Starting your own business is one of the most rewarding ways to make a living. You get to see profits and growth as a direct result of the hard work you put in. But being a small business owner – or freelancer – comes with all sorts of unique challenges. In addition to selling your product or services, you also have to handle scheduling, bookkeeping, and financials for yourself.
Making sure you’ve got the right tools in place can make a huge difference to the success of your business. One of the tools you’re going to need: a solid business bank account. Below we take a look at why you need a business bank account, how to make the best choice when deciding on which business bank account to choose, what features you should be looking for, and how to make sure you’ve got a solid application for approval.
The main advantage of having a business banking account is that it allows you to separate your personal finances from the finances of your business. If you’re a freelancer or sole proprietor, this saves you time and energy come tax season. If you’ve got employees then having a business bank account is something you’re definitely going to need.
Did we mention that taxes are important for small businesses? They are. Having a separate account for your small business lets you easily know what is a business expense and what isn’t. That makes for a streamlined process when filing taxes or handing them off to an accountant. The process saves you time and money. Also, mixing up personal and business finances is one of the easiest ways to get yourself in trouble with the IRS.
It Makes You Look More Professional to Customers, Clients, and Peers
Opening a small business account means you accept payments to your business name. This means if a customer were signing a check to your company they’d make it out to the name of your business, rather than to your name personally. That perception matters.
It Allows You to Start Building Credit for Your Business
A small business bank account is the cornerstone to building your business credit. This allows you to apply for things like business credit cards, mortgages in the business name, and business lines of credit. All of these are important things for growing your company in the future.
What Companies May Have Difficulty Opening a Business Bank Account?
Just because you’d like to open a business bank account doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be able to. When you apply for a business bank account the bank will do background checks to make sure that you’re going to be a good customer.
Common reasons why someone might be denied a business bank account include poor personal or business credit history, the registered location of the company, engagement in banking activities that are deemed high risk, and association with high-risk industries. The last issue can be a particular problem for folks trying to open up a small business. While their own activities might be perfectly legal – or legal in their own state – association with an illegal business can sometimes lead to rejection.
For instance: when a person is selling CBD they might get rejected for its association with marijuana, which remains illegal at a federal level. Another example of high-risk clients for banks is any company that may have a high degree of chargebacks from customers, like the travel industry.
There are a couple of things you can do to help your high-risk business get approved for a bank account. The first is very basic: make sure you have got all of your legal documentation – and other material needed to sign up for a bank account – in perfect working order when going through the application process.
Being meticulous about what your business is and how it operates makes it harder to be turned down. You can also look for merchant accounts that specifically deal with high-risk clients, though those accounts can come with greater fees.
Things to Look for in a Business Bank Account
There are a number of different factors to consider when looking for a business bank account. Here are some things you’re definitely going to want:
Mobile and Online Banking
You shouldn’t have to go into a brick-and-mortar location to do your banking. Being able to bank on the internet – and on your phone – means that you can get your banking done anytime and from anywhere.
Mobile Check Deposits
If you’re able to bank on your phone, you also want to be able to deposit checks through the app. That way you’re not encumbered with going into a physical location every time you have a check to cash.
Easy Access to Transaction Records
When running a business you’re going to want easy access to all the money going in and out of your account for bookkeeping purposes. Having easy access – and easy to understand – transaction records makes that a lot easier.
Separate/Sub Accounts for Taxes and Expenses
Having sub-accounts within your main account where you can automatically allocate money for taxes, savings, and expenses makes it easier to make sure you’re actually turning a profit with your business. It’s also imperative to the wildly popular profit-first model.
No Hidden Fees
Understanding what you’re paying for each month and how much it costs allows you to save for the future. With tons of great options for a business bank account, you shouldn’t be putting your hard-earned money towards paying unnecessary banking fees.
After you’ve decided which business bank is right for you, you’re going to want to look at what you need to open for a business bank account. The type of information varies depending on whether you are a sole proprietor, LLC, corporation, or partnership. You can double-check that you have the proper documentation necessary by taking a look at this article. In general some things you’re going to want the following:
A certificate with name and date of birth
Organizing document that has been filed with the state
Partnership agreement
Monthly credit card revenue if opening a merchant account
EIN
Personal identification
Business license
Here are some common reasons why you might be denied a business bank account:
The business name you submitted to the bank is not the exact same name and spelling that is on your business license
Your business name denotes the fact you’re in a high-risk or illegal activity (Examples: Frank’s Guns)
You’re using a residential address or PO Box for a retail business. Virtual addresses can be accepted but you may have trouble getting a D-U-N-S number if you use one. The DUNS number is a unique number associated with your business that is used to support credit reporting
You have a poor credit score with a previous business or personal account
Getting started with a business baking account can seem intimidating at first, but having a business account for your company will save you a lot of time and hassle in the long run.
Graham Isador is a writer in Toronto. His work has appeared at GQ, VICE, and Men’s Health, among other places.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosting providers out there. Over two million website users trust SiteGround for their hosting needs.
They offer a wide range of hosting options, plans at different price points, and phenomenal customer support. Whether you’re a small blog, medium-sized business, or large online store, SiteGround has an option for you.
In a nutshell, SiteGround is a host that your business can grow with, which is pretty darn important.
SiteGround Compared to The Best WordPress Web Hosts
SiteGround fares exceptionally well against other products in its category. It’s without a doubt a key contender for top web hosting for WordPress services.
But what I love most about it is that they’re both extremely scalable and dedicated to supporting your WordPress website.
Whether you’ve got 10,000, 25,000, or 100,000 visitors, there is a plan for you. There is also room for exponential growth for websites starting out without committing to the highest available plan.
SiteGround also supports your WordPress website with their specifically designed features (which we’ll discuss below) and their 24/7 WordPress wizard customer support team.
