Author: Jeff Robertson

New comment by odahara1 in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2021)"

WELL Health Inc. | Software Engineers | Full Time + Equity/Benefits | Santa Barbara, CA/Los Angeles, CA/Boston, MA/Budapest/Remote in the US

Our Mission is to make healthcare the gold standard in customer service.

WELL Health (https://wellapp.com/) enables conversations between patients and their providers through secure, multilingual messaging in the patient’s preferred communications channel: texting, email, telephone, and live chat. WELL Health’s intelligent communications hub is the only two-way digital health solution engaging patients throughout their entire care experience.

WELL Health is a Series C startup ($45M in funding) with 200+ employees and growing! WELL has been named No. 10 on the 2021 Forbes America’s Best Startup Employers list. In 2020, WELL Health was named among the Best Places to Work by Modern Healthcare and ranked #170 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies.

We currently have a number of engineering positions open and are looking to grow our engineering team exponentially!

Senior DevOps Engineers, Backend Engineers(senior and mid-level), Frontend Engineers(senior and mid-level), Full Stack Engineers (senior and mid-level), Integration Engineers(senior and mid-level), Bi-Analysts/Developers, Product Managers (director, senior, and associate level), and an Engineering Manager II.

If interested, apply directly (https://grnh.se/3892eecb2us). You can email jodahara@wellapp.com with questions.

: ‘Welcome back’: Sports world reacts to Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United

Ronaldo had been in talks to join Manchester City, but will join his former club Manchester United.

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5 Reasons to Start Adding Tradelines to Your Credit Reports

Your business credit report needs tradelines.  Not just one or two either. The truth is, you need to start adding tradelines to your business credit reports, and here’s why.

Top 5 Reasons for Adding Tradelines to Your Credit Report

Your business credit report reflects the creditworthiness of your business. It is not connected to you personally.  As a result it needs to have business tradelines reporting to it. Why?

1. It can help establish a business credit score. 

Your business credit is separate from your personal credit. For one, you have to be intentional about building it. Not all vendors will report payments to your business credit report.  That means, you need to add tradelines that do.   You’ll likely need help with this from a business credit expert, as most vendors do not make publicly known whether they report or not. 

2. It establishes a PAYDEX score with D&B.

You need tradelines on your business credit report to establish a PAYDEX with Dun & Bradstreet. They are the largest and most commonly used business credit company. So obviously, having a PAYDEX is important. D&B says you only need two.  However, many report that in their experience it took 3 tradelines reporting to establish a PAYDEX.  

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession. 

3. It can help raise your business credit score.  

Remember, this only works if you pay on-time. However, if you do, the more the merrier.  When you add tradelines to your business credit report, and handle them responsibly, you are only helping your business credit score grow.

4. Adding tradelines to your credit report is a way to build business credit without good credit.

Tradelines break the vicious cycle of “you have to have credit to get credit.”  They typically do not take credit into account for approval. Rather, they look at other things to determine credit worthiness like time in business,  business revenue, and business bank account balance. 

5. Strong business credit is essential to running a strong business and protecting your personal credit.

And as we said, you need tradelines to establish business credit, let alone build it. Business credit allows you to fund your business without jeopardizing your personal credit.  

Bonus: Buying Business Tradelines Won’t Help You

Buying tradelines basically involves buying tradelines someone else has been using and putting it on your credit report. While it is not technically illegal, it is definitely frowned upon.  If a lender figures out that you may be using business credit that you did not actually build yourself, you could be blackballed and lose any advantage you thought you were getting by buying tradelines. So don’t do it.

Adding tradelines to your business credit report is necessary. It is how you establish business credit in the first place. Then, it’s how you continue to grow it to a point that you can apply for other types of accounts. For example store cards, fleet cards, and business credit cards that can be used anywhere for anything require strong business credit. A strong business credit score will help you get better terms and rates on business loans and lines of credit as well.  This is true even though they will check personal credit also.  So, the sooner you work on this the better. Get started now.

The post 5 Reasons to Start Adding Tradelines to Your Credit Reports appeared first on Credit Suite.

Internal Linking Guide: Actionable Tips, Strategies, and Tools

Internal links are a crucial part of a successful SEO strategy.

Small but mighty, simple yet complex, internal links help navigate users through your digital content and give search engine crawlers information about how your website works.

Internal links are found on almost every page on the internet. You’re probably already using them, even if you don’t know it. (Hint: there’s a few included in this intro,)

If you want to optimize your content for SEO, you need to understand how internal links work, where to place them, and why they matter.

In this post, we’ll dive into internal linking and cover best practices.

What Is Internal Linking?

Internal links are links from one page to another within a single domain.

These are different from external links, which point to pages on a different website.

Every website with more than one page should be connected through internal linking.

Think of your website’s home page. In the top navigation, you likely have a menu that links to other internal pages. This could be your About, Shop, and Contact pages.

This internal linking structure is essential for SEO because it establishes a site architecture and improves your link equity.

Having multiple web pages attached to a singular domain improves your chances of being ranked by allowing search engine crawlers to index more content.

Internal linking is a simple issue of site design and architecture, and the search engines expect it. All websites have a design and architecture that keeps them structured logically, such as this common silo model.

internal linking - silo model site map

Of course, site architecture and structuring can get far more complex.

internal linking guide - site architecture example

But as long as you have a strong internal linking structure, your website will be crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engines.

Internal linking is also an important part of your user experience, as it allows users to uncover related information or find what they are looking for, which improves dwell time.

5 Reasons Internal Linking Is Good for SEO

Internal linking is one of SEO’s most valuable weapons.

Why? Because it works.

Google’s machine-learning algorithm has come a long way since the early days of SEO. Nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to game the system.

As advanced as the algorithm is, there are still simple changes that will give you an immediate boost in SEO without gaming the search engines.

Internal linking is one of them. It’s not a trick or a gimmick, and it’s certainly not hard to do.

Here are some of the benefits.

1. Helps Google Index Your Site

Google’s crawler follows link paths throughout the internet to find and index websites.

If your website has strong internal linking, the Google crawler has an easier time finding new content you publish.

google crawler moving through internal links on website

Google’s bots regularly crawl the web for fresh content. If your content is woven together with multiple internal links, crawling happens a lot faster.

As a result, your content will get indexed faster, too.

Improved crawling and indexing can boost your SEO.

2. Increases Backlink-Earning Potential of Deep Content Pages

Take a look at where most of your website’s backlinks are coming from. You’ll probably see a lot of links that send users to your homepage.

When you compare the homepage backlinks to deep page backlinks, this is what you usually see:

internal linking start page and deep page

Unfortunately, too many home page backlinks are bad for SEO. We call this over-optimizing, and it should be avoided.

What you want to see is the pie chart reversed. The majority of your external links should point at deep internal pages, not your home page. That’s because the homepage doesn’t generally include the type of detailed information users search for.

When a website doesn’t actively publish and promote new content, its link profile looks like this:

internal linking structure ranking

Most of the links on the website go to social profiles or standard pages such as “About” or “Contact.”

This provides very little SEO value to the site.

If you create a strong internal linking structure, you can boost the link juice earning potential of the internal pages, by creating clear click paths and indexation throughout the website.

Why? Because you are increasing the overall crawl priority throughout the site with better distribution of your links.

3. Internal Linking Spreads the Strength of the Site to Internal Pages

When your website receives a link to the homepage, some of the link value is passed on to internal pages.

This is often referred to as “link juice.”

internal linking guide - link juice

If Page 1 then links to Page 2, the “link juice” flows from Page 1 to Page 2, helping it rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP).

The more tightly-knit a website’s structure (through internal linking), the better the overall site will perform in search.

