Helio Castroneves has signed a one-year contract extension with Meyer Shank Racing that will bring the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner back for a 26th full IndyCar season.
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The Michigan Supreme Court was urged by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday to rule on whether abortion is protected under the state’s constitution.
Article URL: https://www.centaurlabs.com/open-positions?gh_jid=4156173004
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31654133
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Joe Garcia, the husband of a teacher slain in Salvador Ramos’ attack on Robb Elementary school in Ulvade, Texas, suffered a fatal heart attack on Thursday.
Shopify | Full-time | Remote |
https://shopify.com/careers/2021
Shopify helps people achieve independence by making it easier to start, run, and grow a business. We’re in the business of building useful products that help merchants everywhere. We touch all aspects of business creation—from an online store builder to retail hardware to fulfillment. Bring your big ideas and we’ll make them even bigger.
Check out our open roles:
Lead/Staff Production Engineer – Production Engineering https://smrtr.io/65Jcb
Engineering Program Manager – Data – https://smrtr.io/65JZZ
Production Engineering Manager – https://smrtr.io/65J-C
Senior Frontend Development Manager – https://smrtr.io/64H8z
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Expensify | Software Engineer – React/JS/PHP/ReactNative/Java/C++ | Remote | Full-time|
https://we.are.expensify.com/#workwithus
Join our passionate team of top-notch engineers to solve a real-world problem, and help people spend less time managing expenses and more time pursuing their real goals. As we revolutionize the way people manage their expenses, being part of the Expensify team means building the easiest, fastest, and most efficient platform to automate everything expense-related.
For the best possible fit, we are looking for someone who:
Has experience writing real-world software to solve real-world problems. –
Communicates well, both interpersonally and in their code. Is a natural problem solver, knows how to solve problems by automating their solutions.
Understands the role and impact that programming can have on the organization as a whole.
Wants to develop and grow their skills in programming and leadership within the organization.
We are looking for people who have a strong understanding of algorithms and design patterns that can apply those concepts into a production level codebase. Knowledge and experience with Javascript, React, React Native, PHP, C++, Java, iOS or Android is a plus.
Please visit https://we.are.expensify.com, and we can’t wait to meet you soon!
How can you take your influencer campaign to the next level? You may want to include another angle, such as paid ads. Some of the best marketing campaigns integrate several elements, so potential customers start to see your brand in different places and from different angles.
There are many ways to layer marketing campaigns. Today, we’ll talk about one of those combinations: paid ads with influencer campaigns.
Before we get into the details about how and why you should combine an influencer campaign with paid ads, let’s break down those two elements and learn more about how each one works on its own.
An influencer campaign is about leveraging the influencing power of an internet celebrity or similar with a lot of followers and, as the name implies, “influence.” It’s a kind of word-of-mouth marketing using the fact that people trust the recommendations of others.
During your influencer campaign, the influencer posts about your product or service, sharing their review or recommendations on a blog, social media, or other platforms. This can be in return for free products or services or a fee.
Paid marketing campaigns consist of online ads, like pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns or social media ads. Paid ads are shown to people who search for keywords you include in your campaign or whose demographics you’ve decided to target. This also includes users interested in brands or organizations similar to yours or are otherwise part of your target audience.
To integrate paid ads with influencer campaigns, set up a series of ads showcasing the same products or services the influencer shares in their campaigns. In this way, you are showcasing your product from two sources, connecting with more people.
Think about it from the buyer’s perspective.
First, they see your brand from the influencer. It may be the first time they hear about your brand, but they could decide to learn more since they trust the influencer.
So, then, they may Google your company and read a blog entry. Or, they may see other mentions about your brand from that same influencer or other influencers they trust, giving you more credibility in their minds.
Radha Beauty took a real-time, multi-personality approach to their integrated campaign. Working with Carusele, they partnered with several influencers who created social posts about the beauty brand.
The brand watched which posts were getting the most traffic, then promoted those posts using the platform sponsored ad options to audiences reflecting those posts’ followers’ demographics. Their web traffic exceeded their stated goals.
Schick Intuition used influencers to spread the news about their new razors. In addition to influencers sharing their experiences with the razors and a coupon code to push sales, the company integrated video bumper ads and other in-video ads. They reported an increase of 229 percent for ad recall and a purchase intent rise of 113 percent.
