Many small business people find it hard to understand why a lending institution refuses to lend them money. Others have no trouble getting funds, but may be surprised to find strings attached to their loans. The Insider's Guide to Small Business Loans informs the small business owner or upcoming entrepreneur what the key factors are for getting a small business loan, what to look for and what to emphasize when putting together a business loan application.

The Insider's Guide to Small Business Loans will show you how to:

• Complete your loan application and avoid common mistakes
• Understand the basics of borrowing and what lenders look for
• Understand how the Small Business Administration (SBA) can help you
• Get free help from the SBA and others even if you don't have a loan
• Approach a lender with a properly prepared loan application
• Find out about "Research Grants" from the federal government

Packed with helpful resources such as Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC) directories, SBA offices, micro loan lenders, and a complete nationwide listing of certified and preferred lenders. Plus, more than a dozen invaluable worksheets and forms are included, such as a sample small business loan application.

An active participant in the small business community for more than 25 years, Dan M. Koehler has owned his own small business as well as held policy-making positions in the SBA. Mr. Koehler was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as a delegate to the National White House Conference on Small Business. Dan M. Koehler is a former deputy regional director of the SBA for the New York region, and currently, he is president of the American Alliance of Small Business.

Understand How to Read Financial Statements

To understand the fiscal decisions companies make, and to successfully prepare to make choices for your own company, you must know how to read financial statements. Financial Decisionmaking: A CPA/Attorney Perspective, begins with the basics, explained in a non-technical manner that anyone who knows how to add, subtract, multiply and divide will be able to understand.

You will learn how to analyze balance sheets, income statements, cash flow analyses and other documents. Once you understand these fundamental elements to analyzing and managing finances, you will be able to assess the impact those statements will have on your business and how it will affect your future. Once you have gained the confidence to make wise, informed business decisions, you can focus on making more money than your competition.

Financial Decisionmaking is written for the business owner, the employee who wants to understand or contribute to the financial state of his or her company, and the entrepreneur who wants to be well-informed before making an investment. If you have ever had problems understanding your banker or doubts about investing in a startup venture, Financial Decisionmaking is for you.

David L. Fraley is a certified public accountant, attorney, and professor at the University of Nevada and the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked with Touche, Ross & Company and was Corporate Director of Taxation for Cessna Aircraft Company. He served as Vice President and Controller for Grand Auto Stores, and was Chief Financial Officer for Photo & Sound Company

No resource is more critical or more scarce than a company's financial wealth. If you can't understand how to read the signs that show how your business is doing financially, you can't turn problems around until it may be too late.

Now, with Financial Management Techniques for Small Business, monitoring and planning for your company's financial situation can become almost as easy as looking at the gas gauge in your car to see when to fill up so you won't run empty. With this book, you'll find out how to use the information you already have to interpret what's happening now, and to plan your financial future. If you detect a problem, you'll learn what steps to take to solve it.

With the accompanying software you can easily create income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, cash budgets, graph monthly or annual data, as well as historical and future reports that allow you to analyze your business' history and forecast where it is headed.

You will become comfortable with financial terms and concepts that previously seemed cryptic, as the author walks you through sample financial statements, formulas, and worksheets explaining what to look for, what needs to be done, and how to do it.

Arthur R. DeThomas, a business consultant, has been associated with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Georgia Small Business Development Center and has worked with many small business clients over the past 15 years. He has also helped large corporations, such as Lotus, develop programs for emerging companies. A popular lecturer, Dr. DeThomas has conducted more than 100 management training and business workshops. He serves on the editorial review boards of several publications, including Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, and Journal of Economics and Finance. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance and has taught business finance subjects at the college level for the past 20 years, currently serving as Professor of Finance at Valdosta State College's School of Business Administration in Valdosta, Georgia

Raising money for a new or existing business is an ever-changing activity. The sources of money and the amounts investors are willing to risk change very rapidly. Changes in tax law affect the benefits accrued to risk capital. Changes in government programs sponsored by agencies such as the Small Business Administration affect the source of debt financing available to small businesses. Other forces such as the general economic conditions or government banking requirements also cause an increase or decrease in the amount of debt funding.