4. Internal Linking with Optimized Anchor Text Is Good for SEO

An internal link is a simple string of HTML that links one website page to another. It looks like this:

<A HREF = “http://www.example.com/internalpage“> an article on cat food </A>

When you create an internal link with anchor text, as opposed to with an image or navigational text, however, the value of the internal link goes up.

Anchor text improves the value of the link by adding keywords and content to the linking process. Google isn’t just looking at an A HREF tag. They are also looking at the anchor text that is part of that link.

The days of keyword stuffing anchor texts are long gone. But, there is value in optimizing your internal anchor text.

Anchor text that flows well with the overall content, versus over-optimized anchor text, is best.

5. It Provides Value to Your Users

This is the most important point of all. Internal linking is an SEO technique, yes. But, it’s more than that.

Ultimately, internal linking is useful for users.

Think about it this way: When you’re researching a topic, do you check one source or multiple?

Do you enjoy exploring other content that reinforces your understanding of the topic?

Maybe, you just like the writing style of the article you’re reading and want to read more work by the same author.

Internal linking on a site increases the value of each piece of content by backing up claims and leading the user to related information.

While it may not drive conversions directly, internal linking does have a place within the marketing funnel—carrying people to a target destination.

As an added bonus, you can help readers stay on your site longer and increase their trust in you by using internal linking.

SEO is about user optimization, not just technical tweaks and sneaky tricks.

Even if you don’t care about the technical value of internal linking, at least do it for your users.

Internal Linking Best Practices

Now, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. How do you do internal linking? What’s the best method for creating the biggest value with links?

There are two things you need in place first:

  1. Written content on the site: Even if you have a single article, that’s okay. That’s your starting place. If you don’t have any written content but want to create some, check out our The Ultimate Guide to Writing Epic Content.
  2. Continually writing new content for the site: Getting into a regular publishing schedule is important for internal linking to be effective.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Link to and From Content-Heavy Pages

The best internal links are those that connect one article to another. This creates a strong internal linking structure deep within the site.

If you have good site architecture, you’ll have enough links to the site’s main pages, such as the homepage, About page, Contact page, etc.

You don’t need more links to these pages.

Obviously, if you’re trying to drive conversions using a squeeze page or sales page and the opportunity is right, link to it.

For the most part, I recommend creating links in and among long-form articles. This automatically spreads your internal linking naturally.

Create Text Links Using Anchor Text

What kind of internal links work best?

It’s simple: Links with descriptive anchor text.

What do we mean by descriptive anchor text?

You’re familiar with anchor text, right? An anchor text is the word or words that link to another page. They typically appear as blue text to the reader.

This is anchor text.

Your internal links should use anchor text, but not just any anchor text will do. Include phrases that describe what the target link is about.

Here are some examples of strong anchor text:

If you wanted to link to an article about the 10 most important SEO techniques, you could do it this way:

Here are a few important SEO techniques you should be using.

If you wanted to link to an article about Google Hummingbird, you could do it this way:

Google’s algorithm has been updated with new machine learning capabilities.

Each of those examples is associating the subject of the link with relevant phrases. The first anchor text contains “10 most important SEO techniques,” which is the subject matter of the article you’re linking to. The second anchor text has the phrase, “Google’s algorithm has been updated,” and the linked article contains information about Google, Hummingbird, algorithms, and updates.

Here are three things not to do with your internal linking:

  1. Do not try to create an exact match between the anchor text and the link target. This technique, known as “exact match anchor text” has been associated with SEO penalties via the Penguin update. Today’s search engines are sensitive to the regular use of exact match anchor text because it wouldn’t frequently happen in regular content. It appears unnatural because it is.
  2. Do not use phrases like “click here.” This adds no value. Anchor text needs to be related to the linked page in some way.
  3. Do not link more than one sentence. An entire hyperlinked paragraph is unsightly and makes for a poor user experience. Just stick to a few words or a phrase when using anchor text to point to an internal link.

Add an Appropriate Number of Links Per Page

When you write a new piece of content, you should include five or more links to old articles. This is really important to your internal linking strategy and how the search engines review and rank your content.

Why?

Websites have a “freshness value” that Google detects and uses as part of its ranking algorithm.

According to Cyrus Shepard, “links from fresh sites [or pages] pass fresh value.”

two web pages show fresh internal linking

Pinging old pages with a new link helps to boost its likelihood of increasing rank in the SERPs. In the eyes of the search engines, readers who follow your internal links are actually “refreshing” your older content by showing it’s still relevant.

However, be careful not to over-stuff your content with links.

According to Moz, search engine crawlers have a limit of 150 links per page. After that, they stop spidering.

Overstuffing your page with links could negatively impact your SEO.

Be sure to link, but don’t overdo it. This will help both the search crawlers and your user experience.

Update Old Articles With New Internal Links

You’ll get the most power from internal linking if you combine it with another SEO technique—updating old content.

When you update old content, Google’s crawler sees it again, indexes it again, and may increase its ranking in the SERPs.

We always recommend updating your old articles regularly. Here is a good process to follow on your old blog articles:

  • Add a new paragraph of content at the beginning, explaining your updates.
  • Add several new paragraphs throughout, adding additional or updated information.
  • Remove or replace outdated stats or information.
  • Add several new internal links to content you’ve recently created.
  • Add links in places where it’s logical and value-added.

Remember, internal linking isn’t only about linking new content to older content. It’s also about circling back to older content and creating internal links that connect to your newer work.

You’re accomplishing two things by doing this.

  1. It updates old content, which improves its ranking value.
  2. It creates an internal link between an old established page on the site and a new not-so-established page.

Add Links Where It Makes Sense

Now that you’ve learned so much about internal linking, you’re probably wondering where you should put your internal links?

It’s tempting to get lazy and throw them in at the end of an article: “For more awesome content, click here!”

Don’t do that, please. Or at least, don’t do just that.

Instead, look for areas in the content where the subject matter overlaps. These are logical points of connection to create an internal link. For example, you can add links to define complex terms or explain a related topic.

Think of internal links as a reference point that improves the experience of the reader.

Only Add Dofollow Links

Don’t add a nofollow tag to your internal links. Nofollow links do not have any impact on the search engine rankings of the destination site.

On top of that, Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across nofollow links. It won’t even crawl them.

While some data from Ahrefs has shown nofollow links can be useful when used externally, there is no reason to use them in your internal linking strategy.

Link to High Converting Pages

Do you have pages on your website that convert visitors more than other pages?

If so, link to these pages.

Some articles in our blog have super high conversion rates. The content is compelling, and the CTAs are so powerful that users convert in droves.

We always make sure to link internally to these pages.

This is where internal linking has more than just SEO value. It can have revenue value, too. The more visitors you can drive to a high-converting page, the more conversions you’ll have.

Take Site Navigation and Information Architecture Into Consideration

Site navigation and internal linking go hand in hand.

Internal links define site architecture and hierarchy by creating funnels that direct users through your website.

Ultimately, this is an important part of your UX/UI and will impact how long people stay on your web pages and how often they come back.

When building an internal linking strategy, consider the most important content on your site and how you’re promoting it.

If you have a piece of cornerstone content that you want more eyes on, point more internal links to it.

Create Lots of Content

The best way to have a healthy internal linking structure is to have lots of internal pages.

When you create lots of content, you’ll have lots of linkable content. The more links to the more places, the better your internal linking strategy will be.

Remember, simply having a lot of web pages doesn’t equal a robust internal linking strategy.

While internal links are essential to your website navigation, repeatedly linking to your homepage won’t move the needle on your SEO score.

Instead, consider writing a blog or creating landing pages that house resourceful content.

Whatever your strategy, do it well and do it often.

Internal Linking Practices to Avoid

Now that you know how to use internal linking correctly, let’s review some of the practices to avoid.

Adding too many links to your content can be detrimental to your score. Remember, Google does not crawl pages that have more than 150 links. It’s also important to note that your header, footer, and menu links are included in your on-page link count.

Don’t overdo it!

Keyword stuffing in anchor text is another internal linking practice to avoid. This black hat tactic was popular in the past, as SEO’s thought it would improve their chances of ranking.

These days, sophisticated search algorithms penalize keyword stuffing in anchor text. So, don’t do it.

Using internal links in header text should also be avoided. Links in headers signal spam to Google crawlers and can negatively impact your SEO.

Finally, be sure to check all of your internal links before posting them. Broken links don’t spread any link juice and signal to Google that your website is low quality.

Internal Linking FAQs

How many internal links should I include per post?

There’s no set number, but 5-10 for every 2,000 words is a good best practice. Remember, Google won’t crawl pages with more than ~150 links, so be careful about overstuffing your content.

Should I add internal links to my pages with more or less traffic?

According to Databox, internal links can spread link juice from low-traffic web pages to high-traffic ones. That being said, it’s also important to point as many links as possible to your cornerstone content so it benefits from increased traffic.

What is an example of internal linking?

Internal linking is a link that points to another page within the same domain. Internal links show up as hyperlinks, like this: Tips for building better evergreen links.

Are internal links backlinks?

No, internal links stay within your website domain, they do not come from an external source. Backlinks are external links that point to your domain.

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Summary of Internal Linking Guide

Internal linking is a core part of a solid SEO strategy. When done right, it enhances the user experience and can help you rank higher in the SERPs.

While internal links are part of any strong website design, it’s important to find ways to include internal links in your content to ensure you’re getting the most out of your content. Make sure to use optimized (but not over-optimized) anchor tags, and add internal links that provide users with more information about a topic they’re interested in.

What internal linking practices have you found to be the most effective?

10 Automated Video Creation Tools, Tips, and Resources

Video content creation can be a massive headache. I get it.

Even for seasoned marketers, creating compelling content is a challenge. The real uphill battle is trying to create that level of content regularly.

That’s why we’re taking a closer look at automated video creation and some of the best tools your brand can use to expand its content strategy.

Here’s the thing—automated content doesn’t have to be terrible. When you produce an hour-long, high-quality interview, you’ve also produced several pieces of smaller, high-quality content.

All you have to do is repackage those valuable tidbits and present them to your audience.

Here’s how.

What Is Automated Video Creation?

Automated video creation is the act of using video editing software to automatically create short, interesting videos you can use for marketing and promoting your content.

Let’s say you recorded a podcast this week and released it to your audience. You received decent engagement, but you quickly noticed a problem. Many of your viewers aren’t watching the entire podcast.

Some viewers love to sit and consume two hours of content at once. Others want minute-long highlight clips, and simply aren’t interested in long-form content. By identifying key moments and topics discussed in your podcast, you can create bite-sized clips and videos that are more digestible. Plus, having long-form content that’s well produced arms you with plenty of future clips to use.

That’s where automated video creation comes in. Make no mistake, there’s a big difference between linking your podcast in your Instagram Bio and posting a 45-second highlight video with top-notch editing.

If you’re making several pieces of long-form content every week (interviews, podcasts, etc.), sifting through hours of content to find highlights and memorable moments can quickly become time-consuming.

By automating that process, you can regularly create custom, high-quality videos. As a result, you’ll add variety to your content, while being able to test unique marketing strategies quickly. For example, you can rapidly A/B test different format styles, or try two highlights against each other to see what resonates with your audience.

5 Tips for Automated Video Creation

Before we dive into specific automated video creation tools, it’s important to understand how your automated video creation journey should unfold. Savvy marketers always develop a clear plan of attack for marketing initiatives, so we’re walking you through the general checkpoints of the automation process.

1. Determine Your Automated Video Creation Priorities

Before you choose a platform, establish your video creation objectives. If you want to test a specific format, find platforms that support that testing. Beyond that, determine what features will serve your team best.

If your marketing team has little to no experience with automated video creation, a tool that prioritizes ease of use can make the video creation process easier. Marketing teams with plenty of video creation experience might need automation tools that offer more customization.

2. Decide on a Platform

As you narrow down your search, take a closer look at how each platform functions. Some platforms offer limited features aimed at supporting brands with little to no video marketing budget. Other platforms want to support your marketing efforts from start to finish.

While many of these platforms sound similar, they focus on different elements that can elevate your content creation.

3. Upload Your Content

So, you’ve established your video creation priorities, and you’ve chosen your platform. Now you can actually create your content. Upload your video and let the tool start to work its magic.

If you’re focused on automating as much of the experience as possible, you won’t need to do much other than confirming certain edits. On the other hand, choosing a platform with plenty of depth means you’ll be able to customize your content fairly easily.

4. Choose Your Visual Elements

When customizing your video content, visual elements like text animation effects can elevate the quality. Other effects like overlays and moving graphics can be implemented without much trouble, as long as you’re using the right automated video creation tool. Make sure your visual elements are consistent with your brand presentation.

5. Publish Your Content

Once you’ve customized your content and created a high-quality video, it’s time to send your content live. With some tools, you’ll even be able to publish your content directly after editing. Instead of signing into each of your brand’s social media platforms, automation means you can post on all of them at the same time.

10 Tools for Automated Video Creation

Now that you understand the process, it’s time to look at the automated video creation tools available. While many of these tools function similarly, they each have distinct features that make them unique.

1. Moovly

Moovly prides itself on being a user-friendly, in-browser automated video creation tool. In addition, they offer a tool that doesn’t demand constant software updates or even any design skills.

Tools for Automated Video Creation - Moovly

Looking for support with your footage-based videos? They can help. Want to experiment with cartoon or doodle styles? Moovly can create those videos, too. If you’re looking for a lightweight solution with plenty of customization options, Moovly might be the right tool for your brand.

2. Adobe

Adobe’s priority when it comes to video creation is efficiency. Using AI technology, they save users time and effort when editing. Some of the more interesting features include auto reframing, where Adobe automatically reframes the subject of a video shot in widescreen when exporting to social platforms.

Their AI also uses color match, changing your content’s color and light values, based on your customized reference point. To be clear, they aren’t just copying a specific color reference point onto your clips. Instead, the AI analyzes every selected clip and tweaks them until they properly match your reference point.

3. Wibbitz

Wibbitz is an automated video creation tool that speeds up production by offering a variety of useful templates and one-click solutions. One feature marketers will appreciate is the easy customization options. Wibbitz provides users with access to logo watermarks, video intros and outros, text overlays, and a full-spectrum color palette.

This automated video creation platform lets you maximize your reach by converting your best videos into impactful social media videos.

4. Kamua

Another browser-based tool, Kamua claims their product will have you working nearly 90 percent faster, without any previous video editing experience. They also feature automatic captioning in over 60 languages, saving you from having to transcribe hours and hours of content.

Kamua’s AutoCut feature actually automates video edits, by finding cut points in your content and letting you decide what to keep. Plus, their AutoCrop feature instantly turns your YouTube videos into TikTok videos.

5. Typito

If you’re limited by a modest marketing budget, Typito could be a great automated video creation tool. Not only is it free to start with, but each of their pricing plans are designed with reasonable budgets in mind.

Tools for Automated Video Creation - Typito

Of course, it’s worth figuring out exactly what Typito is offering. They provide an easy drag and drop editor and a brand kit, along with 600,000 free images and over 500 free templates.