Kettle & Fire worked with influencers to create photographs of their products. Leveraging the talent of those influencers, they gained brand awareness as well as compelling images. They were also able to see how well those images performed and reuse them for Facebook ads.
The most basic reason to integrate a paid ad campaign with your influencer campaign is to cover more ground. It allows people to see your brand more often in a shorter period. The more people see it, the more likely they are to buy.
Statistics vary regarding how many times people need to see an ad or other information about a product before they act on it. Some say it takes seven times, also known as the “Rule of 7.” Still, others say it takes 11 times.
No matter which number you believe, the reality is it’s always more than once.
Buyers aren’t likely to make a move while scrolling through their favorite social media app or catching up on a blog or video stream if seeing a brand for the first or second time. Even if the influencer campaign is engaging and persuasive, statistically speaking, the viewer will probably need to see your brand a few more times.
This is true even if the influencer talks about your product more than once. Most influencer campaigns aren’t prolific.
Paid ads, along with influencer posts, give you the chance to be in front of buyers again and again. This allows you to hit that magical number and potentially make sales.
It’s a timing question too. Think about how you catch up with your favorite influencers on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or blog posts. You’re scrolling and consuming, probably for entertainment alone—you’re probably not shopping. You’re not very likely to stop watching a video to go to an online shop and purchase.
When are you primed to make a purchase? When you go shopping online. For many of us, that starts with a Google search. Before we order a gift for a loved one—or ourselves—we head to a search engine and type in what we’re looking for.
We rarely just type in a URL during our initial searches for items we’re shopping for. Instead, we type in the name of an item. This is the prime place for your ad to appear.
The influencer has already told your potential customer how great you are. Maybe a couple of times. Now the influencer’s fan goes to Google to look up a product in your industry, and there you are with a product they remember seeing.
Even if they didn’t click on the ad, perhaps they see your name next time they’re scrolling on social media, and their curiosity is now piqued enough to give you a click.
It’s also good to think about ad fatigue. To overcome it, users need to see something new. That’s where those paid ads come in. You can showcase much of the same information but in a slightly different way. Even just being an ad on a different platform may make enough of a difference.
If not, you can also try a different approach to your message. Maybe you share more about your product. Maybe you can show it in different styles, flavors, or other variations than the influencer did. The goal is to get the viewer interested in checking out this brand they’ve heard about.
Who should best represent your brand? Influencers who hold your brand’s values and are invested in using and sharing products like yours.
You can use a tool such as Upfluence or, after digging through social media, reach out directly. Once you know where and when they’ll be sharing your products, you can build your plans around theirs.
Placing your ads on the same platforms as the influencer improves people’s chances of seeing your brand more than once. You may also want to think about keyword-driven ads, such as Google ads, to increase your target market’s views. You can target people searching for your influencer as well.
To get the most out of this multichannel approach, you may want to set time parameters reflecting your influencer campaign. This is about reaching the same viewers with your ad, so working within a similar time frame helps assure that.
In the copy and images of your paid ad campaign, you should reflect a lot of what viewers have already seen before to remind them of your brand. You can introduce a new facet of your brand but stay recognizable to those who have seen your brand with the influencer already via similar messaging, product types, and even brand colors.
The short answer to when you should combine an influencer campaign with paid marketing is when you need to get the word out in a short amount of time.
Below, you can find suggestions about when some of these timely campaigns could be.
If a holiday, season, or other deadline drives your sales, integrated marketing campaigns can help you reach a wider audience quickly. This is great for seasonal items intended for use during a specific period. By showing up in influencer posts and ads, you can paint a picture of being everywhere and being the hot item everyone is talking about this year. Influencers may even show what the product looks like in their homes—so if, for instance, you sell Christmas ornaments, they may show them on their trees.
Another good time to think about using multiple campaigns simultaneously is when you launch a new product or service. Getting the word out through various streams can help build brand awareness and provide constant exposure to get people excited about giving you a try.
Much like seasonal products, trendy products have deadlines, albeit abstract ones. Eventually, the trend will dissipate or evolve. If you’re trying to ride the wave of a cultural phenomenon or something happening in society at large, running marketing campaigns while these things are happening may help drive more eyes to your product and let you leverage the popularity while it lasts.
