Category Archives: Entrepreneurs

Credit card debt consolidation through balance transfer

Posted by on June 14, 2011 Comments Off

If you have numerous credit cards with high interest rates, credit card debt consolidation must be the best way for you to pay off your debts. Debt consolidation helps you to lower the interest rate on your debts and reduces the number of credit cards that you are required to handle. Managing payments on numerous credit cards with high interest rate becomes quite a problem and so credit card debt consolidation provides you the relief from this.

Balance transfer method

There are in general two ways in which you can consolidate your credit cards. You can try consolidating the credit cards that you have on your own or else you can get help from a credit card consolidation company.

The processes through which you can consolidate your credit cards on your own are known as the DIY or “do it yourself” consolidation. Now, in this process too there are three options for you. You can consolidate the credit cards through balance transfer. You can take out a secured consolidation loan or else you can also try to get an unsecured credit consolidation loan.

In case of getting the consolidation loan, it is important for you to have a good credit. The lender will definitely check your credit before actually giving you the loan. In order to get a loan with low interest rate, it is important for you to maintain good credit. Thus, if you are already in a constrained situation in regards to your finances, you may have missed payments and thus you may not have a perfect credit.

In that case you can opt for balance transfer. The balance transfer is the method through which you transfer the balance from all the other credit cards to one credit card that you have and that has a low interest rate as compared to the other ones.

Balance transfer and its advantages

There are some advantages in regards to credit card debt consolidation in regards to balance transfer and these are:

1.Lowers the interest rate – Balance transfer like any other credit card consolidation method lowers the interest rate on your consolidated debt.

2.Lowers your monthly payment – When you transfer the balances from all the high interest rated credit cards to a low interest rate credit card, the interest rate obviously lowers. As a result, your monthly payment amount lowers too.

However, there are some disadvantages or rather cons involved with balance transfer too. if you close down the other credit card accounts at the same time after balance transfer, the available credit limit suddenly lowers at once and the credit uses gets high in comparison to the credit limit. So, it is better to avoid closing down all of the accounts at the same time.

Financing Options for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

Posted by on February 20, 2009 Comments Off

Jim Antill
Creative Commons License photo credit: Logan Antill

There are many risks involved when Early-Stage companies begin seeking loans from a bank; however, in order to understand the risks involved, one must understand what a bank really is. A bank is defined as a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities. The Federal Reserve regulates institutional banks such as Bank of America, Wachovia, local banks etc. Due to these regulations, banks assure fair lending practices, protection of assets for those who have deposited money with them, and rates that can be charged to a borrower. Most people believe that debt financing only comes from banks like this, or institutional lenders, and that equity financing comes from private or institutional investors. With Angel Investing, however, there are many ways to participate.

Private investors can provide capital in a debt vehicle. This allows private investors to play the role of a bank, but without the fiduciary restrictions of operating under Federal Reserve Regulations. Read more »

Acquisition/Investment in Indian Companies by Foreign & Domestic Investors – Six Steps Mantra

Posted by on February 11, 2009 Comments Off

Kamal Nath
Creative Commons License photo credit: apesphere

Acquisition/Investment in Indian Companies by Foreign & Domestic Investors – Six Steps Mantra

Joint ventures, strategic alliances and acquisitions are the flavor of the day that enable fast growth focused companies to have rapid inorganic growth and expansion in new sectors. However, prior to engaging in a joint venture relationship or acquisition of an operating Indian company (“Investee company”), either by way of private placement, or secondary market, or subscription of substantial equity share capital, it is advisable for the Investor to carefully and stringently undertake the following six step mantra to avoid future surprises and heartburns:

(i) Due Diligence/Operations Audit: Extensive legal and financial due diligence of the Investee company is advisable to assess Investee company’s track record in compliance with Indian laws, statutory obligations and regulations applicable to it. The due diligence exercise (which usually takes between three (3) to four (4) weeks depending on availability of documents) not only enables the Investor to assess potential liabilities, evaluate unknown and potential, disclosed or undisclosed liabilities but also enables the Investor to assess the feasibility and viability of the proposed acquisition and rationalize enterprise valuation. If required, Investor can demand creation of an escrow account for safe deposit of a part of the acquisition cost, parked for an agreed period to mitigate against any future liabilities of the Investee company. Read more »

How Do I Obtain Capital To Invest In My Business Start Up

Posted by on February 11, 2009 Comments Off

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Creative Commons License photo credit: A. www.viajar24h.com

You’ll almost certainly need to raise money to start up your company, unless you already have sufficient capital yourself. The typical costs of starting up are in obtaining premises, manufacturing your product if you have one, buying materials, stock or equipment, marketing and fees for external consultancy such as legal help, accountancy etc. Then when you’re off the ground, you’ll need working capital to keep you afloat in the gaps between paying your own invoices and receiving payment from customer invoices.

Again, your business plan is essential at this stage of setting up your business. In it you will already have scoped out what your money needs are and how you plan to raise the capital, and you’ll be using it to persuade potential investors and lenders of the benefits of funding your company. Your financial calculations in your business plan therefore need to be thorough and accurate and presented with confidence.

