Business Loan Options Blog

Hiring is one of the most expensive activities when running a business. Small businesses are facing a very tight credit market, and having to scrounge around for business loan alternatives just to keep the lease paid and the doors open can leave little room for large wages. However, every business owner is aware that hiring low cost workers only leads to poor quality and high turn-over rates and isn’t the solution either. When a business owner hires someone they want the right fit and they hope to make it a long-term partnership to help recoup the costs of locating the talent, training it, and outfitting it to do the work properly. That’s why telecommuting can be a win for both employers and employees. It can provide a higher wage, better job satisfaction, and less monetary outlay in equipment or full-time salaries.

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Innovation requires some cash, but not as much as you think. If you have a great idea, but no business history (which is necessary for an application for business funding), it’s a good idea to start small first and get some experience before investing too heavily in an idea that might not be sustainable in the long run. Some of the best ideas were started in small spaces. Think Microsoft being created in a garage. There’s no reason you can’t also follow the same strategy to get things going and build that business history so that it eventually can help you get more business credit to grow bigger.

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It isn’t just large companies that benefit from purchasing commercial properties. Today’s tough economic climate is giving even smaller enterprises the perfect opportunity to invest in commercial property in many areas that were previously too expensive to manage. This provides your business with several advantages. You can use your mortgage to build equity in the property, instead of paying rent that goes into someone else’s pocket. You can change locations into higher market exposure areas. You can buy a bigger building and rent out spaces until your business grows more, leaving you with great flexibility for the future and additional income sources. Even if you need financing, there are business credit services specifically set aside by lenders to small business for acquiring commercial property and you might qualify. If you’re thinking that your business is growing in a few years and you are renting your premises right now, it would a smart move to take at commercial real estate in your area to get in on the good deals going on now.

Get A Big Pay Day When You Sell

Even if you have to close your doors at some time, you can expect to have an asset in the form of your commercial building. With rent, you can operate successfully for years, but your assets are less marketable than real estate and can be significantly depreciated by the time you sell. If you buy right now, while commercial properties are depressed in value, you stand a better chance of having an appreciating asset that you can sell at any time you choose to retire or sell your business.

Location Is The Key

Just like you should consider location for your residential real estate opportunities, you also want to take that into account with commercial purchases. Do you have to pay a little more to get a building where there is massive traffic exposure from local businesses and attractions? If you think those places will remain there long term, it can be a good way to grab more market exposure and get a piece of real estate that appreciates in value over time.

Buy More Than You Need

Take a look at the real estate out there and see if you can locate a building that has room for growth. You don’t want to get one exactly the same size, as this limits your potential for expanding your business and will cause you to rent again in the future. Instead seek one with a vision of what your business needs will be like in three to five years time. Many commercial developers are eager to get rid of their holdings at a time when it may be hard to find a qualified buyer. If you can get financing, they will make many concessions, not just from pricing, but also other types of benefits too. Lock in those deals now. Whatever space you don’t use, you can sublet to other businesses until you can get your business to expand sufficiently to make it cost-effective.

Check Out Financing Now

Look into small business loans while the deals are still out there. Check with small business lenders that are associated with the Small Business Administration. Check with your local bankers. If you can’t finance it under your business name, sometimes you can finance it under your personal credit history. That means you would then have to rent out the space to your business, which can prove advantageous to business owners too, in many ways. There are different tax advantages to either set up, when it comes time to file your taxes, so consider that aspect too as you make the decisions necessary to acquire commercial property for your business. If you have a partnership, you might be able to have several owners for the same property. This will give you a bigger pool of cash and credit to work with, but also can create problems with agreements for maintenance expenses and the like. Make sure you work out how your company will fund maintenance expenses and upkeep before you buy a property with multiple owners. Track major renovations and expenses and report them on your taxes, if possible, when it comes time to sell. Allotting monies for building maintenance, and hiring folks to do maintenance work, should be budgeted into the buying decision too. As long as the building is maintained properly and within building codes, you can expect that when it comes time to sell, it will reward you later by the equity you’ve accumulated over the years of doing business in that location.

Working at home has gained in popularity, both with businesses and employees. The positives of having a home office start with having lower overhead, in terms of rent. You don’t have to pay to maintain a facility as each of your employees is probably working remotely. Your energy costs are lower too. Planning a home office, though, also has to take account the potential impact on clients. How will you maintain a professional image without a physical place of business? Will you need to receive clients or partners, occasionally, and how will you manage that? How do you plan on managing remote workers? What equipment will you need to get the job done?

Take Advantage of Technology

One of the easiest things to plan out for the home office is the type of equipment and technology that you will need. You will need a high speed Internet connection and computer that allows you to work well at home. Consider home networking to allow you to work in multiple areas around the house. You can get loans for equipment to get started, with reasonable business loan rates and great tax perks right now. You will want a phone with unlimited long distance, if your customers are all over the world. Cell phones with Internet capability and messaging are highly connected and can keep you available, even when you are on the road. Printers and fax machines are essential, and many devices now include both capabilities. Even if you only have a copier, you do have the capability to send faxes online, without any equipment, as long as you can scan a copy of what you’re sending to your customer or worker.