But I appreciate that you may have different needs or wish to explore your hosting options a bit further before committing to one host.
That’s why we’ve taken the time to research and test some of the top web hosts for WordPress for you. Be sure to see all of my top picks before making your decision.
Who is SiteGround Best For?
If I were extremely broad, I would say SiteGround is excellent for just about anyone who wants to host their website on WordPress.
But to get specific, I’d say SiteGround is best for a small website owner who has little to no experience running a website and expects their website to grow over time. With flexible plans and excellent customer support, SiteGround is great for beginners and scaling over time.
SiteGround: The Pros and Cons
The Pros
Top-Notch Customer Support: Ever had seemingly unresolvable issues with technology and tried everything under the sun to fix it to no avail? Yeah, me too.
Building a website doesn’t have to be scary or traumatic when you have SiteGround support on your side—your wish is their command. The customer support team is phenomenal. They receive almost a 100% satisfaction rating every year.
Their 24/7 support comes via a live chat channel, phone support, and a helpdesk ticketing system. Even the most complex issues are resolved in an average time of 15 minutes, meaning you can get back to business asap.
These things are super important for a beginning website owner to combat the inevitable challenges they face.
WordPress Recommended: SiteGround hosts over 80% of the two million domains on WordPress. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that they are experts at managing WordPress.
Many of the support team are highly trained in WordPress and will happily assist you with WordPress related troubleshooting, compared to other hosts, who will simply tell you it’s not their issue (which truthfully, it isn’t).
This is also why SiteGround has developed and implemented WordPress-specific features, such as the SG Optimizer, WP Auto Update, and Supercacher, in their plans. I’ve not come across another host that can boast such features, so SiteGround stands out in this area.
Low Introductory Price & Money-Back Guarantee: With a monthly hosting solution starting as low as $6.99 per month, SiteGround is a perfect option for even the most beginner website creators.
Furthermore, the lead-in hosting plan includes all of the key features a new website owner would want in a plan, rather than having the absolute bare-bones to get the user to commit to a higher plan immediately.
If something goes wrong, or your website doesn’t function the way you expect it to, you can get a full refund of your hosting fees within 30 days of signup.
Excellent Uptime & Site Speed: Uptime and site speed go hand-in-hand. Uptime refers to the amount of time the server stays up and running, while site speed refers to how quickly your website loads.
You can see below that SiteGround’s average uptime over 12 months is 99.98%, with only 73 minutes of total downtime over the whole year. Reliable uptime means your website is virtually guaranteed to be running around the clock, keeping visitors happy.
Have you ever heard the notion that if your page doesn’t load within three seconds tops, you’ll lose the visitor’s interest?
You won’t have to worry about that with SiteGround. They claim that they load your website four times faster than other hosts, so you won’t have to worry about visitors losing interest while waiting for your graphics to load.
And, as you’ll see here, their slowest load time between 2019 to 2020 was 693 ms.
Free Website Transfer: Many people are worried about making the switch to a new host. After all, it’s a scary process. What if you lose your entire website or cause irreparable damage?
With SiteGround, you don’t need to worry. They’ll do it for you.
Most hosts will just move the files over. But SiteGround will also make the necessary tweaks to ensure everything is working smoothly for you after the transition.
No blood, sweat, tears, or big bucks required in switching to a new host. SiteGround includes the WordPress migrator plugin in their plans, though if you prefer a professional to do it, it will cost you only $30 per website.
Free Daily Back-Up: Most hosts will only back your website up every other day or even once a week. So, if anything happens to your website that you can’t fix, you might be forced to go back an entire week, meaning you’ll lose everything you’ve done in the meantime.
But, with SiteGround, the worst-case scenario is that you’ll only lose the changes you’d made in the 24 hours since the last back-up. If that’s not peace of mind for someone making constant changes to their website, I don’t know what is!
Great for Scalability: When you’re just starting out in business, there is no way but up, right? With SiteGround’s flexible range of plans, you don’t have to worry about outgrowing your host. Simply upgrade your plan as your business grows.
The Cons
Renewal Price: As dreamy as the promotional rates of SiteGround’s hosting plans are, once the honeymoon is over, it’s truly over.
When you renew, your rates will jump up quite high. The cost of your plan will essentially triple across the board once your promotional period is over. Ouch.
The best way to combat this is to sign up for the longest term available on the promotional period, which is either 24 or 36 months before you face the higher renewal rates.
No Monthly Billing Cycle: The higher renewal rates might be easier to cop if you could pay month-to-month. But unfortunately, monthly billing is not something that SiteGround offers.
Personally, this is not a deal-breaker for me, but I can certainly appreciate how it may be restrictive and frustrating for some.
Storage Limitations: The low amount of storage space available on the shared hosting plans is unlikely to bother most of you reading this post. However, if your site does grow beyond 40 GB, you’ll have no choice but to switch to the more expensive cloud hosting plans.
The StartUp plan includes just 10,000 site visitors, so if your website traffic grows exponentially too quickly off the bat, you may find yourself needing to upgrade your plan sooner than you think.
SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround offers three tiers for their hosting options:
StartUp
GrowBig
GoGeek
These tiers’ pricing remains the same across the board for web hosting, WordPress hosting, and WooCommerce hosting. Cloud hosting has its own levels and pricing, which we’ll discuss.
StartUp
As the name suggests, this plan is perfect for those new to business or looking for smaller websites. The StartUp plan allows you one website, 10 GB of space, and up to 10,000 monthly visitors. Pricing starts at $6.99 per month on the introductory offer.
Some other features included in this plan are:
Free WordPress Installation
Free SSL
Daily Backup
Free Cloudflare CDN
Free Email
Overall, it’s a great plan for those who are just getting started. The only thing to be wary of is outgrowing your monthly visitors limit. If you think you’re going to scale quickly, it would be worth starting straight off with the GrowBig plan.