Everyone expects that they’ll be able to stick to their plans and only need to borrow the absolute minimum, but more often than not something unexpected crops up to throw a spanner in the works. Read more »

Start-ups – If Your Goal is Investment Or Acquisition by a Big Company You Are Patenting Wrong

Posted by on February 11, 2009 Comments Off

intrusion
Creative Commons License photo credit: sergeant killjoy

Do you treat your patents as a fence or a tollbooth? If you wish for your start-up technology company to obtain investment from or acquisition by a bigger player, you had better understand the difference.

Most start-up technology company entrepreneurs and CEO’s understand that patents can be key to establishing the value of a new business idea. Typically, entrepreneurs and CEO’s such as yourself will engage patent attorneys to build an IP portfolio that protects the start-up’s technology and products to the fullest extent possible. The motivation for this effort and expense is, of course, to to protect your start-up’s idea from use by others. As management of a start-up you may be seeking to build an ongoing business around the patented technology, but often the goal of building a solid patent portfolio is to make your business an attractive target for investment or acquisition by a larger company. Read more »

Differentiating Between Recession and Expansion Using Income Levels Approach

Posted by on February 11, 2009 Comments Off

DSC00149
Creative Commons License photo credit: eyeliam

Recession is often defined as a state of the economy when the gross domestic product is very low. There is a need for income earners to be able to tell the difference between recession and expansion by watching the levels of their personal incomes. Some widely-embraced market indicators are very deceiving.

Sometimes you need to look no further than the trend of your own incomes as a business owner or even an employed person. Recession needs to be differentiated from expansion for the right business decisions to be made. Read more »

The Economic Meltdown You Are Not Hearing About

Posted by on February 11, 2009 Comments Off

Chicago (www.photo.org.es)-50
Creative Commons License photo credit: A. www.viajar24h.comThe number one issue on the plate for nearly everyone is the economic meltdown that occurred in 2008 and is carrying through to 2009. Although we here bad news in the media, most don’t describe the really ugly things occurring.

The Banks

2008 was a bad year for banks. Given what you hear on the news, most of us would think things were calming down. They are not. If anything, they are worse. For instance, are you area that regional banks are failing at a rate of more than one a week? How about the fact the federal government cranked $165 billion dollars into the 8 biggest American banks, but they still lost $418 billion in value? The latest estimates place the total capitalization of all banks in the US at 1.8 trillion dollars. That’s not bad until you realize the latest estimate of bad debt in the industry is 3.6 trillion dollars. Read more »

Obtaining Venture Capital For Business Startup

Posted by on February 11, 2009 1 comment

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Creative Commons License photo credit: A. www.viajar24h.com

If you are an inventor or an entrepreneur, obtaining venture capital funding is most likely a major concern for you and your business. During the dot com boom, venture capitalists were fueling the growth, research, and ventures of many new companies. Now that the dot com boom has cooled, those worried about obtaining venture capital for business startup may have a more difficult time securing funding for their budding business.

Venture capital money can come in many different forms. There are actually companies that specialize in researching new companies to invest in, in order to earn a modest return on their investors money. These companies receive thousands of requests for funding monthly and may decide to fund one to two small start-ups a month. Some venture capital companies specialize in specific projects such as real estate or a technology based company. Many large, corporate construction projects are funded via some sort of venture capital agreement. Read more »

Making Your Business a Success in a Down Economy

Posted by on February 9, 2009 Comments Off

Grammy Party at The Hard Rock Cafe Chicago
Creative Commons License photo credit: gingerbydesign

The first thing many businesses do during a down economy is to cut their marketing budget. While cutting back makes sense in some areas of a business, cutting the funding for marketing services is often a mistake. A business always needs to work toward increasing its visibility to customers, especially in a down economy. Becoming less visible can drastically hurt a business, so working with marketing firms because more vital than ever.

Keep Profits Coming in

Regardless of what happens within the economy, there is still always a need for goods and services and there will always be consumers who need to buy. While there may be fewer of them willing to pay higher prices, there will always be buyers. Without marketing services, your business doesn’t have the means for reaching these buyers to let them know you offer the exact product or service they need.

The best way to make sure you can always accomplish this is to continue your marketing services, even during a down economy. While you may be able to come up with a few ideas you can execute on your own, a professional firm has the experience needed to make sure your business stays in the spotlight. If you don’t currently work with marketing firms, consider consulting one, especially during tough economic times. Read more »

Beat the Bad Economy With a Home Based Business

Posted by on February 9, 2009 Comments Off

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Creative Commons License photo credit: Randy Stewart

More and more people are getting involved with home based businesses as a way of supplementing their income in a bad economy. With the internet opening the market for anybody, anywhere, to offer up a product or service for sale, a home based business has the potential to be very successful. However getting any home based business off the ground takes a lot of work, dedication and-this a rare word you hear in business anymore-passion. Luckily there are a few tips that can help you:

Have a clear vision of what your home business is going to be before you begin – A home based business should be something you have clearly mapped out in your head before you ever begin. You should know what service or product you have to offer, and why it will be profitable. Furthermore, a home based business should be something you are passionate about, enjoy doing, and are willing foster and promote until it gets off the ground. Read more »

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