NYC Office Space & Entrepreneurs Stories
Small business owners tend to accept the majority of payments one way: paper check. While this is one of the easiest payment methods to accept, there are a plethora of downsides to it as well. You should know, that as a small business owner, you do have options and can offer these options to your customers as well. Let’s explore what of the downsides of checks are, what other payment options are available, and how to go about bringing them on board as part of your offering.Accepting checks can be a tremendous hassle compared to most other payment options. One of the largest downsides of accepting paper checks is all of the waiting involved. Wait for your client to receive their invoice in the mail, wait for them to write you the check, wait for them to mail it, wait for the check to come in the mail, etc. Once you receive the check, it still needs to be taken to the bank for deposit, which also occupies time. In addition to being tremendously time consuming, accepting paper checks is by far one of the least green payment methods. You usually have to mail a paper invoice, which not only consists of the invoice itself, but the envelope it’s contained in and sometimes even a remittance envelope. Then your client needs to send a check, meaning another envelope is being used in the process. This also involves two stamps, and the price of a stamp is only increasing.One of the easiest payment methods to accept from your clients is PayPal. It’s 100% free to sign up, bears no monthly fee and no processing minimum. PayPal allows your clients to pay you from their PayPal balance, credit or debit card, and even their bank account. If you have clients who don’t have PayPal accounts, and don’t want one, they can still pay you with their credit or debit card without even signing up for an account. PayPal charges a $.30 fee per transaction they process, and a variable percentage rate based on your volume. This fee ranges between 1.9% and 2.9% of each transaction. Once the money is in your PayPal account, you can withdraw it using the PayPal debit card, spend it online at any merchant that accepts PayPal, or transfer it to your bank account. You’re given instant access to the cash once your client has completed the payment.Another way to accept instant payments is with a bank merchant account. This allows you to accept credit cards directly from your client without PayPal. This has some huge advantages over accepting cards through PayPal. First, the transaction rates will be significantly lower. Second, you will have a lot more control over when you charge your clients. With PayPal, you have to wait for your client to put their card information in and approve the transaction. With your own merchant account, you can retain your clients credit card information and charge them on terms that you and your client agreed upon. The guarantee of getting paid on time, every time can often do wonders for small business cash flow. Merchant accounts will sometimes include monthly charges and even processing minimums. While the easiest way to obtain merchant processing is from your bank, you can shop around online for lower rates and more flexible terms. Note, due to the large amount of power involved with being able to charge clients cards at any time, there application process will include a check of your business credit. It can really help your odds if you know you are applying for the account when you have already established good credit for your business. For tips on how to build up credit for your small business, read our post about
establishing small business credit.One of the most flexible, yet least noted payment method is remote bank capture. This allows you to withdraw the amount due from your client’s bank. Much like a merchant account, this gives you the flexibility to get paid on your terms since you are in control of when you make the withdrawal. Accepting this payment method will normally include a small per transaction charge, usually around $.30. This gives you the flexibility for maximum cash flow, without all of the processing fees and hassle of credit card processing. Talk to your bank about if they can arrange for you to have the option to accept these types of payments.PayPal, a merchant account and remote deposit capture will add flexibility to your business, give your clients more options, save you time and even save paper. While paper checks may still be the norm, diversifying your accepted payment methods can tremendously benefit your business and may even result in happier clients since they no longer have to worry about mailing you a paper payment. Considering all of these benefits, how can you possibly go wrong accepting more payment types?
Obtaining a line of business credit as a startup can be crucial to acquiring credit down the line when you need it most. One of the simplest ways to do this is to open a small business credit card to help you build credit for your new company.Establishing credit for your business is essential because it is what will be used as a determining factor of trust when you need terms, or even merchant processing. If you are looking to accept credit card payments for your business, your company credit will come under scrutiny. Not having credit established can be a determining factor that prevents you from gaining this privilege.So how do you start building credit as a startup? The best place to start is by leveraging your existing connections. A key example of this is your personal bank. If you have a relationship with the bank that you do your personal finances with, you can approach them to discuss opening a business account and a business credit card. Note well, that you will need to differentiate your business credit cards from your personal ones by applying with your Employer ID Number (or EIN.) If you do not have an EIN already, you can quickly obtain one from the IRS by visiting:
http://IRS.gov and searching for “ein.” it’s a very simple application process and your number will be issued instantly.Another fantastic starting point for business credit cards is store credit cards. Stores like Staples offer business credit cards with low limits that are often easy to obtain. It is essential that, as with all credit cards, you pay your balances off on time. This is especially true for your initial cards where your credit can highly be impacted by small things like this. Between demonstrating a solid on-time payment history with these cards, and obtaining a card from your bank, you are well on your way to building your business credit.The goal of building business credit is to do so without having to offer a personal guarantee and bring your own personal credit score into the equation. Ideally, you don’t want there to be a negative lashback to your personal score if something goes wrong with your business. While this should be avoided as much as possible, it is slowly getting harder and harder to acquire initial business credit. If all else fails, lock down a small line of credit with a personal guarantee and only use it for the purpose of building credit. Make small purchases on it that you know you will be able to pay off promptly. A few months down the line, attempt to get another card without the PG. If you are approved, stop using, but do not close, the card that you have the guarantee on. Just like with personal cards, it is very important to keep your oldest card open and maintain as much unused credit as possible.Most of the rules of personal credit, apply for business credit as well. Two of the most common being not to apply for numerous cards within a short period of time, and avoid being declined for a card, as these will negatively affect your score. Scatter the time between applying for cards, and inquire as to the minimum requirements as much as possible before you apply to a card. If you realize you don’t qualify, you can prevent having the decline appear on your credit score by waiting until you are more qualified to apply.
