Honda’s MotoGP team and former world champion Marc Márquez will be ending their 11-year partnership at the end of the season, the Japanese engine-maker said Wednesday.
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SEEKING FREELANCER
Looking for individuals or small groups skilled in Python Django or similar Python frameworks as well as React for development of several externally facing webapps. Experience with AWS, terraform and Kubernetes/microservices architecture is a strong plus.
Send inquiries to hnjobs@securisea.com
Article URL: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/8vdx/jobs/2i9IARi-ui-ux-designer
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It makes sense that, if you do not separate your business credit from your personal credit, you could run into issues. Most get that if they fund their business with their personal credit, their personal finances could suffer. But, did you know that even if you have separated everything beautifully, the reverse can still be true? Here are 3 ways personal financing can affect your ability to get funding for your business.
Some business funding options consider your personal credit score no matter what. For example, all traditional loans, SBA loans, and even the Credit Line Hybrid focus on personal credit score. Generally, they want to see a personal score above 650, though there are exceptions. The issue goes beyond this however.
The number one factor that affects personal credit is paying on time. However, some other factors that can affect your personal credit score include:
This last point is important. It includes everything from credit card debt to personal financing for auto loans and mortgages. If you max out your limits on everything without paying it down significantly, your personal credit score will be negatively impacted. All of this means, you could be making all payments on time and still run into issues.
It’s true. Some business credit reporting agencies take your personal credit into account. They use your personal credit in the calculation of the business credit score they release to lenders. This means if your personal credit score is bad, your business credit score could suffer.
Experian is different from the other two main business credit reporting agencies in one very important way. Of course, business credit is credit in a business’s name. It depends on how well a company can pay its bills. Yet, Experian uses both consumer and business credit information to gauge risk. They find a blended score is more accurate and predictive.
This score is becoming increasingly common and it’s a lot trickier. FICO SBSS stands for FICO Liquid Credit Small Business Scoring Service. Unlike your personal FICO, the SBSS reports on a scale of 0 to 300. The higher the score the better, and most lenders demand a score of at least 160.
The scoring model for this score is not the same as other business credit scoring models. It uses your business and personal credit scores, but it does so much differently than Experian.
The formula for calculations is proprietary and well-guarded by FICO. They do not make the information public. Unlike the other business credit reporting agencies, you cannot request a copy of your report or see your score. Here’s why. Surprisingly, this score can actually vary from lender to lender. That’s right, two different lenders can get two different scores for your business from FICO SBSS at the same time.
Here’s how that works. Lenders can ask for certain factors in the score to carry more weight than others. Your score can vary depending on how a lender weighs each factor. One lender may put more weight on your personal credit score or your business credit. Meanwhile, another may choose to weigh annual revenue as more important than payment history. It is their choice.
FICO searches business credit information from business credit agencies. This includes D&B, Experian, and Equifax. They use this information in the calculation of your score. So, your score with these bureaus affects your FICO SBSS.
The only way to ensure that your personal credit doesn’t impact your business credit in a negative way is to keep your personal credit in good order. This is because you really can never know which factors the lender is going to weigh more or less for that matter.
Because some types of funding require a strong personal credit score, you may need to use a guarantor to get access. This includes some funding types that can help you build business credit, like the Credit Suite Credit Line Hybrid.
A credit line hybrid is a form of unsecured funding. Our credit line hybrid even works for startups, and you can get a better interest rate than a secured loan. It reports to business CRAs, but you need a FICO score of at least 680 to qualify.
However, if your personal FICO isn’t that great, you can use a guarantor with good credit to get approval. It’s no-doc financing, meaning you do not have to turn in any financial documents. Using a guarantor could be worth it if you need funding quickly.
Business lending, at its core, is affected by the Fundability of your business. There are 4 core factors that affect business Fundability, and each of these factors is made up of a number of principles. Personal financial statements and other data bureaus are included in these factors.
Some lenders will ask for personal financial information no matter what. Others may only look at them if the business is not considered creditworthy on its own. When it comes to personal financial statements, lenders are usually looking primarily at tax returns. It’s best to have a tax professional prepare them. Other information lenders may ask for include check stubs and bank statements, among other things.
