If you need a small business loan, you will learn the process right now. There are thousands of lenders that will approve small business loans. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), in June 2011, $606.9 billion dollars in small business loans were outstanding. What does this statistic mean? It means that small business loans are available. Individuals have to find the resources to get these loans. Use these steps to get a small business loan.

First, check your credit report to obtain a small business loan. Get a report from the three major credit bureaus. Review the reports and clear up incorrect information. Make sure that all your accounts are current. Do not borrow any money or use a credit card while you are applying for this loan. The lender might run another credit check on the day of the closing.

Next, decide what type of small business you are going to operate. Read publications about the business you plan to start. Find out how much money it will cost to start the business. Study and research the industry to help you make wise business decisions. Do not start a business or invest money in a business that you do not understand.

Then, you will need to develop a business plan to get a small business loan. The business plan should tell lenders how you are going to repay the loan. Try to have at least 2-to-1 asset coverage when you apply for the loan. For example, if you apply for a $5,000 loan, you should have at least $10,000 in assets. It is also good to have cash on hand to show the lender you are willing to put your own money in this venture.

Try to borrow the money from friends and family members. Also, can you borrow money from a 401k or other accounts? If this is not possible, you will need funding from a bank, a venture capital firm, investors, or a government agency. Make sure that you have a well-written business plan or hire someone to write the plan for you. Most lenders will put several terms and conditions on loans they approve.

Finally, get ready to apply for small business loans. Lenders will give you a loan application packet. You will have to fill out an application in order to get the loan. When you submit the application, the lender will contact you within a few days. At this point, the lender can approve the loan, decline the loan, or ask for additional information. Be prepared to attend meetings and interviews before the loan’s closing.

An annuity is a contract between an individual and an insurance company. The insured party normally pays a lump sum of money to the life insurance company. The money is later returned to the insured in a series of guaranteed payments.

Annuities are a safe investment. The money placed into the annuity is guaranteed. This makes annuities less susceptible to fluctuations in the market. The money earns a small amount of interest, but the principal remains untouched. It is important to buy annuities from insurance companies with a sterling reputation and a long history. The reserve requirements demand the company keep enough resources to cover the amount of money people have invested. So people looking for a safe investment often choose annuities.

Many people choose annuity plans because of the tax cover they provide. For them the popular choice is deferred variable annuities. This financial instrument allows people to save money tax free. They are only required to pay taxes when they begin to receive payments. This allows the principle to grow faster because the interest earned is added to the principle without any taxes being subtracted. This enables people to maximize their investment and defer tax payments until a future date.

Many investors prefer annuities because of the flexibility and accessibility it provides. When people invest in annuities they get to decide when they will begin to receive payments, how much those payments will be, how often the dividends will be paid and for how long a period of time they will receive those payments. Few other investment vehicles offer such flexibility. The investor can even name a beneficiary to whom payments will be made either along with the investor or upon their death. This eliminates the costs associated with probating a will.

Annuities generally offer better return on investment than other investment options. Annuities guarantee a minimum interest rate the investment will earn over a stipulated period of time. They even allow investors to choose a fixed interest rate should they so desire. This allows people to know with certainty exactly how much money they will receive monthly, quarterly or yearly until they die. Even though the investment can accrue substantial interest, there is no danger of losing the principle.

Annuities offer an excellent safety net for people who want to make sure they don’t outlive their money and they will always have enough money to meet their needs.

In tough economic times, people get nervous about finding the perfect holiday gifts to buy with little extra cash to spend. Fortunately, there are many oaptions for giving wonderful, thoughtful gifts without maxing out credit cards or emptying your bank account- and there are gifts like this for everyone on your list. These ideas can also be used for other occasions too!

Inexpensive Gifts For People Who Love To Cook

The cooks on your list are probably the easiest people to shop for on a dime. There are so many great options. If you have the time to make something, try creating scented sugars that can be used in recipes or coffee. By layering vanilla beans into granulated sugar and sealing the mixture in a glass mason jar, you have created an inexpensive gift that any cook will love. Want something with a little more tang? Try using dried lemon, orange, or lime peel in the sugar for a citrus scent and flavor.

