New Businesses Not Getting Loan Approval

New Businesses Not Getting Loan Approval

A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that small businesses in the area are not getting the loans they are applying for this year.Ā  Businessweek.com reported, ā€œOf the 59 percent of businesses responding to the poll that applied for credit in the first half of 2010, only half got any loan approval at all, and three quarters said their full borrowing needs were not met. (The PDF of the report is available here.)ā€

In the entrepreneurial courses I teach, my students discuss the issues a new start-up must face.Ā  Raising capital may be one of the most difficult hurdles right now.Ā  Part of the problem stems from not having collateral to secure the loans. Ā If this is the case, it may be possible to obtain a loan through merchant services. Credit cards with cash advances may be an option.Ā  Ā 

Articlebase.com suggests there are other things you can do to qualify for a loan. Ā ā€œFirst you need to identify which among the many types of small business loans you need. Small business loans ranging from $5,000.00 to $35,000.00 are called micro loans. For larger needs, such as for the acquisition of land, buildings and other major fixed assets, development financing is what you should find. There are also import export loans as well as franchise financing. Do your research to find out if you are qualified for small business loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration or SBA.ā€Ā 

There is some positive news.Ā  According to Finance.yahoo.com, ā€œFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech on Friday that there have been some “positive signs” in the credit conditions for small businesses. “In particular, banks are no longer tightening lending standards and terms and are reportedly becoming more proactive in seeking out creditworthy borrowers,” he said.ā€

What is Google Checkout? How Does it Compare to PayPal?

According to their site, Google Checkout allows you to:

ā€¢ Stop creating multiple accounts and passwords. With Google Checkout™ you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place.

ā€¢ Shop with confidence. Our fraud protection policy covers you against unauthorized purchases made through Google Checkout, and we don’t share your purchase history or full credit card number with sellers.

ā€¢ Control commercial spam. You can keep your email address confidential, and easily turn off unwanted emails from stores where you use Google Checkout.

If you want to hear testimonials from Google Checkout customers, click here.

Some of the things they are saying about Google Checkout is that it is:

  • Fast and Easy
  • Safe and Secure
  • Protects Personal Information
  • Helps Buyers Resolve Issues
  • Allowing Shopping With Confidence

If you would like to take a tour of or see a short video about Google Checkout, click here.

Once you sign up, they offer a deals page where you can find discounts from many different stores.

How does Google Checkout compare to Paypal?

Check out this excerpt article from an article on bestshoppingcartreviews.com:

Basic overview of Google Checkout vs. PayPal

There are some areas that can be used to determine which payment processor is best for you. This is a comparison of how they stack up in Google Checkout vs. PayPal:

  • How customers can make payments. With Google Checkout, customers can only use the credit or debit card. It is possible for customers to store this information in order to avoid entering it every time. PayPal, on the other hand, allows for credit card payment or deduction from a bank account. eCheck capability is also available. In this way, PayPal is more diverse.
  • Rate merchant reliability. For many online shoppers, it is important to know that you are reputable. Both Google Checkout and PayPal rate merchants.
  • International shopping. PayPal has a definite edge in this area. Google Checkout is only available for U.S. purchases. PayPal, on the otherhand, is accepted in 55 countries. In addition to the U.S. dollar, PayPal also accepts the euro, the pound, the Canadian dollar, the yen and the Australian dollar. Currency exchange is also available (for a fee).
  • Security. Both Google Checkout and PayPal offer SSL security on the same level that banks do.
  • Fraud protection. PayPal only offers fraud protection for sales of more than $50. Google offers 100% refund, but you must report within 60 days. There have been complaints about PayPal’s payment resolution process as well.
  • Fees for accepting payments on your business Web site. Depending on the level of you account with PayPal, you pay 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent of your sales, and sometimes you pay 30 cents per transaction. Google Checkout is 2% of sales, plus 20 cents per transaction. However, with Google, you can use your AdWords account to reduce the cost of your transaction fees. This arrangement does not exist with PayPal.
  • Customer service. It is worth noting that PayPal offers a customer service line with live people (you can call a phone number). It can be difficult to contact Google Checkout customer service in any way besides the forum provided or email.

