Overview:
Becoming a self-employed businessman is a great reputation in the society but the problems faced by the entrepreneurs from the day one of their business is enormous. It is a great challenge for a person to overcome all obstacles to become a successful businessman. The numerous problem faced by all is finance. Even great entrepreneurs of various industries have struggled a lot of financial crisis for setting up their business and to run their daily business operations. Thus finance plays a major role in the life of business people. Great ideas require the necessary financial support to bloom into a successful business.Introduction:
There are various sources for business people to raise capital for their business. The most trusted source is from banks. There are various reasons why people choose banks as the best source for raising capital for their business. Banks provide a lower cost of funds in the form of Business Loans. There are various types of business loans at differential interest rates to facilitate business people to solve their financial crises.Types of Business Loans:
Businesses are of different types and need finance at different stages of their business operations. The need also being different, banks help them in providing different types of business loans helping various small and medium enterprises to raise capital.New Project Loan – Banks are interested in funding for new businesses and also for new projects of existing business. There are various criteria for getting new project loan and differs from bank to bank. Project loans are approved against the collateral of the person like residential property, commercial property or empty land.Top-up on Existing Loans – These loans are issued for expansion, replacement, diversification of an existing business. These loans are approved for short term or long term basis to buy goods, machinery or any fixed assets for the company.Working Capital Loans -These loans are provided for the business to solve sudden financial crises and repaid within short durations. Banks are more interested in providing working capital loans against their inventories, stocks or receivable bills of the company.Secured Business Loan – Business loans in which companies raise their capital against any security for the bank. It may include plot, residential or commercial places, gold, shares, bills, insurance as collateral to get funds for their business. The interest rate is preferably less.Unsecured Business Loan – Every businessman cannot afford to pledge a security in getting the business loan, so bankers help them with loans without any security based on bank transactions and income tax returns. These loans are charged with more interest rates when compared to secured business loans.Requirements of the Banks:
There are various steps and procedures followed by banks to provide funds. The procedure and documents to be submitted to the banks as followsIdentity and address proof of the company – Address proof and identity proof of partnership or proprietor business.Statutory legal registration of the company – Whether the company is legally registered under government norms and have followed all procedures legally in setting business.Financial statement of the company – Every bank is interested in seeing the recent 1-year business transaction of the company.Income tax returns – ITR helps the bankers to check the business performance, efficiency level, assets and liabilities of the company and also tax that company pays from their current earnings. This also plays a major role in deciding the loan amount for the business people.Financial Security – It includes the fixed and movable assets of the company which helps the banker to consider providing business loans based on the asset value along with the business transactions. This also safeguards banks from the failure of businessmen that fail to repay the loan amount.Previous Loan track – This is a very important factor considered by banks which will help them evaluate the financial condition of the business and also to check on past repayments on loans.Litigation – It will help banks assess the character of businessmen before providing a business loan.Takeaway:
Though business loans are found to be a great source for raising capital, businessmen undergo challenge in getting timely funds from the banks. In order to help them in availing timely loans, even NBFC is also now prepared to help them with funds at various stages of their business. Banks & NBFC have also made the lending process easy, with all verification done in shorter time-span, doorstep assistance in collecting documents etc. Businesses with good cash flows & credit score can avail timely funds with much ease.