There are other agencies that hold information related to your personal finances as well. ChexSystems is one example. They track bad check activity, and their report makes a difference when it comes to your bank score. If you have too many bad checks, you will not be able to open a business bank account. That, in turn, will cause serious fundability issues.
LexisNexis and the Small Business Finance Exchange also fall into this “other bureaus” category. They can have all sorts of information on you, like:
While these bureaus do not directly generate credit reports, they do share information with certain credit agencies. They then use this information for their reporting.
This means personal finance information they hold can affect the fundability of your business, and thus your business lending options.
Whether it’s credit card debt, a mortgage, or just how you handle your personal bank account, your personal finance management can affect your ability to fund your business.
You cannot change that entirely. Still, you can limit the extent to which this is true. Separating your business from yourself and building a strong business credit score is the best way. Lenders will be able to depend less on the personal financing aspects of your creditworthiness, and focus more on the fundability of the business itself.
The post 3 Surprising Ways Personal Financing Affects Business Funding appeared first on Credit Suite.
There was a large police presence at a Northern California shopping mall Friday night amid reports of an active shooter.
Media analysts sounded the alarm over an airline pilot who reportedly told passengers “Let’s go Brandon,” accusing him of substance abuse or comparing his actions to terrorism.
Serverless Inc. | REMOTE | FULL-TIME | https://www.serverless.com/
The Serverless Framework has been an open-source project since 2015, and has quickly become the leading way developers deploy cloud applications on any FaaS provider. Serverless allows developers to focus less on administration, more on driving business value to end-users and enabling organizations to innovate and get to market more quickly.
We are a globally distributed, fully remote Series B startup and we’re actively looking for product driven engineers to join our team.
Here is a snapshot of what we are looking for:
Frontend Developer/Designer – We build in React, but technical skills are not as important as your UI/UX portfolio and desire to build the next generation of software development tools and experiences. APPLY: https://jobs.lever.co/serverless/23a8fae4-a87f-455b-ac8b-371…
Senior Backend Engineer – Extensive experience with AWS services like AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, IAM. Extensive experience building REST APIs and other back-ends in the Node.js. APPLY: https://jobs.lever.co/serverless/4ba58c9f-037b-4015-9cca-64e…
Senior Data Engineer – We’re looking for engineers with experience building streaming data processing architectures using a mostly AWS/serverless stack along with ElasticSearch and Timeseries data APPLY: https://jobs.lever.co/serverless/5927a860-92ad-4f58-a03b-fb8…
Feel free to reach out directly to us to start the conversation! Joseph [at] serverless.com
You’ve heard of business credit, right? It’s credit in the name of a business and not its owner. It is an ongoing process and you must do it proactively. That is, it won’t just happen – you have to make it happen. But did you know that you can hit the ground running and build business credit? You can start your business timeline for credit right now!
Any business can build credit, even nonprofits. This timeline is designed to work in order
It takes advantage of the passage of time, so you don’t pursue options that require a certain amount of time in business before that time has elapsed.
There are a number of things you can do to make your business more fundable. That is, more likely to get funding. Here are some acts you can take which are fast. They will give you quick bang for your buck.
These tasks also have the added bonus of being helpful in other areas of your business
Building fundability bakes credibility right into your business. This will help you attract prospects, and it will help you convert more of them into customers.
Getting fundable helps your business to get money. And it will do so for years to come. It’s worth the time and effort to get it right the first time, this also saves you any lost ground from having to undo older mistakes.
A lot of these steps will require a phone call to a provider or chatting online. To expedite matters, get someone to help you, so you can get the preliminaries done faster, if absolute speed is your objective.
Does your business, or the business name you want to use, contain the name of its industry?
That can be problematic if you’re in what is considered to be a risky industry.
Risk is usually defined as:
To become more fundable, don’t add the name of a risky industry to your business name
There’s nothing underhanded, immoral, or illegal about doing this
Just copy/paste business information – name, address, and everything else. Why? Because retyping opens up opportunities for error. Differences will be interpreted as fraud by lenders and credit providers. Keep records of where your business name is, so, you can be sure you catch everything. These are records both online and offline.
