Whether you are experienced with managing traditional brick and mortar companies or if you are entirely new to the online and tech start up industry it is important to look into finding professional guidance to help getting any business model off of the ground. Building an online business with a mentor by your side is a way to move forward with plans you have in place with confidence and excitement.Determine Your NeedsBefore seeking out an expert online mentor it is imperative to consider the needs you have with running your business and what you most require help with during day-to-day management tasks. Understanding the type of assistance you require is a way to scope out mentors who have experience in similar industries and specialize in the areas you need help focusing on more professionally while running your business.Create a Business Plan and OutlineCreate a business plan and outline to review in-depth the overall methods of reaching consumers, the demographics and how you plan to offer your content, products or services to those who are genuinely interested in following your brand and company. Having a business plan ready when seeking out a business mentor that is right for you is a way to ensure you are selecting the right professional to come on board to provide additional guidance throughout your journey.Having a business plan thoroughly complete can help to expedite the process once you begin comparing online mentors who specialize in businesses and assisting entrepreneurs, ultimately allowing you to save time when implementing new strategies.Things to Look for in an Online Business MentorWhen you have made the decision to hire an online mentor that specializes in business it is important to review various things to look for in an online business mentor that is right for you and the future growth of your company.Review the experience any online mentors have that is relevant to the type of industry or market you are currently working in. Finding a business mentor with more experience in your market and industry gives you the competitive edge when developing strategies and continuously building the audience and demographic you are targeting.It is also important to review past experience, education and credentials of the business mentors you are working with online. Reviewing portfolios and past positions gives you more options when you have multiple choices while searching for a business mentor who specializes in building, managing and growing online businesses.Talking to an online mentor who specializes in business is also recommended when you want to work with someone who meshes well with your own personal attitude and approach to managing your business. Although mentors are likely to provide advice and help with decisions it is ideal to work with a professional who shares similar goals and visions for your company to work well with one another.Check Official Websites, Portfolios and Professional Communities Once you have found an online mentor you believe in who understands and want to help your business it is also highly advisable to search for more information about the professional prior to making a decision. Check official websites, portfolios and even professional communities to verify the experience and credibility the mentor claims to have before making a decision.Asking for referrals from those who have worked with the mentor in business online is another way to feel confident and reassured when moving forward in creating new plans, strategies and marketing campaigns for your online company or eCommerce store.Working with the right expert online mentor is a method of gaining insight into how to properly manage and grow your business while also learning about various aspects of handling all decisions for your company in the future. Understanding the benefits of working with an online business mentor is ideal when you are determined to outperform competitors and become a true leader of your own destiny.
Business Loans In Canada: Financing Solutions Via Alternative Finance & Traditional Funding
Business loans and finance for a business just may have gotten good again? The pursuit of credit and funding of cash flow solutions for your business often seems like an eternal challenge, even in the best of times, let alone any industry or economic crisis. Let’s dig in.
Since the 2008 financial crisis there’s been a lot of change in finance options from lenders for corporate loans. Canadian business owners and financial managers have excess from everything from peer-to-peer company loans, varied alternative finance solutions, as well of course as the traditional financing offered by Canadian chartered banks.
Those online business loans referenced above are popular and arose out of the merchant cash advance programs in the United States. Loans are based on a percentage of your annual sales, typically in the 15-20% range. The loans are certainly expensive but are viewed as easy to obtain by many small businesses, including retailers who sell on a cash or credit card basis.
Depending on your firm’s circumstances and your ability to truly understand the different choices available to firms searching for SME COMMERCIAL FINANCE options. Those small to medium sized companies ( the definition of ‘ small business ‘ certainly varies as to what is small – often defined as businesses with less than 500 employees! )
How then do we create our road map for external financing techniques and solutions? A simpler way to look at it is to categorize these different financing options under:
Debt / Loans
Asset Based Financing
Alternative Hybrid type solutions
Many top experts maintain that the alternative financing solutions currently available to your firm, in fact are on par with Canadian chartered bank financing when it comes to a full spectrum of funding. The alternative lender is typically a private commercial finance company with a niche in one of the various asset finance areas
If there is one significant trend that’s ‘ sticking ‘it’s Asset Based Finance. The ability of firms to obtain funding via assets such as accounts receivable, inventory and fixed assets with no major emphasis on balance sheet structure and profits and cash flow ( those three elements drive bank financing approval in no small measure ) is the key to success in ABL ( Asset Based Lending ).
