Business Tips

Sexy Women Close the Deal: 9 Tips to Being a Boss Lady

October 31, 2018 Tiffani

Countless career women of the new millennium have had the New York Times best seller Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers by Lois Frankel on their shelves for years, including myself.

The book came out in 2004, but since social media has taken off and provided more of an outlet of expression for workplace frustration, it is time to update Frankel’s observations with some downright truths that we’ve learned from the average work woman’s Facebook feed, social media rant reports and meme culture – the window into the modern woman’s soul. In fact, this woman doesn’t just want the corner office. She wants the whole office, as in she is far more enterprising now than in 2004.

Here are nine tips to get and keep the corner office and/or open your own.

Four Ways Not to End Up Like Sears

October 26, 2018 Tiffani

sears bankrupt, global business lending. open bankruptcy, merchnat cash advance

The bankruptcy filing of 142-year old-Sears should give all business men and women pause. They need to reflect on the state of their businesses to ensure their organizations are not headed for the same unpleasant fate.

Even in failure, there are important lessons to be learned so as to avoid the same undesirable outcome.

Sears found itself under-capitalized, a paucity of ready cash, over-leveraged with massive unsustainable debt, and with limited appeal to a young, fickle, tech-savvy consumer.

Unable to adequately address these three strikes, they filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization.

It remains to be seen if they will re-emerge as a leaner more profitable institution.

Why You Need a Business Checking Account

August 31, 2018 Tiffani

After incorporation, you need to open a business checking account separate and apart from your personal checking account.

This is done by taking your articles of incorporation to your local bank with all potential signers on the account.

For small businesses, it is advisable that you have at least two signers on the account in the case of illness or unavailability of one party.

As your business grows, it is advisable that you require two signatures on each check to guard against fraud and mishandling of funds.

It is suggested that you do business with a major national bank like Bank of America, Chase or CitiBank. These companies have the financial resources and strength to address your needs as your business grows more so than regional banks and credit unions.

It is also invokes a good mental image for a potential investor or customer.

Resist the urge to deal in a lot of cash transactions because, first of all, it draws of the attention of IRS and bank auditors. Secondly, cash is always subject to be mishandled either by theft or error. A documented paper trail is what investors will want to see on bank statements when they underwrite you for a loan.

Finally, you should always maintain a sizable bottom line balance in your checking account because it protects you from overdraft charges, possible closure of your account for too may returned items and ensures the bank manager that you are a viable, established entity.

Even though it may be inconvenient, you also should verify the validity of each check before depositing into your account. This will prevent headaches for you, your bank and your bookkeeper.

Post-Hurricane Business Survival Loans

September 15, 2017 Tiffani

Greetings to you all!

As our region was just pummeled by one of the strongest storms in Florida history, we – at Global Business Lending– have recovered and our South Florida office has been restored to full power.

Ain’t no mountain high enough.

Ain’t no valley low enough.

Ain’t no river wide enough.

Can keep us from funding your business.

But, seriously, as a Florida-based business, we too know the struggle of our business being out of commission for days – whether it be due to power loss (like ourselves), closed roads because of fallen trees, building or equipment damage, gas shortage or employees unable to make it to work.

We are Florida. Yet, we are #FloridaStrong. Thus, Global Business Lending remains committed to our mantra – we are the true advocates for the small business owner. Subsequently, we would like to assist as many businesses who have been victims of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston, Texas area and Hurricane Irma in Florida in securing working capital this season.

Here are 3 ideas for you to obtain fast capital that should help out during this tough period in business:

Have a Set Plan on How you Can Grow Quickly in 0-4 Months

We specialize in fast funding and we can secure emergency funds for your business within 48 hours of your request. The only catch is these funds must be used for things that will bring an immediate return on your investment. This is short-term financing which you must see as jump-start capital for your post-hurricane needs. Here are some examples. Fix a piece of equipment that was damaged due to flying debris. Fix a leaky roof in your restaurant so you can re-open in a few days. Hire or enable your human resources to manage an overflow of business due to the hurricane aftermath. Whatever it is, ensure you have a clear, set plan to use these funds. This way, our investors are encouraged to lend you the funds you need as quickly as you need them.

Demonstrate Strong Revenue Before the Hurricane

Whether your business may have had to shut its doors several days before the hurricane and/or several days after the hurricane, we definitely know your current revenue has been impacted by the storm.