If you don’t have the time to make something handcrafted, purchasing a nice bottle of olive oil or a bottle of wine is an excellent choice. There are so many great wine varieties available for $10 or less. You’ll be sure to find the perfect selection for any home cook on your list.

Affordable Gifts For People Who Love Traveling

A nice quality travel mug, jansport backpacks, travel pillow, cell phone cases from Wireless Emporium, or puzzle book are all excellent and extremely inexpensive gifts for any traveler on your gift list. These gifts are practical and thoughtful; and most importantly, they are good gifts to buy when you’re broke.

Other cheap presents for travel lovers could include unique and high-quality travel toiletries, or travel sized alarm clock.

Children’s Presents That Won’t Break The Bank

It may seem like good gifts to buy when you’re broke would be the hardest to find for children. On the contrary, kids’ gifts are fairly easy to find at low prices. Small metal cars, jump ropes, puzzles, and some card games are extremely inexpensive. For babies and young children, “board books” are a wonderful gift.

Gifts Don’t Have To Be Marked With A High Price Tag

Remember at holidays and birthdays that gifts don’t have to be expensive in order to be meaningful. A gift that required careful thought and consideration before purchasing means more to the average person than a gift with a high price tag. Be creative with gift-giving this year. Who knows, you may start a new tradition!

Start by analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. Take a notebook and write them down. Ask yourself: Do I like working with people? Do I like working under pressure. Many of the jobs have quotas, especially those in brokerage and financial planning. Do I like repetitive sales calls? How well do I take rejection? Do I have a strong ego and a desire to be the best? If you can answer yes and still want to work in finance, you’ve taken the first step.

Start where you are. If you are in college start early, talk to your professors about your goals. They can steer you to any internships that may be available. They may know a few persons in finance and arrange an interview with them. This may not be a job interview but it can start your networking program. Join some internet job listing sites that involve networking with key executives. If you are lucky you can even land a job as an assistant to one of these persons. This will put you inside the organization where you will learn first hand how the team functions.

Set your goals. The finance industry is unique. Most corporations produce a product. Their success depends on the quality and acceptance of that product. In finance, your product is “profit.” Every step you take is measured against this goal. If you are beginning in brokerage or financial planning, your success depends on the number and size of the accounts you manage and how well you manage them. If you are beginning at the corporate level, you will be on a team. You may be in corporate finance or investment banking. Here you success is measured in much the same way, except that you are working on much larger and complex deals. Investment bankers focus on issuing securities for companies and then reselling those securities to other investors. They may assist in managing assets and providing financial advice. In corporate finance you would help to find the money for companies, help them grow their business and make acquisitions.

Do what is best for your client. This is the golden rule of success. If you make a profit for your clients, they will keep coming back to you. They are your best source of referral.

Have fun. At times the pressures may be intense. Don’t worry too much and learn to laugh a lot. No matter what happens, just say: “tomorrow will be better.”

If you blend your desire for success with that of your clients, you will be a winner.

With the arrival of winter also comes over eating and the beginning of bad habits that you then try to get rid of in the spring. This is not always successful, and besides having to buy a new wardrobe, your risk of being affected by several diseases increases. You may be very well aware that your clothes area getting a little too small and that your health is taking a bad turn, but unfortunately the weight gain and the consequent downturn of your health, is also affecting your financial security.

Being healthy is not only about vanity and about health; eating right and exercising can save you money. Here are five surprising ways your health can affect your finances:

1. A strong fit person, who maintains a healthy lifestyle, will be able to acquire the best health insurance rates. The more prone to disease your body and lifestyle is, the higher the rates and deductibles for your health coverage. This is how the insurance companies safeguard their interests, if they think you will most likely fall ill, they will charge you more, in the same way that a person who has a bad driving record, will have to pay higher car insurance.

2. Because you feel great and are more confident about your body, you will want to do things that exert more energy. All of a sudden, you will feel like running, biking or cycling to work, your friend’s house or store. You might even become good at rollerblading. Getting around in these ways, instead of your car or bus, will save you money on transportation and gas.

