Category: Small Business News
Funding Circle Raises $65 Million for Peer-to-Peer Small Business Loan
Venture capital firms have come to see small business lending as an industry ripe for a shakeup, given the slow pace of lending since the financial crisis and unmet demand for credit, which is estimated at billions of dollars a year. Funding Circle, a British peer-to-peer lender, is the latest to benefit: The company announced on Wednesday a new $65 million dose of capital from Index Ventures and other firms. Funding Circle’s online platform lets individual or institutional investors fund loans thatRead More
Moms Build a Small Business on Better Tissues
In 2007, Julie Pickens and Mindee Doney found a $16 million business hiding in their children’s stuffy noses. The Oregon moms were trying to figure out the best way to get their children’s nostrils clean when they got congested. Their pediatricians advised using saline drops, but getting toddlers to stand still while they administered the treatment was next to impossible, says Ms. Pickens. So, they started putting the drops on regular tissues and wiping theRead More
You’ll never hear successful people say these 15 small business phrases
If you want to become more successful as an entrepreneur or in your career, you can start by making a habit of talking and thinking more like the people you know or read about who are already successful. Here are some phrases you’ll never hear a successful person say: 1. We can’t do that. One thing that makes people and companies successful is the ability to make solving their customers’ problems and demands their mainRead More
Top 5 Reasons You Should Start a Business Blog
Blogging has become a common way to market your business online, but there are still many small businesses that are hesitant to make the jump and start a business blog. There are several reasons why small business owners don’t blog: It takes a commitment of time and resources that can be overwhelming They don’t know how to get started from a technical perspective. It can be challenging to develop a loyal, engaged following on aRead More
For Many Small Business Owners, Providing Health Insurance Remains a Struggle
Brian Adams, who sells fireplaces in Indianapolis, is like many of the nation’s small-business owners. As the cost of providing health benefits has climbed, he has struggled to afford coverage for his employees — a problem the new health care law was designed, in part, to address. But a year after the law’s introduction of the insurance exchanges, provisions that were supposed to help small businesses offer employee health benefits are largely seen as a failure.Read More
Harmoney to target small businesses
Peer-to-peer lending platform Harmoney will add a second string to its bow by facilitating loans to small businesses next year. The Auckland firm has processed $4.5 million of personal loans since its launch in July. The company is the first middleman licensed by the Financial Markets Authority to offer peer-to-peer (P2P) finance. People can apply to seek loans through its website which investors can then peruse and fund. Harmoney doesn’t itself instead lend money, insteadRead More
Small Firms Start to Drop Health Plans
Small companies are starting to turn away from offering health plans as they seek to reduce costs and increasingly view the health law’s marketplaces as an inviting and affordable option for workers. In the latest sign of a possible shift, WellPoint Inc. said Wednesday its small-business-plan membership is shrinking faster than expected and it has lost about 300,000 people since the start of the year, leaving a total of 1.56 million in small-group coverage. DuringRead More
Small business brand value is more than the Q factor
Have you noticed that every new on-air person hired by a TV network looks like a soap opera actor? They’re all young and pretty. We’re left to think that non-beautiful people need not apply. That is, unless you’re familiar with a certain marketing measurement. Marketing Evaluations Inc. is the proprietor of a marketing metric used extensively to hire on-air talent. It’s called the Q factor Score, and it’s as rude as it is simple. A prospectiveRead More
Harvard Business Review: The Five Stages of Small Business Growth
Categorizing the problems and growth patterns of small business growth in a systematic way that is useful to entrepreneurs seems at first glance a hopeless task. Small businesses vary widely in size and capacity for growth. They are characterized by independence of action, differing organizational structures, and varied management styles. Yet on closer scrutiny, it becomes apparent that they experience common problems arising at similar stages in their development. These points of similarity can be organized intoRead More
Take your business to the next level – Business Growth
Business Growth is a major concern, of course, to entrepreneurs everywhere, especially if your business is new. Here you will find some simple suggestions on what you can do to see your small business prosper. You have to, of course, have a good product or service, one that’s in demand, that people really want. Otherwise, even if you successfully opened your business and have incredible traffic, you’re business still may not grow much if yourRead More