6. Rocketium

Rocketium understands the digital media landscape is constantly shifting. That frequent change demands an approach to marketing that’s as flexible as it is accurate. That’s why Rocketium aims to accomplish two goals. Eliminating repetitive creative work is their first goal, saving brands the hassle of creating completely new content for new campaigns.

From there, Rocketium aims to make targeted marketing even easier. They use an AI copywriter to help you craft the right visual for different products and unique target audiences. Teams with demanding content calendars should take a look at this tool.

7. Animaker

Developing unique creative content within an automation tool might not sound optimal, but tools like Animaker prove it’s certainly within their power. Armed with their templates, you can make a video in five minutes, according to their official website.

8. OFFEO

OFFEO’s appeal can be broken down into four subsections. Their near limitless supply of assets means that users will have access to hundreds of templates. Being easy to use and browser based, OFFEO lets you animate your content, leveraging the skill of their professional designers to provide you with high-quality animation.

9. Magisto

As an end-to-end video marketing tool, Magisto aims to support users at every stage of the marketing process. When it comes to creation, you can expect the support of a computerized video editor.

Magisto lets you host and distribute video content on your website using their native player. Take those optimized videos and then use engagement analytics to gain clarity about your marketing initiatives.

10. InVideo

For the truly budget-conscious, InVideo offers some fantastic automated video creation support, absolutely free. While there are certain features locked behind paid subscriptions, there are plenty of tools available to users on the free plan.

Tools for Automated Video Creation - InVideo

You can export 60 videos per month, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes. Transcription is automatic, as well as over 4,500 handcrafted templates. You’ll even have access to branding presets, intros, outros, and team sharing.

If you’re on the fence about automated video creation tools, feel free to try InVideo out and see how it improves your marketing efforts.

Automated Video Creation FAQs

Can you automate video editing?

Absolutely, you can! With the help of AI, you can begin automating your video editing, as much or as little as you’d like.

How can I add subtitles to a video automatically?

There are plenty of tools that can do this for you, some offering support in over 60 languages.

Do I need video editing experience?

While it’s certainly a positive, there are several user-friendly platforms that don’t require any previous editing or design experience.

Do I have to pay for an automated video creation tool?

Not always! Some tools are completely free; the only drawback is they lack some key features.

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“text”: “Absolutely, you can! With the help of AI, you can begin automating your video editing, as much or as little as you’d like.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How can I add subtitles to a video automatically?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “There are plenty of tools that can do this for you, some offering support in over 60 languages.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Do I need video editing experience?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “While it’s certainly a positive, there are several user-friendly platforms that don’t require any previous editing or design experience.”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Do I have to pay for an automated video creation tool?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: “Not always! Some tools are completely free; the only drawback is they lack some key features.”
}
}
]
}

Automated Video Creation Conclusion

No matter what industry you’re in, there’s no getting around the fact that audiences want quality content. If your brand doesn’t produce something new and exciting on a regular basis, you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention.

Instead of trying to constantly reinvent the wheel, consider using an automated video creation platform to break in-depth content down into digestible clips and share them on social media.

It might seem like a simple solution, but it’s a powerful way to offer more consistent content, expand your reach, and potentially create a genuine moment of engagement with your audience.

Why do you want to automate your video creation? How do you think it will help your brand?

What are the Details on Business Financing Options?

What are the Best Business Financing Options for Your Business?

When it comes to business lending, what are your best choices? What are the best business financing options? And what are the details?

Your best business financing options will depend on your business’s strengths. This is in three areas:

  • Cash flow
  • Collateral
  • Credit (personal or business)

In general, business financing options divide rather neatly into those three categories. Four, if you separate personal and business credit, which we’ll do here.

Business Financing Options with Good Cash Flow

Here’s a great selection of business financing options.

Fundbox

Fundbox will connect directly to your online accounting software. That’s all you need to do. You can get invoice financing or a line of credit. See fundbox.com.

Fundbox: Terms and Qualifying

Get a revolving line of credit for up to $150,000. Fundbox will auto debit your weekly payment from your bank account. You don’t need to show a minimum personal credit score, and you don’t need to show a minimum time in business.

Account Receivables Financing

You can use outstanding account receivables as collateral for financing. Receivables should be with the government or another business. If you also have purchase orders,  you can get financing to have those filled. You won’t need to use your cash flow to do so. Get an accounts receivable credit line with rates of less than 1% with no consumer credit requirement. Receivables should be with the government or another business.

Account Receivables Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Use your outstanding account receivables for financing. Get as much as 80% of receivables advanced ongoing in less than 24 hours. Remainder of the accounts receivable are released once the invoice is paid in full. Factor rates as low as 1.33%. you can get an accounts receivable credit line with rates of less than 1% with no consumer credit requirement.

Purchase Order Financing

This is advanced to a business with a large purchase order or contract but cannot fulfill it. Lender then loans the funds necessary to complete the order and charges a percentage for the service. Then the company can fulfill its order or contract. The difference between purchase order and accounts receivable financing is:

  • Purchase order financing involves a company lending you money to fulfill purchase orders
  • Accounts receivable financing involves a company buying your outstanding invoices

Purchase Order Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Terms are for Credit Suite purchase order financing. For approval, lenders will typically review your outstanding purchase orders that need to be filled. If the purchase orders are valid and the suppliers you are dealing with are credible, you can be approved regardless of personal credit history. Rates typically range from 1-4%. In some instances, you can get 95% of your purchase order financed.

Cash Flow Financing

A loan made to a company is backed by a company’s expected cash flows. A company’s cash flow is the amount of cash that flows in and out of a business, in a specific period. Cash flow financing (or a cash flow loan) uses generated cash flow as a means to pay back the loan.

Cash Flow Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Often you will need to have a few years in business. You may need to meet a certain minimum credit score requirement. You will need to prove historical cash flow, and present your accounts receivables and accounts payables, so the lender can determine how much to loan to your business.

Merchant Lines of Credit

Merchant lines of credit are lines of credit offered by stores. These lines of credit can only be used exclusively at the store from which they are offered. One such example is Amazon, which offers lines of credit through Marcus by Goldman Sachs.

Merchant Lines of Credit: Terms and Qualifying

Terms vary. Eligibility can be based on cash flow (Amazon’s is). Such lines of credit may offer special financing terms during certain time periods, for certain products, or for a certain dollar amount spent at the store. In some cases, payment in full must be made after a specified period of time, like a promotional period.

Contrast with traditional credit cards and merchant credit cards which allow borrowers to continue carrying a revolving balance with interest. In exchange for a shorter repayment period, the borrower may be offered low or zero percent interest, or a discount off their purchase price.

Merchant Cash Advances

Businesses that accept credit cards as a form of payment may qualify for a merchant cash advance. This means your business must have a merchant account in order to be able to accept credit card payments. Your business must bring in $100,000 or more per year in credit card sales. Typical approval is equal to one month’s credit processing volume. The minimum credit score is 500.

Qualifying for a Merchant Cash Advance

They do not ask for a lot of documents. This is not like what most conventional lenders will want. You won’t need financials, business plans, or resumes. You don’t even need collateral.

Your business’s credit card receipts and business bank statements tell lenders all they need to know. These loans work well for businesses that qualify and need funds fast, and those with credit that is less than perfect. It’s a great way to get money for  your business fast with few requirements.

Business Revenue Financing

It’s also called royalty-based financing. Business revenue financing is a way to raise capital from investors who get a percentage of the enterprise’s ongoing gross revenues, in exchange for money invested. In a revenue-based financing investment, investors get a regular share of business income until a predetermined amount is paid. Often, this predetermined amount is a multiple of the principal investment. It is usually between 3 – 5 times the original amount invested.

