Any entrepreneur looking for success knows that the key lies in being able to expand a business and a brand. If your business has hit a bit of a speed bump, that doesn’t mean it has grown to its full potential. It could mean, instead, that there are opportunities you haven’t yet taken advantage of. Below, we’ve compiled six of these opportunities that could show you there’s plenty of life in the old business yet.

1) Accepting different payment types

Something that every company should ask when they reach their zenith is what kind of customers they’re currently missing out. The answer almost always involves some sort of payment option that’s currently missing. If you’ve never given much thought to it, take a look at the various methods your customers are likely to use. Scout around and see if it’s worth investing in opening your business to more.

2) Going B2B

Another opportunity that doesn’t cross quite as many people’s minds is the possibility of going business to business. Set the focus on consumers aside and consider the benefits of marketing to other businesses. For one, businesses tend to value loyalty and reliability. If you successfully keep their custom once, you’re more likely to keep hold of them.

3) Mobile business

If you’re running an online company, you may need to take another look at how your services and store look online. You may have a site you optimised so perfect for presenting your site on a personal computer. The chances are it doesn’t fit quite as you would want it on mobiles. Your customers will notice this too. Developing an app or mobile site with the help of web design firms could stop them from visiting the more optimised sites of your competitors.

4) The business event

If your clients are the kind to pay close attention and learn as much as they can about your services, this could be ticket. When properly marketed, it presents an opportunity for people to get to know your business in detail without making a commitment. It’s a great way to add a human face and some energy to your sales process, too. On top of that, they work just as well for networking with other businesses.

5) Funding platforms

If you’re looking to expand your business, you may not always have to try scrape as much as you can from your business. You don’t even have to go to traditional investment options. There are a lot of alternative funding platforms available nowadays, so check them out.

6) Selling your expertise

One great way to build your personal brand at the same time as bringing attention to your business is by selling your knowledge. This is primarily done through paid speaking opportunities. You can find a lot of these about, that give your chance to establish yourself as an expert in your field. For an entrepreneur, the profile does a lot of good for both you and your business. Providing you can sell yourself well enough.

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Students with a financial need for managing their education would opt for a student loan and the best amongst all of them is the federal student loans. There are a lot of supporting factors for this particular loan which make it a huge success amongst students. More than 80% of the students in the country opt for a federal student loan for their education. Of this, more than 50% of the students seem to be undergraduate students. An overview of why to choose a federal student loan is explained in detail as follows.

There are different types of federal student loans offered, few of those include Perkins loans, Stafford loans, PLUS loans etc. Each and every student would be able to obtain the loan of their choice easily. Federal student loan is offered for both undergraduate and graduate students. Being eligible for a federal student loan is one of the easiest things to do since, most of the students would be eligible for the loan and there are no restrictions placed on them apart from the requirement that the borrower should be US citizen and should have no criminal record against their name.

Eligibility & Interest rate charges

Being eligible for a loan would make the job easy for the borrower since they need not worry about the complications that might occur during loan application. Application procedure is also simple and easily understandable. Coming to the most important aspect of any particular loan program, which is the interest rate charged on the loan. All the federal student loans carry lower interest rate charges. Considerably lower interest rate charges would mean that the borrower would be able to manage their repayment in a better manner.

Repayment terms

Due to lower interest rate, the amount of monthly payment that has to be made towards the loan repayment would be lower and manageable. Apart from the interest rate charged on the loan amount, federal student loans would not have any other costs associated with the loan. Subsidized Stafford loan offered to undergraduate students would help the borrower with the repayments since the interest rate charged at the time of schooling would be paid by the Federal government directly and the borrower need not pay them.

Repayment period would be initiated only after 6 months from graduation and so this would allow enough time for the borrower to secure a job and start earning money to pay for the repayments. In case of unemployment or any other financial stress situations, the borrower would be able to opt for a deferment period which would allow them to postpone their repayment period for a fixed period of time. This time period can be utilized by the borrower to recover from their bad times and gain some finances.

Suppose, in case the borrower files for a bankruptcy or forbearance, he or she would be forgiven for the amount of money they would have to make towards the loan repayment and this amount would be paid by the federal government themselves.

