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.

How to Make Money in Online Business the First Time You Try

It usually takes a while for people to earn their first dollar online after they start an online business This is because most people come into online business without any experience and have to go through a “figuring it out” phase.But what if it was possible to take away the learning curve, the guess work that usually dogs our attempt to make money online?.What if there was a way to start making money even before you start learning?.If there was such a way what would it entail?.How would it obliterate the dreaded learning curve that holds so many people back?.The most difficult part of learning to make money online is learning to become an effective marketer. This is where many people fail.This is the mother of most of the money making casualties on the internet.So anything that would remove the time lag between starting a home business and making your first dollar online would have to deal with this problem effectively.It would have to circumvent or totally obliterate this problem so that people can start making money soon after they start an online business.It would essentially have to remove the need to be an effective marketer in order to make money in the online business arena.So can such a program exist? Does it?If it does what form would it take? How would it effectively deal with this problem?.I believe the answer would be AUTOMATION.This is what I mean.Something else would have to do your marketing for you.And that thing would either be a ROBOT or a HUMAN BEING.The history of trying to automate the marketing process using robots has been an abysmal one.It has often met with colossal failure and people have completely lost faith in that approach.I think the reason for the failure is rather simple. ROBOTS DON’T THINK. No matter how smart they are.And marketing is a “people thing”. The science of understanding human desire and satisfying it in a manner that benefits both the marketer and the prospect.Robots don’t understand any of that that’s why they fail.So the only way to eliminate the problem of the length of time it takes for people to make their first dollar online after starting an online business is to come up with a system that includes a way for established marketers to assist with the dreaded marketing process at least in the first few months after a newbie start an online business. So that he can start making money at the same time that he starts to learn.This would have to be part and parcel of a money making program for it to be effective. Part of a whole as it were of products,websites, and learning.Because it would be hard for some one who is just starting out online to assemble his own marketing army as it were. And it would be vastly more expensive.And that’s another reason why it would have to be part of an existing money making program.To help bring the cost down and make it more affordable to people on a low budget.That’s what I believe it would take to make money in online business the first time you try.And such a program already exists.

Business Travel and Time Buffers to Ensure Connecting Flights

Consider if you will all the new challenges that the TSA is presenting to travelers at airports. They are causing time delays, airport congestion, and people to miss their connecting flights. Yes, protecting the American People is paramount, and that’s their job but let’s talk about how this effects us business travelers shall we. Why you ask? Because as a business traveler, you can’t afford to miss an appointment, so what you need to do is to have a buffer between connecting flights, and in case there is a flight delay due to extra screening, or some incident caused by TSA personnel, you will not have your travel plans ruined.Yes, many business travelers have merely had enough of this nonsense, but it’s still something that must be dealt with. Indeed, these issues can also play havoc on trying to get to your Rent-A-Car on time, as if you don’t show up when scheduled they may run out of cars to rent, or if you get to the hotel too late they may have already rented the room out, assuming you are a no-show.Business travelers are having a heck of a time on the airlines, due to all these new rules and regulations to prevent holiday underwear bombers or something? There are ways to expedite through security by getting a special pass, along with a background check. Although it is a hassle because business people don’t have time to go get all that done, it will save time during travel, and it’s perfect for the seasoned business traveler who spends more time on airplanes and they do it their children’s soccer games.Additionally, because global warming is such a big deal, the temperatures have been dropping world-wide, and therefore cold weather and the coming Ice Age are causing even more flight delays. And if an airliner is on the runway or ramp longer than three hours waiting for the weather to clear it has to go back to the terminal, as per new FAA laws. This means the flight might be canceled, and then you’ll be stuck in the airport terminal until you can get on another flight, if one is even available.It is for all these reasons that a time buffer is about the only current solution, rather than buying a corporate jet to shuttle yourself around. Therefore having time buffers to ensure connecting flights to get to your destination and accommodations is serious. Please consider all this and think on it.