Business Solution

Not only to start a business but also to meet the day-to-day expenses of the business you need capital. You need funds to rent commercial space, buy office furniture, stationary and other equipments depending on the size and type of the business. If your family and friends are confident of your business idea and plan, ask them for a certain amount of money as a loan. Else you can approach your local bank or Credit Union for a business loan at a favorable rate of interest.

Government has designed various loan schemes to attract and encourage small businesses. Before approaching a financial institution for a loan, check your credit history. If your credit rating is poor, take measures to repair your credit. You can apply for a bad credit loan if you have inadequate credit ratings.

Small Business Loans – Requirements

The first place many people approach for a small business loan is the nearby bank. If the bank has to approve your loan application, you have to fulfill a few criteria. Here are a few things a bank would consider before issuing you a small business loan.

A bank would consider you a trustworthy customer only after checking your credit history, business experience and educational qualification.

Your business plan should be strong and have all the necessary details of the nature of the business. In short, your business plan should speak for you. The reason is a bank or financial institution would approve you a loan only after reviewing the business plan you have submitted. A bank will also take into account the loan repayment method proposed by you.

If you have required collateral, small business loan would be issued without any hassles. This type of loan is called as a secured loan. The bank would not only issue a secured loan but also advises you on various loan repayment solutions.

You have to establish and maintain a good business relation with the bank you apply for a small business loan. Apply for a short-term loan and ensure to repay it within a short duration. This will increase your business credit history.

Manage the savings account with your bank effectively by keeping ample funds and avoiding bouncing of checks. The banks also would feel confident to do business with you.

Small Business Grants

The US government grants small business loans at a very low rate of annual interest to encourage new entrepreneurs and also to finance any small business. Once you have decided on the type and the size of the business, you can check online for the various government small business grants. Choose the one that suits your business best.

Getting a small business loan at a favorable rate is easy if you have a good business/personal credit rating.

You can apply for a business grant if you are a tax payee and have the citizenship of the US. Applying for a government small business grant includes a lot of paper work. If you are not confident about filing a loan application form, get the help of a reputed accountant. By:Maya Pillai

E-business is a vast term encompassing the various business processes that aim to integrate the vendors or traders with the consumers and suppliers using the Internet. The entire process of setting up a website, helping the prospective customers navigate through the website, showing them the available products, offering discounts and vouchers and doing everything possible to woo the prospective clients and converting them into customers, comes under the purview of e-business. E-commerce, on the other hand, is a subset of e-business and refers to online transactions that can be accounted for in monetary terms. For instance, accepting credit card payment for products sold to consumers or making payments for shopping online are examples of e-commerce. In other words, e-commerce refers to the last stage of e-business which involves collecting payments for the goods sold by the business firm.

Advantages of E-Business

Worldwide Presence: This is the biggest advantage of conducting business online. A firm engaging in e-business can have a nationwide or a worldwide presence. IBM was one of the first companies to use the term e-business to refer to servicing customers and collaborating with business partners from all over the world. Dell Inc. too had a flourishing business selling PCs throughout the US, only via telephone and the Internet till the year 2007. Amazon.com is another success story that helps people buy internationally from third parties. Hence, worldwide presence is ensured if companies rethink their business in terms of the Internet.

Cost Effective Marketing and Promotions: Using the web to market products guarantees worldwide reach at a nominal price. Advertising techniques like pay per click advertising ensure that the advertiser only pays for the advertisements that are actually viewed. Affiliate marketing, where customers are directed to a business portal because of the efforts of the affiliate who in turn receive a compensation for their efforts meeting with success, has emerged on account of e-business. Affiliate marketing has helped both the business and the affiliates. Firms engaging in e-business have managed to use cost effective online advertising strategies to their advantage.

Developing a Competitive Strategy: Firms need to have a competitive strategy in order to ensure a competitive advantage. Without an effective strategy, they will find it impossible to maintain the advantage and earn profits. The strategy, that the firms can pursue, can be a be a cost strategy or a differentiation strategy. For instance, till the year 2007, Dell Inc. was selling computers only via the Internet and the phone. It adopted a differentiation strategy by selling its computers online and customizing its laptops to suit the requirements of the clients. Thus, e-business resulted in Dell Inc. managing to capture a vast segment of the market using the differentiation strategy.

Better Customer Service: E-Business has resulted in improved customer service. Many a times, on visiting a website, the customer is greeted by a pop-up chat window. Readily available customer service may help in encouraging the customer to know more about the product or service. Moreover, payments can be made online, products can be shipped to the customer without the customer having to leave the house.

Disadvantages of E-Business

Sectoral Limitations: The main disadvantage of e-business is the lack of growth in some sectors on account of product or sector limitations. The food sector has not benefited in terms of growth of sales and consequent revenue generation because of a number of practical reasons like food products being perishable items. Consumers do not look for food products on the Internet since they prefer going to the supermarket to buy the necessary items as and when the need arises.

