Samll Business Energy Grants

Pennsylvania small business owners may be eligible for a grant through the Small Business Energy Efficiency Grant Program, which will help them with the costs of making their businesses and equipment more energy-and cost-efficient.

An eligible applicant must be an independent, for-profit business with 100 employees or fewer, located in Pennsylvania. The project must save at least 20 percent annually in energy-related expenses, with a minimum savings of $1,000 per year

Hopefully this program will continue on to other states as it looks like a great program. You can find more info at Small Business Energy Efficiency Grant Program .

Small business loans down

Small business loans are down, as much as 47% in some markets like north Florida which has also been hit hard by foreclosures. The freezing of the credit market is the root of the problem for business lending slowdown. Hopefully, the new Obama stimulus package will work to unfreeze the market making it easier for banks to lend to small business as well as sell loans to other investors. Regardless once conditions do improve, credit standards will be higher as is to be expected. There will be more requirements on projected income, costs, past income, etc. Small business is the lifeblood of the economy so the credit and lending slowdown needs improvement as soon a possible to help stimulate the economy overall.

Feds Don't Forget Small Business!

It's estimated nearly 1/2 of Americans work for small business, that is companies with less then 500 employees. The current recession has the federal government giving billions to large corporations and virtually nothing is being done for small business. I strongly suggest that even a little help to small businesses will be a better use of those dollars or tax credits than pumping it into the inefficient behemoths that do not not know how to change with the times. Word is that Congress is not going to allow Obama's tax credit for hiring a new employees. How short sighted!A new employee has a job, spends the income whihc helps the economy, buys a home, a car, pays taxes, get off unemployment, on and on. What are they thinking there in DC (Dumb Congress)?

Free marketing sources for your business

There are many free and easy to use portals on the Internet to help market your business. Ones that come to mind right off are, Craiglist, Oodle, Backpage and similar free classified sites.

Of course one great way is also right where you are reading this blog, Blogger! Its very easy to make a blog here and get the message out to the public about your business and keep them up to date on the latest news or products.

How about a cap or Tee shirt to send you message then try www.zazzle.com where you cna make your own design and order it, or even sell it!

A great place to submit your sites for free and get quick links is Searchsite is located at http://www.searchsight.com/, That site uses a unique method of showing visitors a small thumbnail of your site. You can make one with a free screen capture program. Any business needs a top web site so make sure yours is found using good SEO as well as using the sites mentioned here to spread the word.

Be sure and locate your business on Google Maps

Many people use Google to locate a business. Did you know that you can put your business in free to show its street location on Google? That is very helpful to customers and good advertising for your business. The link below is to sign up your business.


http://www.google.com/local/add/splashPage?hl=en-US&gl=US

Excellent time to rent office space

The loss of so many businesses can be a help to you if you are looking for office space. Many owners of office space are making great deals and in some cases you can just make an offer that will be accepted for monthly rent. In the long run however with investors now building less office space there could be a shortage in a few years. In the meantime if you are a start up you should be able to find cheap space. Dallas Texas current has some of the lowest priced office space in the nation

A good business credit card.

Any small business needs a credit card to ease making daily purchases. There is a lot of competition among cards and some offer many valuable features like your business name on the card and cash back features.

I highly recommend that you look for a credit card which allows you to put your business name on the card. This is great advertising for free every time you use it!

I use a cash back card for my business and for my personal expenses. Depending on your business setup, check around for cash back cards, especially if they have higher cash back in in items that your particular business uses frequently. Some have a higher percentages back for office supplies, gas or home supply stores. If you travel a lot look for travel rewards like flier mileage. The cash can be as high as 5% back. I get back $50 to $100 a month usually and we are a very small business. Check and see if the rewards have a cap of say, $500 per month.

If you carry an amount owed from month to month then look closer for a low interest credit card rather then a rewards card that may have higher rates. There are some cards that allow up to 60 days to pay off with no interest which can be helpful on cash flow. Be wary of teaser rates that change to a higher rate after a few months as well as high annual fees and late fees or penalties.

Some popular credit card companies for business are Advanta Capital One, Discover and American Express.