Business Revenue Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Since repayment of the loan is based on revenues, the time it takes to repay the loan will fluctuate. The faster revenue grows, the quicker you’ll repay the loan, and vice versa. The percentage of monthly revenues committed to repayment can be as high as 10%. Monthly payments will fluctuate with revenue highs and lows and will continue until you’ve paid back the loan in full.

Business Financing Options with Collateral

Collateral opens up a ton of financing choices; this is just a handful of what’s out there.

401(k) Financing

If you have an eligible 401(k), you can use those funds to get money for your business. You must not be currently contributing. You must not longer be working for the company that the 401(k) is under. And you must have a balance of at least $35,000.

You can even still earn interest on your account, and there are no tax penalties. Personal credit doesn’t really matter much. Interest rates are usually low.

401(k) Financing Details

In fact, they are  often less than 5%. Close and fund in less than 3 weeks. Can usually get up to 100% of what’s “rollable” within your 401(k). This type of loan works well for anyone that has an eligible 401(k) account.

IRA Financing

Similar to 401(k) financing. In as little as 3 weeks you can invest a portion of your retirement funds into your business. This gives you more control over the performance of your retirement plan assets. And it gives you the working capital you need for business growth.

IRA Financing: Terms and Qualifying

In general, you will work with a CPA. They will help you roll over a non-contributing and qualifying account. This allows for cash out of half, or $50,000, whichever is lower. If applicable, the CPA you work with will structure a self-directing IRA for the remaining funds.

Stocks Financing

Some lenders will make loans using securities as collateral. Securities-based lending provides ready access to capital. This can be used for almost any purpose, such as buying real estate or investing in a business. The only restrictions to this kind of lending are other securities-based transactions like buying shares or repaying a margin loan.

Stocks Financing: Terms and Qualifying

You continue to earn interest on stocks pledged as collateral. Closing and funding takes less than 3 weeks. Rates can be as low as 1.6%. You will have challenged personal credit.

Bonds Financing

Securities-based lending for bonds is offered through large financial institutions and private banks. People tend to seek out these kinds of loans, if they want to make a large business acquisition, or if they want to execute large transactions like real estate purchases.

Lenders determine the value of the loan based on the borrower’s investment portfolio. In some cases, the issuer of the loan may determine eligibility based on the underlying asset. It can end up approving a loan based on a portfolio of US Treasury notes rather than stocks.

Bonds Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Most investment-grade corporate, treasury, municipal, and government agency bonds are accepted. You keep all the interest and appreciation from your securities. To qualify all the lender will require is a copy of your two most recent securities statements. If your stocks or bonds have a value over $25,000, you can be approved, even with severely challenged personal credit.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Kickfurther

Finance your next inventory purchase with financing from customers and brand supporters and fundraise directly to them. Customers buy through what’s called a Consignment Opportunity. Your customers own the products they helped fund until they are sold by the brand. As soon as the products sell, the customer earns payments. Kickfurther also offers an online store for businesses to market and sell their products. See kickfurther.com.

Kickfurther: Terms and Qualifying

Get funding for up to $2 million in inventory. Payback terms will vary. At the end of each sales period, submit sales reports and provide payment for inventory sold. You are required to provide a monthly accounting of current inventory levels.

Inventory Financing

Inventory financing is a revolving line of credit or a short-term loan acquired by a company so it can purchase products for sale later. The products serve as the collateral for the loan. There may be restrictions on the type of inventory you can use. This can include not allowing cannabis, alcohol, firearms, etc., or perishable goods. There can be revenue requirements. And there may also be minimum FICO score requirements.

Inventory Financing: Terms and Qualifying

Get approved for a line of credit for 50% of inventory value, regardless of personal credit quality. Rates are usually 5 – 15% depending on type of inventory. Get funding within 3 weeks or less. It can’t be lumped together inventory, like office equipment.

Equipment Financing

Equipment financing is when you use a loan or lease to purchase or borrow hard assets for your business. It is a business financing option you can use to buy any physical asset. Physical assets can include items such as a restaurant oven or a company car. You will predictable amounts every month. You can build business credit on a program such as this.

Equipment Financing: Terms and Qualifying

All terms are for equipment financing through Credit Suite. Companies must have at least one year in business. You can get approved even with challenged credit. You won’t need financials to secure equipment financing. Approvals take as little as 24 hours.

Equipment Leasing

You can also lease equipment, rather than buy it outright. And you will often put down less money than you would if you were buying the piece of equipment. You may be able to negotiate flexible terms with an equipment lease. It’s easy to upgrade equipment after your lease ends. This is helpful if your equipment is something like a computer which quickly becomes obsolete.

Equipment Leasing: Terms and Qualifying

All terms are for equipment leasing through Credit Suite. You can be approved for equipment financing and leasing with as low as a 640 personal credit score. To get approved lenders will request details on the equipment you are getting. After a quick credit review, you can be approved for as much as $10,000,000 in equipment financing.

Business Financing Options with Good Personal Credit

Credit Line Hybrid

A credit line hybrid is a form of unsecured funding. Our credit line hybrid has an even better interest rate than a secured loan. Get some of the highest loan amounts and credit lines for businesses. Get 0% business credit cards with stated income. These report to business CRAs. You can build business credit at the same time. This will get you access to even more cash with no personal guarantee.

Credit Line Hybrid: Terms and Qualifying

You need a good credit score or a guarantor with good credit to get an approval (a FICO score of at least 680). No financials required. You can often get a loan of five times the amount of current highest revolving credit limit account. This is up to $150,000.

Bridge Loans

A bridge loan is a short-term loan used until a person or company secures permanent financing or removes an existing obligation. It allows the user to meet current obligations by providing immediate cash flow. Bridge loans are short term, up to one year. They have relatively high interest rates. And they are often backed by some form of collateral, like real estate or inventory.

Bridge Loans via Our Credit Line Hybrid

The Credit Suite Credit Line Hybrid has a term loan program. This bridge loan works as either an add-on to, or in lieu of, the program, when the applicant meets eligibility and is agreeable to either a portion (or all) of their funding, supplied in the form of cash term loans. There is a fixed monthly repayment.

Bridge Loans: Terms and Qualifying

The Credit Suite program is an aggregate program requiring multiple accounts to meet our prequalification. Get $25,000 to $300,000 per applicant. The APR is 7 – 24% depending on creditworthiness and selected term. Terms are 3, 5, or 7 years. You must have a 680 FICO or better, and over $35,000 in adjusted gross income. Actual pre-qualification will depend on Debt-to-Income ratio.

Computer Leases

Just like furniture, you can lease computer equipment. You can take advantage of tax incentives and use your cash flow to its fullest advantage. This includes:

  • File Servers and Backup Storage
  • Hardware and Mainframes
  • Laptops
  • Printers and Scanners

Computer Leases: Terms and Qualifying

Terms can include leasing to ownership. Often, leasing provides businesses with a full deduction of lease payments against current earnings. A large part of approval is based on the personal credit and background of the owners, not on trade or banking information that startups in particular don’t have yet. Lease up to $5,000 to $250,000 and more in computer equipment value. Lease terms range from 24 months to 60 months. See harrisleasing.com/computer-equipment-leasing.

Auto Financing

Whether a vehicle is purchased new or used will affect the number of years you can finance the vehicle and the rates you will pay. If a vehicle is used, then the number of miles on it will also affect terms. Plus, business owners may be required to personally guarantee vehicle loans.  If you are a co-borrower the loan will most likely report to your personal credit report. Some loans have a prepayment penalty and charge you for paying ahead.

In general, the following will eliminate the need to provide a personal guarantee for this type of financing:

  • good business credit
  • a decent amount of time in business or
  • good personal credit

Much like with any other kind of business borrowing, the more assurances you can give the lender, the better.

