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ChAmber Blog

Creative Ways of Raising Capital for Your Business

8/25/2015

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​By Monique Dean, Client Marketing Advocate, PalmPons, LLC
Business owners are not limited to traditional loans to fund their business. There are a lot of ways in which they can secure funding through other avenues. Below, we will go over some of the more non-traditional ways that you can secure funding for your business. 
Crowd Funding

Pitch your business idea on the web to generate excitement and get people from all over the world eager to contribute to your vision. There are many crowdfunding sites, like GoFundMe and Kickstarter that will give you the opportunity to pitch your idea in order to gain financial assistance from others. To do this, you will have to set a goal, pitch your idea or business and explain why you need the amount you are asking for. If you fail to reach your goal, the site will not release the money you raised and it will be returned to the investors. If you exceed your goal, you will be able to use that to further fund your company. Usually, companies will offer incentives or prizes to those who invest in order to help them reach their goal.

Personal Credit 

With generous payment terms, you can use your personal credit line or credit cards to push some of your expenses further down the road. If you are smart about it, you can make your small and everyday purchases using credit. This will free up the money that you would otherwise use for those purchases to instead spend on your company.
Home Equity Loans

If you own a home, you have the option to liquidate some of the equity that you have and use it to finance your company. Although this option is only reserved for those that own a home and have equity to draw from, it is usually easy to obtain and the interest rates will typically be more favorable than through other avenues.
Peer-to-Peer Lending
Not to be confused with crowd funding, peer-to-peer lending is where people come together to lend money to each other. Lending Club and Prosper are two big names in this industry, where they connect everyday investors to borrowers without the banks.  Since they are both online marketplaces, they can offer lower interest rates to borrowers and attractive returns to investors. With a simple qualification process, you receive offers within minutes and can evaluate loan options with no impact to your credit score.
Invoice Financing
Also known as “Accounts receivable financing” or “factoring,” invoice financing is an alternative financial solution that can turn your unpaid invoices into cash. Companies like BlueVine and Paragon Financial can supply cash on your business sales immediately, rather than waiting for 30, 60, or 90 days+ for customer payment. Whereas traditional bank loans determine how much money an individual qualifies for based solely on the borrower’s creditworthiness, an invoice company will research the credit history of the seller’s customers prior to purchasing the invoices. With faster funding and a higher approval rate, this option allows you to capitalize on more business opportunities or pay employees.
Angel Investors
This is a less creative option, but still worth considering once your business is ready to scale. An angel investor is someone that will agree to provide capital for your company as it needs it. In exchange, you give the angel investor some equity in the company. This can become a mutually beneficial partnership. The investor has an incentive to continue to invest in your company in order to help it grow and increase the value of their original investment. On the company’s side, you won’t have the hassle of seeking out different investors every time you need more funding. 
We’d love to hear what you think!  Have you used any of these non-conventional avenues to raise money for your business?  Or have you used a different channel that is not discussed here?  Is there a certain option you prefer for your business growth?

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Don’t go it Alone

8/18/2015

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by Scott Keefer, President, Cobra Leadership Development, Inc.
 
How often have you been sitting in traffic and asked yourself, “What should I do about………?” or found yourself staring out your office window thinking “Who can I talk to about this?” In his often cited business classic, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill introduced the business use of something called a Mastermind Group. Hill’s book recounts how many successful business people rely on a small, tight-knit group of advisors to help them build their businesses. Although the concept of the "mastermind alliance" was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in his timeless classic, mastermind groups have been around since the beginning of time; Benjamin Franklin belonged to such a group, which he called a Junto. I suspect you may have belonged to something similar and either called it something else or didn’t have a name for it.
 
A Mastermind Group IS:
- A collection of 5-8 creative and committed individuals who meet on a regular basis to offer a combination of brainstorming, education, peer accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills.
- Helps you and your mastermind group members achieve success. The members challenge each other to set important goals, and more importantly, to accomplish them. It is expected that all members of the group are commitment, exercise confidentiality, display a willingness to be creative and brainstorm ideas/solutions, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion.
- Catalyst for growth, devil’s advocates and supportive colleagues.
 
How Does a Mastermind Work:
- A group of smart people meet on a regular basis to tackle challenges and problems together.
- They lean on each other, give advice, share connections and do business with each other when appropriate.
- Members prepared for meetings depending on agreed upon format. Some groups use an agenda before the meeting to ensure group members have time to think about discussion points. Others have a more informal approach, allotting everyone 15 or 20 minutes to report on progress and discuss issues or challenges.
- Establish a set ground rules related to attendance, meeting format, confidentiality, making decisions, and settling conflicts. These ground rules my include reasons for dismissal from the group, as well, such as being disinvited after missing a certain number of meetings or who violate confidentiality.
 