GrowBig
The GrowBig plan is perfect for medium-sized businesses or those who know they will be managing more than one website. You’ll have access to unlimited websites, 20 GB of web space, and up to 25,000 monthly visitors. Pricing starts at $9.99 per month on the introductory offer.
Aside from the features included in the StartUp plan, this plan also includes:
On-demand Backup copies
Speed-boosting Caching
Staging environment
Add collaborators to your site
It’s easy to understand why GrowBig is SiteGround’s best-selling plan. It includes a range of great features that are easy to use and will fit the brief most in need of a website out there that expects a steady traffic flow.
GoGeek
The GoGeek is the most extensive shared hosting plan SiteGround has to offer. As the name suggests, it’s designed for ‘technology geeks’ who want lots of control over their website.
The GoGeek plan will give you unlimited websites, 40 GB of web space, and up to 100,000 monthly visits. Needless to say, it’s truly designed for large businesses with a high volume of traffic. Pricing starts at $14.99 per month on the introductory offer.
The GoGeek plan includes all the features mentioned above, as well as:
Register your clients with white-label access to Site Tools
Use more server resources for higher process execution time
Ultrafast PHP for faster page loads
Priority support from SiteGround’s most experienced customer support agents
In a nutshell, this plan is for those of you who know what you’re doing with websites. If you don’t understand some of the plan’s technological features, it may not be the best plan for you. Unless, of course, you have a specialist on your team to manage your website and need access to high volume traffic capabilities.
Cloud Hosting
We’ll touch on the cloud hosting product offerings shortly, but in terms of pricing, there are four plans for SiteGround’s cloud hosting: Entry, Business, Business Plus, and Super Power.
As you can see in the screenshot below, the pricing ranges from $110 to $410 per month. The major difference in the plans is CPU cores, memory, and SSD space.
Due to the easy scalability of the cloud hosting options (which you’ll learn about shortly), you can confidently start with the Entry plan if it’s your first time using cloud hosting.
SiteGround Offerings
SiteGround Web Hosting
SiteGround offers fast and secure web hosting for websites of any kind. Their general web hosting product is optimized for a range of Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and more.
You’ll be able to build and launch your website quickly and easily with their full website solution, including your choice of site builder: WordPress or Weebly. If you’re an online store, you’ll be able to install the shopping cart of your choice for free.
Domain registration is easy and affordable with SiteGround, so you’ll be able to enjoy the convenience of managing both your domain and your site in one place.
You’ll also have access to an unlimited number of email accounts when you create your domain, which is perfect for managing different areas of your business.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting
SiteGround is one of the few web hosting companies that offer hosting options specifically for WordPress. As mentioned previously, they are even highly recommended directly by WordPress.
With SiteGround, you won’t need to download and install WordPress manually. Instead, you’ll be able to automate the process with a simple click of a button using the WordPress Launch feature.
Upon login to your new website, you’ll be prompted to set your site up simply and easily with SiteGround’s WordPress Starter kit. The whole process takes minutes from start to finish, even for a beginner!
One of the most popular features of SiteGround’s WordPress hosting is the free SiteGround Migrator plugin. This feature is perfect for users who may hold their website with another host and wish to transfer over to SiteGround.
Better yet, if you’re not confident in your abilities to navigate the migrator plugin, you can have a WordPress whiz from SiteGround do it for you for an additional fee.
SiteGround WooCommerce Hosting
SiteGround also offers hosting options for users looking to build a powerful online shop using WooCommerce. This plan comes with WooCommerce pre-installed, saving you time and hassle, allowing you to straightaway focus on uploading products to your online store.
With WooCommerce, you can sell any type of product or service online. SiteGround will support your ecommerce growth by keeping your website safe with a unique AI anti-bot system, free pre-installed SSL, and custom Web Application Firewall (WAF).
If you choose the WooCommerce GrowBig or GoGeek plan, SiteGround will also include a convenient staging tool. You’ll be able to develop your store safely, testing changes and updates made on the staging copy before going live.
SiteGround Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a relatively new way to host websites. It’s an ideal solution for businesses and websites of medium to larger sizes, who have the capacity to grow very quickly. If you are starting to outgrow your shared hosting plan, cloud hosting is the next step.
SiteGround’s cloud hosting will provide you with guaranteed resources with your very own RAM and CPU. You can also upgrade the RAM, CPU, and disk space of your cloud plan at any time. Better yet, there is no downtime with this process—the resources are added immediately.
If you want to automate the scaling process, you can do that, too! SiteGround’s unique auto-scale option will adjust your CPU and RAM to meet the needs of unexpected traffic surges, preventing any slowness or downtime.
The best part is that the scalable amount is pre-determined by you, so you’ll still have control over the scale’s parameters.
Finally, cloud hosting with SiteGround will also include a free dedicated IP. This feature will give you peace of mind that your website is safe from IP blacklist due to other webmasters’ actions.
The Best WordPress Web Hosting Service
Not sold that SiteGround is the perfect match for you? Or maybe you simply want to know what else is out there, so you can ensure you’ve chosen the best of the best. I get it.
1. Bluehost — Best WordPress Hosting For New Websites 2. DreamHost — Most Versatile WordPress Hosting Plans 3. Nexcess — The Best For Customized Managed Hosting Solutions 4. SiteGround — The Best For Scalable Traffic 5. WP Engine — Best Managed WordPress Hosting 6. A2 Hosting — The Best For Site Migrations 7. IONOS by 1&1 — The Best For Pro Users
The bottom line: Would I recommend SiteGround for your web hosting needs? Absolutely.
They have a range of plans to suit any business and budget, and they compete well with their competitors in terms of features. They excel in site speed time and offer phenomenal customer service. With all this in mind, they are a sound choice.
