Getting Approved For a Business Loan Or Equipment Lease in a Time of Tight Credit

Anyone in the business of equipment leasing or commercial lending knows that things have changed dramatically in the past several months. For a company trying to acquire working capital or permanent financing, submitting a “clean” package is important now more than ever.The sub-prime meltdown has had negative repercussions throughout the credit markets. As a result, underwriters across the country have tightened up credit standards. Business loans and equipment leases that were “slam dunks” for approval last year are now being turned down. For example, many lenders require business owners to have a minimum credit score of 675 to qualify for loans. (It used to be much lower). Other lenders won’t even consider funding start-ups even if the principals have extensive experience in the industry. Commercial loans and equipment leasing transactions are still being closed but a much lower approval rate because the rules have changed dramatically.It all sounds pretty bleak, doesn’t it? While it’s tougher to get the capital you need to grow, there are things you can do to increase your chances of qualifying for a loan or lease. it is critical that the package of information that is reviewed by the underwriting department be organized, concise, and complete. Here are some suggestions that will help:Check your credit regularly and take steps to improve your score:Underwriters have always placed a lot of importance on credit scores because it reflects the debtor’s ability to take care of obligations in a timely manner. With lenders as nervous as they are today, a high credit score is even more critical. There are ways to check your score on a regular basis such as logging on to www.annualcreditreport.com and running a credit report. Carefully review the information. In a 2004 study, it was found that 4 out of 5 credit reports contain errors that can be detrimental to you credit standing. These errors include, but are not limited to:
Inaccurate personal information such as wrong social security numbers, inaccurate birth dates, and out-of-date addresses
“Closed” accounts listed as “open”. For example, a student loan paid off years ago showing delinquent.
The same mortgage or loan listed twice.
Major loans or mortgages that have been paid off or timely serviced not listed at all.
If you find an error on your report, write a letter or e-mail to the credit bureau. The bureau is obligated to contact the creditor who supplied them with the disputed information and then respond to you within 30 days. If you are unhappy with how the claim is settled you can ask to have a brief written explanation added to the bottom of your credit report.To improve your score, you need to take steps to resolve any items that are showing up as delinquent and those in which a judgment or lien has been filed. Make it a priority to pay credit car balances in full each month rather than making the “minimum payment”.If you are credit-challenged, find a co-signer:Lenders will be more likely to approve the business loan from an applicant with below standard credit if the debt is guaranteed by someone who is financially stronger. The guarantor can be a family member, friend, or business associate. To motivate someone to co-sign on your loan, consider paying a guarantee fee to the individual or perhaps an ownership position with the company.Pledge additional collateral with the lender or lessor:Some lenders who might otherwise turn down your application for a business loan or equipment lease may change their minds if you increase the collateral base. This might give the decision-maker or loan committee with an added comfort level in the event things to south. Other collateral might include specific assets from another business that is free and clear, rental property, or equity in a personal residence.Make sure all the information required with your application is complete and accurate:Nothing slows things down in the approval process more than incomplete information. If your tax return isn’t completed and it’s past April 15th, get your tax accountant on the ball and get it done. make sure you provide an up-to-date interim financial statement. Always keep your personal financial statement updated. For unusual or non-recurring items, make sure to provide an explanation in notes to the financial statements. Lenders also like to see the business loan or equipment lease applicant employ an efficient accounting system that provides information in a timely manner.These are just a few of the ways you can bolster your chances of getting credit during a period in our history where it can be very challenging even for the most deserving.

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Why Cloud Storage is a Better Idea for Small Businesses