What’s In It For You:
- Accountability – Stating your goals and objectives to a group that holds you accountable for your stated result can have the kind of pull that keeps you focused on meeting your goals in both your professional and personal life
- Growth – Exposure to new ideas that bring additional revenue streams and growth opportunities
- Increased knowledge – Tap into the experience and skills of others, members from different backgrounds and industries can help you fill gaps in your own knowledge and provide very specific help
- Different perspectives – Trusted advisors from outside your industry to question your long held beliefs or suggest innovations from a new point of view can prove very helpful
- Support –A great place to go for support when you have a troubling business issue. Increased confidence that you have made the right decision
- Energy – Having someone who understands your objectives and helps you celebrate your wins can be very energizing and provide a boast to your everyday positive attitude
 
A mastermind group is designed to help you navigate through challenges using the collective intelligence of others. Deep down, we all want to be pushed. We want someone to challenge us to put our best work forward. We want to be understood, supported, listened to, encouraged, called out, and held accountable by people that care about us. We want these things, and yet so many of us lack the right people in our lives to make it happen, a Mastermind Group puts those people in your life. So, if the concept has been proven to help millionaires make their fortunes and it’s been around for nearly 100 years, why are you still going it alone?
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Tips for Updating Data and Lists

8/11/2015

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​by Carolyn Carlson, Carlson Consulting 
According to industry marketing experts, roughly 25% of a database grows stale over one year, and 40% after two years. Termed as the "rot rate", data and lists can degrade records over time. For example, records can change when individuals move, get married, change jobs, buy new homes, undergo a divorce, retire or die. 
When reconnecting with an "opt-in" audience who is familiar with your business brand or micro-target a specific marketing niche, it is important to update as many records as possible to ensure your records remain accurate. 
- Pay attention to any data entry errors or typos.
- Eliminate duplicate records or households that have several different names within one address.
- Keep an eye out for missing contact data (i.e., a street name without correct numbers or missing numbers, wrong zip code, or four digit zip code instead of a five digit zip code.)
- Fix incorrect area codes for phone numbers. There are area code splits which fall into two or three geographies.
- Look for street addresses with no suite or apartment number. Customers may forget or purposefully omit this info which makes it more difficult for the post office to deliver the mail in a timely manner.
- Update/remove mailing addresses of deceased individuals. Failure to update records is lost money and can be interpreted by a family as being insensitive or lazy. Identifying a new contact will help to protect your brand.
- Obtain correct formatting for global addresses. Global contact data comes in different address formats and many postal code systems.
- Determine whether an address is residential or business. Many shipping companies charge a higher price for residential deliveries.
These are just some of the tips which overall will add up to boosting and positively expanding your outreach and online communications. Check back in a few weeks when we discuss the top ten tips for outbound email broadcasting.
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FMLA Update: U.S. Department of Labor Issues Revised FMLA Notice

8/3/2015

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​by Doug Taylor, Shareholder, Bean, Kinney & Korman, P.C.
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently released updates to seven model or “form” notices and certification forms dealing with requirements under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”).
Briefly, the FMLA applies to any employer that employs 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. In order to qualify for coverage under the FMLA, an employee must have worked for a covered employer for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during the immediately preceding 12 month period.
Occurrences that give rise to FMLA leave entitlement include:
            1. The birth of a child;

2. The placement of a child in the employee’s household for adoption or foster care;
3. The need for the employee to provide care for a spouse (state law determines the meaning of “spouse”), parent (but not in-laws), son or daughter (whether biological, adopted or foster) with a “serious health condition”;
4. A serious health condition that prevents the employee from performing an essential function of his or her job (includes serious health conditions related to pregnancy and child birth) and
5. A qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that a covered military member is on active duty, or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty, in support of a contingency operation.

FMLA requirements for employers include:
1. Prominently display a notice explaining the FMLA’s provisions and provide information concerning the complaint process for employer violations of the FMLA;
2. Notify employees of their eligibility to take FMLA leave, upon request from employees or acquisition of knowledge by the employer of the need for FMLA leave;
3.  Contemporaneously with the FMLA eligibility notice, provide employees with notice of their FMLA rights and responsibilities and
4. Provide employee notice of whether leave is deemed covered under the FMLA and how much time will count against the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement.
The DOL’s newly revised FMLA forms can be found here:
WH-380-E Certification of Health Care Provider for Employee’s Serious Health Condition (PDF)
WH-380-F Certification of Health Care Provider for Family Member’s Serious Health Condition (PDF)
WH-381 Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities (PDF)
WH-382 Designation Notice (PDF)
WH-384 Certification of Qualifying Exigency For Military Family Leave (PDF)
WH-385 Certification for Serious Injury or Illness of Current Servicemember — for Military Family Leave(PDF)
WH-385-V Certification for Serious Injury or Illness of a Veteran for Military Caregiver Leave (PDF) 
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