Still, in order to be pre-approved for alternative loans like the ones we offer, your business must demonstrate a minimum of $6,000 in deposits monthly (at least for the last three months), very few negative days and a stable average daily balance in your business checking account. This may be hard to do since the storm because your clients haven’t paid you, your store had to remain shut, or you had to dip into your bank account more than usual to pay for unforeseen expenses.

If this is the case, we can still help you if you can 1) demonstrate consistent revenue in the months prior to the storm (whether that be 3-6 months before or even this time last year), 2) keep your current daily bank balance at least over $500 or 3) do anything to demonstrate income for the current month even if you have to make cash deposits yourself into your business bank account. Do these things and we will work hard on your side to get an investor interested in funding your business quickly.

Be Okay With a Starter Offer

For some of you mid-sized businesses, we would genuinely love to offer you large amounts of capital to get you through this rough patch. However, as sad as it is to say, our investors and partners view hurricane victims as very high lending risks at this time. Therefore, in this lending environment, they just aren’t doling out cash to Houston and Florida businesses as they were in months past. Some are even shutting their doors on you.

Still, we know your potential to bounce back because we’re in the same boat (forgive the pun ;-). And, because of that, we won’t stop fighting on your behalf as long as you meet us half way.

Every Houston business owner, every Florida business owner, it is our commitment to still get you an offer – BUT are you willing to accept a lower-than-average offer JUST FOR NOW?

Our advice: Take what you can get now. And, once you get over this hump, we will work hard to renew your loan a few months from now for something much larger. This way, at the very least, you’ve got your emergency funds now so you can keep trucking along like Hurricane Harvey or Irma never happened.

Bottom-line. We’re on your side. Let us help you help yourselves!

10 Biz Facts for Small Business Week

May 1, 2017 Tiffani

This week marks the start of the official Small Business Week courtesy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Here are 10 facts you may or may not have known about small businesses in the United States.

Small businesses account for about half of all private-sector jobs in the United States, employing almost 58 million Americans.
Miami is the No. 2 city for minority entrepreneurs in the United States.
We fund small businesses in United States and Canada anywhere from $2,000 to $ 3 million.
This year, the Small Business Administration named Florida Business of the Year — South Dade Air Conditioning and Refrigeration of Homestead, Florida. President is Paul Morrow.
We love to fund AC sales and repair companies. Those companies have very consistent cash flow in Florida and are easy to predict their future receivables, which is what we use to factor funding amount, payback and terms.
Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of American’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. Donald Trump was no exception, as he proclaimed the week to span from April 30 to May 6, 2007.
A family-owned steel and manufacturing firm,QMF Steel, Inc., from Campbell, Texas and IO Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned environmental remediation and construction firm from San Diego, California, have been named the National Prime Contractor of the Year and National Subcontractor of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Our favorite clients at Global Business Lending are construction companies and contractors. They are clients who need quick working capital who we can fund in less than 3 days. They even pay us back early sometimes due to the high-profit margins they have for their services.
One of New York’s fast-growing small businesses was started by an ex-con who used his prison workouts to launch a small fitness studio called Con Body. Even tragedy can result in triumph for a small business owner.
We love small businesses here at Global Business Lending…like ice cream loves cake, like sushi loves wasabi, like Prince William loves Kate. See if your small business can score a pre-approval with us today.

Top 5 Ways to Prep your Small Business for the Holiday Rush

October 19, 2016 Tiffani

Sleighbells. Cranberry sauce. Christmas trees. Dreidels. The holidays are fast approaching and, for a small business, they are technically already here. If you’re just reading this, you literally have days to get in to gear. Act now!

9 Apps to Solve my Small Business’s Ninety-Nine Problems

September 9, 2016 Tiffani

block_1 A small business can go in and out of binds and lurches daily; however, in 2016, these problems can be solved more and more by the use of integrative digital devices and technology applications. We’ve compiled 9 of the most common problems we have heard voiced by small businesses with which we work and…today’s your lucky day…we have found a solution for each by employing 9 very useful applications. They all can be downloaded on computers, tablets and smart phones.