You want an exact match across the board. This means deciding between spelling a word out or abbreviating. It also means choosing between an ampersand (&) and the word ‘and’. Pick one and stick with it.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
A cell phone or home phone number can harm your business in your quest for fundability. But you can use VOIP (voice over internet protocol). This enables any phone number to ring any device. So you can still use your cell phone.
Toll-free numbers are often best. That is, 800 or an equivalent exchange. You can get a toll-free number fast through a provider like RingCentral. But if your business is purely local, you may be able to go with just a local number.
You also want to have a 411 listing for your business phone number(s). You can get one via ListYourself.net. Lenders and credit providers will be looking for your phone numbers, so make them findable.
Do you really need a separate business phone number? It’s not a complete, 100% dealbreaker if you don’t. But if you don’t want clients to ring your home phone all day long, or have your toddler pick up (!), then a separate business phone number is the best way to go.
Working from a residence can be a problem to lenders and credit providers if your business is a retail establishment like a clothing store. They will check your business address on Google Street View, and you could be denied business credit. A separate address fixes this issue.
A separate business address is also better for your family as no customers will be coming and going in your home, and taking up parking spaces on your street. But what if an office just isn’t in the financial cards right now? A virtual business address is a terrific solution. It can address all these issues.
With a virtual business address, you get a deliverable address – not a PO box or UPS box, which would be flagged and generate a denial. This means an actual brick and mortar address.
Some plans give you access to clerical help, conference rooms, mail forwarding, and more.
Three we really like are:
But recognize that there are some lenders and credit providers that will not work with virtual addresses.
Lenders and credit providers will be looking for your business online. It would be a lot better if they got their information directly from you, and not a competitor. As a result, you must have a professional-looking website and email address. Your domain needs to be yourcompany.com or .net if you can get that.
Never use Wix or Weebly, so your domain is yourdomain.com versus yourdomain.wix.com. You will need hosting through a hosting company like GoDaddy or HostGator. You can buy a domain and set up a website. Larger hosting companies will provide services to help if you’re inexperienced with this.
Your business email address needs to be on the same domain as your website. Generic professional names work well, something like admin@yourwebsite.com or gethelp@yourwebsite.com. Do not use Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or the like. But don’t worry about checking yet another email address; you can have any email forward to any other email. You can set all of this up at the same time you set up hosting.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
The first steps already outlined will probably take you between a month to three months at the least. Now it’s time to move onto the Secretary of State for your state.
The Secretary of State’s office has info on every license needed to run your business
They also have helpful information, like if you need to take continuing education to maintain your license. Processing time varies.
You may need to register your business. It’s possible that the SOS will require that your business name be unique. And they may want corporations to be defined with a term like ‘Inc.’ at the end of their names. For anything you need to pay for at the SOS, be sure to print and keep copies of receipts and forms.
Many business credit providers will insist that you have a business bank account. It must be devoted to your business. This will also help to keep you from accidentally commingling funds. This will make tax time a lot easier. You can apply for a business bank online at many banks, even if the bank has brick and mortar locations.
In particular if you have a personal account with a bank, and you’ve managed it well, you can get a business bank account fast. You can often be approved in as little as 15 minutes online. For some more risky industries like cannabis, it may pay to look online for a bank to work with
Visit the IRS website and get a free EIN for your business. Choose a business entity like corporation, LLC, etc. It’s best to choose a type of corporation. This is to minimize risk and maximize tax benefits. It also creates an entity separate from you, the business owner.
Doing these things at this stage of the game means you’ve got a set business address, phone numbers, etc. So you wouldn’t have to change them later.
Note: a DBA is not a separate business entity.
You also choose NAICS codes at IRS.gov. SIC and NAICS codes classify your business and show what it does. The IRS works with NAICS codes. But D&B still works with both. If your business can fit under one or more code, choose the less risky code. There’s nothing illegal, immoral, or underhanded about doing this.
Get our business credit building checklist and build business credit the fast and easy way.
Even incorporating online may take a few business days. In general, you will need Articles of Incorporation. If you want them drafted quickly and correctly, you’ll probably need to hire a corporate attorney to get this done. At the very least, it’s best practices to have a lawyer look over your completed documents.