Even if you don’t feel pressed against time, sometimes putting some paid advertising behind an influencer campaign just makes sense. If you have an exciting opportunity with an influencer, you may want to put money and effort behind it to spread the word and leverage that spotlight.
Integrating paid ads with influencer campaigns can help you get the most of the investment you are making in working with that influencer.
By leveraging a multi-channel marketing approach, you can reach more people, more often, with your brand message, increasing the chances and number of conversions. It’s not the only way to get those conversions, but it may be a fruitful one, taking advantage of great content already being created about your brand.
Who is your dream influencer for your next marketing campaign?
The post How to Integrate Paid Ads With Influencer Campaigns appeared first on Neil Patel.
It’s no secret: the world of PPC advertising is not for the faint-hearted. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up throwing money down the drain.
How can you increase the chances of the right people clicking on your ads? You need to learn how to write ad copy that converts.
Thankfully, technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) are here to save the day. AI tools can help you write ad copy that produces results.
Just so we’re on the same page, let’s quickly look at a simple definition of AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a multidisciplinary branch of science that includes machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), deep learning, and many other emerging technologies.
The main benefits of AI when it comes to creating compelling PPC ad copy include:
However, no matter how much data you have at your fingertips and how well you can identify lucrative bids, all that will be to no avail if your ad copy sucks.
AI can help you with that. I’ll show you how below.
Many tools can help you write ad copy. However, many AI-powered tools have one huge advantage: unlike their predecessors that relied on historical data, AI-powered tools give you real-time data. This process allows you to refine your copy to better suit the market situation when the content is created and published.
These are tips that will help optimize your ad copy, whether you’re advertising on Google, Bing, Facebook, or any other of the myriad platforms available.
The very first thing you need to do before writing ad copy is to understand your target audience. The key to successful ad copy is to know not only who your target audience is, but also to know:
In short, understanding your audience will help you understand the intent behind your prospect’s search. Knowing this could help you write personalized ad copy that will resonate with your audience, eliciting a click through to your offer.
It will also help you create ads that are so targeted that only the right people will click on them. Additionally, it will help you write ad copy that addresses any objections your audience may have.
When you know how to write ad copy that speaks directly to your audience, you’ll likely enjoy a reduction in wasted clicks and an increase in your return on ad spend (ROAS).
How do you get to know your audience? This process is where AI shines best.
AI-powered audience research tools like IBM’s Watson are great for helping you with predictive audiences. These consumers may not look anything alike but have some common threads that make them relevant targets for your PPC ads. By processing data from multiple sources, AI helps you understand the type of people you should target with your ads.
These insights help you significantly reduce the risk of ad waste, as your ad copy will be hyper-personalized, making it appealing to the right people. With ad spend steadily increasing across all industries, AI will help ensure that you get a good ROI from your campaigns.
Before you put pen to paper, you must study the competitive environment.
You must conduct competitor research. This data will help you understand (among other things):
The data you get from your competitors’ ad campaigns is invaluable in helping you know how to write ad copy that will perform exceptionally well.
This process is where AI-powered competitor research tools like Adthena come to play.
By gaining insights into your competitors’ PPC activity and market shifts, you’ll be better armed to write compelling PPC ad copy.
The real-time data AI technologies provide may help you gain or keep a corner the market by ensuring you’re up-to-date with trends and news that affect your market audience. Real-time data is also essential when conducting competitor analysis, as any lag in time could result in the competition cornering the market.
Don’t delay to get on the AI bandwagon, especially when it comes to writing ad copy.
Everyone knows keywords are the foundation of every good PPC campaign. Unfortunately, with more businesses vying for the same target audience, relevant keyword opportunities are becoming harder to find.
AI can help.
With the competition for profitable keywords being uber-stiff, normal keyword research just doesn’t cut it anymore. You must leverage AI to help you uncover hidden keyword gems.
This fact is especially true since keyword research for SEO and PPC is not the same. For PPC, your money rides or sinks on the keywords you use. That’s why you must find keywords that will give you a good return when you bid for them.
AI-powered tools like BrightEdge, for example, not only help you discover profitable keywords but are also able to give insight into the intent behind those keywords.
Because they offer real-time data, you are in a better position to write ad copy based on keyword opportunities as they arise. Of course, this will give you an edge over the competition, as your ads will have a better chance of being served to users while keeping your ad spend low.
Saying that your headline is a critical part of your ad copy is an understatement. Its value can never be overstated because it’s your first chance to hook your customers.
If your headers are poorly crafted, users will just scroll past your ad. But if you write your headline well, it will stop them from scrolling so they look at the rest of your ad copy. AI can help you craft headlines that stop people in their tracks by helping you write headlines that result in much-coveted clicks.
A great example is Persado. The AI-powered copywriting tool helped Chase Bank increase the CTR on their ads by as much as 450%. How? By crafting headlines that resonate more with their target audience.
There are AI-powered tools that are designed to help you optimize your headers to elicit users to click on your ads.
The success of your ad campaigns rides on your headlines.
The next part users look at is the ad description.
Next to your headline, your ad description is the most crucial part of your ad copy. While the headline is the hook that grabs your prospect’s attention, your ad description is the sales pitch that gets them to click on your ad.
However, there’s a catch: you have a limited number of characters to use to convince your prospects to click-through to your offer. This means every character counts. It must help elicit a positive reaction from users. That’s why you must make sure you know how to write ad copy that drives clicks.
Fortunately, AI can help you write compelling ad copy.
With AI copywriting tools like Phrasee, you don’t have to guess what kind of copy works.
Using machine learning and gathering data from different platforms, AI copywriting tools have “mastered” the art of writing great ad copy.
Using machine learning (ML), natural language generation (NLG), deep learning, and other technologies, AI-powered copywriting tools can help you create compelling ad copy that stands out from the crowd. AI takes into consideration many facets, such as language, semantics, sentence structure, and a whole lot more to help you create optimized ad copy at scale.
Another great AI-powered ad creation tool you can consider is CopyAI.
Copy AI is designed to take the grunt work out of brainstorming unique ad ideas. It will help you increase your ROAS by helping you come up with relevant audience-based copy that your customers won’t be able to resist. The deep learning platform that powers CopyAI can personalize your ad copy to suit any holiday, occasion, or campaign.
AI-powered copywriting tools are a great way to save time and money as they work faster and more efficiently. And at the end of the day, they’ll help you boost your bottom line.
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a tricky part of writing ad copy. That’s because your CTA is usually made up of 2-5 words to inspire people to take action.
While platforms like Google and Facebook give you some CTA options to choose from as you create your campaigns, it’s always better to create your own CTAs. After all, if you use the options generated by search engines and social media platforms, you won’t stand out from the competition.
Your CTA plays a crucial role in pushing your prospects across the finish line. As such, give it careful consideration. You may get every other element of your ad copy correct, but if your CTA is weak, your hard work will be in vain.
What makes for a strong clickable CTA? One word: personalization.
Different audiences respond differently to CTAs. That’s why you must pay special attention to the language your audience uses and try as much as possible to implement it in your CTAs. This is one area where audience research pays off because it helps you craft personalized CTAs. Studies show that personalized CTAs perform up to 202% better than generic ones.
Note: make sure to create a different CTA for each campaign. Don’t just regurgitate past CTAs, even if they worked well in previous campaigns.
Yes, it may be a lot of work if you do it manually. That’s why you shouldn’t do it manually; use AI instead.
Again, tools like Persado make creating impactful CTAs easier.
Leveraging data such as sentiment analysis (or emotion AI), AI-powered tools help you create CTAs that tug at your prospects’ heartstrings. Of course, every marketer knows that it is easier to loosen your prospects’ purse strings if you can do that.
By leveraging AI in crafting your CTAs, you increase your ad copy’s chances of achieving its goal of boosting your bottom line.
It’s impossible to ignore AI as a digital marketer. It’s everywhere around us. From AI SEO to AI in website design, every facet of digital marketing is becoming more efficient thanks to artificial intelligence.
As a marketer, if you’re looking to know how to write ad copy that converts, you must lean heavily on AI-powered tools to help you. From the planning stage to deployment, AI can help you optimize every part of your PPC ad campaigns.
Though remember: without good ad copy, your ad spend will be wasted. How do you write good ad copy? By using AI.
Sure, AI may not be able to handle the creative side of writing ad copy completely alone. However, it does go a long way in helping you create ad copy that sells.
Are you ready to embrace the power of AI in your ad copy creation?
The post How to Write PPC Ad Copy Using AI appeared first on Neil Patel.
Tapping into new audiences is an incredibly effective way to grow your website traffic.
If you’re expanding your business globally, you may have already considered translating your website into different languages. It can be a great way to monetize your content or sell to people outside your local area.
It’s an exciting thought, but it’s not quite as simple as just hiring someone to translate your website’s pages. Some of the translated pages would likely be similar to the content on your existing pages, leaving you at risk for being penalized by search engines for duplicate content.
Consider the experience of your reader, too. Imagine how quickly they’d leave a site that offers prices and shipping details in the wrong currency or language.
There’s a huge opportunity to grow your business by attracting people in different geographical or language areas, but there is a specific way to guide new users to your site.
The best way to access these new audiences is by using hreflang HTML attribute tags.
Hreflang is an HTML language attribute or code that tells search engines important information about your content by indicating language codes and country codes for each piece of content. This code tells search engines what language and region you’re targeting with the content.
Here are new audiences you could attract using hreflang:
Using hreflang can boost the organic search engine optimization (SEO) on your website and launch your digital marketing outreach to new audiences without costing you domain authority or impacting user experience.
Hreflang allows you to tell search engines which pages to show to which users to show audiences the pages you created just for them. It also gives search engines a clear indication that the content on these pages was not duplicated, but rather, has been customized for different people.
Let’s say your website is written entirely in English, with your local currency noted for products. However, other English speakers in different geographic regions could benefit from your content and offerings.
What if you could show them an alternate version of your website that would automatically reflect their daily currency?
Let’s go a step further. What if you could also translate your content into different languages and then somehow make sure search engines showed the right search result to your target audience?
You can, and while it will take a bit of work to set up, the value of showing visitors what they want to see can be a significant boost to your rankings.
Want to learn more about getting international visitors to your content? Watch this video:
You should use these tags when you want to offer the correct version of your website to groups you can identify and separate by language or geographical region.
This could include having your entire site content translated into different languages, just portions of it translated, or indicating that you have alternate versions of your site with other currencies.
For example, Canadian, American, and British English are the same language but have different currencies.
This tactic is best for companies that have a good reason to be accessing international markets. For instance, you can monetize the traffic, sell directly to those visitors, or creating a global brand.
If this sounds like your company, it might be time to invest in creating a global SEO strategy.
Your website can benefit from hreflang tags in three critical ways:
The world is full of people who may not share your first language but are still valuable readers for your content. What about Spanish-, Hindi-, or Mandarin-speaking users?
There is a substantial global audience you could be reaching, but to do so, you’ll need to find ways to offer them versions of your content that is optimized for their experience.
When these readers can access a personalized version of your content, they’re more likely to stay on your site longer, reading more pages, which reduces your overall bounce rate.
However, you need to tread carefully any time you create similar content, even in another language. Use hreflang to match the correct piece of content to what the user wants to see.
A valid hreflang attribute might look like this:
link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com” hreflang=”en-us” />
What does successful implementation look like? There are few things to consider when setting up hreflang for your site content. If any of these steps are not complete, your tags will not work.
Start by doing a site audit to map out what you have already done to target new languages or regions. Include your existing content and any pages you have already translated.
Next, check your analytics and see who else is visiting your website, where they’re from, and the language settings in their browsers. Making decisions based on audiences already finding your site will help your changes have a larger impact.
Decide if your entire site needs to be shown in alternate languages. Would it be enough to have your home page or just your contact information and your footer changed? This can help you decide where to focus your time and resources.
Next, you’ll need to choose the correct codes to create your tags. There are established language codes and country codes, so be sure you’re verifying as you go.
When creating codes, remember that you’ll need a language or country code. This means that you could simply choose a language code, but you’ll never just have a country code by itself.
Remember that you may not know every country you need to target, so it’s also good to have just a language code. This allows you to offer French content for people in France and a French version to capture French-speaking users from any other country.
You’ll need to be sure that you show the correct relationship between tags, which means understanding self-referential and bidirectional hreflang attribute references.
You can implement valid hreflang attributes in one of three ways:
There are a few handy resources to tackle hreflang tags on your site content. This is by no means a complete list, but they’ll come in handy as you move ahead. Remember that different platforms will have specific instructions for implementation, so reference those before you begin.