In today’s global marketplace, it’s a great time to be a consumer. The rise of e-commerce means more and more businesses are striving to get the consumer’s attention, offering better prices and services just to keep them interested. With online sales representing 16 percent of total retail ad spend, business owners don’t want to leave money on the table.
The smartest business owners know that the only way to consistently beat the competition is by offering more value to customers.
However, if everyone in my industry is selling the same products, at the same price, how can I stay competitive? The answer: Create memorable experiences.
If you’re looking for a unique way to offer value to consumers, customized products can be a powerful, engaging tool that improves customer satisfaction and drives up conversions in the process.
What Are Customized Products?
Customized products exist as a way for consumers to customize their purchases and walk away with a unique brand experience.
The concept of customization was designed just a few decades ago to promote exclusivity. Customized products were a status symbol, a vehicle to make consumers with massive budgets feel special.
Although that’s still the case with certain products (exotic cars and designer handbags, for example), rapid advances in technology have made mass-customization a possibility for everyone.
Still, despite the lowered barrier to entry, product customization maintains a certain allure to consumers. This begs the question: If the key component of customized products is no longer there (the exclusive status symbol), then why are consumers still so interested?
The answer is actually pretty straightforward: Businesses were operating with a fundamental misunderstanding of what made customization so appealing in the first place.
Reasons Your Company Should Offer Customized Products
What massive brands around the world have figured out, and what e-commerce business owners need to understand, is that exclusivity was only a small piece of the puzzle.
Product customization can have a massive impact on customer satisfaction, and by extension, your e-commerce business’s success. Why? Because not all of your customers want to experience your product in the same way.
Think about it. When it comes to something like marketing, we understand that different customers have different needs. The first-time visitor to your site needs a different call-to-action than the customer with the abandoned shopping cart. Customized customer experiences are nothing new, it’s just time that e-commerce businesses started to expand their customization horizons.
Where things get really interesting for me is when you start considering the potential financial value this brings to companies all over the world. Let’s not ignore the fact that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. More specifically, it puts business owners in a win-win scenario.
When you offer dozens of different variants and options to users, you’re creating a more inclusive marketplace, and different consumers with unique priorities can still walk away with something they like.
Even more interesting is the capacity for testing. You don’t need to make everything in your store customizable. Instead, you can test for specific features and determine the ones that people love.
Over time, business owners can collect data and use this information to build product offerings that their customers are statistically more interested in. More value for consumers, more value for the business. Win-win.
Understand What’s Driving the Popularity of Customized Products
The benefits of customized products are pretty easy to measure. When a consumer can personalize a purchase, it gives them a chance to “stand out” and be distinctive.
Let’s use the example of a custom T-shirt. On the surface, it seems like customers are simply modifying something to maximize the value of that product. In reality, the experience is a bit more layered.
We’ve established that customizing products brings consumers a certain level of enjoyment. We can view “Enjoyment” as the umbrella category.
Within that category, there are two subcategories of enjoyment. On one hand, there’s “Use Enjoyment” and “Design Enjoyment.” Certain customers will fall into certain categories, depending on what they value in particular.
Each of those subcategories had its own subdivisions.
Consumers who fell in the “Use Enjoyment” category either enjoyed the unique appearance of the item or enjoyed the functionalities of the item that fulfilled their unique needs. Consumers in the “Design Enjoyment” category either enjoyed innovating or enjoyed participating in the design process.
You can use this framework as a way to test what your consumers expect from your business, but the key lesson to keep in mind here is that product customization should be an engaging, exciting process for customers.
Examples of Customized Products
All of this can get a bit abstract, so let’s take a look at a tangible example. Here’s how Dollar Shave Club handles customization.
They start with some strong and clear copy, and with a single click, you’re building your custom Dollar Shave Club box.
From there, you’ll complete a quiz and come out on the other end with a straightforward recommendation and a strong call-to-action. Of course, you can further customize your options by scrolling down the page.
On the surface, this might look like just another way to sell their products. In reality, that’s only half the story. Every aspect of this quiz is designed to ensure that consumers are presented with a solution that accurately addresses their pain points.
Lenovo, on the other hand, actually lets you build out your dream laptop.
It’s important to keep the limitations in mind, of course. While the laptop would be customized, the capacity of the laptop is limited.
When creating your customized product offerings, remember that removing concerns about compatibility can make life much simpler for your consumer. Unless they’re particularly tech-savvy, they probably wouldn’t understand why certain components just don’t work together.
Alleviating friction before it becomes an issue is one of the many benefits that come from creating a rich customization experience.
Tips for Creating Customized Products
All of that looks and sounds great, but how on earth are you supposed to create customized products for your consumers? After all, offering 100+ options isn’t exactly budget-friendly.
Well, remember that consumers aren’t just interested in custom products. They want customized experiences. Most business owners already know this. It’s the reason so much time and money goes into marketing campaigns.
Focusing on customized experiences helps you develop a deeper relationship with your consumers. They can buy products anywhere, but your business is the only one that helps them customize their experience. Those better experiences lead to customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and hopefully, repeat customers!
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the tools you can use to build tailor-made products and experiences.
Custom Fit
Whether you sell swimsuits, winter jackets, or everything in between, you understand that selling clothes online can be a customer satisfaction nightmare.
The biggest problem? Fit.
Everyone seems to have different definitions of small, medium, and large. While this can usually be fixed with a quick return and exchange, it tends to leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth.
So rather than focusing on fixing the problem, let’s find a way to make sure it never happens again. Making it an engaging sales tool is just a bonus!
A Custom Fit quiz might seem simple but make no mistake: Making your customers feel more secure about their sizing choices means they’re more likely to purchase as possible sizing issues are avoided.
