Bad credit scores can affect our personal finances. If you have a bad credit score, you will have to pay a higher rate of interest on your loans and mortgages. However, do you know that poor personal credit can also affect your business even though business credit and personal credit both have their own separate scores? If you are a business owner with little or no proven record in business acumen, there is a high possibility that banks will look at your personal credit history while reviewing your loan application. If you do not possess a business credit score, then it is only fair to evaluate you on your personal credit score. If your personal credit score is poor, it is more likely that your loan will get rejected, or you will have to pay a higher interest once it is approved. A poor personal credit score can lead to the following problems in your business venture. Problem with loan approvals Personal credit scores in the country mostly range between 300 and 850. If your credit score falls, your business loan application will be rejected outright. Moreover, banks these days are offering far less small business loans as compared to earlier.

If you are running a small business, you know how important it is to have a thriving network. It is common knowledge that people prefer to do business dealings with people whom they know and trust than dealing with strangers. Successful businesses today hinge on starting and building trusted relationships, which when leveraged can lead you to new business prospects, resulting in revenue growth for your business. It is important to continuously meet people, nurture these relationships, and grow them. If done right, a large chunk of new business growth can come from your thriving business network. How to build a business network Business networks act as a low-cost marketing tactic for hunting new sales opportunities, based on referrals, inductions, old contacts, and acquaintances. You could choose to cultivate this network by meeting them face-to-face, connecting with them using the phone or email, or using social networking sites to contact them. It is imperative for entrepreneurs who are looking to build an effective business network to invest in business phone Internet bundles. This ensures that you have a single business phone plans service and Internet provider, resulting in less trouble for you as you have to coordinate with a single vendor for customer support, installation, and the like.

In the current market scenario, it would not be wrong to say that all businesses, whether big or small, need to implement an ERP solution. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a business management software service, which supports the management of a business. It manages the processing of orders, inventory, and production. It also operates and monitors the number of business resources deployed between different stakeholders. All of this information is recorded in one database management system. This system is interactive and also comes with a dashboard that allows you to access data and analytics. ERP solutions can be deployed across industries. With recent technological upgrades, even small businesses can implement ERP services. If you are running a small business, you will have employees who don multiple hats. So, it is likely that they have no time to process data manually and analyze it. A business management software service can be a boon here as it helps in segregating data and automating functions like processing, finance, and production, among others. Benefits of implementing ERP services into your business Ease of decision-making ERP offers real-time data that can help different levels of organizations make informed decisions. It allows different teams like marketing, accounts, and production to detect any potential issues or overlap that may hinder productivity.

In today’s age, we seem to spend more time traveling to work than we do at home, especially in crowded cities. Working from home does have its set of perks, because you can set your own schedule, wear whatever you want, and spend more time with family, among others. However, working from home has its own set of challenges. Following are a few things you need to keep in mind if you are planning to work from home. Set up a designated workspace Keep a set space in your home for your work. You can keep all your work-related things organized in that space. Have a comfortable place, where you can settle in and work without any disturbance. It can go a long way in improving your efficiency. Discipline is the key You might find time management a challenge. You are your own boss and there is no one to tell you what to do. Set a to-do list for yourself daily and try and adhere to it. There may be multiple distractions in terms of family, visitors, and pets. Therefore, discipline yourself to complete your set tasks daily. With a little practice, you should be able to easily make a routine of it.

When businesses grow, they bring with them various pros and cons. You cannot have a limited number of contacts related to your business as your revenues grow. Managing them can be quite a tedious job and having just one person or a small team dedicated to customer relationship management is challenging to say the least. However, in this digital day and age, there are various Customer Relationship Management (CRM) apps with promising features to help you in effective CRM activities. Here are some of the best CRM apps for small business that you can consider for improving customer satisfaction: Top CRM apps for small business For managing your contacts The best CRM apps for small business when you need to manage a host of contacts include Google Contacts, Clevertim, Insightly, Vtiger, and OnePage CRM. For better conversations with the consumers You might require a platform where you can answer customer queries or keep in touch with them in order to increase sales and even for better customer relationship management. The main apps for this function include Contactually, Streak, Close.io, and Nutshell. To bag the best leads and even deals If Facebook’s lead generation service is not enough for you, you may try HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, and even Salesforce to generate better leads and subsequently convert these leads into deals.

