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.

Innovative Internet Marketing Ideas – Advantages and Disadvantages

If you are a business owner or even if you are about to become one, there is a good chance that you have heard of innovative internet marketing ideas before. Although you may have heard of these ideas before, do you know what they are? Do you know what they can do for you and your business? Are you using the same old marketing techniques used by everyone else in the industry and struggling for traffic and business? Lets examine the advantages and disadvantages of using innovative internet marketing ideas to promote your business.Before you start to examine the advantages and disadvantages of innovative Internet marketing, it may be a good idea to examine exactly what it is. As a business owner or a soon to be business owner, you likely already know what Internet marketing is. Marketing is getting your business out into the general public; it is done by targeting your intended audience, your customers. That targeting is done by way of the internet; thus the title, internet marketing. It is also important to understand how to be innovative and how that ties into internet marketing. Innovation is another word that is often used to describe something new; therefore, innovative Internet marketing ideas are relatively new ideas, particularly ideas that have just recently been developed.When it comes to innovative internet marketing ideas and your business, you will find that there are a number of benefits. One of those benefits is the ease of use. Even if you do not have a large amount of computer experience, you will often find the internet easy to use. Whether you are interested in making your business an online website, starting a business newsletter, or conducting a demographic analysis online, you should easily be able to do so. Even if you do not know how to start up your own newsletter, do an online poll, or make your own website, you should be able to learn, often in no time at all. The internet offers information on starting all kinds of businesses.Once you have chosen your niche, or specific area or product that you would like to promote or sell, try searching the internet for similar products or services. In this way, you can determine any potential competition. If competition exists, you can decide if you want to compete, or find a complimentary product or service to promote. If competition doesn’t exist, and there is a market looking for answers to a question, this would be a perfect niche market to begin a business in.In addition to using the Internet to put your innovative marketing ideas to into motion, you can also use the Internet to find those ideas. Using the Internet to find innovative Internet marketing ideas is a relatively quick and easy process. By staying up-to-date on the latest business and marketing news or by performing a standard Internet search, you can easily be kept in the loop, when it comes to Internet marketing ideas, particularly new ones. If you have a niche that you are interested in, often signing up for related newsletters or chat rooms can lead to the discovery of a new business idea or marketing technique. If you put those ideas into motion, as soon as you hear about them, your business may be given an edge above the rest of its competition. In fact, a new innovative Internet marketing idea may be just what you need to get your business up and running.What is also nice about innovative Internet marketing is that, although it is relatively easy to develop your own marketing ideas and execute them, you don’t necessarily have to. For example, there are a large number of individuals who specialize in Internet marketing. Those individuals, who are often referred to as internet marketing specialists, can be found online. An internet marketing specialist is a trained professional who can not only come up with new ways to market your internet business online, but they can also execute those ideas for you, for a reasonable fee. Whether you don’t have the time to develop an effective marketing plan or if you want to avoid the hassle of doing so, an internet marketing specialist may be able to offer you assistance.Although there are a large number of advantages to using innovative marketing ideas to promote your business, there are also a few disadvantages to doing so as well. One of those disadvantages is the fact that innovative marketing ideas are new. With new marketing ideas, they have sometimes yet to be tested or proven; therefore, you are really given no guarantees that a new, innovative Internet marketing idea really will work. Of course, it is important to remember that with business, there are always risks. Trying a new innovative internet marketing idea may not work out to your advantage, but it may also be the best thing that has ever happened to your business.

Traps to Avoid When Transitioning from Home Schooling to a Public or Private School

Many homeschoolers have to face that moment when their children go to a public or private school. Even though they have decided the time is right and have researched all the schools, the transition can be tough for families. Here are a few traps that some home school parents fall into after they have committed to sending their child off to school:1.Expecting a Miracle. This is the one of the biggest disappointments for many home school families. Some expect that a child’s social or academic weaknesses will be overcome in the first quarter at a public or private school. Usually this attitude comes from home school parents who have doubts about their own teaching. Maybe home schooling wasn’t all they had hoped for. Maybe they found that although some subjects went well, others had not been easy. Don’t expect that the school you have chosen will be able to make up for your child’s weaknesses quickly. Be sure to talk to his teacher ahead of time, to highlight areas you perceive as weak, so the teacher can be attentive and proactive.2.Don’t Take It Personally. When you teach your child at home, it is a very personal experience. It’s sometimes difficult to see an F on a paper that your child completes for her new school. You may take it personally, feeling like you earned the F. Please don’t. Even if you helped your child complete the homework, it’s not all about you. Don’t let your pride get in the way of your child’s education. Look through the homework when you’re calm. Then set up an appointment to discuss it with the teacher, if you don’t understand where the failure occurred.3.Expecting a Teacher to be Just like You. There is no one that teaches exactly like you. Don’t expect them to! You may have done science experiments with every lesson, but your child’s science teacher prefers to lecture with a weekly lab. You may listen to your child read aloud for an hour a day. That is impossible in most schools. Your child is no longer the primary focus of the teacher, and that’s hard for some homeschoolers to remember. When you call the teacher and ask if your child ate all her carrots for lunch, realize that the teacher will most likely have no idea. That’s more of a parenting issue (or one of individual responsibility for the student.) It’s not a teaching responsibility, nor do most teachers have a memory for so many little things.4.Do Not Attack the Teacher. Always keep communications open with the teacher. Ask for a meeting every other week, if you like, but don’t use that time to attack the teacher’s teaching methods or abilities. Writing a five-page manifesto and making the teacher cry and flee the room are ways to alienate yourself and make the teacher never want to attend your meetings again. It would be better to address only one or two things per meeting. Give your observations (not judgments) then let the teacher talk. Continue to observe and give your opinions in a heartfelt way. Then, give the teacher time to think about what you have said. You may wish the principal and other teachers to attend, depending on your concerns. Larger groups often come up with solutions and strategies and don’t deteriorate into personal attacks.5.You Won’t Like Everything. Realize that you have chosen the best school for your child, but that does not mean it’s perfect. Maybe you preferred a school that meets your religious education expectations, but they give more homework than you think is necessary. Perhaps you chose a school that has a more personal style of education, but you find out that the they aren’t structured enough for your child. Try to think through everything that is a high priority before you register at the school. Then, commit yourself to stay at the school for the entire year (barring anything that violates your high priorities.) Even if things get tough, you’ll probably find that it’s worth the minor disagreements and disappointments to get the benefits that your family really values.It is never easy to make such a big transition, but if you think about these five traps as you switch from a home school environment to a public or private school, you may be more successful and less stressed than some home school families who have gone before you.