Wealth Management Tips For Small Business Owners

You may have any number of aspirations, as a small business owner. Maybe you want to just stay small and lean, at the helm of a business that supports your lifestyle and nothing more. Or perhaps you see yourself on a mission to take your company from a small business to a major player in your space.

Regardless, everyone needs a little guidance and inspiration. Here we share our top tips for managing wealth as a small business owner.

1.   Surround Yourself With Positive Influences

If you own a business you have a need for experts in your life.  You hire accountants, lawyers, consultants, and bankers to help you with your business. And even if you're just starting out, it's essential to split up business and personal finances

2.    Plan Accordingly

In business, action and result are separated by the dimensions of distance and time. Very often, the cause of the action and its effect are not connected. 

Good strategy and planning reduce the risk of making uninformed decisions. It is about knowing what you do now in the context of what you are trying to achieve in the future.  If you have a clearly thought through intention, there is a better chance that you will achieve your desired results.

3.    Don't Hold Excess Capital In Your Business

Properly managing cash flow and working capital is essential for the success of any business. While larger companies may have access to more financial resources, small businesses’ resources are often limited. While holding as much cash as possible seems like a logical solution to potential cash flow problems keeping lots of excess cash on hand may actually be detrimental to your business. Smart business owners try to strike a balance between maintaining necessary cash reserves and hoarding too much cash.

 4.   Be Prepared For Rough Patches

Hitting a rough patch is something most business owners experience—it’s how you react that matters.You have to step up and keep your business afloat.

 5.    Recognize The Full Worth Of  The Unique Position Of Your Freedom To Build And Create And Pivot.

Focus on building efficient systems in your business. As the pilot of your rocket ship, you have the free reign and creative license to steer your mission and your crew towards new possibilities.

If your business could use some extra working capital to help grow call 01 55 636 55

Financing Options for Irish Business Owners

As a small-business owner, you should understand the financing options available to you to help grow your company. Many new small business owners have difficulty accessing capital through traditional banks to start or grow their firms. Small business lending companies can help to provide financing even though they have challenged credit. There will be a premium charged through interest rates and other fees for access to capital but being granted necessary funding is most important to owners and lenders have to balance risk with reward. Many small businesses have begun seeking alternative finance to meet their smaller financing needs. Peer to peer lending is becoming more commonly used by small firms to finance projects that will help their companies grow.

So you may ask, why don’t I just use my cash flow to fund the business? When you fund a business yourself, it can be wonderful if things work out, but disastrous if they don’t. If you don’t get outside funding, those growth opportunities are limited by the size of your own funds and what your business produces in cash flow. Slow, steady organic growth may be fine for some businesses, but for others, particularly in fast-moving areas like technology, it can mean ceding the advantage to your competitors.

Bank lending is still tight. Research shows that for the first quarter of the year, gross new lending only increased 2.7 per cent over the previous 12 months, driven by primary industries (11 per cent) and hotels and restaurants (3.7 per cent), with declines in other sectors, according to SME market report from Central Bank.  According to the research conducted by the Red C 60% of SMEs were using personal funds to invest in growth in their business. 

It’s important to note that, while interest rates have fallen dramatically since 2008, the average revolving credit rate has actually risen. Alternative lenders have been able to leverage their superior operating efficiency to offer more attractive pricing to consumer and small business borrowers while also delivering a superior service experience.

Here are three major benefits of alternative financing that you need to know, and that banks simply can’t deliver:

1. Banks take several weeks — or sometimes several months — to review loan applications.

2. There are many other factors to consider, and credit scores are just one piece of the puzzle. That’s why we routinely approve borrowers who have impaired or bad credit.

3. Alternative business loans fund quickly, which is one of their biggest advantages. In many cases, you’ll hear back from your lender within 24 hours, and get your loan funded within 48. This is an ideal solution if your business needs cash quickly to take advantage of a business opportunity or get over a short-term cash flow hump.

The flexible and affordable funding solution you want, need and deserve is via alternative finance. BusinessLoans.ie is here to help you navigate alternative finance to get the best finance deal for your business. Call us now on 01 55 636 55

businessloans.ie - WHAT WE DO.

If you're a business owner your usual port of call when you need finance is to look to your bank. Yet, even as we hear positive signals in the media about the Irish economy, the stock of SME credit available in Q1 2017 was down 8.2% compared with Q1 2016. Small and micro-sized companies are worst hit by the increased bank rejection. Even if the bank does approve you for finance, the process can be very time-consuming and stressful. You may endure requests for reams of documents and get eventual approval but subject to additional security such as signing over your family home.

So what can you do about it? The great news is that there are alternative finance options such as private financiers and P2P lending. Many of these options bypass the behemoth bank bureaucracy and replace it with a common-sense approach. You can expect a quick decision based on supplying a couple of easy-to-get documents. Generally you can go the unsecured route and not have to worry about paying penalties if you want to pay your business loan back early. Businessloans.ie is partnered with the best alternative finance options in Ireland today. If you have a business project in mind we will be happy to listen, answer any questions you have and connect you with the best finance deal to grow your business.