The landscape in which a business can raise money is ever-changing. With The Money Connection you will be better equipped to find a source of funding that you may not know about. The Money Connection:

• Includes sources of hundreds of current nationally recognized business loan and venture capital firms
• Describes the latest federal, state, county and community loan, investment and assistance programs
• Provides tips about business financing methods that work
• Gives suggestions for finding private investors through networking
• Lists alternative sources of help for entrepreneurs
• Describes how to write a proposal to secure financing

Small business owners and bankers often join together in a forced alliance. In reality, their goals are very similar – one is seeking capital to use to fuel the profits of their business and the other is seeking quality loans to fuel the profits of their bank. The Small Business Insider's Guide To Bankers is meant to enhance the relationship between the entrepreneur and the banker.

Learn how to select the best bank and banker to meet the needs of your business. Get an insiders view of the inner workings of a bank. Become more familiar with the benefits gained from a positive working relationship with your bank. Discover how to identify who the important decision-maker is in your bank.

The Small Business Insider's Guide To Bankers compares large, mid, and small-sized banks and with this information at hand provides their strengths and weaknesses. The book describes how and when to approach the banker and what to expect in the way of attention and service.

Learn a great deal about what types of loans are available and how to find the best fit in relation to your company's capital and cash flow needs. Increase your chance of having your loan approved by following an in-depth explanation of the elements of a successful loan package.

Suzanne Caplan is a speaker, author and consultant. She has presented seminars to small business owners on numerous topics ranging from "Pricing for Profit" to "Niche Marketing." Ms. Caplan works with Small Business Development Centers across the nation as-well-as the Small Business Administration. She created a program for women entrepreneurs at Wharton School and developed a similar program for Women in Management at Henley in Thames, England. Formerly the CEO of Pittsburgh Glove Manufacturing, and one of the founders of a database information network designed to broker safety equipment, Ms. Caplan has authored 3 other small business titles.

Thomas M. Nunnally has a banking career that spans 26 years in commercial lending, primarily in community banks serving small business and professional practices. He is a past CEO of Iron and Glass Bank, of Pittsburgh, PA, and has also served as Senior Loan Officer of NorthSide Bank, a $180 million institution. At both banks, Mr. Nunnally was instrumental in increased deposits over 33%. He is a graduate of University of Georgia and holds an MBA from the University of Arizona.

Obtain the funding needed to develop, produce, market and sell high-tech products. Funding High-Tech Ventures will show you an insider's strategies on how to find, prepare for, and win over investors. Now is the ideal time to pursue a high-tech business idea, although the industry competition can by grueling. You need to compose a business plan that will place you above your competitors and on the priority lists of potential investors.

While most business planning books provide you with information to build a cookie-cutter, MBA-style business plan, Funding High-Tech Ventures explains how to tailor your strategy to produce an in-depth, meaningful business plan. You will learn compelling techniques of producing content and presenting your business plan through a step-by-step approach outlined in Funding High-Tech Ventures. Examples of legal proposal documents, a sample business plan, and worksheets will guide you as you formulate a winning plan.

The author correctly points out that traditional investors normally avoid new technology products and services as being too risky for funding. Funding High-Tech Ventures shows entrepreneurs, particularly those who have been rejected by ultra-conservative banks and venture capitalists, who to present their plans to and exactly how to do it. Throw out the canned business plan approach and get quality funding for your enterprise. Funding is available and anyone can obtain it — Funding High-Tech Ventures shows entrepreneurs and company principals how.

Richard L. Manweller has founded and developed two successful high-tech companies entirely funded by outside investors. He has 25 years of direct experience preparing and presenting winning proposals to investors and has consulted with Honeywell, Xerox, GTE and General Electric. He currently provides advisory services to high-tech companies in the key areas of product, marketing and business expansion. He lives in Eagle, Idaho.

Bottom Line Basics guides you past the mechanics of accounting to an understanding of how financial management helps you meet your business goals. First, learn what numbers you need, then how to find and get those key numbers from your accountant or controller. Most financial management books tell you how to get the numbers to keep the IRS happy, but those are not the numbers you need to make operating decisions. This easy-to-follow guide briefly explains the essentials of financial accounting and goes beyond to cover:

• Management Accounting
• Credit and Collections
• Internal Controls
• Planning and Budgeting
• Inventory Management
• Project Evaluation
• Cash Forecasting
• Using Computers

Avoid Costly Mistakes - Useful for Accountants and Nonaccountants, Alike!

