Are you willing to take the plunge and turn a great, innovative idea into something that offers the market great value? Perhaps you’ve already founded your own business based on an idea like this, but you’re just not sure what steps to take. A step in the wrong direction may hurt at first, but this may also serve as eventual momentum toward moving in the right direction as far as launching your very own small business goes.
As experienced small business loan providers, The Commercial Finance Group has, more or less, seen it all — from clueless entrepreneurs who have little or no experience starting a company to business veterans who are launching yet another successful venture — there’s a massive range of small businesses (and small business owners) out there.
The Challenge Of Starting Your Own Company
Throughout our time as off-balance sheet financing professionals, one piece of truth has held its ubiquity over the decades: starting a small business is a demanding challenge that involves a great deal of risk. After inspiration has struck and you’ve begun to act on your clever and market-changing ideas as an entrepreneur, you’ll begin to realize how difficult it actually is to put your plans into actionable motion. Your mind may be bombarded with doubtful questions such as:
- Are my ideas really going to work?
- Will people actually buy my product or service?
- How do I market my company?
- How do I acquire the necessary working capital to finance my operations?
- Who’s going to help me when I can’t afford to hire anyone?
- How can I identify and address upcoming challenges and barriers?
Obviously, the list of difficult-to-answer questions and doubts can go on and on. Before your thoughts begin to spiral out of control, take comfort in this fact: you’re not alone! According to 2010 data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, there were some 27.9 million small businesses in the United States. Each of those businesses had to be started by someone, so depending on how you look at it, your doubts about launching and growing your own company are…well, in good company with 27.9 million other individuals.
Small Business Financing Solutions Via The Commercial Finance Group
Of all the common challenges that small business owners encounter, money-related problems are, arguably, the most common. Your business needs working capital to support a healthy cash flow and assist in financing day-to-day operations, building expansions, equipment acquisition, employee growth, and so much more.
Whether you’re an ecommerce business, a service-based company, or you’re selling products out on the street corner, you’re always going to have costs associated with running your business. That vital startup capital needs to come from somewhere, and it’s even more important once your business really starts to take off and you find yourself filling orders faster than you have the capacity to practically execute.
Cash Flow Solutions Made Easy
As the answer to your working capital problems, The Commercial Finance Group provides specialized working capital solutions in the form of asset-based lending and factoring to help your small business get rapid funding. In a fraction of the time that it takes conventional banks to loan small companies an equivalent or even lesser amount of cash, our unique and highly flexible approach to small business lending will free up your cash flow and allow your business to experience the true growth that it deserves.
Gain More Small Business Insights By Reading Below!
Below, we’re going to cover an extensive review of several small business considerations. From starting your business to growing it, our small business loan providers will identify many of the struggles that small business owners commonly face, and cover practical solutions to these common entrepreneurial roadblocks. If you’d like to learn more about how our signature approach to lending works here at The Commercial Finance Group, we’re happy to help you in any way that we can! Contact us today.
Here’s Why You Should Get Excited About Running Your Own Company
You’ll notice that we’re quick to identify the hurdles and hardships of owning a small business, but let’s inspire you a little bit with some of the positive (and frankly flat-out amazing) aspects and perks that come with being the boss. Again, yes — starting, running and growing your own company into something that you’re truly proud of will take grueling amounts of effort and hard work, but it will also be infinitely rewarding in a unique way. This is so much more than just a simple job — running your own company is more of a lifestyle, if anything. Despite all of the challenges that you’ll face on your path to market success, there are many notable advantages that come with being a small business owner.
Advantages Of Being A Small Business Owner
Most notably might be the sheer fact that you actually get to do what it is that you want to do. There are plenty of soul-sucking jobs out there that might pay extremely well, but will leave you feeling empty or dissatisfied deep down. Truly, being an entrepreneur offers you the opportunity to really follow your dreams and act on an idea that you’ve had for X amount of time. Below are just some of the many inherent perks and advantages that accompany small business ownership:
- The rewarding feeling of putting your ideas into action
- Helping the local economy by hiring community members
- Knowing that you’re providing a valuable product or service for people
- You have a say (the final say!) in every aspect of your business
- Setting up a sound retirement for yourself (usually by selling your company)
- You’ll make far more money working for yourself than you would working for someone else
- Job security: only you can fire yourself!
- The chance to work directly with customers
- A constant sense of control, but the freedom to delegate tasks to team members as you see fit
- Creating your own schedule
Of course, there are many other inherent perks that accompany starting your own business, but the above points cover several notable advantages that you can enjoy through the thick and thin of your efforts.
The Responsibility Is On You
Okay, so now that we’ve (hopefully) gotten you excited about the road ahead for you and your entrepreneurial venture, we’re going to come back to the pragmatic matters of starting your own business. Namely, we’ll start with this point: it’s all on you. Perhaps you’re starting out your venture with an equal business partner, so in that case, yes, it would be all on you two. But in many cases, small businesses are started by an individual, and might even stay that way for the entirety of the business’ lifespan.
Our point? Businesses tend to come and go — that’s the reality of entrepreneurship. In fact, in the United States, it’s estimated that only roughly 40 percent of all startup companies are still in business some five years after their initial launch. Now, don’t get too discouraged by that fact. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the other 60 percent of businesses have failed, as many business owners will sell their company within five years and breakeven or just close their business and move onto something else without a loss.