Customized Product Bundling
One of the most undervalued aspects of product customization is its potential for reducing friction.
When you offer to bundle an accessory with a particular product, you’re not just upselling to make some extra money on the sale. You’re addressing two possible customer pain points before they even arise.
Right off the bat, you’re making customers aware of the fact that a particular accessory is necessary to ensure they maximize their purchase. As a bonus, you’re able to confirm compatibility by clearly showing consumers which items they should pair together.
It’s a way to ensure that consumers walk away with everything they need after a single transaction. Further, it’s more than just a good sales tactic. It’s an effective, thorough customer satisfaction tactic.
Tips for Selling Customized Products
Maximizing your sales and profit margins is always going to be a priority, and every tactic here is designed to support that goal.
That being said, selling a consumer on the concept of customized products is less about actively selling and more about creating experiences that guide customers down the sales funnel with valuable information.
As far as I’m concerned, the best-customized experiences sell themselves. Of course, it helps if you’re building experiences that are so compelling and engaging that consumers can’t help but click the “Buy” button.
Use these tactics to drive conversions while still keeping the shopping experience engaging and personal.
Don’t Overcommit (Test the Waters)
All this talk of customized products might have you worried that you’ll need to spend tons of money on new inventory and be stocked up for potential buyers.
In reality, the process should start small. Unless you have a massive budget, your best bet is to test the waters and figure out what versions of products consumers are actively seeking.
If you’re experimenting with customizable T-shirt colors, you don’t need 50 new colors. Start with a few set colors, and give yourself plenty of lead time so you don’t have to rush production.
People aren’t interested in new colors? You can phase them out without worrying that you’ve let hundreds of dollars go to waste.
Customized Product Recommendations
We already discussed this a bit earlier, but the value of the customer quiz shouldn’t be understated.
Let’s say you frequently have website visitors that don’t have a well-defined shopping list yet. These are people who are just browsing and seeing what catches their eye.
Well, what if you could guide that person towards a sale, while also providing them with value in an engaging way? Sounds like a great way to kick-start your relationship, if you ask me. Keep in mind that 90% of consumers are willing to share their behavioral data if it’ll make their shopping easier.
By creating a simple quiz and offering customized product recommendations, you can accomplish so much.
For starters, customers will walk away with a much clearer understanding of their needs. They’ll also associate you with industry authority since your business showcased your know-how and expertise.
Beyond that, your consumers are one step closer to making a purchase through your site. All thanks to a simple, two-minute quiz.
Conclusion
Customized products are often seen as some sort of gimmick, a cheap way to offer variety instead of value.
Interestingly enough, I’ve found that well-designed customized products offer an impressive amount of value to consumers.
Consumers can be empowered by a process that simplifies their shopping experience. Or they can walk away with a deeper understanding of what they need from your business.
As long as your customized e-commerce experience is compelling, engaging, and generally value-driven, you can be optimistic that you’re enhancing your customer’s shopping experience and by extension, increasing your chances of making a sale.
What kind of customized products do you think offer the most value? Let me know in the comments below!
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the final two episodes in the ESPN documentary series ‘The Last Dance’ (2:25) before Ryen and “Optimistic Bill” talk about the NBA potentially inching toward a return, as well as the murky future around the start of the MLB season (49:00). They share TV programming advice for content-starved networks (1:26:30) before revisiting Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz and Michael Jordan’s sixth and final championship (1:38:40).
What Can Behalf Recession Funding Do for Your Business?
Behalf is an online lending company, among several other lending companies online. They offer purchase financing, and also have a virtual MasterCard in order to facilitate financing your purchases. We look at the specifics and drill down into the details of Behalf recession funding.
As of 8/24/2020 Behalf no longer reports. For more information on how to find accounts that report give us a call at 877-600-2487.
Behalf keeps their headquarters in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv. You can call them at: (877) 943-9962. Their contact page is here: https://www.behalf.com/help-center/. They have been in business since their founding in 2012. Behalf is backed by venture capital funds from Viola Growth, Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, MissionOG, Victory Park, and Vintage.
Behalf Recession Funding: Purchase Financing
Behalf’s fees are based on the terms offered to customers. Their fees rise as the number of days to pay rise, with an apparent cap at 3%. This lender offers products to both merchants and their business customers. For business customers, you select the amount to finance, the amount of time to pay it back, and whether you will pay on a monthly or a weekly basis.
Since the end of 2017, all funding from Behalf is through FinWise, a Utah-chartered bank which is located in Sandy, Utah.
This online lender will make a hard inquiry on your personal credit when you first apply for financing.
There is a maximum line size of $50,000. It can extend this in instant purchase capacity to any business customer. Their minimum transaction size is $300. Plus there is no upper limit on individual purchase transactions.
Behalf Recession Funding: Fees
Monthly fees start at 1%, and there is a fixed monthly rate. There are no origination fees and no maintenance fees. You can save 10% on finance fees by choosing a weekly plan.
Behalf Recession Funding: Advantages
Advantages to online lender Behalf include a fixed monthly rate to make your budgeting easier. In addition, there is a discounted rate option if you select weekly payments.
Behalf Recession Funding: Disadvantages
Disadvantages include higher fees if you give your clients longer payment terms. As a result, your company will be penalized for providing better payment terms to your customers.
An Alternative to Behalf Recession Funding – Building Business Credit
Small business credit is credit in a company’s name. It doesn’t connect to an owner’s personal credit, not even when the owner is a sole proprietor and the sole employee of the business.
As a result, a business owner’s business and personal credit scores can be very different.
The Benefits
Due to the fact that small business credit is separate from consumer, it helps to safeguard an entrepreneur’s personal assets, in the event of court action or business insolvency.
Also, with two separate credit scores, a business owner can get two separate cards from the same vendor. This effectively doubles purchasing power.