Costly E-Business Solutions for Optimization: Substantial resources are required for redefining product lines in order to sell online. Upgrading computer systems, training personnel, and updating websites requires substantial resources. Moreover, Electronic Data Management (EDM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) necessary for ensuring optimal internal business processes may be looked upon, by some firms, as one of the disadvantages of e-business.

It’s evident that the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages of e-business. Every business has to eventually change its modus operandi and adopt e-business practices in order to ensure survival and success.
By Aparna Iyer

If you are a commerce, business administration or MBA student, learning how to write an effective business report can be of great help in your professional career. Numerous business report writing topics mentioned in this article will help you practice this form of business writing more efficiently.

To make effective decisions in a business, concise reports are very important. Without information that is concise, clearly presented and is easy to interpret, it is not possible to arrive at good decisions. Senior level managers, CEOs, management executives and business managers don’t have time to read long and poorly structured business reports. Therefore, learning to write a business report adhering to all standards and norms, forms one of the vital aspects of business communication.

Business Report: An Overview

There can be many reasons why a business report is prepared but the most common one is to solve a business problem faced by an organization. In typical corporate culture, business reports are excellent mediums to present a problem before management members and employees by analyzing all facets associated to the problem. Business reports need to be very well formatted, concise and they must be written in a way so as to take minimum time to be analyzed by the policy makers. Strong analytical and research skills are required to prepare a business report. Besides that, excellent business writing skills and an eye for detail are important attributes to prepare an awesome report. Since graphs, diagrams and figures are some great ways to make a report more easier to interpret, knowledge of graphic software, power point and other technological tools helps a lot. Business reports are generally circulated amongst senior team members in print and that is why utmost care must be taken in their drafting and designing. Reading the Buzzle article, how to write a business report, will help you to get more detailed information about the same. In this article, we will know about some business report topics. If in your college or b-school, you have been asked to prepare a business report on your own, choosing an interesting topic must be on your mind. Here we will introduce to several business report topics.

Formal Business Report Topics

Business world is diversified into innumerable sectors. Be it accounts, finance, marketing, advertising, logistics, management, human resource, IT or operations – each of these departments have tremendous potential to grow. Business report topics can be concerned to problems or innovations pertaining to any segment of the business world. Have a look.

You are a business analyst of company that is a globally renowned steel manufacturing firm. As a part of its expansion plans, it is considering to invest in third world countries and provide employment to millions of people who are still out of the general economic structure of the world. Suggest business threats and benefits for your company and explain how globalization is impacting the inclusion of third world countries with the developed and developing countries.

• Your firm is a leading web based company in terms of website traffic. Discuss how can marketing and advertising on social media help to improve its customer base. Discuss the methods that will be most profitable in the long run.
• You are an investment banker in a leading US bank. The company plans to open its new branch in an Asian country. You as an Asian has been chosen to analyze how other banks have been performing in that country. You are also expected to give a detailed account of competition and opportunities in the same country.
• You are a newly recruited IT manager cum analyst in a bank. The bank has decided to go digital in all its business aspect. You have to design an adequate plan for the shift from manual to digital. You are expected to include all details in the report as to how it will be done. Internet security is the major concern of the firm.
• The world is going paranoid about the fact that PC will be obsolete within four to five years. Smartphones will rule the market in the coming years. As a strategist for a desktop manufacturing company, analyze market opportunities in the coming years. Suggest strategies to stay competitive in this domain of business. Separate facts from myths by stating as why the PCs are going to stay for long, even if smartphones are the latest trends.
• You are an MBA student majoring in information technology management from an elite B-School. As a competition in an international business seminar, you have been asked to prepare a business report regarding cloud computing.
• Almost all companies are willing to include employees at all levels in the decision making process of management teams. You are expected to analyze what can be some of the most suitable methods to do this. Based on your analysis, suggest the best method.
• A 15 year old FMCG company is planning to choose a new logo for its business. As a brand manager, suggest some best logos and analyze how it will represent the changed identity of the company in today’s world. Discuss all facets of the logo change, right from budgeting to how it may impact the growth of the company.
• The wellness industry is booming in the Asian countries. You, along with your 2 friends are willing to make an entry in the spa business. All three of you hold a management degree in hospitality management. Prepare a report to analyze all dimensions associated to the industry.
• You are an HR manager of a small business company, employing 50 to 60 people. While the business has been growing consistently, the issue of employee retention has been a cause of concern. Analyze some ways to retain employees and suggest some tips to the management for improving employee satisfaction.

Preparing a business report requires ample amount of time unless you are not in a situation to meet some deadline! Once the business report is complete, you must get it reviewed by your team members so that it is flawless. Practicing to write a business report is one of the best ways to test your writing, analytical and research skills. Make sure you practice preparing business reports as part of your assignments and get it checked by your professors. As future leaders, you will be doing the same in your professional career.