Why Small Businesses Tend To Fail
It’s difficult to articulate all of the reasons that a small company (or even a large company) could possibly fail. There are many factors at play that affect the success (or lack thereof) of a business. In our experience and professional opinion as small business loan providers, The Commercial Finance Group believes that it is important to understand and know why businesses fail in order to avoid repeating these types of mistakes. In most cases, the two most common reasons that a small business fails are:
- A lack of necessary skills, knowledge, and background from the owner, leading to poor management and incompetent leadership
- Financial issues — the owner lacks the proper amount of capital required to start and expand the business
Finding small business funding is one thing, but don’t start a company that does something that you’re completely unfamiliar with. Not only does that not make sense, but it’s only going to set you up for failure — or, at the very least, a difficult time achieving success in launching and growing your business.
Are You Ready To Make A Business Plan?
Once you’ve decided on the product or service (or whatever clever idea it is in your brain) that you’re bringing to market — and we trust that your ideas align with your values and interests as a person — you’ll want to start drafting a formal plan for your business. Without a detailed, outlined and step-by-step business plan that incorporates all foreseeable aspects of current and future development, you’ll not only struggle as a fledgling business, but also find difficulty in receiving working capital loans from asset-based loan providers like The Commercial Finance Group. Truly, a business plan can make or break a small business.
Prove That You’re Serious To Investors And Small Business Loan Providers
A strong, clear and well-written business plan essentially serves as an ideal roadmap to navigate the future of your business and the direction(s) that it should travel. To be clear, a sound, well-thought-out business plan is so much more than jotting down ideas or brainstorming ways to improve those ideas. No, a business plan is a formal piece of writing that essentially lays out the value that you project your company to have in one, three, five, and 10+ years into the future.
Even a rough financial forecast (exact numbers are difficult to predict, and not necessarily expected in the eyes of lenders) should be in your business plan, and it will show investors, banks, and custom small business loan providers (like us!) that you’re serious about your business idea. Common pieces of a business plan include the following:
- An executive summary of your company
- A company description in more detailed, personal language
- Your objective statement (what value are you bringing to market?)
- Your business and management structure
- A detailed description of the product(s) or service(s) that you offer
- Your marketing and sales plan
- A financial analysis of your business as it currently stands
- A projected financial forecast based on certain performance numbers
- An appendix to conclude your value proposition and state of affairs as a company
There’s no strict requirement that all business plans and proposals must follow this exact formula down to a “T,” but the above points should serve as a good roadmap when drafting a business plan with no prior experience. Just as you would with a final paper in college, have someone you trust (or an individual with entrepreneurial credibility and experience) to look it over and proofread it. The better your business plan is, the more likely your company will experience success — and get much-needed working capital funding — from the get-go.
So, You’re Ready To Put Your Ideas Into Action. But How Are You Being Funded?
At this point, (we’re assuming that) you have successfully identified a market need and thought of a unique or innovative idea to fulfill this need. Perhaps you’re even building off of an existing idea and improving it in a way that no other competitor is! With your business plan fully drafted and in place, you’re probably eager to get your business going. However, there’s a major problem — where are you going to acquire the funds (capital) to finance all of these plans?
You certainly can’t pay for everything out of pocket. That’s never expected of any new business owner; that’s why there are a number of small business lending options out there to help you get the necessary funding to launch your business and get things rolling. In your research for ideal business funding options, you’ll likely come across the following sources:
- Traditional bank lending
- SBA (U.S. Small Business Association)
- Online alternative lenders, such as The Commercial Finance Group
- Crowdfunding
- Credit unions
- Small business grants
With a myriad of lending options available, how do you know what’s best for your business? Well, that depends on you and the nature of your business.
Traditional Bank Loans
Bank loans are ideal for more established businesses with available collateral and a strong credit score — not so much for a newly founded small business. Though reliable for companies that have been around for awhile, bank loans usually take awhile to receive.
Lending Via The SBA
This is a decent option for businesses that don’t meet the strict lending criteria of banks as we just outlined. With a federal guarantee on your loan, banks are then more likely to lend to you.
Factoring And Asset-Based Lending Companies (Alternative Lenders)
Companies like The Commercial Finance Group offer fast funding, ease of applying, and are ideal for new small businesses that don’t have a great credit score. Usually, funding can be obtained in a matter of days to weeks as opposed to months.
Crowdfunding
If you’ve garnered attention online and really captured the public’s interest — and if you get lucky — a truly innovative and popular idea might fare well through crowdfunding.
Credit Unions
Though you’ll likely have to be a member, credit unions offer a distinctly personal touch to the small business lending experience.
Small Business Grants
Free funding? That’s what a small business grant will land you, but you’ll have to have a very particular business. As one would expect, this type of funding is also extremely competitive.
As business types naturally differ greatly among various industries and in different countries and cultures around the world, appropriate funding options also vary. However, if you’re a newly launched small business and you need working capital help…
Our Small Business Loan Providers Are Here For You At The Commercial Finance Group!
It’s a shame to see a great idea fizzle out or fail to reach market due to working capital problems. With the help of our rapid and effective working capital solutions, our small business loan providers in Los Angeles and Atlanta will equip small business owners like you with the capital you need to get your business rolling. Contact The Commercial Finance Group today to get started!