Yes, they should be used together, as they perform different functions. Canonical tags tell search engines which URL is the official or canonical version of a page and which page should be indexed. Hreflang tags tell search engines what language and region a page is targeting.
Common errors include using the wrong language code or country code, trying to use a code for too large a region (like using the EU instead of GBR), forgetting to make versions self-referential, or forgetting that pages need to be bidirectional.
Another area challenge is maintaining valid hreflang attributes once they are set up. As content is added to or removed from the site, or redirects are created within your existing content, hreflang tags must be updated.
Hreflang code attributes are a guide for search engines, not a guaranteed function. All it can do is suggest which pages search engines should display based on a user’s browser settings.
Additionally, while it works with Google and Yandex, it does not work for others such as Bing and Baidu, so look into options and instructions for each.
Hreflang can be a useful tool to tell search engines what language your site is written in, and what region you’re targeting with a particular piece of content.
Implementing hreflang tags can help you reach international audiences with content or offerings. Need help deciding if hreflang could work for you? It might be time to get help with your digital marketing strategy.
Hreflang is not easy to implement but can expand your reach and boost your organic SEO far beyond what your website is doing today.
Just remember to create a plan that avoids common pitfalls and double-check your tags after implementation and every few months.
Which language or region would you target first using hreflang attributes?
The post Hreflang: A Beginner’s Guide to Targeting Languages and Regions appeared first on Neil Patel.
Are you looking for funding from Rapid Advance? They’ve changed their name – so welcome to our Rapid Finance review.
Rapid Advance is one of several lending companies online. They offer short term loans (MCA, also known as merchant cash advances) and more. We look at the specifics and drill down into the details.
Note: due to the COVID-19 health crisis, Rapid Finance is not offering loans at this time. But this lender does not appear to be going out of business.
Rapid Finance Review: Background
Rapid Finance is located online here: https://www.rapidfinance.com/. Their physical address is:
4500 East West Highway
6th Floor
Bethesda, MD 20814.
You can call them at: (800) 664-0173. Their contact page is here: https://www.rapidfinance.com/contact-us/. They have been in business since 2005.
Small Business Term Loans
$5,000 – $1 million is available in funding. The terms are 3 to 60 months. Your business needs to be generating revenue.
You will need to supply a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license), a void check from your business banking account, and the last three statements from your business bank account.
Merchant Cash Advances
A range of $5,000 – $500,000 is available in funding.
You will need to supply a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license), a void check from your business banking account, your last three credit card processing statements, and the last three statements from your business bank account.
Bad credit is no problem.
SBA Loans
$30,000 – $250,000 is available in funding. The terms are 1 to 10 years.
You will need to supply a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license), a void check from your business banking account, the last three statements from your business bank account, two years of business tax returns, and your schedule of debts.
Rapid Finance also offers bridge loans, lines of credit, asset-based financing, and invoice factoring.
Rapid Finance Review: Advantages
Advantages are a few choices for loan types. The maximum amounts available are high. Rapid Finance has also been in the online lending space for longer than most of the players in this industry.
Rapid Finance Review: Disadvantages
Disadvantages are that the documentation requirements can be a bit extensive.
An Alternative to Rapid Finance
Why, it’s business credit, of course! Business credit is an asset which can help your small business for years to come.
The Process
Building corporate credit is a process, and it does not happen without effort. A corporation will need to actively work to build business credit. Nevertheless, it can be done easily and quickly, and it is much swifter than establishing consumer credit scores. Merchants are a big part of this process.
Doing the steps out of sequence will cause repetitive denials. Nobody can start at the top with business credit. For example, you can’t start with store or cash credit from your bank. If you do, you’ll get a rejection 100% of the time.
Company Credibility
A small business has to be reliable to loan providers and merchants. As a result, a small business will need a professional-looking web site and email address, with site hosting bought from a vendor like GoDaddy. In addition business phone and fax numbers ought to have a listing on ListYourself.net.
Also the company phone number should be toll-free (800 exchange or the equivalent).
A company will also need a bank account devoted purely to it, and it has to have all of the licenses essential for operation. These licenses all have to be in the correct, appropriate name of the company, with the same company address and telephone numbers. Keep in mind that this means not just state licenses, but potentially also city licenses.
Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.