As a small business owner, it is truly challenging to stay relevant in the ever-evolving business world. No matter which industry you are in, marketing is key to staying at the top of the game. However, it is often hard to decide which marketing tools to focus on. Email is one of the best and most efficient means of getting information across to your customers. This method of communication has stood the test of time in the digital world and will continue to do so for years to come. When using a great email marketing tool for small businesses, follow the tips discussed below. Make subscribing easy To generate email leads for marketing, you need to make sign-up on your website easy and obvious. Many small businesses forget to tell people to subscribe for regular alerts. A small pop-up can turn footfall on your website into loyal customers. Moreover, it is important to make the sign-up easy. Do not ask for too much information as this can put off the visitor. A simple name and email ID request will suffice. Most importantly, stay compliant by making unsubscribing also an easy option. Offer incentives Your customers or future client base always want to know one thing:

It is quite challenging to avail of a business loan for a small-scale enterprise. However, there are plenty of tips, which you may follow to procure the best small business loans without much of an issue. Listed below are some of the best-proven tips. Find the lender that best fits your requirements You do not need necessarily go for a traditional bank to procure the right loan. You can settle for plenty of other types of lenders. The top choices for the same include large national financial institutions, alternative lenders such as SnapCap, or credit unions and community lenders. Conduct extensive research To procure the best small business loans, you need to follow certain steps. Have a reliable business plan, which the lenders can trust and ensure that you go with a list of strong personal assets too. Additionally, if you can build a good relationship with the lender in terms of research and regular inquiries, you will surely receive a better response. Know your needs and repayment capability You need to have a budget, which is completely detailed in nature. Ensure that you have a proper clarification, as to which portion of the loan will be used for which purpose.

Facebook is one of the most crucial tools that a business needs to promote its products and services. However, using Facebook to its utmost potential is not everybody’s cup of tea. It requires some shrewd tactics and knowledge of the business intelligence tools to grow their ideas well. Following are some essential tips that business owners can use for an engaging Facebook business. Do not give too many people access to page roles Facebook has an amazing business set-up, wherein there are plenty of business admins, editors, and even moderators. However, you should only have one social media team to manage these roles well. Do not give access to your page to multiple people, as it can create confusion and even duplication of posts. Additionally, the more people involved, the higher the chance of publishing personal content on the page of your employer. Add a button for a call to action Call to action is one of the best business intelligence tools that Facebook has to offer to its users. It was launched first in the year 2014 and has immensely helped brands make their business pages more and more interactive. You can choose options from Book Now, Sign Up, or even Watch Video, along with a host of options, which can be customized and redirected to a URL that helps the consumer carry out the action.

Having a business cloud integration service is no more a question of choice. It has become mandatory for efficient working of your business and has become one of the main backbones of the digital industry. With plenty of cloud storage solution for small businesses and options for enterprise cloud backup software available in plenty, the advantages of a business cloud integration service should be considered. Listed below are a few advantages of a business cloud integration service. Make use of a B2B Platform A B2B exchange has become faster than ever because these enterprise cloud backup software ensure that integration does not take place behind the firewalls of companies, but instead takes place in a real-time world. This allows companies to receive and send data at a much faster pace and this, in general, helps speed up all the processes of the companies. Use an embedded integration technology Although this is an advanced cloud storage mechanism, these cloud -embedded integration technologies can be used immensely by companies. It is impossible for many data dependant companies to come up with their own cloud storage solutions, hence an embedded integration technology helps in better data movement within the company, ensuring more efficiency.

A point of sale system, abbreviated to POS, is a software through which customers can make payments for the goods or services they are purchasing from your business. Modern POS systems are more than automated cashiers. They are business intelligence reporting tools that can spearhead a company’s growth and contribute to revenue generation. Here are five ways in which you can boost your company’s sales with a POS system. Designing marketing campaigns An advanced POS system collects and stores data on customer behavior and spending patterns. This knowledge helps a business owner design successful marketing campaigns depending on what is trending at the moment. The right data can help business owners make effective decisions that can benefit their company’s sales and generate huge profits. Knowing which products are trending at a particular time can help you promote them in your marketing campaign which would lead to a higher footfall at your outlets or website. Apply flexible discounts Offering a discount is one of the best ways to increase sales. However, a business owner might want to customize discounts on various products. Using information from a business intelligence reporting tool, you can design a varying range of discounts on different products.