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.

Click, Search, Book!!Sounds familiar? Online Travel, which was considered the domain of the Internet ‘geeks’ a decade back, is the new mantra for the Internet savvy generation of today. Logging on to the Internet and accessing the vast pool of resources has become the norm of the day.Today, the fastest growing category for B2C e-commerce in India is Travel. From railways to airlines, hotels to travel packages- virtually every segment of the travel industry is seeing a surge in online bookings.With the global increase in popularity for Online Travel, Online Travel sales worldwide increased by as much as 34% from 2004 to 2005 and reached $62 billion in the US markets and $31.1 billion in the European markets. Online travel in Asia too, is on a roll, estimated to reach $16 billion by 2006 more than double that in 2003.The exploding globalisation in India has catalysed the rapid expansion of Internet connectivity and e-commerce activities throughout the country. Today, India boasts of an ever-increasing user base whose understanding of the Internet is at par with that of any developed country, boosted by the fact that 68% of the users lie between the age group 15-30 years.The emergence of low-cost airlines and online ticket booking along with growth in online railway reservation is the key in this Internet booking boom in India. With the increased trust in security of credit card transactions and online payment options, of the 90 percent of the Indians who planned and researched travel options via the internet, 15-20 percent actually booked using the Internet.The travel industry is cashing on this growth with dedicated e-commerce portals that enable customers to make online bookings and payments for hotel rooms, air tickets, car rentals as well as holiday packages.Interactive techniques like search tools targeting multiple airlines and variable airfares allow travellers to zero in on the perfect flight, coupled with search engines for sifting through the large array of hotels and booking options, are a perfect lure for the users, along with the last minute bargains and tempting discounts that have become an integral part of the internet shopping.The online travel today, brings together the best of technology and interactivity, and extensive industry network in a one-stop solution that drives down costs- all just a few clicks away.Of the 38.5 million people logged-on in India, the Travel industry accounts for over 23% of internet shopping in India, which translates into a whopping 4.8 million Indian users who venture for the Online Travel.This acceleration accentuates the travellers’ preference to directly involve themselves and control their travel choices, making Online Travel Shopping in India the most desired pre-departure tool of the day.Copyright (C) Manoj Gursahani

People see internet business through an extremely narrow lens. You’re either flogging your stuff on eBay or you’re trying to make it big and be the next Mark Zuckerberg. The reality is that there are hundreds if not thousands of different ways in which you can do business online. There are tons of different business models that cater to any goal or ambitions that you might be thinking of taking whether its selling other people’s products online as an affiliate or creating your own products and selling them yourself, or maybe you just want to use the internet as an extension of your already established offline business. The possibilities are endless!The internet is a global population full of enthusiasts of all kinds looking for solutions and products to solve their own personal problems. It’s a global market in which everyday people can take advantage of, all they need is some sort of value to give, or skills necessary to guide people to value that somebody else has created.The Benefits of an Online BusinessLow Start-up Costs:If the entrepreneur deep down has been calling out to you, you might want to consider the start-up costs on an online business. In comparison to a traditional “Bricks and Mortar” businesses the start-up costs are substantially lower for an online business. A business owner who launches their ventures online enjoy a substantially lower start-up cost than those who choose the offline approachThe “real World” business owner must pay for commercial space, physical inventory, printed stationary and allot more. As an internet business owner, your only real expenses will be your domain name and hosting account. Even if you do need to buy inventory or maybe your outsourcing technical skills to get things started your overall start-up cost will be incredibly lower than your offline starting costs.Increase In Earning Potential:If you’re employed full time or working your way up the corporate ladder, your earnings are determined by the amount of hours, and position your in. The time it takes to double your income would be obscene in the offline world, (not impossible, But defiantly harder) say you’re making $80,000 a year, how long do you think it would take to make that $80,000 to $160,000. My guess is a very long time.
Online if you learn to sell one product you can teach yourself to sell 50. If you create 1 successful business what’s to say you can make another, or maybe a few more. There’s a whole market for website flipping. People make a living off creating websites and online businesses and flip them for people who want a business that already has market traction. The truth is that the sky is the limit for your online business.Job Security:When you learn the skills required to sell products online, or create some sort of online revenue the chances are that you’ll be able to repeat this process. If you’re willing to learn the skills necessary to take your business to the next level is up to you. There’s not going to be a shortage of affiliate programs or people online to sell to.Wider network clients and buyers:If you were to start a business in your country’s capital city or the most populated city in the world, you would be pretty confident that the earning power of your business would be astronomical. There are people making a killing in your local cities with successful businesses. Now imagine how many people are online, online you have access to a huge global network of clients and buyers.Online you don’t have to compete against other agencies in your area for the same small pool of customers and clients. Instead you have access to an enormousness pool of people in which you only need the tiniest fraction to make yourself an incredibly comfortable living. You’re free to think as big as you want online. There’s no shortage of people or market space.Free Time:Wouldn’t you love to have the time to do the things you want in your weeks and days? I remember watching some of Ray Higden’s videos about his story of when he was in corporate America. He says he spent more time with picture frames of his kids then actually seeing them.Don’t you hate having to wait for traffic, taking orders from a boss, asking permission for taking holidays? Having an online business fixes all of this. You’re able to work at home when you have an online income. You can spend more time with your family, spend time traveling and best of all having the time to do the things that you want to do.Your business is open and running 24/7Instead of the 9-5 opening hours of the traditional “Brick and Motor” shop, when you set your business up online its open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can literally make money while you sleep! You do the work upfront and then you reap the rewards long after you’re done.You’re even able to automate most aspects if not all aspects of your business depending on your business model. There are endless amounts of products available to help automate your business. By doing this you can turn your online business into a valuable asset that will provide for you constant passive income.Freedom to Work from AnywhereYou physical presence doesn’t matter when you’re working online. As long as you have a laptop and an internet connection you’re able to work from half way around the world if you want. Where you work is totally up to you, whether it’s in your favorite coffee shop or if it’s while you’re on holidays the decision is totally yours!The Satisfaction of working for yourselfMy opinion is that creating your own business or enterprise beats working for someone else or underneath someone else. The satisfaction of creating your own income and knowing that it’s you that’s in charge of your pay check infinitely more fulfilling then being another cog in the corporate machine.The principles of Online business success is the same as any offline business. You have to have a great idea, have a good solid business plan and there should be a value proposition for potential clients. With the increase in new technologies getting your business online is become easier and cheaper. The best time to start is right now!If you enjoyed this article or this article helped you in anyway please re-tweet or comment.Andrew