Auto Financing: Terms and Qualifying

You need to establish:

  • the amount of money you have for a down payment
  • the vehicle you need, and
  • the costs associated with buying the vehicle

Provide documentation that proves you are the owner of a business, like:

  • business licenses
  • partnership agreements, and
  • LLC documents
  • articles of incorporation (if applicable), listing you as having at least a 20% stake in the business

You may also have to provide personal documentation like personal credit score and credit history. If you are a sole proprietor and the business is under your Social Security number, you are the borrower and guarantor. Hence you are personally liable for repaying the loan. It is also a good idea to have a loan proposal. A loan proposal should detail your business, loan needs, and financial statements.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Business Financing Options with Good Business Credit

Building business credit will open up even more opportunities for funding. Check out the details.

Vendor Credit

Starter vendors are open to working with most businesses, even startup ventures. Make sure vendors report to the CRAs – not all do. Vendors report to the business CRAs within 60 days. They help you build your business credit profile and score.

Vendor Credit: Terms and Qualifying

Terms will vary depending on the vendor, but they tend to be Net 30. And you will not need collateral, good personal credit, or cash flow.

Retail Credit

Retail credit comes from major retailers. Buy everything from office supplies to power tools. Retailers will check whether your business information is uniform everywhere. They will also check whether your business is properly licensed.

Retail Credit: Terms and Qualifying

Qualifications will vary, and there can be a minimum time in business requirement. There may even be a minimum number of employees requirement, or a minimum annual sales requirement. Terms can be revolving. You will need at least 3 (5 is better) accounts reporting to the business CRAs.

Fleet Credit

Fleet credit is used to buy fuel, maintain vehicles of all sorts, and repair vehicles. Even businesses which don’t have big fleets can still benefit. These are usually gas credit cards.

Fleet Credit: Terms and Qualifying

Requirements will vary. There may be a minimal time in business requirement. If your business doesn’t make the time in business requirement, you may be able to, instead offer a personal guarantee or give a deposit to secure the credit.

Bank Credit Cards

Bank credit cards are cards like MasterCard. So they can be used pretty much anywhere. These cards may even have rewards programs.

Bank Credit Cards: Terms and Qualifying

Terms can be revolving. Usually, you will need to have at least 14 accounts reporting to the business CRAs. There can be longer time in business requirements. And there may also be minimum number of employee requirements.

Business Financing Options for a Combination of Collateral, Cash Flow, Good Personal Credit, and Good Business Credit

The Small Business Administration wants to see the full package.

SBA Loans

Guaranteed by the federal government. Issued by participating lenders, usually banks. They offer a lot of the perks of traditional loans, such as lower interest rates and favorable terms. Due to government guarantee, lenders are able to offer them to those with a lower credit score than would typically be required.

Eligibility for SBA Loans

Lenders and loan programs have unique eligibility requirements. In general, eligibility is based on what a business does to receive its income, the character of its ownership, and where the business operates. Hence even those with bad credit may qualify for startup funding.

Normally, businesses must meet size standards, be able to repay, and have a sound business purpose. The lender will provide you with a full list of eligibility requirements for your loan. See www.sba.gov/document/support–table-size-standards.

Ideal credit scores for an SBA loan are 680 or above. There are a number of SBA loan programs, each one designed to work for different needs and situations. Find out more at SBA.gov.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Term Loans

Banks are often the first place we think of when we thinking of financing. But big banks only sign off on about 25% of the small business loan applications that come their way. Term loans often have lower interest rates than many other funding options. They also tend to be for higher loan amounts.

For term loans, you generally need all four strengths.

Term Loans: Terms and Qualifying

Generally speaking, the companies banks end up funding have very strong financials and near-perfect credit scores. You will most likely have to undergo a personal credit check. These kinds of loans may require collateral.

Business Financing Options if You Sell Part of Your Business

Angel Investing

Angel investors invest in small startups or entrepreneurs. Often, angel investors are among an entrepreneur’s family and friends. The capital they provide may be a one-time investment to help the business get started, or an ongoing injection of money to support and carry the company through its early stages.

Angels are not covered by the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) standards for accredited investors. Angels could be friends or colleagues sitting on home equity, or local professionals who are looking to invest. Consider people you know well and people you don’t know so well. But keep in mind, you’re giving up part of your ownership in your business.

Angel Investing: Terms and Qualifying

Angels are informal investors so there really aren’t any terms. Technically, there is nothing done for qualifying, although investors may (probably should) insist on a valuation of your business. No matter what, it’s always a good practice to get everything in writing.

Venture Capital

Venture capitalists give money to help build new startups, if the VCs believe a company has both high-growth and high-risk potential. These tend to be fast-growth companies with an exit strategy already in place. Venture capitalists often look to recover their investment within a 3-5 year time frame.

VCs will also, often, want to own a large piece of a company if not a controlling stake. They want game-changing businesses, so straightforward businesses won’t be on their radar unless it’s shifting the paradigm. Like with angel investors, you are giving up a part of your ownership in your business. VCs often want a larger share of your business than angel investors do.

Venture Capital: Terms and Qualifying

Because venture capitalists are more formal investors than angels, a valuation of your business is probably going to necessary. Specific terms will be spelled out in your agreement with them. The Securities and Exchange Commission will also have requirements. It is best practices to consult with a lawyer well-versed in business law before you sign anything.

Business Financing Options if You Have None of the Above

Reward-Based Crowdfunding

You can get money from the crowd for your business. Start with a service like Kickstarter. But make sure you read the fine print (always a good idea!). Many crowdfunding platforms make you give all the funding back if you do not make your goal by the end of the campaign. But Indiegogo has a flexible funding option.

Crowdfunding platforms will take a percentage of the donations. That’s how they make their money. Crowdfunding platforms may push to have you deliver on your promises. So you’ll have to actually manufacture a product or do whatever else your business is supposed to be doing. Given how much social media we’re all bombarded with these days, it should come as no surprise that donors can become weary of crowdfunding pitches.

Reward-Based Crowdfunding Details

Crowdfunding tends to work best when donors can personally connect with a product or service. Straightforward businesses may not do so well. The kinds of businesses which do the best often associate with products not quite on the shelves yet, or artistic endeavors.

Standard widgets will most likely not attract brand ambassadors. They probably won’t get donors too fired up. Because crowdfunding campaigns are time-consuming, it doesn’t make sense to try this form of funding unless you realistically feel your chance of success is better than 50%.

Reward-Based Crowdfunding: Terms and Qualifying

Terms will differ depending on which platform you use. Check and make sure your platform of choice will allow your industry to work with them. For example, even though recreational cannabis use is legal in Massachusetts, Kickstarter (for example) doesn’t allow fundraising for drugs, nicotine, tobacco, vaporizers, and related paraphernalia. Any major crowdfunding platform has a section for rules, a FAQ, or ‘how it works’. Be sure to read such a section thoroughly so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.

Equity Crowdfunding

The first thing to know is that equity crowdfunding is a stock offering from a company that does not have a stock exchange listing. Equity crowdfunding has been around for less than 10 years. It’s not the same as rewards-based (which comes from places like Kickstarter). Potential investors visit a funding portal website. There, they can explore different equity crowdfunding investment opportunities. Note: there are limits on how much capital an individual can invest based on their income and net worth. Equity crowdfunding gives investors a stake in your business.

Equity Crowdfunding: Terms and Qualifying

Keep in mind that equity crowdfunding tends to be covered by the Securities Act of 1933, Regulation Crowdfunding (17 CFR Part 227), Regulation D Rule 506 (17 CFR § 230.506), and Regulation A+ (17 CFR § 227.100). See: law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/227.100.