Your regular office will be replaced, most likely, by an Internet presence. Your website needs to have a place to take inquiries, to sell products, and to inform your clients of what’s new with your business. It should be very professional and updated frequently to attract customers. If you are selling a physical product, instead of an informational one, you will also need to have a spot for delivery, or set up agreements with vendors to drop ship items for you. Set up an area to keep your office supplies so that with one glance, you know what’s low and what needs to be re-ordered. Re-order online ahead of time and have things shipped to your door.

Managing cash flow and finances is a large part of a business, whether online or offline. Make sure you get the necessary software to make your job easier when tax time comes around. Have several lines of credit set up that you can manage online and transfer funds when it becomes necessary to bridge a cash flow gap. Keep track of monthly expenses and receivable, invoices, and collections.

Managing Remote Workers

Email and phone is going to be the main method of managing your remote workers. You will need to schedule your communications to make sure everything is being done on time and to your specifications. You can use outsource companies who track and manage their workers for you, if that’s of interest to you.  Some may use keystroke counting software or have web cams on their workers. If that’s not your style, you can hire freelancers on job boards and then pay them per project. The one thing about hiring people a project at a time is they may not always be available for the next project you have, and you take a chance getting good quality from the next person you hire. However, these job boards do provide feedback on customer satisfaction, so that can lessen the risk.

When Visitors Want To Drop In

There are companies now catering to virtual offices that need a physical location to meet clients on an irregular basis. You can get online and buy space for a few hours to offer a business presentation, meet with an important client or potential venture partner, or to hire someone locally. This provides a more professional impression than having them meet you at your home. The office space comes with everything you need to hold a presentation, get clerical help, telephone answering services, and a mailing address, depending on what package you get. You can find locations near you by Googling “virtual office” and the name of your city. These are very convenient for the work-at-home business owner, whether they need a room for a few hours or for 5 to 10 hours a week. There are also multiple office-sharing arrangements, due to the recession, where other business owners trying to cut expenses will sublease part of their property to other professionals.

Unlike a home office, a virtual office is space rented on a part-time basis from an office-sharing company. This option for part-time entrepreneurs who want to have some support for their business activities is not only a smart idea, but also very affordable. Even if you have to take out a business cash advance to reserve a virtual office, it can be a great investment. Virtual offices give entrepreneurs who don’t have the funds to buy a lot of equipment, hire a receptionist, or rent commercial property another way to present a professional image at much less cost. It’s also a viable way to set up a business, overnight, and take it down very quickly if the business idea crashes and burns.

What Services Will You Require

The first thing to assess is your business needs, in relation to the services you require. How much of a virtual office do you really need? If you only plan on meeting clients once in a while, maybe you can schedule them on an “as needed” basis instead of getting a monthly package. If you have a home office already with most of the equipment you need, and you like to work at odd hours, it might pay to keep your home office for working purposes and just use the virtual office to handle calls and receive business mail. It all depends on what level of support you need to get your business up and running, without adding too much to the expense column. As a start up, virtual offices are ideal, but it doesn’t mean they require a full package, and learning how to balance your needs versus your wants, and keeping a healthy balance sheet is also part of learning to do business.

Mailing Services

If you’re sending out business packages or receiving mail from business partners or customers, you may need a business address that makes you seem more credible. If you give out an address that is your home mailing address, it becomes fairly obvious you’re a very small business without even an office to take packages. You don’t have to rent out office space, with virtual office companies, you can just get clerical and mailing services instead. The staff will even help you mail out things, if that’s included in your agreement.

Telephone Answering Services

You can get your business calls screened and answered by receptionists who will forward calls to the appropriate areas. This is also a separate service, apart from renting office space, and can be included with other services, or as a standalone service. It’s very useful for people who want to present an image of having a professional staff, without having to go through the trouble of hiring receptionists for calls that may be few and far between. When the call does come in, however, you’ll have someone there to give the right impression and forward it to voice mail, if necessary.

Office Space

You can rent office space by the hour, by the half day, or full day. You can even rent it on a monthly basis, if you need it more often. This is perfect for business owners who may be doing business on a part-time basis, and don’t want to set up an entire office at home. There are packages that come with clerical support and the use of office equipment. It’s not only helpful for separating your home life from your business activities, but also for reducing the need to maintain office supplies and fix printers and things when they break. The offices come with high speed Internet connection and some you can probably get with computer equipment, although, it’s best to use your own laptops that won’t be sharing information with anyone else who later uses the office.

Video Conferencing

Other types of services that you can get on an hourly basis in your virtual office is video conferencing. This is good for when you’re meeting clients online and need a space to do this that makes you look technologically proficient, even when you don’t even rent commercial space on a full-time basis or understand squat about video conferencing. You don’t have to find out what equipment to use, as it will be provided for you, and you can get a staff member to show you how to use it. Make sure you understand how to use this before the actual big meeting, as it will make you look more competent. Virtual offices are great for meetings whether online or offline, and help to save you money by reducing the expenses associated with a physical office, like renting space, hiring staff, and purchasing expensive office equipment.