Recently,
Businessweek ran a piece on young people and startups, and how the number of those fresh out of college who are jumping into starting there own businesses is dropping recently.
Across almost all industrialized countries, unemployment rates are highest among people just out of college. In the U.S., 17.2 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds are out of work. Clearly we need to do something to remedy this problem now and prevent it in the future
The
BusinessWeek article highlights several things that can be done, immediately, to continue to attract young people to starting their own businesses. In the words of BusinessWeeks:
Developing policy to increase rates of entrepreneurship among young people requires an understanding of why young people tend not to start their own businesses. So why aren’t more young people entrepreneurs?
Who are your favorite young entrepreneurs? Tell us in the comments!
When it comes to running a small business there is a lot of trial and error involved. Although someone can go to school to learn about business in general, unfortunately there aren’t any educational centers who offer courses on tips and tricks that fellow small business owners have learned over the years to help a beginner start out on the right foot. Because of this lack of readily available knowledge, a lot of small business owners start out great but quickly run into issues that they weren’t even aware could present themselves.For instance, when you picture yourself running your own small business I’m sure you see yourself with ample numbers of customers just waiting to purchase your services. Unfortunately, it is extremely rare that this would ever occur in the beginning of a small business venture. In fact, you have a better chance at success if you start small and incrementally work your way up in terms of size. This allows you to take less risk and prevents you from ever biting off more than you can chew. One example of this would be renting office space. Sure it sounds nice to say you operate out of a 2,000 sq. ft. suite but if you are only utilizing one fourth of that size currently, all you are doing is throwing money down the drain. Start small and build your office space up congruently with the amount of business you are seeing. As your business grows, so can your location. Using shared office communities can be a great starting point.Whenever you start a small business, one of the first and most vital steps to take is self protection in the form of incorporation. Form an LLC or something along those lines so that just in case your business doesn’t pan out, you won’t be stuck holding the bill while your personal assets are at stake. Visit a local bank or go online and find an incorporation agent who for a relatively small fee can set up everything for you so that you are protected against all odds.Make sure you have a realistic business plan that you intend to follow. The worst thing you can do is go into a business venture blindly without a set of outlines to guide you. A business plan allows you to chart your success and growth effectively as well as plot goals for the future. It will help you figure out how much it will take for you to turn a profit as well as allow you to create a break even cost analysis.One last tip that is rarely put into consideration yet could easily lead to the failure of your small business is trade secrets. As much as you would like to tell every family member, neighbor, friend, or passerby about what your business’s processes are-don’t. If you tell the wrong person about the revolutionary idea you have…you run the risk of having them steal your idea and market it before you.If you follow these tips, you will have a better success rate than most of your fellow small business owners, so now it’s up to you to utilize them for a great future for not only yourself but your business as well.
When it comes to starting or successfully operating a small business, there are some tricks to help keep your small business not only afloat but awash in black ink. With global and even local competition becoming fiercer and fiercer in this down economy, it helps to have a few tricks up your sleeve that will help you keep a leg up on the competition while keeping over head costs low. Due to the emerging resourcefulness of the internet as well as the global workforce being brought closer and closer together through the internet, it has become easier and more cost effective for small business owners to outsource a significant portion of their daily tasks, tasks they generally have to pay handsomely for if completed within the states. When it comes to effectively outsourcing work for small business owners, here are a few tips, tricks, and pointers to get you going in the right direction.First off, you need to take a look at the daily tasks that take place within your business no matter how miniscule they are. Quite often, it is the smaller tasks that are actually the most time consuming when the amount of man hours that goes into completing them daily is tallied up. On an average day, head to the office with a simple mindset- “Could someone do this task instead”. As you complete your daily tasks, jot down in a notebook different tasks that you think could be completed off site and sent back to you. At the end of the day, compile this into a list and go through each one and give each some serious thought. Think about how the task would be completed, how much it would cost you to have it outsourced, as well as how long the turn around time for completion is.Do you employ email marketing? Do you use a website and have an in house webmaster? What about E-Commerce, do you sell anything online through your website? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could easily find someone to efficiently complete outsourced tasks.Once you have this list narrowed down, take to the net or fellow small business owners and ask around about the different merchants they use for outsourcing. Gather another list, this one of vouched for outsourcing merchants and contact them to see what services they provide and whether or not their services would be conducive with the work you need outsourced. When looking at pricing for merchants, don’t dwell exclusively on price. You need to find a good balance of price, quality, and turn around time so that you don’t end up with either poor quality yet cheap work or good quality yet overly expensive work.After you have found the perfect merchant for your small business it’s time to get down to business. Draw up a contract that allows for you to test the waters. You don’t want to sign a long term contract without knowing for sure if the tasks you need completed will be needed for a long duration and also you don’t want to end up signing a multi year contract before you are 100% sure the cost effectiveness of this merchant is present. If you follow these steps as well as research others, you will be on the path to more profits for you and your small business.We want to hear from YOU! Have you ever successfully outsourced tasks? Any outsourcing horror stories? Let us know in the comments!