Federal law can be complex. It is best practices to consult with an attorney well-versed in federal law, specifically, securities and corporations, when it comes to interpreting terms and qualifications (and any changes that may be made to these aspects of the law in the future).

Grants

Federal, local, city, and state grants generally do not have to be paid back. For urban projects, try HUD (Housing and Urban Development). For rural projects, try the USDA (Department of Agriculture). Federal funding means paperwork. You often must show experience in what you are proposing. See grants.gov. and grantwatch.com.

Also try city and state websites. These are often less restrictive than federal grants. It helps if you can show you will help the community. Try to partner with a local business.

Grants: Terms and Qualifying

Grants have varying qualifications. They are very competitive. Be sure to check information thoroughly. This includes due dates and any necessary paperwork. Some grants may offer preferences to businesses with minority, female, veteran, or disabled ownership.

Microloans

Microloans are business loans with relatively low interest rates. Generally, these loans are on offer to small or developing businesses with modest capital requirements and little to no revenue history. Microloans — as the name suggests — are smaller loans than a traditional bank loan. They generally offer anywhere from $500 to $50,000 in business financing.

Microloans: Terms and Qualifying

Terms and requirements vary among providers. Kiva, for example, charges 0% interest. The Opportunity Fund provides loans to low- and moderate-income immigrants, women, and other underserved small business owners. Accion requires a cosigner. Check the specific requirements of any microloan program that interests you.

So How Do You Choose?

This is an enormous buffet of business funding choices! But how do you select the one(s) that’s best for your particular situation? This is where our Advisory Team comes in extremely handy. Or help yourself with our Business Credit Builder. It’s your choice. But it all starts with business credit.

The post What are the Details on Business Financing Options? appeared first on Credit Suite.

Check Out all the Grants for Black Business Owners Out There!

Business Grants for Black Business Owners and So Much More

Are you one of the millions of black business owners in the US? Or are you starting a business? Money is always going to be an issue. What if you could get what is essentially free money? That’s what grants are (for the most part).

Looking for Grants for Black Business Owners – and Other Options

How do you find the best options for you?  How do you know if you need to be looking for grants or business loans? We recommend that you explore every option. This is because it will probably take a combination of funding options to fully fund your business.

Funding and Grants for Black Business Owners

There are grants for black business owners, but not necessarily for them exclusively. Still, there are other funding choices out there. Loans, crowdfunding, and even angel investors are all viable options. More on those later.

Business Grants for Black Business Owners

The government and private organizations want to GIVE you money! They are highly competitive and rarely enough to fund a business on their own. Still, grants are a great way to supplement other business funding. Also, they are still worth the effort to apply. There really isn’t anything to lose except time – it’s free money. So here are a few you can start with.

The Minority Business Development Agency

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is operated by the US Department of Commerce. It is dedicated to helping minority-owned businesses access the resources they need to grow and succeed. The MBDA is for both men and women. Grant competitions are regularly changing.

Visit the MBDA’s website for information on all current opportunities. Currently, the MBDA helps its members apply for grants via Grants.gov. This involves help with how to apply for government grants. See also mbda.gov/grants.

Enterprising Women of Color Initiative

The MBDA oversees the Enterprising Women of Color (EWOC) Initiative. The initiative focuses on the fast-expanding minority women entrepreneur population as a revenue generators for families, communities, and the nation. Minority women are the fastest growing population of entrepreneurs. While many women are making tremendous strides in the business world, they still face obstacles as entrepreneurs.

MBDA serves as an advocate for women’s economic empowerment. They do so by supporting efforts to advance women’s equality and promote women economic advancement programming. The vision of EWOC is to ensure women worldwide to reach their economic potential. See also mbda.gov.

The Verizon Small Business Recovery Fund

The Verizon Small Business Recovery Fund is new. It was established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund offers $10,000 to successful applicants. The fund is specifically focused on providing grants to business owners of color, women-owned businesses, and other underrepresented entrepreneurs. See also lisc.org/covid-19/small-business-assistance/small-business-relief-grants/verizon-small-business-recovery-fund

National Black MBA Association Scale-Up Pitch Challenge

Also known as NBMBAA, the Scale-Up Pitch Challenge has cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. The association states its purpose is to help newer businesses that have an African American ownership. This is a pitch competition for startup businesses. See also nbmbaa.org/scale-up-pitch-challenge.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Amber Grant

Black businesswomen have even more options open to them. The Amber Grant awards one prize of $10,000 per month to a woman-owned business. One of the recipients also receives an extra $25,000 grant at the end of the year. Applicants only need to tell their story and turn it in with a $15 application fee. See also ambergrantsforwomen.com/get-an-amber-grant/apply-now

Cartier Women’s Initiative Award

Black businesswomen can also try for a Cartier award. This award is for women and there’s no specification that a woman be a member of a minority group. The Cartier Women’s Initiative Award has a regional category award and a science and technology award. The regional award is $100,000 for first place, with $30,000 for second and third place.

The award goes to three women from each of seven international regions. So this award is a grant to 21 female business owners from around the world each year. Women business owners who are just getting started may qualify. Look over the complete application for more information. See also cartierwomensinitiative.com/about-us

Cartier Science and Technology Pioneer Award and Fellowship

The Cartier Science and Technology Pioneer award is new as of 2021. With this award, three more women impact entrepreneurs at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation will be recognized for a new thematic award. Open to women entrepreneurs from any country and sector, this award will highlight disruptive solutions built around unique, protected, or hard-to-reproduce technological or scientific advances.

The laureate will be awarded a $100,000 grant. Each of the two remaining finalists will receive a $30,000 grant.

Cartier also offers a fellowship program. The fellowship is an educational program geared towards the 24 fellows selected each year. This program aims to equip the fellows with the necessary skills to grow their business. Also, it helps them to build their leadership capacity by drawing upon the experience and expertise of an array of academics, practitioners, industry experts, and entrepreneurs.

The fellowship isn’t exactly a grant. But while it’s not a monetary award, the mentoring and networking opportunities could be worthwhile to apply for. See also cartierwomensinitiative.com/fellowship-programme.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

The Native American Business Development Institute (NABDI) Grant

Are you also part Native American? Then check out this grant.

The NABDI Grant is funded by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. It provides funding to business owners of Native American or Alaskan Native descent. In 2019, it gave over $727,000 to 21 indigenous tribes. So this was to support economic feasibility studies for specific economic development projects or startups.

For 2020, NABDI planned to award 20-25 grants. There is no minimum or maximum amount of funding you can request. But most awards range from $25,000-$75,000. They only fund projects for one year at a time. So this is when they expect projects to be completed. To apply for a NABDI grant for your proposed economic development feasibility study, go to bia.gov/service/grants/tedc/apply-nabdi-grant.

Indian Affairs

For black business owners also with Native American heritage, it doesn’t stop there. There is more available via the Bureau of Indian Affairs. You can get financing from the federal government through the Indian Affairs branch. A person can fill out an application for up to $500,000. But business entities and tribal enterprises may apply for more.

Potential borrowers can apply with any lending institution. They just have to use the application for Indian Affairs. There are more requirements if you use the funds for construction, renovation, or refinancing. In general, you must supply a list of collateral, a credit report, and an analysis of business operations. See also bia.gov/as-ia/ieed/loan-guaranty-insurance-and-interest-subsidy-program.

The South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund

If your business is in the arts, and you’re also of South Asian descent, then check out this fund. The fund is run by the India Center Foundation. It supports US-based South Asian arts workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund will disburse grants up to $2,000, depending on financial need to US-based arts workers of South Asian descent. This includes those in the performing arts, film, visual arts, and literature. Also, you must have heritage from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Initial funding for the program is $20,000, but the India Center Foundation is soliciting donations to expand the grant program.

