Success is not an overnight occurrence for most businesses. Years of hard work and struggle are a common denominator for most enterprises. Success as a concept can be complicated because it may involve more than profits on a balance sheet. The MSN Encarta dictionary defines success as:1. Achievement of intention: the achievement of something planned or attempted;2. Attainment of fame, wealth, or power: impressive achievement, especially the attainment of fame, wealth, or power;3. Something that turns out well: something that turns out as planned or intended;4. Somebody successful: somebody who is wealthy.What is business failure? It may be that most businesses don’t die or fail; the owners close them for reasons unrelated to whether the business is making money. According to David Birch, former head of a research firm specializing in studying small business data, would-be entrepreneurs don’t realize what’s truly involved with running a business. He estimated survival rates:o First year: 85%o Second: 70%o Third: 62%o Fourth: 55%o Fifth: 50%o Sixth: 47%o Seventh: 44%o Eighth: 41%o Ninth: 38%o Tenth: 35%”Once you’ve hit five years, your odds of survival go way up,” Birch said. “Only two to three percent of businesses older than five shut down each year.” Hard statistics on business success vs. failure rates are hard to establish. Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” The same may be true for many businesses.Accounts receivable financing can help to make the difference between success and failure for many B2B businesses that need capital to grow. The terminology: invoice financing, invoice funding, factoring, factoring receivables and accounts receivable financing are all terms that mean essentially the same thing: the process of selling your invoices, your accounts receivable, to a commercial finance company to accelerate cash flow. You sell the account receivable. The commercial finance company advances you 70% to 90% of face value. Your customer pays the invoice to the commercial finance company. They rebate to you the difference between their fees and the remaining cash. If your business sells products or services to other businesses or to the government, with a gross margin of 25% or more you can grow profitably with accounts receivable financing; and you can give terms to your customers.Asset based financing is a form of accounts receivable financing for larger transactions. The main difference between asset based financing and accounts receivable financing is price: larger transactions may be priced with a spread of 2% to 4% over the prime rate plus an administrative fee compared to factoring fees of 1.5% to 4% per month. The actual amount of charges depends on the contract terms which vary widely. In this author’s article, Financial Myths vs. Financial Facts there is an extensive discussion regarding various pricing methods and outcomes.Imagine if your business were like a flower with the chance to bloom the first time in years. There is a plant known as Agave parryi, also known as the Century Plant. They often take forty to sixty years to flower. Then they die. Few businesses can wait that long to flower.The asset based lending industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Companies large, small, and startups participate in accounts receivable financing and asset based lending. Purchase order financing is available to pay for the cost of goods when purchase orders are too large for the business to self-fund the product. If you need help with capital to grow, these are important financing techniques to consider for your business’ success.In August 1965 The Beatles released a Studio Album called: Help! The song was a number one hit single. The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. At this point in the career of the Beatles, they had not personally made much money and they may have been on the brink of failure because of artistic differences and financial naivety. John Lennon said that the lyrics to Help! were a cry for help and a clue to the confusion and despondency he felt. He also regretted the commercial pressures to make a successful upbeat record that compromised his artistic sensibilities. The Beatles succeeded in writing many of the most popular songs in music history; they were one of the most successful recording artists of all time. Nevertheless, the Beatles failed to stay together as a live performing group after 1970. There were only ten years of live performances. Decades of royalties and riches followed.Here are the lyrics to The Beatles – Help! by John Lennon and Paul McCartney:Help, I need somebody,Help, not just anybody,Help, you know I need someone, help.When I was younger, so much younger than today,I never needed anybody’s help in any way.But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.Help me if you can, I’m feeling downAnd I do appreciate you being round.Help me, get my feet back on the ground,Won’t you please, please help me?And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,My independence seems to vanish in the haze.But every now and then I feel so insecure,I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.Help me if you can, I’m feeling downAnd I do appreciate you being round.Help me, get my feet back on the ground,Won’t you please, please help me.When I was younger, so much younger than today,I never needed anybody’s help in any way.But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.Help me if you can, I’m feeling downAnd I do appreciate you being round.Help me, get my feet back on the ground,Won’t you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.The bottom line: if you need help with your cash flow for your B2B business, accounts receivable financing may be the answer for your success.Copyright © 2007 Gregg Financial Services
Why Fashion Advertisers Love Large Format Outdoor Posters