Recently
Inc. Magazine ran an article on companies of one, aka the “solopreneur”. In addition to a bevvy fantastic advice for those looking to begin the path to entrepreneurship. A few choice quotes from Chris Jordan, owner of
Atlanta Insurance Live: “A lot of people start with a kitchen table idea,“It’s a great idea you come up with your cousin at dinner…then the business booms, and your growth gets out of control. You need a plan.”
“I can be in a great conversation, but when we start creeping up on that 30-minute point, I’m aware of it and ready to go onto the next thing…it’s something I’ve ingrained in my head.”
There are many, many more words of wisdom in
the full article at Inc. Sunflower Children, a resident of Sunshine Suites is a world wide charity that is saving countless lives on a daily basis.Sunflower Children has programs that helps to save and improve the quality of children’s lives all around the world. Their programs aide children who are orphaned, have disabilities, struggle with HIV / AIDS or are refugees. Sunflower sponsors 22 projects, ranging across 17 developing countries to help the children in need of each country.All of the money that Sunflower Children receives from public contributions are put directly towards helping children. The majority of work involved with operating Sunflower is done pro bono by the organizations Partner Benefactors. Any operational cost that is incurred is underwritten by additional Private Benefactors. Sunflower Children fund their programs with money raised from holding Gala events, and other contributions from people looking to help save lives.Small businesses can be inspired by the growth that Sunflower Children has demonstrated. They started in 1999 with a very tight knit, core group of three founders coming together with a common goal; to save children’s lives. Sunflower Children now has a network of over 1,000 volunteers. About 300 of them reside in New York and help with physical events and the rest volunteer their services and time remotely.Small business owners all have the same goal that Sunflower Children did when it was being created: growth. Since Sunflower has demonstrated exponential growth over the past few years, we can learn a lot from what they believe was beneficial to their success.- Be passionate about what you do. When you are passionate about what you do and believe in your cause, whether it be a charity or your brand, you will convey that. Demonstrating passion to people you meet is the easiest way to recruit them to believe in the same visions that you do. Being passionate will help you feel confident about what you stand behind, and offer it as effectively as possible.- Offer something extraordinary. Sunflower Children offers so much good with the charity that they manage. When people realize how beneficial their donation to such a great cause will be, it’s not a hard decision. Make people realize how your product or service will benefit them in some remarkable way.- Give details about the benefits. To get people to purchase your solution, you need to make them very aware of how and why it benefits them. Sunflower Children goes the extra mile to describe exactly how your donation is directly benefiting a child in their care. Use this same concept to convince people that what you are offering will help make their life easier.- Network until you can’t network any more! Agnia from Sunflower Children insists that this is one of the core reasons for their growth. She said even if you meet someone who isn’t directly able to help you, when you get in front of them, they may remember you if they know of someone who can.- Delegate authority. Since Sunflower Children boasts such a vast network of remote volunteers, they have to delegate someone to take charge of each group. Don’t be afraid to trust people to manage tasks and people that you are not able to.- Leverage your connections. The founder, Helena, was a famous model before she formed the charity. She utilized all of her connections from modeling with the new charity. Always keep in touch with connections from previous ventures because you never know when they will become useful.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQD8Jc_cR58]
Muffin/Cupcake’s own
Jessica Resler dropped by recently to give us her elevator pitch. Resler, and the Muffin/Cupcake team have kept a
Manhattan office at Sunshine Suites for over a year. You may remember them from when they sat down with us back in
December. Since then the team has been busy! With help from in-house creative team
We Came in Peace Muffin/Cupcake has taken on projects for a variety of clients in fields like music and fashion. These experts in
innovation really are the “upper crust” of business consulting.
Originally posted by
Cindy on May 27, 2009Ever heard of co-working? If you’re drawing a blank…don’t rush to Google just yet. Co-working is a really great concept where people who would normally work in isolation can come together to collaboratively work in a shared common space. Just like your Meetups, co-working brings community to those that don’t normally have it during those long work days.That’s where
Sunshine Suites comes in. Sunshine Suites, is a co-working space that offers affordable on-demand office space in New York City. Until June 13th, they are supporting Meetup Groups that would benefit from their professional workspace, office amenities, and of course talented community
.
Click Here to read more
From the article:
Like they say, there is a bit of a silver lining in every cloud and nowadays you really have to look hard to find it. I think you will agree the email I received from my friend an colleague, Cheni Yerushalmi, Managing Partner at “my home away from home,” Sunshine Suites is good news indeed.
Cheni has worked tirelessly the past few months with the NYC Economic Development Corporation putting together this awesome coalition and it looks like his hard work is about to payoff!
Click here to see more! 
Contact Us
