time your business has been using business credit. Obviously newer businesses will have short credit histories. While there is not too much you can particularly do about that, do not despair.

Credit reporting agencies will also consider your personal credit score and your own history of payments. If your consumer credit is good, and particularly if you have a fairly extensive credit history, then your individual credit can come to the rescue of your company.

So that is, you did not just get your first credit card recently.

Normally the converse is also right. Hence if your individual credit history is poor, then it will have a bearing on your business credit scores. And it will do so until your small business and personal credit can be split up.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Don’t Allow Your Credit Utilization Rate to Harm Your Small business

Your credit utilization rate is just the amount of cash you have on credit. So it is then divided by your total available credit. Lenders in general do not wish to see this exceed 30%. Hence for every $100 in credit, do not borrow more than $30 of that.

If this percent is climbing, you’ll have to spend down and pay off your debts prior to borrowing more.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Your Payment History Truly Matters

Late repayments will affect your company credit score for a good seven years. If you pay your company debts off, as fast as possible, then you can make a very real difference when it relates to your credit scores.

Ensure that you pay promptly. And you will enjoy the rewards of promptness.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Your Personal Credit Can Bear upon Your Business Credit

A substandard business year could end up on your personal credit score. And in case your business has not been around for too long, it will directly influence your company credit.

But don’t worry, you can separate them easily. Do so by taking measures to unlink them.

For instance, get credit cards exclusively for your firm. Or open business checking accounts and other bank accounts (or perhaps get a business loan). And then the credit reporting bureaus will begin to address your personal and small business credit independently.

Also, make sure to incorporate. Or at least file a DBA (doing business as) status. You can also pay for your company’s debts with your firm credit card or checking account. And make certain it is the company’s full name on the bill and not your own.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: The Credit Reporting Bureaus Can Just Plain Get It Wrong

Just like each organization out there, credit reporting agencies like Equifax and Experian are only as good as their information. If your firm’s name is like another’s, there can possibly be some errors.

So check those reports, and your company report at Dun & Bradstreet, PAYDEX. Remain on top of these reports and contest charges with documentation and clear communications. Do not just let them stay incorrect! You can fix this!

And while you’re at, it you should also be overseeing the credit reporting agency which solely handles personal and not business credit, TransUnion. If you do not know how to pull a credit report, do not fret. It’s easy.

An Alternative – Business Credit!

Business credit is credit in a small business’s name. It doesn’t attach to an owner’s consumer credit, not even if the owner is a sole proprietor and the only employee of the company. Consequently, a business owner’s business and consumer credit scores can be very different.

The Benefits

Since small business credit is independent from individual, it helps to secure a business owner’s personal assets, in the event of a lawsuit or business bankruptcy. Also, with two separate credit scores, a small business owner can get two different cards from the same merchant. This effectively doubles buying power.

Another advantage is that even new ventures can do this. Visiting a bank for a business loan can be a recipe for disappointment. But building business credit, when done the right way, is a plan for success.

Personal credit scores depend upon payments but also additional factors like credit usage percentages. But for business credit, the scores truly only hinge on whether a company pays its bills on time.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

The Process

Growing business credit is a process, and it does not happen automatically. A business needs to actively work to establish business credit. Nevertheless, it can be done easily and quickly, and it is much more rapid than establishing personal credit scores.

Merchants are a big part of this process.

Doing the steps out of order will result in repetitive denials. No one can start at the top with company credit. For instance, you can’t start with store or cash credit from your bank. If you do you’ll get a rejection 100% of the time.

Business Fundability

A business has to be genuine to lenders and merchants. For that reason, a business will need a professional-looking web site and email address, with site hosting bought from a merchant such as GoDaddy.

And company telephone and fax numbers ought to have a listing on ListYourself.net.

Likewise the company telephone number should be toll-free (800 exchange or comparable).

A business will also need a bank account dedicated solely to it, and it has to have all of the licenses essential for running. These licenses all have to be in the correct, correct name of the small business, with the same business address and phone numbers.

So bear in mind that this means not just state licenses, but possibly also city licenses.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

Dealing with the Internal Revenue Service

Visit the Internal Revenue Service web site and acquire an EIN for the company. They’re totally free. Select a business entity like corporation, LLC, etc.

A company can get started as a sole proprietor. But they will more than likely wish to change to a kind of corporation or partnership to decrease risk and maximize tax benefits.

A business entity will matter when it comes to taxes and liability in case of a lawsuit. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and taxes. No one else is responsible.

If you operate a small business as a sole proprietor, then at the very least be sure to file for a DBA (‘doing business as’) status.

If you do not, then your personal name is the same as the business name. As a result, you can wind up being directly responsible for all company debts.

Additionally, according to the IRS, by having this structure there is a 1 in 7 possibility of an IRS audit. There is a 1 in 50 chance for corporations! Steer clear of confusion and significantly decrease the chances of an IRS audit at the same time.

