Latest Business News

We’ve all heard about the benefits of social media marketing as a tool for engaging with customers, building your brand, and increasing your business reach.  But just how is it done?

So many brands (big and small alike) make the mistake of using social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook for simply pushing messages out but not listening to or joining in the conversations that are going on. In other words, they ignore the fundamental point of social media – being SOCIAL!

But just how do you get social?

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce not weighing in on $30-billion lending bill.

At a time when many small business owners are looking to Congress to enact a $30-billion small business lending bill, some of the nation’s most prominent lobbying groups have remained largely silent.

Bloomberg reports that the country’s three largest pro-business groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Association of Manufacturers, have not come out in support of the bill.

Despite the fact that the three groups have spent more than $47 million on lobbying in the first six months of the year, many small business owners see the lack of lobbying for the small business lending package as a telling sign of where the groups’ priorities lie.

“Credit is a terrible problem” for small businesses, said Fred Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which is based in Columbia.

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The credit market sure has changed a lot over the last several years. It was not too long ago that you didn’t need to do much more than show up in a mortgage lender’s office, tell them how much you wanted to borrow and have them cut you a check. Verifiable income and good credit seemed to matter very little in the cheap credit era.

We’ve come to learn that this is certainly not the case. Lenders have gotten much smarter about who they choose to loan money to. They’ve also gotten stingier. Not everybody qualifies for a loan with a low rate any more.

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Administration comes out in favor of healthcare reform

When it comes to healthcare legislation news for entrepreneurs, there is one business organization that is firmly in support, thanks to money-saving tax credits within the bill.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Region VII administrator, Daniel Hannaher, recently wrote that small businesses with fewer than 25 employees who make less than $50,000 a year will be entitled to a tax credit of up to 35 percent.

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If you are in the market for business financing you may have noticed that the SBA is tentatively reporting a healthy increase in small business lending.

However, finding the right bank for your small business financing needs can still be a time-consuming challenge.

So just who is lending? And what is your best strategy for finding and approaching a bank? Here are five tips to help you find small business friendly banks.

1. Understand the Trending in Lending – Community Banks Favor Small Business

From city streets to Main Street, from suburbs to rural communities – big banks dominate the landscape.

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