To build business credit, you will need a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet. A D-U-N-S number + 3 or more reported payment experiences will generate a business credit report with a PAYDEX score. And, therefore, you’ll have built business credit. The free product will send you a D-U-N-S number within around 30 days. Don’t let them upsell you!
By now, you’re about one to two quarters into your business credit building timeline
Lenders consider credit history as one of the chief factors when determining creditworthiness. Making timely payments will demonstrate to anyone looking to do business with your company that you’re low risk. Work with vendors that will report positive payment experiences to the business credit reporting agencies. That way, you won’t waste your time.
Most vendors don’t report positive experiences, but have no problem reporting if you default. But here are three that will report positive experiences:
We don’t just recommend these vendors because they report, we also recommend them because they have great products and service.
Even vendors that report may need you to reach a certain minimum before they will report. They may also want some time in business. So check the fine print and call or chat online with a representative to get information, which you know will be correct. And keep in mind, it can take over 30 days for reported purchases to show up on your business credit report. By now, your timeline has stretched to three-quarters of a year to a year, AND you’ve got good business credit!
Following the steps in order assures that you take the shortest distance between the point of startup, and the point of having good business credit. You don’t meander, you get straight there, in a year or less. For more guidance, and to extend your timeline into getting more credit and funding as your business grows, contact us.
The post Follow the Smart Business Timeline for Credit appeared first on Credit Suite.
What if you could see every ad currently live on Facebook? Imagine the data, ideas, and revenue you could generate.
You no longer have to imagine. Facebook Ad Library gives you free access to view any ad currently live on the Facebook ecosystem.
With one of the largest advertising audiences on the internet at an estimated 2.74 billion people and a ridiculously competitive CPC of $0.43, Facebook is one of the best places to advertise online.
Today I’m going to show you how you can use the Ad Library to make it even better and send the conversion rates of your Facebook ads soaring.
Facebook Ad Library is a free, public database of every ad currently active on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Users can view every detail of the ads, including the copy, the image, how long it’s been live, when it launched, and any versions being A/B tested.
Facebook initially launched the library to improve the transparency of advertising on the platform and avoid claims of election interference. But the Ad Library is so much more than this. It’s an incredibly powerful tool marketers can use to transform their Facebook Ad campaigns.
You don’t need a Facebook account to access Facebook’s Ad Library, but you won’t be able to take advantage of all its features, so you should get one. (That said, if you want to advertise on Facebook, you should have one anyway.)
Start by searching for a brand and clicking on the relevant name from the drop-down menu.
You’ll now see a page displaying information about the advertiser, including when they created the ad, how many ads they have running, and the location of moderators.
Scroll down a little further to see ads in a grid. You can click “See Ad Details” to see more information about a particular ad.
There are many different ways you can leverage the power of the Facebook Ad Library to create better ads. Here are eight to get you started.
The first thing everyone does when they access Facebook Ad Library is search for their competitors and see what ads they’re running. Not only is this a perfectly natural reaction, but it also makes business sense to spy on your competitors.
Don’t get hung up on your competitors, however. There are hundreds of industries out there, and you can learn a lot from all of them, whether it’s high-end luxury retail, insurance, or the law.
Start by searching for any brand you love, then look at that brand’s competitors. See what they have in common.
Next, look a little closer to home and analyze brands tangentially related to your own. For instance, if you run a dog-focused e-commerce store, you could look at cat or reptile brands to see which strategies they use.
Find one or two angles you’re not using and start testing.
One of the most underrated features of the Facebook Ads Library is seeing different versions of the same ad brands are split testing. A/B testing is a fundamental part of succeeding with Facebook Ads, but working out what to test is easier said than done.
That’s what makes Facebook Ads Library so powerful. In 10 minutes, you can build a checklist of ad features to A/B test the next time you create an ad.
Best of all, you know they are all worth testing because the biggest brands in the world are testing the same thing.
Spend half an hour browsing the Ad Library, and you’ll quickly see a few trends emerging in terms of layout, offer, and imagery. It’s essential to bear these trends in mind, particularly if ads in a specific format have been running for a long time.
But don’t feel the need to run the same ad as everyone else. While it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t, you don’t want your ad to be lost in a sea of faceless ads.