Factoring, aka ‘ Receivable Finance ‘ is the other huge driver in trade finance in Canada. In some cases, it’s the only way for firms to be able to sell and finance clients in other geographies/countries.
The rise of ‘ online finance ‘ also can’t be diminished. Whether it’s accessing ‘ crowdfunding’ or sourcing working capital term loans, the technological pace continues at what seems a feverish pace. One only has to read a business daily such as the Globe & Mail or Financial Post to understand the challenge of small business accessing business capital.
Business owners/financial mgrs often find their company at a ‘ turning point ‘ in their history – that time when financing is needed or opportunities and risks can’t be taken. While putting or getting new equity in the business is often impossible, the reality is that the majority of businesses with SME commercial finance needs aren’t, shall we say, ‘ suited’ to this type of funding and capital raising. Business loan interest rates vary with non-traditional financing but offer more flexibility and ease of access to capital.
We’re also the first to remind clients that they should not forget govt solutions in business capital. Two of the best programs are the GovernmentSmall Business Loan Canada (maximum availability = $ 1,000,000.00) as well as the SR&ED program which allows business owners to recapture R&D capital costs. Sred credits can also be financed once they are filed.
Those latter two finance alternatives are often very well suited to business start up loans. We should not forget that asset finance, often called ‘ ABL ‘ by those Bay Street guys, can even be used as a loan to buy a business.
If you’re looking to get the right balance of liquidity and risk coupled with the flexibility to grow your business seek out and speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor with a track record of business finance success who can assist you with your funding needs.
How Do I Start An Online Business And Make Money Online?
Many people have heard that you can make a lot of money by having your own online business and their first and biggest concern is how do I start an online business? This is a very good question and the good news is that it can be done in a few simple steps.The keys to achieving and enjoying long term ongoing success however are to continue learning more and better ways to improve and grow your business. This will help your business to continue getting better and better results, which will also allow you to start earning more and more money as well.One of the first things that you will need to decide on is which business model would you like to start with? For most people the easiest and quickest online business model to work with is an affiliate marketing business model. This will require the least amount of investment to start and has the potential for providing you with relatively quick results.This is the model that we will be covering in this article. However just about everything that you will learn for an affiliate marketer business model, you can also apply it to any other online business model as well.When looking to answer the question ‘how do I start an online business’ there are some key fundamental things that you should learn which will help you start seeing success as quickly as possible, things such as:How to do market research – this will allow you to check the profitability of any potential market that you may wish to pursue. You will also need to learn how to determine the strength of the competition that is already doing business in that market. If you find that the competition is too strong for new businesses, you can either pick a different market or find a sub niche, which is a smaller segment of that market.
keyword research – This is where you will want to identify ‘buyer’ keywords or the best type of keywords for your market. You will also need to choose keywords that do not have a lot of competition but that do get a good amount of search volume.
search engine optimization (SEO) – This will allow you to configure your site and your content so that they are search engine friendly. Which will allow you to rank well in the search engine results pages and get free search engine traffic to your site.- Site setup and configuration – This can be a very quick and easy process when you are using WordPress as your content management system. WordPress has made it possible for anyone to be able to setup and configure a fully functional online business website with little or no technical knowledge or background.marketing and promoting – This is one of the most important determining factors to your online businesses success. This should include everything that you learn about SEO, things like optimizing your content and link building however you should also be learning and using other forms of marketing as well.
For example you should also be doing social media marketing as well as email marketing and you may want to try search engine marketing or pay per click marketing as well.Now to answer the question ‘how do I start an online business’ here are the basic steps that you will need to take:1.) Make a list of things that you feel strongly about. This will help you to choose a business opportunity or market that you are passionate about and will enjoy working in.2.) Next you will need to do market research for each item on your list and select a potentially profitable market for you to start your business in.3.) Once you have found a potentially profitable market to start a business in, you will then need to do ‘keyword research’ to get a list of keywords that you can create your content around. This is how you will be able to attract interested visitors to your site.4.) Now its time to get your domain and hosting account setup so that you can install your site and load your content. Hostgator is a great provider for hosting services because they have very competitive prices and excellent support and customer service. And Namecheap is a great provider of quality service as well, for registering your domain.5.) The last step is to submit your site to the search engines and start your on going link building and marketing campaign.Initially this may seem like a lot to do but the key is to plan your work and work your plan until your online business is an online success. By doing this others will look at your success and then ask you, how do I start an online business, and you will be able to smile and confidently explain the entire process to them as well.