Working with the IRS
Visit the Internal Revenue Service website and obtain an EIN for the company. They’re totally free. Choose a business entity such as corporation, LLC, etc. A business can get started as a sole proprietor but will more than likely wish to switch to a type of corporation or partnership to decrease risk and optimize tax benefits.
A business entity will matter when it concerns tax obligations and liability in the event of litigation. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and taxes. No one else is responsible.
If you are a sole proprietor at the very least be sure to file for a DBA. If you do not, then your personal name is the same as the corporate name. Therefore, you can end up being directly accountable for all business financial obligations.
Plus, according to the Internal Revenue Service, using this structure there is a 1 in 7 chance of an IRS audit. There is a 1 in 50 chance for corporations! Avoid confusion and significantly reduce the odds of an IRS audit simultaneously.
But you should see any DBA filing as a steppingstone to incorporating, which is best for business credit building.
Starting the Business Credit Reporting Process
Start at the D&B website and obtain a cost-free DUNS number. A DUNS number is how D&B gets a small business into their system, to generate a PAYDEX score. If there is no DUNS number, then there is no record and no PAYDEX score.
Once in D&B’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s websites for the business. You can do this at https://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. This way, Experian and Equifax will have activity to report on.
Trade Lines
First you ought to establish trade lines that report. This is also referred to as vendor accounts. Then you’ll have an established credit profile, and you’ll get a business credit score.
And with an established business credit profile and score you can start obtaining revolving store and cash credit.
These sorts of accounts often tend to be for the things bought all the time, like 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 normally Net 30, versus 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, such as within 30 days on a Net 30 account.
Details
Net 30 accounts have to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts must be paid fully within 60 days. Unlike with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you have to pay back what you borrowed or the credit you made use of.
To launch your business credit profile the proper way, you ought to get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting bureaus. As soon as that’s done, you can then use the credit.
Then repay what you used, and the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.
Not every vendor can help like true starter credit can. These are vendors that will grant an approval with hardly any effort. You also want them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.
Revolving Store Credit
Once there are 3 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, progress to revolving store credit. These are companies such as Office Depot and Staples. These companies are likelier to have products you need.
Use the business’s EIN on these credit applications.
Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.
Fleet Credit
Are there more accounts reporting? Then progress to fleet credit. These are businesses like BP and Conoco. Use this credit to buy fuel, and to repair and maintain vehicles. Make certain to apply using the corporation’s EIN.
Cash Credit
Have you been responsibly managing the credit you’ve gotten up to this point? Then move onto more universal cash credit. These are service providers such as Visa and MasterCard. Keep your SSN off these applications; use your EIN instead.
These are usually MasterCard credit cards. If you have more trade accounts reporting, then these are attainable.
Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans.
Monitor Your Business Credit
Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and fix any mistakes ASAP. Get in the practice of checking credit reports. Dig into the specifics, not just the scores.
We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for 90% less. Update the details if there are mistakes or the info is incomplete.
Disputing Inaccuracies
So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to dispute any mistakes in your records. Mistakes in your credit report(s) can be taken care of. But the CRAs often want you to dispute in a particular way.
Disputing credit report inaccuracies typically means you send a paper letter with copies of any proof of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never send the originals. Always mail copies and retain the originals.
Disputing credit report errors also means you specifically itemize any charges you dispute. Make your dispute letter as crystal clear as possible. Be specific about the problems with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you mailed in your dispute.
A Word about Business Credit Building
Always use credit sensibly! Don’t borrow beyond what you can pay off. Keep an eye on balances and deadlines for repayments. Paying in a timely manner and fully will do more to raise business credit scores than pretty much anything else.
Establishing company credit pays. Good business credit scores help a small business get loans. Your credit issuer knows the small business can pay its debts. They understand the small business is authentic. The small business’s EIN links to high scores, and lenders won’t feel the need to demand a personal guarantee.
Rapid Finance Review: Takeaways
The companies which will do the best with Rapid Finance will tend to have entrepreneurs with decent personal credit scores and a considerable time in business. These companies will also have fairly high annual revenues.
The businesses which might not do so well will have been in business for too short an amount of time, or not have sufficient annual revenues. Companies not needing a lot in funding would probably do better going elsewhere.
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 carefully. And decide whether Rapid Finance 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.
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