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Repayment of a business loan requires that the borrower make a monthly payment back to the lender. That monthly payment includes both repayment of the loan principal, plus monthly interest on the outstanding balance. Loan payments are amortized so that your monthly payment remains the same during the repayment period, but during that period, the percentage of the payment that goes towards principal will increase as the outstanding loan balance decreases.
Does it make better sense to buy or lease a new piece of equipment? That depends on a number of factors, such as the residual value of the equipment you intend to purchase, the amount of money you pay up front as a capitalized cost reduction and the cost of financing. A lease will usually be a more attractive option when compared to an equipment purchase when measured over a comparable term. Keep in mind that with a lease, you will have to return the equipment at the end of the lease term, whereas if you buy, you will own the equipment and will be able to continue driving it after the term expires.
Even if a business is profitable, it might fail because it isn’t generating enough cash flow. Money that is tied up in inventory and receivables isn’t available to help the business pay its bills. You can vary inventory levels, payment terms, etc. to find the formula that is right for your business to make sure you are generating a positive cash flow.
Working capital is the amount you have remaining when current liabilities are subtracted from current assets. Whether a business has enough working capital is measured by the ‘current ratio’, or current assets divided by current liabilities. Generally, a current ratio of between 1.2 and 2 is considered the sign of a healthy business. If your current ratio is below 1.2, its an indicator that your business might have difficulties paying its bills. If it is above 2, its an indicator that your assets are not being put to their best use.
Financial ratios provide a means of measuring the overall health of a business. While numerous measures exist, the most popular measure the overall health of your business analyzing income, liquidity, assets, debt and profitability.
Income Analysis
Liquidity
Asset Management
Debt Management
Profitability
If you’re trying to pay down some of your business debt, you might be wondering how long it might take by making the standard payment, or what the impact might be if you increased the monthly payment each month. If you increase the monthly payment, the amount of the increase typically gets applied directly to reducing the amount owed, or principle. Reducing the amount of money you owe will reduce your interest charges each month, as the interest rate will be applied only to the outstanding loan balance. An increase in your monthly payment will lessen the amount of interest charges you will pay over the repayment period and shorten the number of months it will take to pay off the loan. Most loans require you to, at a minimum, cover the monthly interest costs on the outstanding balance and if it is a traditional, or amortized loan, you’ll always be required to make the agreed upon payment at a minimum.
Business lines of credit often have more flexible repayment terms than a standard business loan. Business loan payments are typically fixed over the repayment period, while business lines of credit can offer interest-only payment terms or outstanding balances can be repaid using a variety of repayment strategies. Businesses with uncertain or fluctuating revenue streams, such as startups or seasonal businesses may benefit more from the flexible repayment terms a business line of credit offers.
Debt consolidation loans allow businesses to transfer the account balances from credit cards, lines of credit or installment loans into a single loan and to make a single monthly payment. For debt consolidation loans to be beneficial, the repayment period for paying off the consolidation loan should be shorter than what it would be for your existing debts without the loan. Secondly, the interest that you pay over the repayment period should be less than what you would pay with your existing repayment periods. In some cases, a debt consolidation loan may look attractive because it has a significantly lower monthly payment than what you are paying today, but it is likely the case that the lower payment is due to extending the repayment of the loan over a much longer repayment period.
How much is a customer worth to you? In order to really know that, its often important to look at the amount of business they’ll give you over the course of their lifetime as a customer and not just based on an individual purchase. Knowing how much each customer that you can bring through the door will deliver in sales and profit is an important consideration when you’re making marketing decisions and incurring expenses to obtain new customers.
Email marketing has become a popular and cost-effective method for reaching prospects and generating revenue. Like any marketing expense, its important to understand the return that you’re making on such an investment. Ideally, you want to be generating a return on investment that exceeds the return you could achieve by using those expense dollars in other areas of the company or investing them. To effectively measure ROI, you need to carefully track your response and conversion rates so that you know which sales can be tracked back to a specific campaign.
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