BizSugar.com › Published News › Finance › Page 47

The mortgage credit crunch has spilled over into business lending as local banks are less risk-inclined than they used to be and credit is harder to come by for businesses, U.S. Small Business Administration officials said. The number of SBA-backed loans from banks has trended down as banks toughen their standards and small businesses are more cau Read More

Many entrepreneurs don't have the luxury of having a separate accounting department, instead doing their own number crunching. It's not always easy, but you can make it less difficult by making use of the huge number of free financial tools for businesses that are available on the Internet. Here are 100 calculators that can help you get and keep y Read More

A House Small Business Committee hearing was called this week to examine a trend that is alarming small businesses across the country. A growing number of states are imposing so-called "business activity" taxes on companies that have a connection, or "nexus," with the state. A nexus can exist, even though a business has no employees or physica Read More

Federally speaking, there are a wide variety of tax benefits for small businesses. Many depend on the type of business you own. One of the most fundamental, but dramatic, is available to LLCs and corporations with S-status. If they're eligible, they only pay tax at the shareholder/owner level, as opposed to paying at the corporate level and again Read More

This is an excellent interview with Joel Spolsky of Fog Creek Software about how to bootstrap your business without taking money from a venture capitalist. Joel gives excellent advice for the majority of entrepreneurs who will start their companies up without being backed by a venture capitalist. Read More

Raising capital is difficult under normal conditions, and a tight credit market and fears of an economic slowdown have made the challenge harder. Unproven early-stage companies could face a tough time finding funds from informal investors who are less willing to take risks in an unsteady economy. Firms looking for equity investments should expect Read More

Make way for peer-to-peer lending - where anyone with Web access can be a banker and small business owners are finding a new way to raise cash. The industry is still in its infancy, but has been catching fire as major players enter the market. The UK's Zopa - considered the grand-daddy of the niche - launched its U.S. operations in December, Cali Read More

All Monique Walker needed was $5,000 to rebuild her business in Houston after Hurricane Katrina. But the banks said no. Arga Bourgeois needed $10,000 to expand her store, the only health food outlet in her black neighborhood. But the banks said no. Both women found help with Acción Texas, a nonprofit lender that provides microloans to startups or Read More

Community banks often have the edge in securing small-business clients because of the personal attention they can provide and the knowledge they have of their market; many have bankers who have worked in the same market for more than 30 years. These types of banks offer a full range of services and are able to make decisions locally, based on the Read More