Another benefit is that even start-ups can do this. Heading to a bank for a business loan can be a formula for frustration. But building company credit, when done properly, is a plan for success.
Consumer credit scores rely on payments but also various other considerations like credit utilization percentages.
But for business credit, the scores truly only depend on whether a company pays its invoices in a timely manner.
Hit the jackpot with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.
The Process
Growing company credit is a process, and it does not occur automatically. A small business needs to proactively work to build company credit.
Having said that, it can be done easily and quickly, and it is much quicker than establishing personal credit scores.
Merchants are a big part of this process.
Undertaking the steps out of sequence will cause repetitive denials. Nobody can start at the top with business credit. For instance, you can’t start with retail or cash credit from your bank. If you do, you’ll get a rejection 100% of the time.
Company Fundability
A business has to be fundable to credit issuers and vendors.
Due to this fact, a small business will need a professional-looking website and email address. And it needs to have site hosting bought from a vendor like GoDaddy.
In addition, business phone and fax numbers should have a listing on ListYourself.net.
Additionally, the company phone number should be toll-free (800 exchange or similar).
A business will also need a bank account devoted purely to it, and it has to have all of the licenses essential for running.
Licenses
These licenses all must be in the particular, appropriate name of the small business. And they need to have the same small business address and telephone numbers.
So note, that this means not just state licenses, but possibly also city licenses.
Working with the Internal Revenue Service
Visit the Internal Revenue Service website and acquire an EIN for the small business. They’re totally free. Select a business entity such as corporation, LLC, etc.
A company can begin as a sole proprietor. But they will probably wish to change to a form of corporation or an LLC.
This is in order to limit risk. And it will maximize tax benefits.
A business entity will matter when it involves taxes and liability in case of a lawsuit. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and taxes. Nobody else is responsible.
Sole Proprietors Take Note
If you operate a business as a sole proprietor, then at least be sure to file for a DBA. This is ‘doing business as’ status.
If you do not, then your personal name is the same as the business name. Therefore, you can find yourself being directly accountable for all small business financial obligations.
Also, according to the Internal Revenue Service, using this arrangement there is a 1 in 7 possibility of an IRS audit. There is a 1 in 50 possibility for corporations! Prevent confusion and noticeably lower the chances of an Internal Revenue Service audit as well.
But keep in mind, any DBA filing should just be a steppingstone to incorporating.
Starting Off the Business Credit Reporting Process
Start at the D&B website and get a totally free D-U-N-S number. A D-U-N-S number is how D&B gets a company into their system, to generate a PAYDEX score. If there is no D-U-N-S 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 at www.creditsuite.com/reports. 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 so, Experian and Equifax will have something to report on.
Vendor Credit
First you need to establish trade lines that report. This is also known as vendor credit. 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 begin to get even more credit.
These sorts of accounts tend to be for the things bought all the time, like marketing materials, shipping boxes, outdoor work wear, ink and toner, and office furniture.
But to start with, what is trade credit? These trade lines are credit issuers who will give you initial credit when you have none now. Terms are frequently Net 30, instead of revolving.
Hence, if you get an approval for $1,000 in vendor credit and use all of it, you will need to pay that money back in a set term, like within 30 days on a Net 30 account.
Hit the jackpot with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.
Details
Net 30 accounts need to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts must be paid fully within 60 days. Compared to with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you must pay back what you borrowed or the credit you used.
To kick off your business credit profile properly, you should get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting agencies. Once 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.
Vendor Credit – It Helps
Not every vendor can help in the same way true starter credit can. These are merchants that will grant an approval with minimal effort. You also want them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.
You want 3 of these to move onto the next step, which is retail credit. But you may need to apply more than one time to these vendors. So, this is to confirm you are dependable and will pay punctually.
Retail Credit
Once there are 3 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, then move to retail credit. These are service providers such as Office Depot and Staples.
Only use your Social Security Number and date of birth on these applications for verification purposes. For credit checks and guarantees, use the business’s EIN on these credit applications.
Fleet Credit
Are there more accounts reporting? Then move onto fleet credit. These are companies like BP and Conoco. Use this credit to buy fuel, and to repair, and take care of vehicles. Just use your Social Security Number and date of birth on these applications for verification purposes. For credit checks and guarantees, make certain to apply using the business’s EIN.
Cash Credit
Have you been sensibly managing the credit you’ve up to this point? Then move to more universal cash credit. These are companies such as Visa and MasterCard. Only use your Social Security Number and date of birth on these applications for verification purposes. For credit checks and guarantees, use your EIN instead.
If you have more trade accounts reporting, then these are attainable.
Monitor Your Business Credit
Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and deal with any errors ASAP. Get in the practice of checking credit reports and digging into the details, and not just the scores.
So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to contest any errors in your records. Mistakes in your credit report(s) can be fixed. But the CRAs typically want you to dispute in a particular way.
Disputing credit report mistakes commonly means you send a paper letter with duplicates of any evidence of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never send the originals. Always send copies and keep the originals.
Fixing credit report inaccuracies also means you specifically itemize any charges you dispute. Make your dispute letter as understandable as possible. Be specific about the concerns with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you sent in your dispute.
Always use credit sensibly! Don’t borrow more than what you can pay back. Keep track of balances and deadlines for payments. Paying off in a timely manner and completely will do more to increase business credit scores than nearly anything else.
Growing company credit pays off. Great business credit scores help a business get loans. Your credit issuer knows the business can pay its debts. They understand the company is bona fide.
The company’s EIN attaches to high scores and lending institutions won’t feel the need to require a personal guarantee.
Business credit is an asset which can help your company for many years to come. Learn more here and get started toward building company credit.
Hit the jackpot with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.