Starting Off the Business Credit Reporting Process

Begin at the D&B website and get a cost-free DUNS number. A DUNS number is how D&B gets a company in their system, to produce a PAYDEX score. If there is no DUNS number, then there is no record and no PAYDEX score.

Once in D&B’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s websites for the company. You can do this here. If there is a record with them, check it for correctness and completeness. If there are no records with them, go to the next step in the process.

By doing this, Experian and Equifax will have something to report on.

Trade Lines

First you must establish trade lines that report. This is also called vendor accounts. Then you’ll have an established credit profile, and you’ll get a business credit score.

And with an established business credit profile and score you can start getting revolving store and cash credit.

These types of accounts have the tendency to be for the things bought all the time, like coffee, shipping boxes, outdoor work wear, ink and toner, and office furniture.

But first off, what is trade credit? These trade lines are credit issuers who will give you initial credit when you have none now. Terms are commonly Net 30, instead of revolving.

Hence if you get approval for $1,000 in vendor credit and use all of it, you must pay that money back in a set term, like within 30 days on a Net 30 account.

Details

Net 30 accounts have to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts have to be paid in full within 60 days. In contrast to with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you must pay back what you borrowed or the credit you made use of.

To kick off your business credit profile the right way, you should get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting bureaus. As soon as that’s done, you can then use the credit.

Then pay back what you used, and the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.

Not every vendor can help like true starter credit can. These are vendors that will grant an approval with hardly any effort. You also need them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.

But you may have to apply more than one time to these vendors, and you may need to purchase some things you don’t need, to confirm you are responsible and will pay promptly. Consider giving nonessential things to charitable organizations.

Revolving Store CreditHow to build a business credit score in a recession Credit Suite

Once there are 3 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, progress to revolving store credit. These are service providers such as Office Depot and Staples.

Use the small business’s EIN on these credit applications.

Fleet Credit

Are there more accounts reporting? Then move onto fleet credit. These are businesses like BP and Conoco. Use this credit to purchase fuel, and to repair and take care of vehicles. Make sure to apply using the small business’s EIN.

Cash Credit

Have you been sensibly handling the credit you’ve gotten up to this point? Then move onto more universal cash credit. Keep your SSN off these applications; use your EIN instead.

These are usually MasterCard credit cards. If you have more trade accounts reporting, then these are feasible.

Monitor Your Business Credit

Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and deal with any mistakes ASAP. Get in the practice of checking credit reports. Dig into the specifics, not just the scores.

We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for 90% less. Update the information if there are errors or the info is incomplete.

Disputing Errors

So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to dispute any errors in your records. Errors in your credit report(s) can be corrected. But the CRAs normally want you to dispute in a particular way.

Disputing credit report inaccuracies usually means you send a paper letter with copies of any proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never mail the originals. Always mail copies and retain the original copies.

Disputing credit report mistakes also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute letter as clear as possible. Be specific about the problems with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you mailed in your dispute.

A Word about Building Business Credit

Always use credit sensibly! Don’t borrow more than what you can pay off. Keep an eye on balances and deadlines for repayments. Paying in a timely manner and in full will do more to raise business credit scores than pretty much anything else.

Establishing business credit pays. Great business credit scores help a business get loans. Your lending institution knows the business can pay its debts. They know the business is bona fide.

The small business’s EIN attaches to high scores, and lending institutions won’t feel the need to demand a personal guarantee.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: The Takeaways

Once you find out what influences your small business credit score, you are that much nearer to being able to build a business credit in a recession.

Learn more here and get started on how to build a business credit score in a recession.

The post It’s Science-backed With Our Foolproof Research: How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession appeared first on Credit Suite.

New comment by philngo in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2020)"

Recurve | Software Engineer | REMOTE ONLY (US/Canada) | Full time Recurve’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. We do this by helping them utilities put their data to work to plan, procure, and deploy energy efficiency, solar, demand response, storage, and electrification resources into the emerging carbon-free energy grid. …

Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: What Can You Do?

In a recently reprinted MBDA study  “Disparities in Capital Access between Minority and Non-Minority-Owned Businesses: The Troubling Reality of Capital Limitations Faced by MBEs,”

Robert Fairlie, Ph.D. and Alicia Robb, Ph.D. looked at both national and regional studies over several decades.  They discovered that limited financial, human, and social capital, as well as racial discrimination, were the major reasons for the disparities between non-minority and minority businesses.  Despite the fact that this study is 10 years old, many of the truths remain today. 

When It Comes to Minority Business Loans, Bad Credit May Haunt You

Forbes states that the major challenges faced by minority business owners in getting business funding include:  

Lower Net Worth

For example, the level of wealth for Latino and African Americans is 11 to 16 times lower than for whites. Caucasian business owners usually have more working capital when they start a business.

