Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to apply for government support and qualify for preferential tax policy. The qualifications vary depending on the country and industry. Small businesses range from fifteen employees under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, fifty employees according to the definition used by the European Union, and fewer than five hundred employees to qualify for many U.S. Small Business Administration programs. While small businesses can be classified according to other methods, such as annual revenues, shipments, sales, assets, annual gross, net revenue, net profits, the number of employees is one of the most widely used measures.
Factoring is a financial transaction and a type of debtor finance in which a business sells its accounts receivable to a third party at a discount. A business will sometimes factor its receivable assets to meet its present and immediate cash needs. Forfaiting is a factoring arrangement used in international trade finance by exporters who wish to sell their receivables to a forfaiter. Factoring is commonly referred to as accounts receivable factoring, invoice factoring, and sometimes accounts receivable financing. Accounts receivable financing is a term more accurately used to describe a form of asset based lending against accounts receivable. The Commercial Finance Association is the leading trade association of the asset-based lending and factoring industries.
Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.
A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by only one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole trader does not necessarily work alone and may employ other people.
A micro-enterprise is generally defined as a small business employing nine people or fewer, and having a balance sheet or turnover less than a certain amount. The terms microenterprise and microbusiness have the same meaning, though traditionally when referring to a small business financed by microcredit the term microenterprise is often used. Similarly, when referring to a small, usually legal business that is not financed by microcredit, the term microbusiness is often used. Internationally, most microenterprises are family businesses employing one or two persons. Most microenterprise owners are primarily interested in earning a living to support themselves and their families. They only grow the business when something in their lives changes and they need to generate a larger income. According to information found on the Census.gov website, microenterprises make up 95% of the 28 million US companies tracked by the census.
The Toledo–Lucas County Port Authority is a port authority financing and/or operating air, rail, trucking, and port facilities, as well as supporting and funding economic development activities in Lucas County, located in northwest Ohio and bordering on southeast Michigan.
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses and by assisting in the economic recovery of communities after disasters." The agency's activities have been summarized as the "3 Cs" of capital, contracts and counseling.
The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) is a program created by the U.S. Federal Reserve to spur consumer credit lending. The program was announced on November 25, 2008, and was to support the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit card loans, and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Under TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York authorized up to $200 billion of loans on a non-recourse basis to holders of certain AAA-rated ABS backed by newly and recently originated consumer and small business loans. As TALF money did not originate from the U.S. Treasury, the program did not require congressional approval to disburse funds, but an act of Congress forced the Fed to reveal how it lent the money. The TALF began operation in March 2009 and was closed on June 30, 2010. TALF 2 was initiated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the United States Government has allocated Small Business Administration (SBA) backed funds for viable small businesses in the United States. Businesses must have qualifying business loans and must be experiencing immediate financial hardship. Qualifying recipients of the America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) Loan Program may receive up to $35,000 in short-term relief. Each small business is limited to one ARC loan.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's SBA 504 Loan or Certified Development Company program is designed to provide financing for the purchase of fixed assets, which usually means real estate, buildings and machinery, at below market rates. The program is so named because it was originally created by Section 504 of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. Section 504 was subsequently codified at 15 U.S.C. § 697a.
Rebel A. Cole is the Lynn Eminent Scholar Professor of Finance in the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, where he has taught since August 2016. He teaches graduate-level classes in corporate finance and financial institutions.
Ftrans Corp. is an Atlanta, GA based provider of technology enabled collateral monitoring services to banks for monitoring their commercial and industrial loan portfolios. Founded in 2004, Ftrans provides commercial lending services to banks and receivables services to bank clients (borrowers) in the United States. Ftrans was listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States in 2009 and on the Inc. 5000 list in 2010, and was ranked 13th in the Financial Services category after posting 718% growth in 2009.
The U.S. Small Business Administration Community Advantage Loan program is designed for new and existing businesses that need loans under $250,000. The loan can be used to finance a startup company or expand an existing small business or buy real estate. The SBA guarantees 85 percent of loans up to $150,000 and 75 percent of loans greater than $150,000.
MultiFunding is a national business leverage advisor and brokering firm that helps small- and medium-sized businesses across America find debt financing for their companies. MultiFunding has placed over 700 loans in 47 states. It has financing capabilities in excess of $25 million. In addition to conventional bank loans, MultiFunding provides businesses with alternative loan options such as SBA-guaranteed loans, asset-based loans, equipment loans, real estate loans, and mezzanine loans, among others. MultiFunding was founded by Ami Kassar in 2010. They mostly broker SBA-guaranteed loans and asset-based loans.
source of business financing refers to the means by which an aspiring or current business owner obtains money to start a new small business, purchase an existing small business or bring money into an existing small business to finance current or future business activity. There are many ways to finance a new or existing business, each of which features its own benefits and limitations. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08, the availability of traditional types of small business financing dramatically decreased. At the same time, alternative types of small business financing have emerged. In this context, it is instructive to divide the types of small business financing into the two broad categories of traditional and alternative small business financing options.
Christopher Hurn is an American writer, entrepreneur, and business executive who works primarily in the field of small business lending. He is the founder and CEO of Fountainhead, a company that provides commercial real estate financing and growth capital for small business owners. He previously founded Mercantile Capital Corporation, a financier of owner-occupied commercial real estate and an Inc. 500 company. He served as CEO of that company prior to leaving in late 2014 to launch Fountainhead.
A business loan is a loan specifically intended for business purposes. As with all loans, it involves the creation of a debt, which will be repaid with added interest. There are a number of different types of business loans, including bank loans, mezzanine financing, asset-based financing, invoice financing, microloans, business cash advances and cash flow loans.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the Trump administration in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help certain businesses, self-employed workers, sole proprietors, certain nonprofit organizations, and tribal businesses continue paying their workers.