Behalf Recession Funding: Upshot
For companies just starting out, allowing for longer payment terms for customers can help to convert one-time customers into regulars. Because Behalf effectively penalizes a company for providing longer terms, this is a strike against using them if your company is a startup trying to build a reputation with your clients.
However, for a not so new company which can readily make payments, the discounted weekly payment plan (and rate) could be an attractive option, although companies with regular revenue and enough time in business tend to qualify for more traditional financing, including loans from the Small Business Administration.
And finally, as with every other lending program, whether online or offline, remember to read the fine print and do the math. Go over the details with a fine-toothed comb, and decide whether this option will be good for you and your company. In addition, consider alternative financing options that go beyond lending, including building business credit, in order to best decide how to get the money you need to help your business grow.
Maybe you won’t need Behalf recession funding after all.
Most of us grew up hearing that we could do anything we wanted. That’s the beauty of capitalism. With American business lending, anyone can start a business. We are told all we need is a great idea, and with a lot of hard work and a business loan, we can turn that idea into a thriving livelihood. The thing is, the business fundraising piece isn’t as easy as we may have thought.
Business Fundraising Hinges on Fundability
I mean, the majority of us are smart enough to know that not all new businesses see success. We also know getting investors and loans is not always easy. The thing is, no one tells us what to do if business fundraising turns out to not be as easy as we thought. No one really gives any options, which means when we hit that first brick wall of a lender turning us down for a loan or an investor saying no, we don’t know what our next move should be.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
Business Fundraising: Why Loans Don’t Always Work
For starting up a small business, the first stop on the business fundraising train is typically the bank. You go in, fill out a business plan, and hope for the best. If your personal credit is stellar, you are golden. If not, you have a problem.
That’s why traditional loans do not always work. If your personal finances cannot handle the up-front expense of starting a business, and you do not have investors, you have to find another way. This is the part that no one tells you. How on earth do you start a business if you cannot get a business loan based on your personal credit.
Business Fundraising: Loans to Apply for When Traditional Loans Will Not Work
Okay, so, here’s the thing. You are going to have to get your business going a little at the time, on your own. Surprisingly, this strange economy created by the coronavirus is prime for this. Maybe you take on a few clients or sell to a few customers in your spare time. Who knows? You need to be in business for at least 6 months before you start applying for these types of loans. In fact, some require a year in business and a minimum revenue.
They key is, you get started, and you get started on your own. Then you figure out where you can turn for business fundraising to grow your business further. If you hit the one year in business mark, you may qualify for SBA loans.
Business Fundraising: SBA Loans
The Small Business Administration is designed specifically to help small businesses. Whether you need working capital or a natural disaster has struck, the SBA can help.
Overall, there’s a wide range of products offered through SBA programs. Typically, the SBA does not lend funds directly. Conversely, they work through lender partners to guarantee loans. This means, they are able to leave the administration of the loans and disbursement of funds to those who regularly handle that sort of this.
7(a) Loans
This is the Small Business Administration’s most popular loan program. It offers federally funded term loans of up to $5 million. Additionally, the funds can be used for expansion, purchasing equipment, working capital and more. Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions, in partnership with the SBA, process these loans and distribute the funds.
A credit score of 680 is necessary to qualify. In addition, there is a required down payment of at least 10% for the purchase of a business, commercial real estate, or equipment. Lastly, the minimum time in business is 2 years. Business experience equivalent to two years will do the trick for startups, so this is one you don’t have to wait for if you have experience.
504 Loans
These loans are available up to $5 million. Funds can buy machinery, facilities, or land. Generally however, they are for expansion. Private sector lenders or nonprofits handle these loans. They especially work well for commercial real estate purchases.
Microloans
Microloans are available in smallter amounts. They go up to $50,000. Typically, they work well for starting a business, purchasing equipment, buying inventory, or for working capital. Community based non-profits administer microloan programs. Unlike the others, financing comes directly from the Small Business Administration.
Even though SBA loans have less stringent requirements, sometimes they still won’t do the trick. What then?
Business Fundraising: Private Loans to the Rescue
If you see that you do not qualify for SBA Loans, private loans could be an option. They should be the second option for business fundraising, after SBA loans. Here’s why. They typically have higher interest rates and less favorable terms than traditional and SBA loans. That’s the downside. The upside is that their eligibility requirements are even easier to meet than SBA loans, making them a viable option if you do not qualify for other types of financing.
There are lots of private lenders out there, but be careful. Do your research, check the Better Business Bureau, and read reviews so that you know what you are getting into. Some of them are fine, but there are a lot of bad seeds in this category as well. Proceed with caution. Here’s a list of lenders to get you started.
Fundation
Fundation offers an automated process that is super-fast. Originally, they only had invoice financing. Then they added the line of credit service. Repayments are automatic, meaning they draft them electronically. This happens on a weekly basis. One thing to remember is that you could have a repayment as high as 5 to 7% of the amount you have drawn, as the repayment period is comparatively short.
You can get loans for as little as $100 and as high as up to $100,000, but the max original draw is $50,000. They do have some products that go up to $500,000. There is no minimum credit score requirement, but they require at least 3 months in business. Also, $50,000 or more in annual revenue and a business checking account with a minimum balance of $500 are necessary.
Fundation reports to Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, SBFE, PayNet, and Experian, making them a great option if you are looking to build or improve business credit.
BlueVine
The minimum amount available from BlueVine is $5,000 and loans go up to $100,000. You must have annual revenue of $120,000 or more. In addition, the borrower must be in business for at least 6 months. The personal credit score minimum is 600. It is also important to know that BlueVine does not offer a line of credit in all states.
They report to Experian. They are one of the few invoice factoring companies that will report to any business credit bureau.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
OnDeck
With OnDeck, applying for financing is fast and simple. You apply online, and you will receive your decision once the application processing is done. Loan funds go directly to your bank account. The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000.