Are your ads enticing? Do they sell? One way to tell is to compare them to ads by the biggest brands in your industry (or any other industry, for that matter).
Read a few dozen ads to quickly see the similarities in word choice, copy length, and tone. All the best copywriters take inspiration from the ads that came before.
Take note of how long the ads have been running, too. Tried, tested, and proven ads are worth paying attention to, even if you don’t think they read the best.
Selling products or courses isn’t the only use for Facebook ads. Browse the Ads Library, and you’ll probably find dozens of other ideas and promotional opportunities.
For instance, you may find your competitors promote things like videos, ebooks, or other content. Advertising your versions of these products is a great way to build an email list and position your brand as an authority.
You’ll also find dozens of examples of branded ads that don’t promote anything in particular and just increase brand awareness. If you’re looking to grow your following through ads, you can find a lot of inspiration for that, too.
No one wants to have to create new Facebook ads every week. That’s way too time-consuming.
The trick is to find a message that resonates well over a long period, and doing so is easy with Facebook Ad Library. Simply search the database for a major advertiser, select active ads only, and scroll to see ads with the longest run time.
Make a note of the media, copy, and offers used, then do the same with other major advertisers in your industry. If many of the long-running ads share the same tone or offer, this can help you create a valuable ad of your own.
Use Facebook Ad Library to find what media other brands in your industry use in their ads. If many advertisers use stories or carousels and you aren’t, for instance, it may be time to experiment.
Conversely, it may be you’re already using the most popular media type. If so, you can still get inspiration for other ways to implement it differently.
The creative isn’t the only thing to think about when it comes to ads. Timing is also critical. Your ads can live or die on the running times you set for them, so it pays to see what successful advertisers are doing and take cues from them.
Around big sales days like Valentine’s Day or Black Friday, you can also use the Ad Library to see when competitors start running their ads, so you aren’t left behind. You can even use historical data to beat them to the punch next year.
You can access the Facebook Ad Library by clicking the link or visiting www.facebook.com/ads/library.
The Facebook Ad Library is a free database of every live Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger ad.
You can search the library by typing in an advertiser’s name. This will display a complete list of every ad they run.
Google offers a politics-focused archive of ads, which it hopes will increase transparency. Unlike Facebook, however, you can’t search all ads on the Google platform.
Absolutely! Facebook ads are some of the cheapest, most targeted, and highest converting ads on the Internet.
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Advertisers weren’t happy when Facebook made ads accessible to everyone, but you should be delighted. The Facebook Ad Library offers a huge opportunity to anyone looking to upgrade their ad creatives, nail down their copy and send conversion rates soaring.
Whose ads are you going to look at first?
If you’ve found yourself reading this blog, you’re probably interested in the idea of a membership site. These sites are not to be confused with paid subscriptions, which refer exclusively to a financial model that binds users to its pages.
Netflix, for example, is the classic example of a subscription website: a platform that users gain access to via a recurring fee. On the other hand, membership sites refer to platforms that offer gated content only accessible through, you guessed it, membership.
These sites can be paid, free, or operate on a tiered basis, depending on the site’s intent as a whole.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the benefits of membership sites, share how to build out gated content for members’ eyes only, and share our top three favorite membership sites.
There are many benefits to creating a membership site, including building your community and monetizing your content.
Below, we break down the three biggest benefits of building a membership site structure.
Everyone wants to be considered an expert in their field. At times, however, achieving this can be much easier said than done.
One surefire way to establish yourself as an expert is to offer invaluable content that fills holes in your industry’s general knowledge base. These assets can come in the form of white papers, infographics, blogs, podcasts, and any other form of consumable content.
When these content assets are available via a membership-only relationship, you not only drive demand for your content, but you also firmly establish yourself as an industry expert, given consumers’ willingness to engage with your gated site.
When you commit to building a membership site, you’re not just building a transactional environment; you’re building a community.
Your audience has agreed to participate in your membership site given their shared interest in your product or topic.
Foster this community by providing them with unique offerings and benefits, as well as giving them a place to interact with one another. Whether your membership site is paid or free, you have a unique group of active members with shared interests ready to engage.
This community-building also serves you in the long run, as you’ve created a base of followers with whom you’ve built trust and goodwill, making them that much more likely to interact with your products and offerings in the future.