3. Leading a healthy lifestyle is difficult if you abuse alcohol and smoke frequently. Limiting your alcohol consumption and quitting smoking will not only drastically improve your health; it can save you approximately 3000 dollars a year. Quitting smoking is not easy; it takes a lot of determination. However, slowly cutting back will give you the results you want, and your bank account will be happy. Think of the vacation you can have with money you save.

4. Probably the most obvious reason, and yet the most important reason, is that you will get sick less and therefore not have to spend money on medication and lose money because you can’t go to work. Even if you have medical insurance, you usually have to pay some portion out of your own pocket, such as deductibles and over the counter drugs, and combined with the loss of pay, the expense can dig a big hole in to your budget that month.

5. The cost of clothing really begins to add up when over the course of two years you have had to renew your wardrobe three or four times. Staying at an optimum weight allows you to wear your favorite outfits longer and supplement your wardrobe as you want, without straining your budget.

Dealing with taxes, whether for yourself individually or for a business that you own can be stressful and at times, even overwhelming. When you find yourself in need of additional time to file your taxes or pay a baalance on your taxes owed, you may feel panic. Avoiding panic when your taxes are late or overdue is possible with a few tips and a bit of preparation.

First, take a deep breath and realize that there are others who pay their taxes late. Although it is ideal to pay them on time, there are solutions available.

Gather all of the financial information you need to help with starting your irs tax forms, filing them or even determining what you owe for the year (especially if you are working independently or operating a business). It is important to gather financial institution records, bank statements, pay stubs and any other types of documents that holds information you need to file your taxes.

Download and print the necessary tax documents you need to file your taxes right from home, online. The official IRS website offers all of the documents needed to file for personal income tax, self-employment and even documents for specific types of companies, corporations or entities.

Read tutorials and guides for free from the official IRS website and other online communities dedicated to financial advice and tax information. You can follow step by step guides on how to file your taxes even if you are late from home by watching videos and reading guides.

Avoid hiring help to file your taxes late unless you are working with a CPA or a tax accountant who specializes in the type of taxes you need to file. Many companies that claim to have the ability to lower tax payments for the IRS are not legitimate. Instead, it is best to call the nearest location for the IRS to begin speaking with a representative who can look into your case and determine the best course of action to take.

Call the IRS directly. Although many find it intimidating to handle the IRS on their own, speaking with an agent or the agent who represents you can help you to determine the steps you need to take to pay your taxes. Speaking with the IRS directly can help you to gain insight into all of the options you have available and the steps required for you to put the matter behind you.

People that have restaurants are always in search of the best way to handle this. Lots of restaurant owners are constantly in search of better credit card processing fees. The restaurants business can be quite fierce for business owners. When things are bad in the restaurant business it is quite difficult to pay the higher fees.

The best way to process money is to be open to all forms of credit cards. Business owners may really put lots of limitations on the amount of business that they obtain if they don’t take certain cards. The types of cards that are processed by a business are usually on the door or window at the restaurant entrance. Typically major chain fast food restaurants will accept everything. All the major companies like American Express and Visa are accepted. This is not a problem at this level. It does, however, become a problem, however, if you have a smaller restaurant. This is often the case with small business owners and credit card processing companies.

There are some companies that may accept the two major worldwide cards like Visa and MasterCard. The acceptance of Discover and American Express, on the other hand, may be extra fees. This can be something that business owners will not do because of the extra fees. What they do not realize is that this will often make them lose money. It is always a much better business decision to take all types of credit cards.

What you should not do is take checks. There are so many people that are still writing bad checks in society today. Many agencies have cracked down on this, but it is still very common. If you do decide to take checks you should have a machine that processes the payment right away. This is more common in department stores, but it can also be done in the restaurant business as well. You can actually process the check instantly as a debit. This allows the payment to go through and debit the checking account for payments. You can avoid getting bad checks this way.

Sometimes it may take a little bit of searching to find the best credit card processing rates. There are some POS machines that can be hooked up for smart phones now. Even more, there are ipad pos app These are often cheaper because you are not leasing the whole credit card processing machine. This saves the business money.