Source: Cision – PR Newswire
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage month this year, it’s a good time to recognize the many contributions of Hispanic small business owners. And there truly are many. Wells Fargo served as lead sponsor of the Latino Donor Collaborative’s U.S. Latino GDP Report, which tracks the growing influence of the Latino community within the U.S. economy, and the results are incredibly promising. Latinos contributed $2.7 trillion to the U.S. GDP in 2021, equivalent to the seventh largest economy in the world, and they’re growing 57% faster than the U.S. economy overall. From 2010 to 2019, the U.S. Latino GDP was the third-fastest growing among the 10 largest GDPs in the world, with the U.S. economy ranking fourth. Latinos are also accounting for 68% of the growth in U.S. labor participation.
Read the full article: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4-tips-to-help-latina-business-owners-achieve-success-301400993.html
October 17, 2021 | admin
Source: AP
ATLANTA (AP) — Lending for small businesses is at an all-time high in Georgia.
A recent report released by the Georgia Small Business Administration shows that $1.41 billion was loaned in the state last year.
In the last two quarters ending March 31, $650 million in loans were disbursed to small businesses statewide.
“The lending environment is much better than it was 10 years ago,” said Drew Tonsmeire of the UGA Small Business Development Center at Kennesaw State University, says the lending environment is much better than it was 10 years ago.
He said businesses are able to access different sources of funding aside from banks, such as SBA loans and lines of credit from online lenders.
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June 1, 2018 | admin
Source: CNBC
“I truthfully didn’t even know the word entrepreneur. I was in my late thirties, and I didn’t know the word ‘brand,’ I didn’t know the word ‘entrepreneur,’” Bethenny Frankel, founder of SkinnyGirl, told Sharon Epperson at the CNBC Small Business Playbook virtual summit on Wednesday.
Now, just over a decade later, Frankel is a widely successful and self-made entrepreneur, who sold her pre-packaged low-calorie margarita, Skinnygirl Cocktails, for a reported $120 million, and continues to delve into a series of ambitious business ventures with her Skinnygirl lifestyle brand, ranging from specialty food items to branded apparel.
While she may not have always envisioned a life in business, she always envisioned her next big idea, and what it would take to turn it into reality, she told Epperson.
Read the full article: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/03/bethenny-frankel-on-why-good-ideas-are-not-enough-to-be-successful.html
August 14, 2022 | admin
Source: American City Business Journal – Boston
When it comes to securing a commercial loan, business plans aren’t only for startups. Bankers want just as much information from an established business as they do from a new company.
You will have to demonstrate that you and your business qualify for a loan. Doing so will require you to present a story that is both compelling and complete.
“We want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly,” said David Bennett, senior vice president of business banking at Middlesex Savings Bank. “We may be able to help by connecting the business with mentoring partnerships like SCORE and the Small Business Development Center network.”
“Middlesex works so closely with its customers that its bankers might be considered part of the customer’s team of advisors, along with CPAs, attorneys, and insurance agents,” Bennett said.
“We can help them grow their company and ease their cash flow concerns. A lot of times they don’t have a team in place to help solve important issues,” he said.
A bank’s ability to help a business stems largely from the initial meeting with a client.
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December 1, 2019 | admin
Source: Forbes
America’s largest banks have been shrinking their branch networks for the past several years, mostly by cutting back in relatively poor neighborhoods, according to a report in the LA Times. The report said that consumer advocates are warning that the closings risk widening the wealth gap by leaving scores of low-income areas with less competition for banking services such as personal checking and small-business lending.
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March 23, 2019 | admin
Source: Cision PRWeb
Seek Capital is the leading company for startup business funding in the United States. Lendza is a funding request service that matches small business owners seeking capital with a suitable lender. Today, the two companies are proud to announce a new partnership where Lendza will start connecting small business owners looking for startup business loans with Seek Capital.
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May 27, 2018 | admin
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – U.S. small-business confidence improved in August as worries about inflation subsided and demand for workers remained strong despite the uncertainty shrouding the economy, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said its Small Business Optimism Index increased 1.9 points to 91.8 this month, reversing some of the deterioration suffered in the first half of the year.
Read the full article: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-small-business-sentiment-rises-august-nfib-2022-09-13/
September 21, 2022 | admin
Source: CNBC
Often hailed for higher-than-average rates of entrepreneurialism and new business formation, the Latino community has been struck particularly hard by the Covid-19 crisis.
The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative reported in May that 86% of Latino business owners had felt immediate negative impacts from Covid, a rate higher than other ethnic groups. Help was also harder to come by for Latino business owners, who had less cash on hand when requesting Covid assistance in the form of PPP loans, and were only half as likely as their White counterparts to receive the federal loans.
Still, the pandemic tells only half the tale of where Hispanic businesses stand today, because prior to the crisis, Latino entrepreneurs were making great strides — increasing their funding, improving their credit, and their revenue growth. That means that there is underlying strength in the Latino business community that can help in their emergence from the ravages of Covid-19.
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December 12, 2020 | admin
Source: PYMNTS
Borrower protection initiatives have taken aim at predatory lenders, both online and brick-and-mortar, with legislators at the state and federal levels addressing concerns that include a lack of transparency and sky-high fees and interest rates.
But only recently have these efforts begun to gradually turn toward small business borrowers, too.
Last month, reports in The Wall Street Journal, citing Federal Reserve data, found that nearly one-third of U.S. small businesses had sought a loan online, compared to just 19 percent that did so in 2017. As online lending platforms proliferate among the SMB borrowing community, however, experts warn that a lack of regulation means these companies rarely publicly reveal interest rates and fees.
As the publication noted, Opportunity Fund recently dug into the numbers and found that the average interest rate among 150 online small business loan contracts is 94 percent, with one rate topping 358 percent.
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January 30, 2020 | admin
Source: Black Enterprise
Tameka Stigers has achieved perpetual success as one of the country’s many black woman entrepreneurs.
She launched Locs of Glory in 2009 after discovering a niche styling technique known as “Sisterlocks” for people with textured hair. She started with a 400-square-foot salon in her home. But she outgrew the space fast, recognizing the need to expand and add more employees. She landed a $455,000 (7a) loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2016. That capital allowed her to relocate into a custom-built 3,000-square-foot building in St. Louis to run her hair salon and spa business.
“The SBA loan has allowed me to provide employment opportunities for people in my community,” Stigers says.
Now, Stigers employs about 15 people and independent contractors and has realized steady sales growth since 2014. She expects to generate revenues of about $400,000 by late by 2020. She is part of the SBA St. Louis 2019 Emerging Leaders Initiative. This year she was named Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year by the SBA for her district in Missouri.
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November 10, 2019 | admin