Lack of Collateral

As a general rule, banks are less likely to approve loans to applicants with lower valued collateral to use against a loan. Less net worth means less home ownership and fewer high-value assets to sell if a loan defaults. Less security and net worth mean banks are likely to issue smaller loans that need to be paid back quickly.  This slows growth over the long term.

Poor Location

Businesses owned by minorities in locations that have not supported new business in the past are not as likely to get funding.

 Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit

Little to No Credit History

Credit is a huge factor for banks when considering loan applications. This is why minority business loans bad credit are so scarce.  Since minority business owners tend to have lower credit scores, for all the reasons already listed, it is harder to get the best rates and terms.

That last one is what causes huge issues.  Minority business loans, bad credit or not, are not easy to find.  More often than not, the key is to look for loans with less strict credit requirements while simultaneously working to build fundability. 

Minority business Loans Bad Credit: First Things First 

Before we focus on how to find minority business loans bad credit, we need to talk about fundability as a whole. The first step is strong personal credit.  However, you can work on other aspects of fundability at the same time. When you do this, you increase your chances of getting any type of business funding you may ever need.  How do you build fundability?  

Set Your Business Up to Be Fundable

When you set up your business, you need it to have a foundation that will help build fundability and separate it from you as the owner.  Even if you are already in operation, you can take the steps necessary to do this.  However, the sooner the better, for a number of reasons. What does it take to build a foundation of fundability

  • Separate contact information

Your business needs its own phone number and address

  • An EIN

This is free on the IRS website. 

  • All necessary and appropriate licenses

If you are not properly licensed to do what you do, lenders will not take you seriously.  This step is necessary to being a legitimate business. 

  • Incorporation

There are many reasons for this.  However, for business credit building, the main thing is it separates your business from you as the owner even further. 

  • A D-U-N-S Number

This is free to get on the Dun & Bradstreet website.  You must have one to have a business credit profile with D&B. 

  • Separate Business Bank Account

There are many reasons to do this.  The main one for building credit building however, is that it further solidifies your business as a separate entity. 

  • Professional website

This surprises a lot of people.  These days, if you don’t have an online presence, you might as well not even exist.  Still, a poorly put together online presence is just as bad. Pay for professional design and hosting.  It’s worth it.

Work on Building Business Credit

When we talk about minority business loans bad credit, we are talking about bad personal credit. However, there is such a thing as business credit. 

Even though most lenders will still take personal credit into account, separate business credit allows them to judge your business on its own merits.  If they can see that, despite some personal credit issues, you have strong business credit, it may sway them if they are wavering on approval. 

In addition, business credit opens up new funding doors that are not available to individuals, which in turn can only help you run and grow your business. 

Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: You Need Accounts Reporting to Your Business Credit Report

What you want to do is make minority business loans bad credit a non-issue.  In reality, you just need bad credit to be a non-issue. The key to this, when it comes to business credit, is to get accounts in your business’s name that do not really take your personal credit into account.  It may feel like it is impossible, but it isn’t.  There are a few ways to do it. 

First, vendors you already have a relationship with may be willing to extend credit without a credit check.  The worst that can happen is they say no.  If they say yes, ask them to report the payments to the business credit agencies. 

Utilities might also report accounts.  You already pay utilities, rent, and internet each month.  Ask those providers to report your payments to the business credit reporting agencies.  Be certain your accounts are set up in your business name with your business contact information.  Worst case scenario is that they say no.  It never hurts to ask.

Work with Starter Vendors

This is the secret that many business owners are unaware of. We call them starter vendors. They are part of the vendor credit tier.  Certain companies that will extend Net terms in your business name without a credit check.  After you pay, they will report those payments to the business credit reporting agencies (CRAs). 

Since they do not check your credit score, it doesn’t matter that you don’t have one.  Of course, they do have other ways of reducing risk.  These vary by vendor.  They may include a minimum time in business, average balance in a business banking account, or even a minimum annual revenue. 

Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: What Next? 

After you have enough of these types of accounts reporting payments to your business credit report, you probably have a strong enough score to move on to the next tier. We call this the retail credit tier.  They offer more traditional credit.  These are credit cards for use at specific stores such as Office Depot or Lowes.  It is also sometimes referred to as store credit. 

After you have several of these store credit accounts reporting, you can apply for cards in the fleet credit tier.  These include gas cards with companies such as Shell and Fuelman.  They can be used for fuel and auto repair and maintenance only. 

Lastly, with accounts reporting from all previous tiers, you should have a score strong enough to apply for cards from what we call the cash credit tier.  Of course, that is only if you have been making payments consistently on time. 

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit

These include traditional credit cards that are not connected to a certain store or type of purchase.  They can be used for anything and everything.  In addition, they often have better interest rates and nice rewards programs. 