One of the main advantages that Google Checkout has is its integration with AdWords. This means that you can get preferred pricing on a number of services ā€“ and even automatically pay transaction fees with earnings from your AdWord account. Additionally, when your ad is displayed on other Web pages and in search engine results, a shopping cart icon appears so that it is easy to see that you accept Google Checkout, offering a possible way to increase sales.

With PayPal businessĀ merchant account, a great many of the advantages come in the fact that more people use PayPal, and that there is a range of services and features available that include invoicing, statements, shipping and tax calculations and customer options.

You should carefully consider your needs before deciding on whether or not to go with Google Checkout or PayPal. How you run your business, and the kinds of features and services you want should be factors in which payment processor you use.

via bestshoppingcartreviews.com
Related Articles

Our Kids’ Financial Futures Are At Stake

The sky is falling. We hear about it every day. The stock market is plunging, the housing bubble has exploded, and the list of doom and gloom goes on and on. How did we get here? We consider ourselves a bright nation. Why then, didnā€™t we see this coming? Did we get too greedy? Did we lose our common sense? Perhaps it was a little of both. What is important is what we have learned from our mistakes and the knowledge we pass down to our children to help them avoid a similar fate.

Unfortunately our children may end up sinking in our same boat. Even if they go to college, the personal finance education they will receive will be slim to none. While in college, our children are finding themselves more in debt than any past generations. Think about some of the financial statistics for our youth:

  • 76% of undergraduate students have credit cards, while carrying a balance of over $2000, according to Nellie Mae. 28% percent of students roll over their debt each month.
  • College graduates are finding that they are over $20,000 in debt, according to Creditcards.com.
  • Charles Schwab reported in a 2007 survey that 45% of teens have credit cards but only 26% know how to understand how their fees and interest payments.

Whether we are looking at Generation Y, Echo Boomers, Millenials or any of the other names given to those born after 1982, it is important to understand that they have been raised to expect immediate gratification. Sixty Minutes did a recent feature discussing how companies are even bending over backwards to meet the demands of this high-expectation generation.

If everybody is bending over backward to meet their needs, what is going to happen when they have to be financially responsible for themselves? Why arenā€™t we bending over backwards to help them learn to be financially independent? We have seen that past generations (their parents) have been poorly educated and are apparently in no position to teach them. If it is not to be taught by parents who are uneducated themselves, where will they get this knowledge?

Currently many colleges and universities are rethinking their position in including personal finance education. Unfortunately these classes are mostly electives or only required by business majors. It costs upward of $6000/year average to pay for a childā€™s college tuition. What are they getting out of that to prepare them for their adult life?

What can be done?

  • Colleges can create more course offerings to include personal finance education. Within the courses, texts need to be appropriate for all majors. Many colleges offer texts for these courses that are math-intensive, which can turn off the student who is not a math genius.
  • As parents we can help our children by sharing our mistakes and explaining what we ourselves have learned in the process.
  • K-12 Guidelines can be updated to include more specifics as to amount of ā€œtimeā€Ā devoted to the financial literacy information our schools are supposed to be teaching.
  • Personal finance books for younger students could be created in a story-telling format that would allow for them to relate the importance of what they are learning to their own lives.

If future generations are not taught to become financially responsible, who is going to bail them out? Are we going to have to just keep relying on the government to come to the rescue? It certainly isnā€™t going to be their parents, as they have lost their retirement nest eggs. In fact, their parents may be looking at this generation to take care of them.

Guest post by Diane Hamilton, who has a BS, MA and Ph.D. in Business Management. Her experience includes working in several industries including pharmaceuticals, banking and real estate. She has trained corporations in areas such as time management, emotional intelligence and Myers Briggs. She currently works as an online professor, working for 5 different universities. She teaches mostly business-related courses to bachelor, master and doctoral level students as well as mentors doctoral learners. She is in the process of writing a personal finance book for the young adult. Diane can be reached through www.drdianehamilton.com

via mytwodollars.com