Like big businesses, small businesses have varied requirements from infrastructure, IT deployment, daily operation, and manpower to data management. However unlike big businesses, small businesses have budget constraints that often limit their scope of expansion and expenditures in the needful projects. Despite the limitations it doesn’t mean that small businesses do not have options. In fact there is a plethora of options available for small businesses to fulfill their wide-ranging business requirements.One of such options is cloud storage, also called as online storage, for data management, which is the biggest need of small businesses. Cloud storage is an answer to all the prayers related to data backup and restore of small businesses which are more prone to data loss/damage as compared to large businesses. According to a survey, 70% of the small businesses shut down within one year of their operations after they suffer major data. According to a survey conducted by Sage North America, about 62% small companies do not have a proper disaster recovery plan in place for safety from catastrophic disasters, man-made debacles, accidental deletions, thefts, power outages, hardware failure. In the same survey, it was concluded that around 33% of the businesses do not have data backup and recovery plans in place because there hasn’t been observed any catastrophic disasters or emergencies in their areas while around 30% said that “have never thought about it”. Around 28% of the participants said that they regularly back up their data because they have major data losses in the past.This is the poorest scenario for any small business that needs to be able to run properly without facing operational hitches which may occur and recue in the absence of a proper data backup and recovery plan. If you run a small business from your home or office, you can understand how vital it is to keep your data organized and safe to be able to meet the tailor-made demands to your clients, protect your business ideas and information from competitors, and from employees who might take advantage of your personal or professional information for monetary purposes among other things.The question that arises here is ‘why small businesses do not pay attention to data backup and recovery plans when they cannot prevent a tornado or other such catastrophic disasters, accidental deletions, thefts, power outages, or hardware failure for that matter from occurring’? Small businesses may be taking this risk because data management is not affordable for them. Besides, regular data backups and recoveries on several devices involve lots of hassles that put them off from maintaining proper data management plans. However with the onset of cloud storage, it has become extremely convenient and affordable for small businesses to maintain data. Businesses can back up their data as many times as they want and access it anytime, anywhere from their computers, Smartphones, tablets, servers, and networks etc. connected to the Internet.Since your data is stored in a cloud server, which is the only place for all your digital possessions viz. emails, contacts, documents, images, family videos, music numbers, social network updates, and bank details etc., the cost of regularly data backups and recoveries drastically come down. It’s is because you don’t have to use multiple hard disks and/or USB devices to store your data. In the cloud server, your data is stored once and forever. You can access, add, delete, edit, re-edit, backup and restore your business data as many times as you want without going through the lengthy and cumbersome procedure.In fact the data stored in a cloud server remains protected and safe from the tactics of hackers. Besides, cloud storage services are scalable as you can store higher volumes of data according to your needs. With cloud storage, it only takes a computer, server or mobile device with an active Internet connection or Wi-Fi to be able to manage the data. Such a flexibility and convenience is absent from the external storage media on which the cost of backing up and recovering data is also very high, in fact the highest.Considering that cloud storage is the only contemporary, affordable, and viable solution for small businesses and users, several major tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Netgear, and McAfee among others have come up with integrated cloud storage. Cloud storage is around 1,000 times more affordable than the external backup media whose reliability and safety are always at risk due to environment, physical conditions, catastrophic emergencies, accidental deletions, thefts, and other contingencies. Thus, if you own a small business, make sure that you cloud-power your data. It’s your choice to keep spending big money on the external storage media or spend only once and forever with a cloud storage services. It’s your choice if you want peace of mind or want to constantly run around losing business, clients, and money.

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Affordable Health Insurance and How to Get it

Getting and keeping affordable health insurance in your state is up to you. With medical insurance market in constant change and increasing cost of healthcare. It is up to us to do our research to understand medical coverage and the ways on how we can control medical insurance costs. Health insurance companies to stay competitive understand the need for affordable health insurance plans. Insurance companies are constantly changing their health plans to make them more affordable. The only real way to make health insurance plans more affordable is to exclude certain benefits. It is a risk that insurance companies are taking. Since most of the time when shopping for the health insurance plan most people do not understand what is exactly covered and what is not covered.We have to agree that medical insurance companies are not going to give away free coverage. With that in mind we have to agree that insurance companies are also not going to have a plan that cost less cover everything exactly the same as the plan that cost more. The cost of health insurance is almost the same across the board not matter which insurance company you go with. It is true that insurance companies that run more efficiently can offer better rates. What makes that largest difference in the cost of the actual plan is what and how it covers medical bills in case of emergency. The great thing is insurance companies are closely regulated by state insurance commissioner. State laws do vary and so do health insurance health plans in every state. For example in some states insurance companies can exclude certain pre existing conditions to offer you a lower rate. If you have some medical issue and it is being covered by workman’s compensation insurance then you would not need to have double coverage. In other states like California you either get approved or you will get a higher rate or you will get declined. Insurance companies in the state of California cannot exclude coverage on pre-existing conditions once you are approved.With all of that in mind let’s look at all the options we have to make our health plans more affordable. First is our deductible, which will give us largest control over health insurance premium we pay to Health Insurance Company. There are three types of plans with deductibles. One is a health plan where you have to meet the deductible to get any benefits, the second one is where everything is covered with small co-pay and deductible applies only for hospital stays and third the most popular and the most dangerous one in no deductible. No deductible plans in most cases are the creative work of the insurance companies. In most cases plans that have no deductible you will be responsible for what’s called daily fee and co-insurance. In most cases you could be more out of pocket with no deductible plans then a plan with a deductible.Second we have more and more insurance companies offer health insurance plans with option of have brand name drug coverage or just generic prescription drug coverage. What does that mean to you? Well the simple way to explain this is that brand name drugs are the drugs that you see on TV commercials. Prescription drugs are regulated by FDA and by FDA rules after the brand name drug has been on the market for over five years over drug companies can copy it. That means that when Drug Company comes out with a new drug they can charge for it as much as they want and no one can copy their formula for that drug for over five years. The reason FDA has that type of rules is because they figure that it takes a lot of money to research new drug. By FDA regulations brand name drugs and generic drugs must have exactly same active ingredient. Basically they are exactly same drug just one cost a lot more. Talk to your doctor before you make any changes. Here is where we are getting with this is if you get a health insurance plans that covers generic drugs only you can save your self a lot of money on your health insurance premiums. With some health plans you can also customize your prescription drug deductible.Third is health insurance plans that give you option of covering your doctor visits or not covering them. This option could save you a lot of money. What that means is some health insurance plans will allow you to pay for your own doctor visits versus having insurance company pay portion and you pay co-pay. You have to ask your self how many time do you really go to a doctor every year? Most regular doctor visit will cost you anywhere from $55 to $75. Therefore you if you go once or twice a year to a doctor and you can just pay out of pocket and save $50 a month on your health insurance, would you do it?Well here you have it with these three options you can get affordable health insurance. There are some other options you can also take a look at like Health Saving Account qualified health insurance plans, which is a different topic. It all just makes sense, why pay for something you do not need and not going to use. With some simple decisions you can get the coverage you want at the premium you can afford.

