With the US tax law changes brought about in the EGTRRA 2001 legislation, certain retirement plans were created that allow business owners to contribute a maximum of $40,000 to their retirement accounts. Over 6 times as much as traditional self-employed retirement plans.

Several plans utilize life insurance or annuities to fund the account. A benefit of these plans is the life insurance premiums are paid for with pre-tax dollars and the equity created for the owner and employees is protected from creditors should the company suffer severe financial reversals. Unlike 401(k)s, these plans are buffered from the volatility of the market and can be structured so your principal never loses its original value. Risk is also reduced since the insurance company guarantees the retirement benefits with the annuity or life insurance contract. This benefit, that the assets you place in your PEB are fully protected against market swings, also serves to protect them from any legal actions trying to relieve you of your assets.

Another benefit of using pre-tax funds to finance the Private Employer Benefit plan is it can significantly reduce your state and federal income taxes. This allows business owners to directly benefit, and continue to benefit as their retirement account grows, on a tax-deferred basis. Owners of every type of small business, from a sole proprietorship to a privately held C corporation, can benefit from instituting a Private Employer Benefit plan.

If you need to catch up on funding your retirement plans and the traditional IRA route does not allow you to put away the necessary amount, contact the small business financial advisers at US Business Finance Corp and see how you and your family can benefit from a retirement plan tailored to your business and retirement needs.

With the reverberations of the huge “market corrections” affecting many IRA and 401(k) retirement plans, business owners are finding annuities tied to their retirement plan can distance them from the gyrations of the stock market.

USBFC works with business owners to assist in planning a financial strategy that includes a retirement plan or a Private Employer Benefit plan for accruing and distributing a small business owner’s or their employees’ retirement savings with a tax deferment on any increase in the investments. Annuities combined with related IRS retirement programs offer several methods of building equity faster than traditional 401(k)s. Each business owners’ financial needs and situation are different, so the financial advisers at USBFC take the time to match your needs and your business to the best retirement plan.

Annuities come in two variations: an immediate annuity or a deferred annuity. State law regulates annuity contracts since they are contracts issued by life insurance companies, but defined by the Internal Revenue Service for how they are handled for federal tax filings. Annuities, like certain insurance policies, have two phases: clients initially pay into an account and accumulate equity (deferral phase) followed by the period when the client receives disbursements from the account for a predetermined time period (the annuity phase). Contracts with a very short funding period and a long payment period are known as “immediate annuities”.

Deferred annuities come in two styles: fixed deferred annuity and variable annuity.

A fixed deferred annuity means the growth of the underlying investment vehicle is tied to something stable like an interest rate. A variable annuity is one where the investment may be in stocks or bonds. In variable annuities, the principle is not guaranteed and, similar to any investment in the market, the account could possibly lose value (do worse than a fixed deferred) or gain value at a greater rate than it would have if simply tied to an interest rate.

The tax advantage for small business owners and employees is that the tax-deferred compounding of any capital gains allows for a faster and greater accumulation of wealth. Contact our financial advisers to see the potential benefits your business and employees receive from our insurance, annuity and retirement plans.

As recently reported in the Washington Post, “Small businesses are ‘getting hit from both sides,’ said Sandy K. Baruah, acting administrator of the SBA, because even the companies that have long relationships with financial institutions and are in solid financial condition are no longer getting new loans approved and are having existing lines curtailed.”

Fortunately for many small business owners, they have been able to make productive use of merchant cash advances. Where traditional loans seek low-risk business opportunities and full collateralization of the loan, merchant cash advance companies take on the risk of the advance and, instead of collateral, use the pledge of a percent of future Visa and MasterCard sales to secure repayment.

As an alternative business financing avenue, business cash advances do not have a set pay-off date or a fixed schedule of payments. This frees business owners from the worry of late payments and their attendant charges and penalties. The increase or decrease in sales simply speeds up or slows down respectively the final pay-off of the advance.

What many merchants most appreciate about business cash advances is the fast application, approval and funding timeline. First-time business owners are usually approved and funded in less than two weeks. No large financial paperwork with the added expenses of working with accountants needs to be prepared.

US Business Finance Corp has helped many businesses meet their operating capital emergencies or cash flow shortfalls. Contact our small business financing specialists to apply for your merchant cash advance. Don’t let the tight credit markets ruin the end of your year!