From the onset the fashion industry was one of the first to embrace the medium of outdoor poster advertising. Over a hundred years later, nothing has changed. Fashion advertising still accounts for a high proportion of the large format OOH advertisements we see today, displayed on posters and billboards everywhere.Indeed, the latest trendy clothing brands are following the example of more established fashion companies and dedicating an ever-increasing portion of their advertising spend to OOH advertising.Memorable Fashion Poster Advertising CampaignsWho could forget Wonderbra’s Hello Boys campaign back in the 1994? The poster campaign saw model Eva Herzigova pose simply in her underwear, with the image spread across 96-sheet billboards across the country.Another big hit was David Beckham’s iconic 2009 Armani underwear ad. From 6 sheets on the London Underground to a 6-storey giant poster on Selfridge’s in London’s Oxford Street, this campaign was a hot topic of discussion worldwide, resulting in extensive media coverage for both Golden Balls himself and the Armani brand.As the official department store provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, John Lewis made a grand patriotic gesture by enveloping their flagship Oxford St stores in a huge building wrap featuring the union flag to show their support for British athletes. The exterior of the Stratford City store overlooking the Olympic park was decked with giant vinyl stickers featuring fashion accessories. The OOH display continued the gold medal theme of John Lewis’s print advertising campaign and generated considerable media coverage.More recently, Myleene Klass’ Littlewoods campaign received much attention at the beginning of the year when it was erected on a 472m sq giant poster at Union Street in Glasgow. The super-size Littlewoods poster advertising campaign with the image of her dressed simply in a bikini was most certainly attention grabbing and was seen by nearly 750,000 shoppers and passers-by in Glasgow city centre.Change of EmphasisWhy are more and more fashion advertisers turning away from standard advertising in print and broadcast media? Newspaper readership is rapidly declining and over-saturation of traditionally placed advertisements lacking true originality has rendering most TV advertising ineffective. The target audience automatically filters out adverts and even takes advantage of new technology to skip them on recordings of TV programmes.Jaded consumers who are being continually bombarded with advertising messages crave novelty. The understanding is clear for fashion brands: they must cater to their audience’s desire for innovation by seeking alternative formats for distributing their brand message.Fashion brands are willing to pay a premium for innovative forms of advertising that build genuine emotional connections with individual consumers. That is why they are so keen to take advantage of the latest developments in OOH advertising. Nothing beats well designed eye -catching fashion advertising posters for getting up close and personal with local communities.
What You Will Need to Get Small Business Finance
Poor credit is no barrier to small business owners wishing to obtain business finance. When a small business owner plans to expand business and finds that he has already used up available sources of funding and getting additional finance through regular sources may be too time-consuming, then finance from “non-conventional” sources may be a better option.What would be the requirements for a business owner to obtain small business finance?A running businessStartups are precluded from obtaining this type of finance on soft terms. In order to be eligible, a business must be in operation for at least a year.A minimum amount of sales per monthSomeone who has started the business recently and is generating revenues of less than $ 10000 by way of credit card sales may not be eligible for small business funding unless the case is assessed and considered on other grounds such as a potential for growth that the owner can justify and support.Documentary proofsSmall businesses are usually proprietary types. A business owner, even one with poor credit, should not hesitate to obtain small business capital even if it means paying a higher interest amount because it can help him get back on track to fast growth. The documentation is minimal. He needs to submit proof of ownership. The other documents he must provide are bank statements for the previous six months, proof of identity and proof of residence.An applicant may wish to get small business finance within 3 to 5 days for which he should apply online and keep ready scanned copies of the above-mentioned documents. These may be uploaded along with the preliminary application. Should the application be approved he may be required to furnish printed copies.What is not required for the small business loan?• An applicant need not have a stellar credit history.
• He may not have to furnish collateral or mortgage property.
• He may not have to furnish a guarantor.It is fast. It is easy. However, there are a few things to keep in mind. An applicant must consider the factor rate applied. This is a fancy term for rate of interest though it is not specifically so mentioned. Repayment may range from 3 months to even as long as 36 months and it is tied to the credit card sales as a percentage of daily turnover or a fixed monthly amount. Should sales be high repayment is completed in a shorter time. In real terms, an applicant may end up paying processing charges plus interest that can be as high as 50% because the loan is unsecured. The best thing to do is to examine the offer and obtain such funds only from a lender who does not charge anything upfront, no processing charges and applies a moderate interest rate.It is easy to get this type of finance if one has a running business but repayment is the tough part. Small business owners would do well to keep in mind to plan to use funds to generate more revenues instead of paying off existing debts.