Eligibility for The South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund

To be eligible, applicants must be of South Asian descent. Also, they must work in the arts and demonstrate loss of income due to COVID-19. Also, applicants must be:

  • at least 21 years old
  • not enrolled in a degree program, and
  • can receive taxable income in the US

You can put grant funding toward any artistic project you can develop, create, and present within 4-6 weeks of funding. See also theindiacenter.us/artsfund.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Grants from the Federal Government

Grants.gov is a running list of over 1,000 available federal government grants. The website compiles grants from over two dozen government agencies. These include the SBA, USDA, and the US Department of Commerce. To find a grant right for your business, use the Search Grants tool on the website. You can sort through the list by keyword or opportunity number.

First, locate the grant you wish to apply for. Then click the opportunity number for more detail. There, you will find more information about the specific grant plus any documentation you need. To apply for a grant through Grants.gov, first register. Then, download an application package for the grant you want. Be ready for a lengthy process. See also grants.gov.

An Alternative to Grants for Black Business Owners: Crowdfunding

If you would rather not rely on grants so much to fund your business, crowdfunding is a viable option. Keep in mind, not everyone with a campaign on a crowdfunding site succeeds. More unique products and services tend to do better. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the most popular crowdfunding platforms to use. Some platforms may have higher success rates.

An Alternative to Grants for Black Business Owners: Angel Investors

Angel investors are informal investors. Essentially, you sell a part of your business to them. But they tend to not want too much of your business. Also, they won’t pass by more conventional businesses, like crowdfunding and venture capital. Hence they can also supplement or replace grants.

An Alternative to Grants for Black Business Owners: Loans

If grants aren’t an option, loans might also work.

Business Center for New Americans

Also an immigrant? Then try the Business Center for New Americans. They offer a pilot program for microloans up to $75,000. 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. Terms are 3% interest. Loan repayment term goes up to a year. See also accompanycapital.org.

Grants for Black Business Owners: Takeaways

There are several options for grants for minority business owners. Black entrepreneurs should apply for whichever grants they feel they are most likely to get. Other options for funding include crowdfunding, angel investors, and loans. Credit Suite can help you get the funding you need.

The post Check Out all the Grants for Black Business Owners Out There! appeared first on Credit Suite.

A Complete Guide To Using Business Credit to Buy Real Estate

If you need to buy commercial real estate, it is probably best to do with business credit rather than a personal loan.  Of course, if you can buy real estate with any loan at all, that’s even better.  But how would you do that? How do you go about using business credit to buy real estate? What is business credit exactly? These are all questions that you need answered. 

The Ins and Outs of Using Business Credit to Buy Real Estate

To put it simply, business credit is credit you get based on the creditworthiness, or fundability, of your business, no you the owner.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

So, what are the options for funding real estate?  There are a few! If you are using business credit to buy real estate, you can do a commercial loan or hard money loan.  If you want to try to reduce the amount of debt you have to take on, you can try crowdfunding a well. You may get all you need, but you may need to combine funding methods.  

Real Estate Crowdfunding 

Crowdfunding real estate is not all that different from crowdfunding anything else. You use a crowdfunding platform, and others on the platform can donate, or invest, in your cause as they see fit. It began the JOBS Act of 2012.  Small businesses gained relief from a lot of requirements in place by the SEC. These requirements held many businesses back. 

Though similar to crowdfunding for small businesses, crowdfunding real estate investing isn’t exactly the same. Most of those that list on real estate crowdfunding sites are commercial real estate businesses. They are seeking funding for their endeavors. Anyone can invest in commercial real estate. This is similar to investing in the  stock market. Then they can enjoy the returns without actually buying an entire piece of commercial property.

As a result, commercial real estate investors can raise equity and avoid a loan. At the same time, individuals can enjoy the benefits of commercial real estate investing for as little as $500. 

Benefits of Equity Crowdfunding for Real Estate Investors

First, you can raise funds without debt. This is the same reason crowdfunding is a popular way to fund a small business startup. It isn’t free money. There are fees and profit sharing involved. It is often substantially cheaper than borrowing the funds, however. 

Real Estate Financing Using Hard Money 

If you struggle with bad credit, hard money  loans are an option.  The loans are asset-based. They can fund any real estate investment. They are based on the property value. This means, there is no need for background checks or credit scores. Some lenders even offer hard money loans based on the after-repair value of a building. 

Since it’s based on the real estate value , a borrower with poor credit can get these loans. Hard money loans are fast, sometimes even within 24 hours of application.

Interest rates can be very high, some even up to as much three times that of banks. Terms can be very short, like 6 – 18 months, versus a standard 30-year mortgage.

Plus, a hard money lender wants you to have some money in the project as well.  Typically at least 10% of your own money is required. That way, the lender knows their interests are protected because you don’t want to lose your money. Hard money loans are usually not subject to consumer lending regulations. 

Commercial Real Estate Loans

Commercial real estate is income-producing property that is solely for business purposes, not residential. Examples include retail malls, professional offices such as for medical professionals, office buildings and complexes, and auto dealerships. Financing, including the purchase, development, and construction of these properties, often comes from commercial real estate loans. These are mortgages secured by liens on the commercial property. 

Commercial real estate loans are often made to business entities. These include developers, corporations, limited partnerships, and funds and trusts. These entities are sometimes formed for the specific purpose of owning commercial real estate.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

However, such a business entity may not have a financial track record or any credit rating. In that case the lender may require the principals or owners of the entity to guarantee the loan. 

The owner then puts their property on the line. In case of loan default, the lender can recover from them.

If the lender does not require this type of guarantee, and the property is the only means of recovery in the event of loan default, this debt is a non-recourse loan. It means the lender has no recourse against anyone or anything other than the property.

What are Typical Commercial Loan Terms for Real Estate? 

Using business credit to buy real estate usually means shorter loan terms.  Usually, they range from less than 5 years to 20 years rather than the typical 30 year residential mortgage. The amortization period is often longer than the term of the loan. 

Amortization is an accounting technique. Its use is to periodically lower the book value of a loan or intangible asset over a set period of time.

For example, a lender might make a commercial loan for a term of eight years, with an amortization period of 30 years. Then, the borrower would make payments for eight years, of an amount based on the loan being paid off over 30 years. 

Then one final balloon payment of the entire remaining balance on the loan is due at the 8 year mark.

The length of the loan term and the amortization period affect the rate the lender charges. Depending on the credit strength of the borrower, these terms may be negotiable. However, general, the longer the loan repayment schedule, the higher the interest rate.

Credit Suite Options for Funding Real Estate Investments

These options are all viable, but some work better than others. It can be hard to determine what will work best for you.  

Credit Suite has commercial real estate financing that you should check out.  It ranges from $100,000 – $10,000,000. This financing can be used for refinancing a property, even if you are doing a cash-out refinance. The maximum LTV 70% and loan-to-values range from 55 – 65%, depending on the purpose of the loan. Renovations get loan-to-value of up to 60%.  Credit Suite has funding programs available including: 

  • conventional property financing
  • money for investment properties and hard money loans
  • bridge loans and
  • loans for the purchase of commercial real estate

Credit Suite offers financing for various, and even unique, property types. You can get funding for offices, industrial offices, industrial facilities, light manufacturing buildings, self-storage facilities, mixed use properties, commercial condos, auto dealerships, light auto services, day cares, assisted living facilities, entertainment venues, multi-family properties, retail warehouses, and more.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.

How a Business Credit Expert Can Help

If you plan on using business credit to buy real estate, you can do so even if your personal credit score isn’t great. However, you may get better terms and interest rates if you have a strong business credit score also. A business credit expert can help you evaluate your fundability and guide you as you navigate the process of increasing fundability and building a strong business credit score.

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