Here are the 9 apps to solve a businesses’s most common 99 problems:

1. You need a digital copy of my biz docs? What? CamScanner or Scannable for IOS platforms are great mobile apps designed to make high quality document scanning easy for you using your smart phone. Say, you need to take a quick scan of your social security card, your business ownership docs or your W2s, these apps are much better than just taking a mere photo with your phone. These scanning apps are really quite sophisticated, making it easy to scan multiple pages into one document or to auto-crop the image to exactly what you wish to keep. Cost: FREE

2. I have a really hard time communicating with my staff. Download Slack. It’s best when you can use an internal messaging system for your team that they can download onto their desktops and smart phones and use on the go. Slack is just that! You can invite your staff to join your work team and can remove them if they ever separate from the company. Sharing documents is also as easy as 123. Slack enables you to share all types of files, even those stored outside of the solution itself. Cost: FREE

3. I don’t have an accountant. You may not have an accountant on staff yet, but that doesn’t mean you’re not empowered to do your own bookkeeping. If you’re looking for an easy way to track your sales and expenses or balance your bank accounts, QuickBooks’s accounting software will help and it’s easy. You can also use it to view profit-and-loss reports, pay your employees and vendors and track unpaid invoices. It connects directly to accounts like your business bank account, credit cards, PayPal and Square and uploads the data from these sources right onto its platform. COST: Free Trial $13/month

4. I need to check RIGHT NOW if my account has gone negative. Then, you definitely need to download one of the mobile banking apps provided by the 100+ U.S. banks for their customers. Some of the banks that have some of the better mobile apps are Capital One, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, CitiBank, TD Dank, USBank, BB&T, SunTrust and PNC. With these apps, you can check your balance in seconds, transfer funds, verify if a deposit was made and contact a customer service agent at the touch of your fingertips. It’s super beneficial when applying for a merchant cash advance or when you need to verify financial records quickly. Time delays business. So, the amount of time it may take you to get in front of a computer to go online, or worse yet, walk into a branch, your mobile app could have saved the day. COST: FREE

5. I don’t have a record of all my kajillion passwords. – Evernote helps keep them all in one place. Which super genius is going to remember his password for Capital One and for AT&T and for Apple ID and for LinkedIn and for all other online portals that keep his life together? With Evernote, you can clip bits and pieces of information from the web, tag them for easy searching, and alter any of them by adding to it, condensing it, or embedding pictures, tables, audio, video, and the like. COST: FREE

6. I need to scale my biz by hiring qualified staff quickly. – Indeed. Nuff said. With over 100 million unique visitors per month, Indeed is the quickest and most affordable job advertisement site around. If you’re looking for quick responses from quality candidates, it definitely beats LinkedIn, Monster, Careerbuilder and even Craigslist. It has an easy-to-use interface, info on company and industry trends, and it’s free to post on their site. Indeed posts your openings on Twitter and Facebook also at no cost. It offers a pay-per-click service that posts your job on over 25,000 partner sites, charging you only when a candidate clicks to view your post. COST: FREE to post

7. I need some quick cash in my business account and my credit card is all I have. Venmo is your answer. While you may have to pay upwards of 20 percent to get a cash advance from your credit card when you’re in a bind, Venmo is a new online payment system similar to PayPal but works MUCH faster. While you may have to wait for 3 days for a PayPal transaction to hit your account, Venmo payments hit next day. Here’s a trick: Request the cash you need from your business partner. Have them pay you with your business credit card. The cash hits your account the next day and you only get charged 3% by Venmo. COST: FREE

8. I wish I could update my social media by ONLY going to one place. Well, HootSuite is the tool of choice for many social media professionals and small businesses. Using HootSuite, you can send out the exact same message to every platform – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and others – at one time. Whether that means a particular sale, promo or company announcement, you’d like to make across social media, it saves loads of time for a busy business owner. Cost: FREE for 5 social profiles

9.Rats! I left an important doc on my work computer. TeamViewer is your first option. It gives you access to a computer from another device. Just download it on that computer and leave it running. Remote desktop access, hands down, is a necessity to keep in touch with the files on your desktop and manage them from any possible location. It also helps your IT guy help you troubleshoot your issues remotely. Being able to log into your office computer when you’re at home or on-the-go makes an entrepreneur’s life so much easier. Just use your tablet or phone and you have access to all of your work docs and then can email them to yourself or another. COST: FREE

Here’s the infographic for you to share: