Firstly, find out whether family or friends could help you. This should be your first port of call, as you can agree to pay the amount back without monthly instalments or interest rates. Do however treat the loan with respect and honor the date you agree to return payment.

If you need to go to a professional body, make sure you do your research to find out which lender is best for you - which lenders offer the best service (for you), competitive rate etc.

You can apply the following questions to research carried out on line, or when speaking with the lender directly:-

1. What types of loans do they offer?
2. Which loan would the lender recommend and why?
3. Does the lender secure loans by assets of the company or by real estate or personal assets?
4. What type or repayments options are available?
5. What criteria are considered when the loan is first submitted? What documentation is required?
6. Are the interest rates and fees negotiable?
7. How long does the process normally take?
8. What other business services does the bank offer?
9. Is online banking available?
10. Find out how the bank will support you, if you take a downturn in your business?
11. What will happen if you miss a payment?
12. Make sure you read and understand all terms and conditions applied to any financial loan – you don’t want to get caught out once you’ve agreed it.

Below are some key pieces of information a lending officer is likely to require:-

1)Cash flow projections
2)Business Plan
3)Current balance sheet and income statement
4)Pro Forma balance sheet, income statement
5)Three year history of all financials

 

Working from home sounds very appealing and is more common nowadays than ever before. Before deciding to set up your business from home you should ask yourself a few questions:-

 

1. Do you have the space at home to run a business?
2. If you

The site has been live now for a couple of weeks and I've obviously been working hard with Emma (marketing) to develop the site, so it has useful content and is easy to navigate. We're getting more users on the site now which is great and our visitors are increasing day by day.

It's important to us that the site is useful to our users, so the screening of content is very important to us. Articles on Search Engine Optimization (SOE), blogging, submitting articles to other sites etc are all useful for you to know about (some of you will be familiar, but some of you will be completely new to it).

Although we see the site for social networking, we want you to stand out from the crowd so we want to help where possible to provide you with the knowledge needed.

It's all going well and very exciting! 

I think getting support from those around you is really important to the success of anyone's business. Having an idea is great, knowing what to do and how to get success is another matter. Lots of plans and hard work go into it and so understanding from those around you is vital. Long hours and commitment are required, which means you can't always be with those you love.

My company has just finished being raped by two firms in Atlanta, 1 a networking group and the other a capitalization group that are supposed to help growing companies raise capital. We shelled out close to $50,000 to these two groups and have been strung along for 6 months on "why this isn't completed"; "we need to do this or that" etc. and we are fed up. Out of it all the first firm at least has introduced us to Angels and VC's that are interested and very serious about investing in our company. However, the 2nd firm (which we were sent to by the 1st firm) was supposed to actually handle the capitalization structure; offering and prepare the investment docs. As you've probably guessed, we paid for this upfront and we still do not have a ppm. We have our own CFO now and have done all the prep work ourselves internally and I don't want to engage another company to prepare the docs unless they are recommended by another entrepreneur. Does any one know of a reputable group to prepare a ppm expediently and introduce our project to additional investors? We have everything ready.