The personal credit score requirement is 600 or more. Also, you must be in business for at least one year. The annual revenue requirement is at least $100,000. In addition, there can be no bankruptcy on file in the past 2 years and no unresolved liens or judgements.
OnDeck reports to the standard business credit bureaus.
Business Fundraising: How to Not Worry About It
Okay so, that’s how to make it work in the beginning. Still, wouldn’t it be great to not have to worry about it? How would it feel to know that, if you needed a business loan, you would have no trouble getting one? How does that even happen?
While there are no guarantees in life, the best chance you have at making this happen is to build strong business fundability. That is your ability to get funding for your business based on the merits of your business and not completely on your own personal finances. To do this, you have to understand exactly what it is that makes your business fundable. There are a lot more working pieces than you may imagine.
Business Fundraising: Fundability
The first step in building fundability has to do with how you set up your business. Regardless of whether you are just getting started or if you have been operating for ages, if these things are not done, do them now. The sooner the better. You cannot build business fundability if you do not establish your business as an entity separate from yourself, and that doesn’t just happen. You have to make it happen.
Don’t Share Contact Information with Your Business
Make sure your business has its own phone number, fax number, and address. That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location. You can still run your business from your home or on your computer. There are options for virtual business addresses and internet based phone numbers that will serve these purposes nicely.
Apply for an EIN
Next, get an EIN for your business. This is an identifying number for your business that works in a way similar to how your SSN works for you personally. It’s free from the IRS.
Incorporation is Non-Negotiable
You have to incorporate your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation. Which option you choose doesn’t really make a difference for fundability. However, it can make a difference for your budget and needs for liability protection. Talk to your attorney or a tax professional about which one will work best for your business.
You are going to lose any time in business that you already have. When you incorporate, you become a new entity. You basically have to start over. You’ll also lose any positive payment history. This is why you have to incorporate as soon as possible.
Separate Bank Accounts
Open a separate, dedicated business bank account. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the first one is that it creates the separation you need to start building business credit, which is necessary to fundability.
Licenses
A legitimate business should have all of the licenses it needs to run. If it doesn’t, red flags are going to go up all over. Research what you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business at all levels.
Website
Spend the time and money necessary to make sure your website is professionally designed and that it works. Also, splurge and pay for hosting. Don’t use a free hosting service. Along these same lines, your business needs a dedicated business email address. Make sure it has the same URL as your Website. Don’t use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail.
What Else Affects Fundability?
While setting up your business in this way is vital, there are a host of other things that affect fundability. Here’s a brief rundown.
Specifically a D-U-N-S number. Get one on the D&B website. You cannot have a business credit file with Dun & Bradstreet without one. Since they are the largest and most commonly used business credit agency, you have to get this number.
Business Credit History
This includes how many accounts you have, what types of accounts, and whether or not you pay on time.
Business Information
Not only do you have to have separate contact information for yourself and your business, you need to be consistent with when and where you use it. For example, if a business account has your personal address on it, it could cause problems. Be sure to keep everything up to date.
Financial Statements
Business Financials
Personal Financials
Bureaus
One example is ChexSystems, which keeps track of bad check information.
Personal Credit History
The Application Process
This is everything to do with the application from when you apply to which lending products you choose to apply for.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
Business Fundraising: Don’t Let the Traditional Loan Brick Wall Stop You
If you hit a brick wall with traditional loans, don’t despair. Don’t let problems with business fundraising stop you. Just fix the problem. There are other options. In addition to these financing options and finding investors, you can explore grants and crowdfunding. While the fierce competition with each can make it hard, they are still viable options. However, you have to start working on fundability now, wherever you are in the life of your business. If you do, one day you will not have to worry about business fundraising. You will be able to access all you need.
Usage Email Marketing intelligently; Stand out from Junk Mail
Email Marketing is one of the most least expensive and also effective means to advertise items. Under lots of scrap mail, your advertising mail constantly be disregarded and also placed right into the trash can. To attract attention from the spam, adhere to the pointers listed below to enhance the power of your e-mail advertising and marketing.
1. No “picture just” e-mail, usage message mail rather
E-mail with picture will certainly place additional filling on the e-mail web server, which will certainly make the handling time much longer. Second, some e-mail web servers will certainly note those “photo just” e-mails as spam or spam mails. This, certainly, will certainly decrease the opportunity to provide the mail to your consumer.
2. No add-on
Comparable to the above situation, e-mails with accessory will certainly place additional packing on the e-mail web server. Under the hazard of infection, some e-mail web servers will certainly filter out the e-mail add-on.
3. No elegant HTML e-mail
Also the e-mail customers assert they are assistance HTML e-mail, various e-mail customers does in a different way. Numerous customers established the e-mail customer as “Do not fill photo immediately”, your e-mail will certainly have several empty locations in this situation.
4. Document recipient’s name
This will certainly elevate the clients’ rate of interest due to the fact that they do not wish to avoid any type of message that pertaining to them.
5. Give your sender address
Some e-mail web server will certainly obstruct those e-mails with void sender address, or e-mails’ sender address that not exists in the receivers’ personal digital assistant. Do not conceal your name, allow your client understands that you are.
E-mail with photo will certainly place additional packing on the e-mail web server, which will certainly make the handling time much longer. Second, some e-mail web servers will certainly note those “photo just” e-mails as scrap mails or spam mails. Comparable to the above situation, e-mails with add-on will certainly place additional filling on the e-mail web server. Also the e-mail customers assert they are assistance HTML e-mail, various e-mail customers does in different ways. Numerous individuals established the e-mail customer as “Do not fill picture instantly”, your e-mail will certainly have numerous empty locations in this situation.
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Graham Isador is a writer in Toronto. His work has appeared at GQ, VICE, and Men’s Health, among other places. 