US Business Finance Corp’s customer service begins with offering very competitive rates on Visa and MasterCard merchant credit card processing services. With our credit card processing services comes the ability to collect cash on future credit card sales. The benefit of a merchant cash advance over a traditional loan is owners do not have to offer assets of the hair salon or their home as collateral to secure the funds. Since the cash advance is a sale of future hair salon credit card transactions, not a loan, their is no fixed end date, no late fees and no monthly lump sum due – the payments are made a little bit at a time out of a percentage of the sale.

A business cash advance performs better for the hair salon owner than cash advances on their credit card since the fee for our merchant cash advance is a fixed amount. US Business Finance Corp takes on the risk of the merchant cash advance. Owners who rely on their credit cards for cash advances not only pay high interest rates, but, if they don’t pay off the credit card advance quickly, end up paying a very high dollar amount of interest since the credit cards do not demand the principal of the advance get paid in a timely manner. You may end up paying your personal or business credit card company 2 or 3 times the amount of the original advance versus the fixed amount of a merchant cash advance!

If you are ready to stock your hair salon with inventory for the coming holiday season or are looking to buy more equipment or advertising to expand business, rely on US Business Finance Corp to get you a merchant cash advance that helps you meet your financial and business goals. Contact our small business alternative financing experts today to see what business cash advances can do for your hair salon!

• Hire for critical full-time jobs that need to be filled and consider outside contractors for part-time crucial jobs, such as payroll and computer services.
• Hire expertise for the areas that are not your strengths. When hiring for positions demanding a level of trust, such as in accounting areas, references are imperative. Use of outside audits helps you keep tabs on the finances if accounting is not your expertise.
• See your employees as investments in the revenue-producing aspects of your company. US Business Finance Corp has noticed that team players who bring in a consistent level of sales help build a stable revenue stream. Banks and lending institutions look for that stability when considering your company for a small business loan or a line of credit. Lead your business growth with growth in sales and invest in back office support in order to keep up with the demand created by sales. This can help your company steer clear of becoming a top-heavy in areas that are not creating  or fulfilling sales.
• Be willing to pay for experience. Hiring to keep payroll expenses down may cost the company in the long run. Inexperienced employees tend to make more mistakes and fail to weigh situations with customers with the same expertise that practiced and skilled employees do. Experience in key positions is also necessary to show financial institutions when applying for commercial financing that your company is ready to weather the regular ups and downs of the business world.
• Integrate a replacement plan as part of your business growth plans – whether through training promising employees to “rise through the ranks” or building a good relationship with employee hiring firms.

Tight economies do not necessarily dictate a freeze on hiring, but they do direct business owners to maximize their hiring skills to leverage the new employee’s ability to improve a businesses performance in the marketplace. Your hiring practices can also help position your company long range for better financing as well as better growth.

US Business Finance Corp specializes in helping entrepreneurs successfully start and grow their small businesses with a wide array of residential and commercial mortgage packages, business capital advances and merchant credit card accounts. Contact us if you would like to see what traditional and alternative financing solutions we have to offer for your small business.

• Marketing costs. Getting your name out is paramount to your success. Attracting new customers and creating the “buzz” is the key to drawing foot traffic to your establishment.
• Regular overhead expenses. Be ready to meet payroll, interest, licenses and taxes that come due in your first quarter of operations. When figuring your beginning payroll, don’t forget the company matching funds for payroll taxes and social security.
• Incidental business costs like shipping, postage and credit card fees. The tag-a-long expenses are usually out of sight charges, but at the end of the month, especially a month with great sales, they will tally up and need to be met.
• Office supplies. Probably the most you will spend on your office at any one time is at the start: paper supplies, office furniture, printer, printer supplies, and computers, even if some are purchased on a lease, are initial expenses. Maintaining those supplies is usually a lesser expense than setting up your initial inventory.

For many business, such as restaurants and franchises where there is a ready market or population of loyal patrons, a business cash advance from US Business Finance Corp may be an alternative business capital source, especially if you are expanding to a second location. The cash advance is paid back from a portion of your future sales, not from cash, Discover or American Express sales, only from your VISA and MasterCard sales. This allows you to meet the needs of your second location’s the first ninety days without drawing down on your main operation’s cash flow.

US Business Finance Corp has utilized its well-received business cash advance program to help restaurants (typically hard to finance) and small businesses of many kinds meet their working capital needs. Several  differences between funding with a cash advance versus a traditional loan is the speed to receiving the funds, the minimal documentation and the financing does not create an additional long-term liability on the company Balance Sheet. Contact us to see what alternative capital sources we have available for your business.