Fix Your Personal Credit

Making sure your business has strong business credit is important to fundability, but personal credit still matters.  There are many business loans that will still require a personal credit check. Take the time to go through your personal credit report and look for mistakes. If you find any, get them corrected.  At the same time, make payments on time, consistently. If you find yourself with any extra cash, throw it on higher rate balances first. Then, when that balance is gone, use the entire payment amount on the next highest rate balance.   It’s called the snowball technique, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll pay off balances and see credit score improvement. 

Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: In the Meantime

Of course, you likely need funds right now if you are reading this.  Since you can’t build or fix credit overnight, here are some options to help you in the meantime. 

Accion U.S. Network

Accion offers loans in all states.  Funds are available to: 

  • minorities 
  • veterans
  • women
  • those with disabilities
  • and low to medium income business owners 

Typically, loan amounts start at $200,000 and go up to $300,000. Also, Accion can put owners in contact with others to help build a network of support.

Comparatively, the minimum credit score for these loans is 575.  In addition, you cannot be 30 days late on paying any accounts.  Lastly, you will not qualify if you have late rent or mortgage payments over the past 12 months.

Union Bank Business Diversity Lending Program

This program from Union Bank offers business loans for minorities. In fact, this one is specifically for minorities. Indeed, you must be Hispanic, American Indian, Latino, Asian, Alaskan Native, African American, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander to even qualify.    

Furthermore, a business that makes up to $20 million could qualify for a loan of $2.5 million.  However, you must be in business for at least 2 years.  Likewise, the business must be at least 51% minority owned.

The National African American Small Business Loan Fund

This is a partnership between JP Morgan Chase and the Valley Economic Development Centers.  It serves small businesses with minority owners that are in low income or medium income communities.  However, only those in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are eligible.  

Business Center for New Americans

Right now, The Business Center for New Americans offers minority business loans of $5,000 to $50,000.  They work with immigrants, refugees, women, and other minority entrepreneurs.  The goal is to help minority business owners who have not been able to get traditional financing.  

Camino Financial 

Camino Financial is an online lender.  Microloans range from $5,000 to $50,000.  Additionally, they offer small business loans between $10,000 to $400,000. 

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Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: The SBA?

Whether or not this option will work for you depends on how bad your credit actually is.  If it is above 640, then you may be able to get some help from the SBA.

The Small Business Administration focuses on helping all small businesses, not just those that are minority owned. They offer a number of products and resources through their programs.  For the most part, the SBA does not lend money directly. They work through partner financial institutions to guarantee loans. As a result, they are able to outsource the administration of the loans and disbursement of funds to those who do it on a regular basis. That is, lenders and non-profits that are in the communities where the businesses operate. 

SBA 7(a) Loans & 8(a) Business Development Program

These loans are open to all small business owners.  However, if a minority business owner participates in the SBA Business Development program, they increase their chance of getting this type of loan.  

Honestly, about 80% of SBA loan applications from Hispanic and African Americans are for $150,000 or less.  This is according to the SBA itself.  Surprisingly, these smaller loans seem to be harder to get.  Honestly, this is probably because lenders don’t make as much money from them.

SBA Community Advantage LoansBad Credit Minority Biz Financing Credit Suite

These are to meet the needs of small businesses in neglected markets. That includes minorities. The goal is to get local lenders to increase loans up to $250,000.  This is done by backing up to 85% of the loan amount. The hope is that this helps small business owners who might not be able to get traditional financing. 

SBA Microloan Program

First, loans through this program go up to $50,000.  Secondly, funds come from a third-party lender.  Usually, this consists of nonprofit organizations in the community. Often, they also offer other types of assistance to business owners along with the loan. 

Minority Business Loans Bad Credit: Bad Credit Doesn’t Have to Stop You

It may detour you for a bit, but if you work hard you can fix that.  In the meantime, there are options that can help you get through. Check these out, and work on building overall fundability to ensure you can access all the funding you could ever need to run and grow your business. When it comes to minority business loans, bad credit doesn’t have to be the end of the story.

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New comment by sidraval in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2020)"

TrialScope | Remote (ET) or Jersey City, NJ | Full Time | Backend & web frontend

TrialScope is hiring a mid-level (or higher) developer familiar with TypeScript/React and one of: Ruby/Rails or C#/.NET. The role is fully remote, working roughly eastern time, with the option of working from our Jersey City, NJ headquarters.

The role is for a team whose software aids clinical trial recruitment, allowing trial sponsors to recruit quickly. Our hope is that this will allow pharmaceutical companies to bring high quality drugs to market faster than they can currently.

We’re a small team (4 full-time across product/eng) inside of a larger, established company. We would love to hire someone who is interested in contributing to the product & culture, as well as the engineering efforts. The interviewing process is practical, with no algorithms, trivia, or whiteboards involved.

Must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder. Contact me at the address in profile.