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The 401k loan is being availed by a lot of moderate income people. Basically, availing this loan is the loan from your own account. The retirement balance provides the grants of the 401k loan. Making a home is dream of everyone. And people seek money when they need to build up their own home. Nevertheless, a lot of mortgage solutions are available in the market.

But, those might not be affordable to many for the high rate and non comfortable terms. Nevertheless, the 401k solutions can be very comfortable in these matters. So, you can easily get to pick the 401k loan as mortgage solution. Here you get to know the detailed discussion in this regard.

401k loan as mortgage solution:

You can easily get the 401k loan as mortgage solution. Here you get the issues which can convince you to get the loan as mortgage solution. Here you get those issues which are too much convincing to avail a 401k mortgage solution. This new service offering $2500 Bad Credit Personal Loans for Borrower in Financial Trouble -PRNewswire-iReach for getting approved for mortgage loan.

Low rate:

The best part of the 401k financial solution is that it offers the borrowers with very low rate and that is the reason it is easily affordable in all respect. The 401k financial solution offers the borrowers with an interest rate of only 1% and this is certainly a very low rate solution. If the comparison goes with the other home loans available in the market, those will tend to get higher.

So, you can grant this financial solution as a favorable one when you need a mortgage loan. Having such a low rate loan might not be a possible idea with the traditional loans. So, you can easily depend on this solution.

Long term:

Another good part of the 401k loan is that it offers the borrowers with long term solution. The best part of the long term loans is that it offers the borrowers with easy loan rate. And from that point of view, you can easily manage to afford the debt. Though long term debts are a bit troubling, it is manageable if you can get to be a bit smart. So, you can certainly pick the long term financial solution with the 401k grant program and use it as a mortgage solution.

Easy repayment system:

The repayment system of the 401k loan is very easy. In fact, you can not avail a shorter amount of loan from this source. So, for a mortgage solution, you can grant this program as a perfect one. Also, you will not need to take a lot of tension about the debt repayment.

Nor, you will need to take the hassle of distributing the money. The debt repayment installments will automatically get deducted from the account of your salary and thus you can easily get the payment done. You will get a salary paycheck with the deducted amount.

So, in all respect, you can treat the 401k loan as a better mortgage solution and certainly you will find it as most favorable that the traditional mortgage solutions. Click here for more information.

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Looks like everything is going to be fine, after nine awkward months of unemployment, you finally land a job. It is more than twenty miles away but it’s a job, and it pays a living wage. After more than a year you feel that both you and your partner can breathe, start to live, and start to pay back the loans that helped to start your new found family life, but before the future beckons  let’s look back.

Before It Came Crashing Down

It may not have been a whirlwind romance, but more of a steady, progressive and eventual marriage, where you both wanted it, and it just happened.  The wedding might have took place in 2006 just one year before the financial crash, where mortgage loans were cheap and plentiful and taking out a 130% mortgage (full cost of the flat, plus 30% for the wedding and holiday), was all the rage.

Both you and your partner may have decided on a brand spanking new flat and furniture. Those two months of choosing and buying might well have been some of the most blissful times you ever had. Not fully understanding the intricate and confusing world of loans it would have been easy to buy and buy more. You were both working you and could afford it. What first started out as an anxious application for a loan application, with the fear of rejection, soon becomes your right to have more credit and loans.

Creditors make this first and most dangerous mistake. When any loan becomes a right, the granting of finance becomes more important than the object you need and your long-term financial situation. Here is how the banks (used to and now) decide to grant you an application.

Banks, Finance Companies and Your Loans

Some members of society still hold a very old fashion view of banks, finance companies and loans in general. Many people have a picture in their mind of the loans clerk reading and sorting out loan applications that come in by post, the clerk deciding the simple ones and passing the more difficult to senior staff. Well a long time ago this is what happened, but not now. In the computer age, when you or your partner applies for loans, it is very rare for any human interaction to occur in the bank’s decision to grant one.