With each new member and content asset, your website becomes increasingly valuable. The more content you create, the more you have to offer to prospective community members.
While traditional digital models will operate on one-off sales of products or services, your membership site has the potential to acquire cumulative value that increases over time.
If we’ve convinced you of the benefits of the membership site, the next step is breaking down how to actually build one. This section will discuss the three steps for building a membership site that keeps users coming back for more.
Before delving into the actual work of building out a membership site, you need to establish your membership model. In this step, you must first decide if you’re charging your members. If you are, you must determine how much and at what frequency.
This assessment of pricing should include researching how much competitors are charging and what they are offering. Sometimes, forgoing the fee may be worth the lost revenue as it provides a slew of qualified leads.
After establishing pricing, look to your buyer personas to establish what would drive value for your consumers. These value drivers don’t necessarily have to fall into the realm of content; they can include offerings like free shipping or points for purchase. Regardless of which route you choose, ensure that your offerings align with what your audience finds valuable.
If you’re offering exclusive content through any model, it better be just that: exclusive. When potential members hand over a fee or offer up their personal information, they better receive something of value in return.
Here, revisit your buyer personas to determine what content assets need to be created to ensure that your members find value in your site.
Now that you’ve established your membership model and built out your members-only content, it’s time to find the right platform to make your site a success. If you’ve built your existing site on WordPress or Squarespace, there are plug-ins that can make this step super easy.
If you’re not using these platforms, you can choose a third-party provider to enable the membership site for you.
Regardless of which platform you use, your membership site should include the following features:
While there are a lot of membership sites out there, we’ve broken down a few examples that really hit the mark. These include both recognizable names and lesser-known membership sites that provide value to their respective audiences.
Everyone wants to spend less to go further–and that’s what this membership site lets members do. With curated flight offers, this membership site enables users to score flights on the cheap, opening their horizons and closing their wallets.
Offering members up to 90% off flights, the big takeaway from this membership site is the customizable offerings. By providing each member with flights that align with their respective travel interests, Scott’s Cheap Flights creates a personalized experience for members they can’t help but return to.
If agate doesn’t leave your jaw agape, this site may not be for you. If rocks rock your socks, this membership site should be bookmarked in your browser. Members subscribe to a paid model for certification courses, articles, and a thriving forum.
Here, too, much can be learned about growing a membership site, particularly within a niche market. By offering their members content that speaks specifically toward the needs and interests of a specific group, the International Gem Society keeps their members coming back for more.
This membership site is for all the would-be food bloggers out there, as the name suggests. Powered by the expertise of two successful food bloggers, this membership site offers users a forum, as well as course content.
If you’re considering building a membership site, take notes on this forum. Lively and interactive, a community truly is formed on the discussion page of this membership site.
Determining whether your membership site should be paid or free depends on your goals. If you aim to monetize your content, you should subscribe to a paid model. However, if you’re simply attempting to gain credibility and establish yourself as an expert and thought leader in your field, a free subscription may be right for you.
The content you build on your membership site should be specific to your audience. Provide content that of value to your target audience, offering them assets they can’t live without.
These offerings can include infographics, white papers, blogs, podcasts, and other assets that fill holes in your industry’s knowledge base or offer utility to your members. Again, constantly return to the question: What will my members truly value?
Building your membership site doesn’t mean you have to be an expert coder. Sites like WordPress and Squarespace offer plug-ins that can help you migrate your existing site to a membership model. If your platform doesn’t offer plug-ins to streamline this process, consider hiring a developer to help you include a members-only section of your site.
The benefits of membership include creating income, building a community, establishing yourself as an expert, and monetizing your content.
Whether you’re looking to monetize your content or simply solidify yourself as an expert in your field, creating a membership site can add inherent value to your brand.
For a truly successful membership site, however, you must have a clear understanding of your audience. By establishing who you’re trying to reach, you can better identify what they’re trying to reach by subscribing to your membership site.
From there, build out a reserve of content that you can serve up to members at a predetermined cadence to ensure that your offerings live up to their expectations. By setting a cadence, you establish a reliable exchange, further building trust in your site and ideally growing your base.
What’s the best example of a member site you’ve seen?