How A Business Loan Helps Business People
Religion and Politics in Iran
I’m not an expert in these matters but I think I know enough to say that religion and politics don’t mix well in Iran. Cooperation between the two is an illusion, an illusion the people of that country realize is getting them no where fast. Iran was on its way to becoming a democracy (sort of) during the Shah’s US backed reign. Of course the Shah-Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi-had his problems with the religious right because of his White Revolution (visit White Revolution in Wikipedia-very interesting) that, among other things, extended suffrage to women, modernized the nation and recognized the sovereignty of Israel, a no-no for any Muslim nation.Modernization in Iran was seen by Shi’a clergy as secularization and they began withdrawing support for the Shah. In 1979 a revolution occurred that brought to power the Ayatollah Khomeini and his rule by the Supreme Jurist. Many Iranian citizens were opposed to the return of theocracy but knew better than to complain. Religious zealots remember, have ways of bringing the wrath of God to bear when needed to bring about unquestioned compliance, or so those zealots say. I became acquainted with an Iranian family that was able to escape the Ayatollah’s Supreme Jurist rule in 1982. A well-to-do family, the result of education and hard work, eventually made their way to the US where we met. The patriarch and his wife were in their seventies, both were ill, and they were broke. The Supreme Jurist wouldn’t allow them to leave Iran to seek medical assistance with any thing but the cloths on their backs. The familie’s home, jobs, and retirement fund were lost, never to be retrieved. The good news is that Americans-many were Iranian themselves-helped this family get what they needed and the bad news, of course, is they could never return to their beloved Iran.A product of the 70′s revolution in Iran was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now into his second term as Iran’s blowhard president. Strange indeed how Ahmadinejad began his ascent because of a cleric’s government take over in 1979, a puppet groomed by theocracy to lead a country back into the dark ages and now theocracy and Ahmadinejad are both suffering a significant loss of respect and power.Jon Meacham, in a Newsweek editorial, wrote; “In an imperfect world there will never be a complete end to theocracy any more than there will be a complete end to tyranny. Power will ebb and flow, regimes come and go. But in the main, history’s path leads to more liberty, not less.”Riots are raging throughout the Middle-East and as many know already Ahmadinejad is on his way out eventually. Rule by the Supreme Jurist is sure to be marginalized as well and the result, we hope, will be more liberty, not less. However, the not-less part is contingent upon reining in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the most powerful and secretive organization in the region, their goal; eradication of all non-fundamental Islamic believers. There is much to be done to bring about liberty in those Muslim states and I am afraid it will get worse before it gets better. And in the meantime the Iranian Islamic radicals near their quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
Best Way to Start a Photography Business
So you have a digital camera and you are thinking of turning your photography hobby into a successful business. But where do you start? From a logo, to a website, blogsite, domain name, email account, business card, camera equipment, lighting equipment, accounting software — you are feeling a little overwhelmed. The question is, what should you do first?Identify the one action that will make the biggest impactWhen starting any new business, you will have many things to do. The hardest part is knowing what to do first. Although, several things may be important, think to yourself, “what is the one thing that will make the biggest impact in launching my business?” For example, hiring a great accountant is important, but without any clients or income, this step will have very little impact in launching your business.Biggest impact for photography businessesGet a website! Getting a website will have the single greatest impact on starting a photography business. Certainly, word-of-mouth and referrals will bring you business as well. But, for example, if someone refers a business to you, what is the first thing you do? You go online and check out their website! Times have changed, getting a professional looking website is not difficult or expensive. There are many beautiful template photography website companies out there. You simply upload your own photos and content. You can even change the look of the website without any graphic design skills. Best of all, many of these companies help you set up your domain name and email accounts. These companies charge anywhere from $6 – $50/month on average. (Once your business is more established you may wish to hire a professional to design your website/blogsite – see branding below).What content should be on the website?Make sure to include your business name and location. So often I see photographers have forgotten to give their location! Don’t have a studio or a physical address? That’s okay. It is just important that you include the city and state/province that you work in. This is important for Google. You want your website to show up when someone searches for photography services in your city! For example, a potential client may type “Windsor Wedding Photographer” into a Google search. You want to make sure that you have mentioned on your website that you are a Wedding Photographer in Windsor!Also, be sure to give your contact information – email and telephone number. It is ideal to have this on your “contact” page, and at the bottom of every page on your website. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you!Finally, write a little bit about yourself and what type of photography you do. People can’t hire you if they don’t know what you do!What images should I put on my website?Many new photographers worry that they don’t have enough photos for a portfolio page. Don’t worry! Less is often more. If you are starting a wedding photography business, put up some wedding related photos. Don’t have very many wedding photos? Try this: go to your local florist and buy a beautiful bouquet. Then take some beautiful detail photos of it. Ask a friend if you can take some detail photos of her engagement ring and wedding band. Slowly, as you get more clients your portfolio will grow and you can add more photos. If you are starting a kids portrait photography business and you don’t have a lot of photos of children – ask a friend if you can photograph her toddler for the website.I am by no means suggesting that you lie to clients about your level of experience. These are just some ideas on how to get supporting images for your website. Also, getting out there and taking more photographs is a great exercise in photography!Unsure of your company’s identity? What about branding?You always hear about people who haven’t started their photography businesses yet because everything behind the scenes, (branding, logo, studio, etc), isn’t perfect yet. They are afraid to start until everything is perfect. Chances are they will never be perfect – and they will never start. Your style and your company’s identity will become clearer to you the more you photograph. For example, you may decide that would like to photograph newborns only to discover, from experience, that you don’t have the patience. And you later realize that you really excel in the fast pace world of wedding photography.Things to think aboutThere are many simple/plain website templates out there that you can choose from, if you are still discovering your style and brand. You can refine the your website’s style later. Look at established companies – they are always updating their website’s style! Don’t wait until everything is perfect behind the scenes to start your photography company. You might just be waiting forever! Get your website up, because it is the one action you can take that will have the biggest impact on propelling your photography business forward. Good luck!