Deciding to Grant You a Loan

The financial companies have all developed computer models. The computer models, not people decide who is approved and for how much. One of their most important tools are the credit reference agencies, they keep a record of all the loans and utilities that the public apply for and how they use those loans, they then share this information with the lender. Since the credit crisis, their searches (as referred to) can have frightening outcomes. If information is wrong, it can say you have defaulted on a loan, when you have not, then it becomes very difficult to obtain credit. To understand how this can affect people, check out the book by Frank Kafka “The Trial” (when the authorities hold all the power). However, the opposite happens when the computers say yes to your loan application, you suddenly have a good credit standing and everyone wants to give you loans. For most of us, as long as we keep in employment and our circumstances do not radically change, it can be fine to take out a loan, as you will more likely be able to pay it back. However, if you have the bad luck to lose your job, the time until a new one arrives can be very harsh. In this case, loans can help dramatically in the short term, though like anything they are best to adopt with moderation.

Wendy Derbyshire is freelance finance writer and guru. She has a deep understanding of the credit market and believes when used sparingly, loans can help propel people to financial stability.

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Some of us work hard, pay our dues, but are still flat broke at the end of the month. Then there are those who seem to cruise through life and they are always doing the things we cannot afford to, despite the fact that they have a worse job and yet still drive a more expensive car than that which we drive. It is okay to feel aggrieved, but when you realise those people are bouncing from one loan to another and are rapidly reducing their spending power, it is also okay to feel a little happier. The problem is that those kinds of people always seem to manage to scrape their way out of a financial mess right at the last minute, but is that any way to live your life.

What is a Good Reason?

We all know the answer, nobody wants to dread letters coming through the door because they don’t know if they are going to be able to pay them or not, that’s why it’s important to make sure we use loans responsibly. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get ridiculously in debt for a family holiday to Cancun, it just means we shouldn’t do it twice in a year, although many people do just that. On a less serious note, some people have come up with some crazy reasons for loans that are definitely worth sharing.

Top Five Mad Loan Reasons

1. I want to buy a pet snake, Spider, Monkey or other exotic animal

Fair enough, exotic animals need the correct environment and a great deal of care. Bills at the vets are liable to run into thousands if animals lack proper care, but borrowing a few thousand pounds to kit out a spare room like a Brazilian rainforest is a little eccentric. It’s a little more worrying when there is not spare room and the person states that they live in a one-bedroom flat.

2. A loan for a Friend

One sure way to lose friends is to lend them money. Well, that’s not strictly true. Lending the money is fine; it’s asking them to make repayments that often cause the arguments. If someone cannot get a loan, it’s usually for a reason so you are well advised to leave them to deal with their own problems. Things come to a head when repayments are late and the friend is out on the town every weekend.

3. Borrowing to Invest

In all fairness, most businesses borrow to invest, but that is a lot different from someone taking out a personal loan to invest in a business venture or worse, the stock market. There is no safe investment out there that provides a better income than the cost of a loan; otherwise, the loan companies would put their money into those investments instead of risking it with customers.

4. A loan to pay off  a loan

This is not to be confused with a debt consolidation loan, which in certain circumstances is very useful. The type of loan that is not useful is the kind that people use to cover missed payments, late payments or any other short-term problem. People are far better off when they speak to the company they have a loan with and explain the situation.

5. A loan for Cosmetic Surgery

This is a new one, but both men and women are becoming so conscious of their appearance, they are prepared to take out huge loans to achieve a certain look. The problem is they are rarely satisfied even after spending thousands and of course, the cost rises even higher when interest is on top. Most plastic surgeons offer finance solutions to customers and this is nice little side earner for the practice who already rakes it in with the surgery costs.

Most people are not silly enough to get themselves in a great deal of debt because of something as stupid as the five reasons here, but we are all guilty of putting the odd thing on a credit card when we know it’s not a necessary purchase. The important thing to do is make sure you stay within your means. In other words, live the life you can afford to live and avoid plastic surgery, exotic pets and high maintenance friends if you want to protect your credit record.

William Bancs is a writer who enjoys blogging about his financial experiences and often writes interesting articles to offer advice to help loan companies communicate better with customers.

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