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Automotive Castings

Automotive Castings form the majority of automotive partsThe process of casting has always been used in the iron industry to make iron products according to requirements. The introduction of automobiles in the early part of 20th century resulted in a rapid increase of iron consumption in automotive companies all over the world. Today the automobile companies remain as the single largest consumer of metal castings. Automotive Castings are a bit different from other iron castings. As the products of these casting forms important parts of a vehicle, the casting has to be perfect and flawless.Grey Iron CastingsIt is the most commonly found cast iron and is also one of the most widely used materials for casting. Graphite is generally present in this cast thus giving it a distinct grey color. It is mainly used in products with non critical tensile strength like pump housings, electrical boxes, decorative items and valve bodies. It facilitates high level of thermal conduction for which it is also used in making cookware and rotors for brakes. Most Grey Iron Castings have 1 to 3 percent of silicon and 2.5 to 4 percent of carbon. Silicon, being a reliable graphite stabilizing agent, is widely used in grey iron casting.Ductile Iron CastingsThis type of cast iron was introduced in 1943 and since then it has been widely used by different industrial sectors including the automobile sector. The main advantage of this casting is that unlike other castings, it is not brittle and is able to withstand stress for a long period of time. Several materials are mixed with iron to form ductile casting. The main materials that are used for this purpose are carbon, silicon, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and sulfur. Carbon and silicon are, however, present in the highest concentration.Use of castings in automobile industryCastings are widely used in automobile sector and are used to produce a number of automotive components. These components are manufactured by placing the molten iron in moulds specifically designed according to the requirements of the automobile industry. The cast products are t hen taken out of the moulds and are fitted in the automobiles. Nowadays, almost all equipments in an automobile are made of cast metals.There are many companies that are involved in the production and distribution of cast metals like SG Iron Castings. As the casting process is quite intricate one, it needs to be completed perfectly in order make the products flawless. Clients in need of such products should always take the help of professional experts who can give effective suggestions regarding the products. Quality check is absolutely essential before buying such product because compromising with the quality may result in the lack of the desired result.Nowadays it is also possible to order these products over the internet. There are numerous websites that facilitate the sale and purchase of these products at affordable rates. Buyers just need to pay a visit to these websites and place an order according to their budget and requirements.Our offered Automotive Castings are widely appreciated by our clients located all over the nation for their outstanding features like easy installation, corrosion resistance, sturdiness, etc.

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A Guide to Help You Pick the Best Air Purifier for Your Loved Ones

Holidays are around the corner. This is the time of year when people start purchasing gifts for their loved ones. If you are going to purchase an air purifier for someone you love, we have some helpful tips for you. If you want to purchase the best unit, you may be able to use this guide to your advantage. Read on to find out more.

1: Set Your Budget

Just like anything you purchase, make sure you have set your budget first. The price of the unit will vary based on a lot of factors, such as the capacity, filter type, features, and brand of the unit. If you don’t have a flexible budget, we suggest that you go for a product that is available to purchase for less than $300.

2: Consider the Needs of the Recipient

Your next move is to consider the needs of your recipient. If you are going to purchase this unit for everyday use, we suggest that you go for a unit that comes with a HEPA filter. On the other hand, if your loved one has a specific need, we suggest that you consider a specialized unit.

For example, if they are more prone to respiratory issues, such as allergies and infections, we suggest that you get a UV purifier for them. The devices are designed to neutralize viruses and bacteria.

3: Think About the Available Space

Another primary factor is to consider the available space in the office or house of the recipient. For example, if they need a general-purpose unit for a small apartment, you may want to consider a filterless unit.

On the other hand, if they have plenty of free space, you may consider a bigger unit that features a higher airflow rating. These units are powerful enough to cover a large face.

4: Consider Extra Features

Lastly, we suggest that you consider additional features that they will just love. For example, some units come with an indicator that turns on when the filter needs to be replaced. This will allow the user to change the filter so that the device continues to work properly.

So, you may want to consider these features before you place your order. These features may not be important to you, but your friend may just be over the moon.

Long story short, we suggest that you consider these four tips if you are going to purchase a gift for your loved one on these holidays. Since the air is full of pollution during winter days, nothing can make a better gift than an air purifier. Therefore, you should consider these tips before looking for an online or physical store to make your purchase decision.

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