You will find the answers to critical operating questions such as:

• Why do profitable businesses run out of cash and how can you avoid this happening to you?
• What should you do when you have a cash crunch?
• How do you wring cash out of receivables and inventory?
• How should you manage your credit accounts?
• Which project should you invest in and how do you decide between several projects?
• Should you computerize your accounting?
• How do you choose software for accounting?
• How far in advance should you plan for your business?
• How do you keep your plan up-to-date?
• How can you get current figures from your business?
• Why isn't your inventory all there?

 

10-Step Plan to Improve Your Profits Now!

The book concludes with a ten-step plan of attack to immediately improve your cash flow, reduce your costs, and give you a better understanding of the numbers driving your business. You can start saving money right now.

Includes numerous sample documents and several worksheets: sample financials, audit and review opinions, projections, chart of accounts, and cash forecasts, plus worksheets for evaluating projects, determining break-even, and checking up on internal controls.

The book also contains several useful equations for determining factors like:

• Months of inventory on hand
• Net present value
• Inventory turnover ratios

 

About the Author

Robert J. Low has more than 15 years of experience in accounting and controllership. He has served as controller for two start-up companies and consults throughout the Northeast as a contract controller and CFO, specializing in smaller companies and turnaround situations. In addition to his consulting business, he is currently involved in designing a software product for financial projections.

 

The books we select for our HomeBiz Book Store are considered empowerment books, after you have purchased a book. You can call the NAHBB for answers about your business venture, and talk to a professional consultant or a business developer.
	Total Price: (Book-$24.95)/(Binder-$44.95)
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Like many Americans today, you may be concerned with the security of your financial future. And no matter what your age, financial planning is an essential for your retirement years. Secure Your Future, a complete, do-it-yourself workbook, guides you in setting up your personal retirement plan — a plan you can maintain and follow as you build your future.

This book prompts you to examine the way you want to live after you stop working, and helps you prepare financially for that lifestyle. To help secure your future, you get ideas on how to cut your current expenses and choose investment alternatives and strategies.

You can create a future financial plan to fit your specific needs with this book's numerous hands-on worksheets and forms. You'll save $300-$2,000 — the fee a financial planner, accountant, or banker would charge for the same information. You'll be able to:

• Define your current financial status and your future goals.
• Plan what you'll do to preserve and build assets.
• Make Social Security, Medicare, and health care work to your benefit.
• Write your own Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.

The Binder has all the convenience of a lay-open 3-ring book. Pages can be easily removed and used as needed, then replaced. All 10 major sections are tabbed so you quickly find what you want. Plus, the binder has an additional feature that is not included in the paperback: a checklist of each state's detailed living will laws.

A great resource for anyone at any age including:

• Entrepreneurs
• Business Owners
• Married Couples
• Career Professionals
• Students or Senior Citizens
• Anyone else who is working now and expects to retire someday

Chuck Tellalian began his career as a retirement/financial educator over 25 years ago and is founder and principal of Sequoia Retirement Services in Beverly Hills, California. He holds an MBA in Operations Research from New York University and has had affiliations with numerous planning, benefit, and financial organizations.

Walter K. Rosen, a Harvard-educated attorney with more than 30 years of business experience, currently is a partner in the law firm of MacCarley and Rosen in Glendale, California. Mr. Rosen is a member of the California State Bar Committee on Legal Problems of the Aging and is certified by the California Bar Association as a specialist in probate, estate planning, and trust administration.

Raising Capital is designed to help you write a proposal to secure a business loan or raise venture capital. There are more options for raising capital available than you might consider. Limiting your thinking to getting a bank loan or help from a friend or relative may keep you from getting the best source of money or the lowest interest rate or most favorable terms.

Raising Capital contains professional tips on how to write your financing proposal and presents six detailed examples to help you prepare your proposal. It also provides examples of the four most common types of proposals one can use to raise venture capital and loans:

• A Private Placement Circular or Private Placement Memorandum
• A Prospectus or Public Offering
• A Financing Proposal
• A Limited Partnership Offering